It’s the little things that keep you happy sometimes. The Sunday Soundtrack blog has an interesting idea for tracking work on the MPC — write it down. (I have to say, I miss having paper notes as I did when I was making hard-copy patch diagrams of my Moog and Buchla modular creations in college.) This fellow has a printable template you can use yourself if so inclined – and, of course, it’d work with any 4×4 grid, not just the MPC.
Keep anything on paper in the studio yourself – music notation? Lyrics? To-do lists? MIDI maps? Doodles of made-up creatures to keep you company? I’d love to hear how you work.
Up close with an MPC screen. Now you can make your computer screen your MPC slicing interface. Photo: regueifeiro.
Want to load ReCycle REX sample files onto your MPC? Or looking for a better solution for chopping up samples – that is, firing up ReCycle on your screen? Joe Lambert writes in to share his GBP11 Mac utility for the task:
Just a quick note to let you know about a little application I wrote that lets users easily convert chopped Recycle files into Akai MPC program files.
This essentially allows a producer to chop a breakbeat (or other sample) using their Mac instead of having to use the built-in chopshop and small screen on the sampler itself. It also makes sample CD’s with pre-chopped loops a lot more useful for MPC users.
Unrelated, but he also has a nifty “virtual BCF2000″ utility so you can make use of its control mappings on the road, even when you don’t have the Behringer handy. (Editing in coach class, anyone?)
I’m curious what your REX/MPC workflows are like and if this is helpful.
MPC Forever
I certainly have no doubts that this is relevant to some people. I actually spent a good part of yesterday and today hanging out with MPC creator Roger Linn. Among many other conversations, Roger noted his own bemusement at the ongoing popularity of the original MPCs – to say nothing of the MPC as a category in general. You can buy version 3.10 software for the MPC60 from Roger Linn Design. Tom Oberheim’s SCSI adapter for the MPC also came up. From that site:
NOTE: As of March 1, 2009, Tom Oberheim’s Marion Systems has stopped manufacturing the MPC-SCSI due to diminished demand. However, he’ll make another batch if there is enough demand. If you definitely wish to purchase one at for the former price of $300, email us to let us know and we’ll add your name to a waiting list. When the list grows long enough, Tom will make another batch and we’ll contact you.
Yes, just to be clear, we’re talking the MPC60 and the now-defunct SCSI. (While you’re at it, maybe you’d like a new dust case for your Apple III?) Of course, despite allegations that electronic music tech is easily outmoded or disposable, the MPC is doggedly neither. And while I have no personal need for an MPC60, elegant achievement that it was, I find something comforting in that. So I’ll do my own small part – with apologies to Tom and Roger – to call attention to the thing.
Of course, if you do want something new designed by Roger Linn, the LinnDrum II is planned for release later this year. The moment I can talk more about that, I will.
Akai has announced 2.0 OS for their flagship MPC5000 drum machine workstation, a free download for MPC owners. Now, the MPC itself has long been a bit minimalist in what it does – I think that’s part of its appeal, that it has resisted complexity. But users of the MPC1000 and 2000/2500 have as a result turned in some cases to an alternative firmware, JJOS, to get all the features they want. And Akai has generously looked the other way.
Akai says the 2.0 OS responds to user requests. Here’s what’s baked in:
Keygroup programs for chromatic, key-mapped samples (that wasn’t in there before, really?)
S1000/3000/4000/5000/6000, Z4/Z8 import
Effects automation recording, “an MPC first” (by which I assume they mean it’s the first time on the MPC, as this is commonplace in software, certainly)
Controller Grid Edit Window for graphical controller automation / event editing (something Roland has touted in the past on their machines)
“Chopshop” for slicing samples into smaller pieces, with a Zoom feature
MultiEdit: edit multiple pads at once
Quantize Track Mutes (something Ableton users, incidentally, have asked for but not gotten, although implementation on a computer is a different can of worms because of plug-ins)
Generally, it looks good to me – not anything that’s so impressive for those of us committed to computer workflows, but looks nice if you’re a 5000 owner. But as a non-MPC person, I’m not terribly qualified to respond. So I leave that to our MPC-using crowd. Let us know what you think, and whether you folks with devices like the MPC1000 and MPC2500 with the JJOS running are jealous – or don’t care.
Drum machine lovers, you now have the beat gear equivalent of Matt Harding and Where the Hell is Matt?. Kamoni, aka sonic creator, composer, and experimenter Micah Frank, takes his favorite devices out on the road, piecing them together into an epic YouTubular jam.
Doepfer and Korg, Elektron and Akai, plus a lot of other devices make their way around New York and Brooklyn and other parts of the world. Ableton I think figured into editing the video clips in time — thank you, Live, for video. I could point out individual devices, but then I’d ruin your fun, wouldn’t I?
Of course, this could be both emulated and expanded. We could perform a single rhythm, played by MPC and Machinedrum owners around the planet. (You could even get that laptop running on battery.)
I can see it now. Internets, go!
And yes, this does demonstrate where puremagnetik gets all those beats for their line of sampled things. Micah gets his hands on a lot of gear.
Updated: Replaced with a Vimeo link. Google seems to be having a bad week. We like Vimeo better for videos, anyway.
If you could have an ideal drum machine and sample-slicing workstation, taking the physical control of hardware but the flexibility of software, what would it look like? We talk a lot about hardware control of software, but hardware usually comes second – software gets designed first, and then either you have to figure out how to map hardware to it, or someone else comes along and designs gear. That means there’s usually a disconnect in the design and workflow of the two, and most of the time, you have to reach for the mouse to make up the difference.
Maschine (pronounced as the German, mah-SCHEE-neh) was developed at Native Instruments with the goal to design the hardware and software simultaneously, not separately. That’s not an easy goal, and I don’t expect Maschine to be perfect or please everyone. But I got to visit the prototype at NI while I was in Berlin in October and see it in action, and I can say at the very least, the folks who created feel the way many of us do – they love software, they love hardware drum machines like the Elektron, and this is an attempt to be a real hybrid.
So, while contrary to rumors, NI does not have a box that does any audio generation in the hardware, this is a real attempt to fuse the controller and software in terms of design and workflow. The idea is to use the screen for visual feedback (you do have this big, pretty monitor on your desk or notebook), but to be able to work without a mouse.
Maschine can also work as a plug-in as well as a standalone app, depending on how you like to work (or how you want to play live). That means if you’re already in love with something like Ableton Live, you ought to theoretically be able to put the two together. Unfortunately, you can’t yet use it as a sequencer to drive other software, which would be an ideal next step; sequencing is as big a part of what Maschine does as sampling and sample manipulation. (No official statement on MIDI output has been made yet.)
Maschine’s hardware also works as a controller. So, for those keeping score, you could put Maschine next to the just-announced Akai APC40 and use them both to control Live – or Maschine could compete with the APC for your Live-controlling dollar – even before you touch the Maschine drum machine software.
Here’s NI’s intro video, which gives you a sense of how this stuff ties together (and we are officially the first to post it).
We’ll naturally be looking more closely at Maschine soon (I’m going to buy a new espresso maker and not sleep for the next few months). Here’s a quick overview:
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