Sure, individual track lengths 
Right, so now that Iāve spent another day with this thing, a couple of things occur to me -
Being familiar with the Tempest, once I got the practicalities around the MPC Live, I found that just playing this thing and knocking out ideas, is a breeze. Itās like putting a tape on record and not stopping it, just jamming away.
The entire idea of different track lengths is absolutely brilliant. Again, Iām new to the MPC, so for many of you, Iām sure this is familiar since decades back. But not for me. It suits my sheet music / play in one take / rehearse and rehearse again mentality so well. And swapping between the tracks to lay down beats on one, a bass on another, put in a lead or why not a piano, is just so damn easy.
Which brings me to the internal synths. The bass and electric piano engines are just great. Punch, character and color to boost. The tube synth is no Prophet, but itās on par with any other VA out there. I kind of like that theyāre not flooded with options either, helps you get to where you want pretty quickly.
Iāve heard some bad mentions on the FX. Iām only using the AIR effects. I think theyāre great. Perhaps this talk of bad fx was prior to these AIR plugs, which I just think get the job done really well.
I really donāt miss anything on this one, so far. I canāt think of a single thing I want to do, that this one canāt. I havenāt sampled yet, no chopping or slicing, only used stock samples and internal synth engines. But Iām assuming the sample and edit sections for that, will be more than enough for me as well.
Remember - I come from Octatrack land, having made a few single tracks on the Model:Samples alone lately, knocked out a few things on my Tempest through my Heat just recently, working with that kind of small setup. But as I sat down and played my Reface CS just recently, I just yearned for doing something with longer takes, longer structures, longer sequences. I donāt mind the drum loop on repeat with just one bar. But I do like my playing to spread out over minutes, if I can. The MPC allows me to do this with no hassle. At all.
And when I run the Live through my Analog Heat, the Heat still works wonders on this machine as well.
Iām not preaching. Iām well aware this thread is old and most users here, are familiar with the Live since long. Iām simply sharing my experience, in the case thereās someone else like me joining the fray late, and reading this thread.
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Itās almost pissing me off I didnāt give this one a go earlier.
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Yep, thatād be the way. Though your drum beat can be short and run on loop, and your interpretation of Mozartās Sonata 545 on top of it, can run for minutes.
The MPC forum is not my habitat yet, thatās why I am asking hereā¦,
I would like to resample the the MPC programmes that send Audio to Out 3 & 4
Strange enough, I think it is only possible to looper-resample from programmes that send audio to Out 1 & 2 (the master)
I solve this, by sending audio from my mixer to my input 1&2, and then loop-record input 1&2
it works, but gives some latency, due to the audio path to go from mpc through the mixer and back to the looper.
IIRC you can go to the sampler page and select resampling as input, then just press play to sample everything?
When sending audio from track to output 3/4
Then it is not recorded in the sampler
The problem is, i want the master and the sample loop to go out on different outouts (1/2 and 3/4)
I do this
Looping and Mixing
Works amazing
But seems to Need hardware routing
With some overcomable latency and needed nudges
This even gives some vinyl vibe to it
(I am making drum and bass set now)
Sampling and chopping on the MPC Live is about as easy as Iāve ever seen on any piece of standalone hardware. I just finished sampling an entire projectās worth of sounds from my Tempest over to the MPC: 128 sounds, with four velocity layers per pad, for a total of 512 samplesā¦ It took me about two weeks, chipping away at it for only a few hours a day (between other musical responsibilities); and that included learning the MPC workflow from scratch, while making a bunch of subjective artistic decisions along the way (which, honesty, is where most of the time went). Sufficed to say, I was pleasantly surprised (grin).
Cheers!
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I feel the clichĆ© āIn my dayā¦ā welling-up inside me, but I refuse to let my inner old man get the better of me (smirk). But, yes, that would be the way it was done in the days of tape. Hell, before Ableton came along, even DAWās were strictly a linear recording environment.
That said, I actually prefer to work with both loops and linear elements in conjunction with each other. Loops have a certain hypnotic effect that can help anchor an arrangement; whereas linear elements are ultimately where our humanity comes to light.
Of course, I say this from the perspective of someone who is an accomplished instrumentalist and vocalist, so I personally canāt image making music entirely with static loops and samples; nor would I get any satisfaction out of it.
Regardless, Iām always more interested in music wherein someone is actually playing or singing the most significant part of the arrangement in real-time, beginning to end. Even within the genres of EDM or HipHop, Iād rather watch someone like Jenk or Jblack, for instance, build a beat from scratch, mistakes and all, than listen to push-button playback. But thatās just me (grin).
I think a good approach is to have at least one box onstage that you can physically play, even if itās just a simple hook, for the sake of relating to people and giving the whole thing and arc. Because isnāt that what music is for?
(thatās a rhetorical question, by the way, and WAY off topic)
These newer MPCās (much like the Tempest or the Elektron boxes) are a relatively rare breed, amidst the world of machine music, that allow for this kind of autonomous real-time interaction. Thatās something to be taken advantage of, but not to be taken for granted, I would say (wink).
Cheers!
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Thanks for answering. What do you mean by needing hardware routing?
I send out audio from MPC to mixer
I send in Mixer to MPC (for looping)
Then I send out recorded loop to Mixer
Unfortunately the internal routing is not good enough, so external routing (= hardware routing) with cables is needed. The only problem is that this causes little latency, so the loops are not perfectly in sync. For a few seconds, I change the tempo of the master from 175 bpm to 174 bpm, this way I nudge the master and bring it āin syncā with the recoorded loop. This way I compensate the 0.1 second latency on the loop.
On the mixer I can use 2 channels, one for the loop, the other to the Master out of the MPC
The loop is used for song transition.
this rocks
clear? Feel free to ask. Once I have made 5 drum and bass songs and my A4 mk2 is repaired, i will post a youtube video.
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I get it, thanks for the detailed answer.
Cheers
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It occurs to me, if I get a bluetooth keyboard, I got a completely wireless setup. Keyboard and MPC on batteries, no midi cable needed to connect them.
The future is here.
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As a long time Tempest owner, I also immediately took to the MPC Live.
I donāt like composing in (4 bar) loops, or programming in sequences (I like to play in long performances and edit afterwards) The live is well suited to this in my experience. I still love the tempest, but it has some shortcomingsā¦ The same is somewhat true of the Live, but Akai seem to be on it in terms of updates.
I also think the Octatrack is another thing entirely and wonāt sell mine .
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Digging deeper, it seems the MPC is quite limited in terms of LFO destinations, compared to the monster routing that is Elektron.
I donāt mind. I usually donāt go for anything beyond the usual suspects, anyway. Filter, amp, pan, and so on. Though decays on hihats and cymbals wouldāve been nice.
On the other hand, it seems I can automate record anything. So I guess that partly makes up for it. And if Iām not mistaken, the actual automation records over the entire sequence and is not limited to the specific track length, so even if I got a one bar sequence over a 32 bar pattern, it seems I can automate record for 32 bars of worth even into that specific track.
Though Iām still experiemting, so I could be wrong.
Again, I realise Iām ranting here, lots of MPC users in this thread who might wonder why Iām sharing the obvious. But Iām thinking I might not be the only one joining late, and coming from a long time with Elektron, so itās a bit of a reference to those who might be in the same situation.
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The problem comes when you want to edit an automation in standalone and realise you either do it in the text editor, without a decent filter, or have to delete all automationsā¦
As for lfos and modulation, Iām kinda fine with the current option, but I would love a pitch envelopeā¦
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Please, continue.
I got one of the 1st Mpc Liveās, but only now started working with it. Iām much happier checking info here than on Mpc Forum.
Just something to update.
I mentioned earlier a problem accessing the SD card/External Drives. Mpc recognises them but you canāt click on them.
It might be caused by deleting the factory content. Which I did.
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Ohh, hadnāt thought about that one yet 
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Donāt know any decent ones with proper action, though. But as far as smaller keys go, the Reface series is my preference and nothing really comes close, compared to them. So I guess thereās just different kinds of convenience at stake.