MPC Part 2.

In which I actually used the damn thing as intended. (Yes, Donald Duck Hat, just keep moving.)

I’ve previously written about the MPC as if it was an old white AKAI sampler of yore. At that time all I needed was a reliable sound source for an international tour. But when a small local gig came up there was an opportunity to try it on stage for real.

There were three types of ‘songs’:

1. Those where I had the MIDI patterns and needed to create sounds on the MPC that could play a recognisable version of the song.
2. Those where audio stems divided up into individual bars that needed to be layered, arranged and sequenced.
3. Some that were large slabs of stereo audio that came from vintage recordings – tape machines, long lost instruments.

It was hard work composing with the touch screen on the box. I probably could have got there, but time was short and I soon switched over to the MPC software editor. Moving notes on the touch screen’s pattern grid with my finger was really slow and finicky – on the computer it went at full speed. The only problem was that when you move back to the MPC the few tweaks needed are now in completely different sections of the interface – particularly the sound mixing.

The MPC thinks differently to any other DAW, except probably FL Studio. The first song I arranged I became confused about sequences, tracks and instruments. Too often I’d think to add an instrument (which in other DAWs adds a track) and instead accidentally changed the one that was attached to an existing track. Being methodical and making sure to clearly label every element ASAP in the sequence made life easier.

The AIR instruments (despite what I’ve said about them as VSTs) were more than adequate for the Type 1 songs. The drum synthesisers are easy to set up, although needing a different track for each of the snare, kick etc. seems a bit silly. The Tubesynth did most of the synthesiser honours, but Hype was useful for everything tinkly or wafty. Quite happy here.

It’s unwieldy to edit and align large slabs of audio in the Type 3 songs because you can only trigger samples from the start. Even if they are continuous recordings you need to pre-cut them into small chunks – 8 or 16 bars – to be able to align them with MIDI events. One you get it working it’s rock solid, so long as you’ve carefully pre-measured your B.P.M. down to the 1/10th of a beat. My audio slabs never touched the sides of the box – I think the largest amount of RAM I ever used in a song was 5%. Loading times are good on stage – about 3-6 seconds for a big project (off a SSD).

Mixing is confusing. Each pad has volume and effects. Each track (all pads combined) has volume and effects. And then there’s three stereo outs with volume and effects. I accidentally put a limiter on a sample track and spent ages trying to find it, making things worse by adding another limiter on the output. Pads have their own legacy effects as well, alongside envelopes, filters, layers and key ranges. This detail is crucial at some times and difficult to recall at others.

On stage I had a little MIDI keyboard plugged in (there’s two USBs and MIDI for that). Switching from a synthesiser sound on the keys to samples on the pad needed a quick tap on the Arm button of the right track, or maybe I have missed a way to have both (it’s a big manual). The MPC is a performance instrument but it’s still a DAW at times. I have the pads set up for light taps. I also learned how to colour code them so that I knew which pad was which sample, which I even managed to set up on a few songs (time, never enough time).

Once again the MPC comes up as about the best sampler hardware in town, particularly for the kind of gig where you’re on a DJ table. It has its own thought process but it is generous with the options and all is sensible once understood. I now wouldn’t want to take another box into a professional situation – and that means things are looking bad for the Roland MC-707.