I record a loop, like 16 bars (or less)
Place it in a pad, and set the sequencer.
This sequencer can be set perfectly (nudge)
to beat match perfectly.
I mute all loops, but the one I am playing on my synth and drum computer
I set the level, to have the same volume levers for the sample loop and the drumcomputer and synth
after some jamming around, I switch crossfader, and balance the sound to the audio loop.
I can change the sequence (song) in the drumcomputer and synth
and then slowly mix over back to the synth and the drumcomputer
I always just use BPM based syncing if I need to combine gear that has issues being synced to an ext clock. As long as the BPM values are exactly same, there is very little drift.
Iāve been working on a single project for the last month or so, entirely in standalone mode, making incremental changes every day and saving the project as I go. However, twice now, the samples in the project have become corrupt: i.e. they suddenly sound noisy and degraded, after saving the project. In fact, both times now, it was when I came back to the project, after Iād saved it and shut-down the MPC for a while, that I noticed the anomaly; and simply reloading the project fails to fix the issue. And itās definitely just the samples within the project itself that are becoming corrupt. I know this because I always save my samples, in redundancy, to a separate folder; and if I delete the corrupt samples from the project, then reload the originals from that redundant folder back into the sample pool, and reassign them to their respective padsā¦ They sound fine again.
The first time this happened, I assumed it was a faulty SD card; so, I installed a 250-gig SSD, transferred all my files over to it, and started working from the new drive exclusively. I even saved the project anew, under a different name, and made sure to delete the old one. But, after several more saves, despite having meticulously replaced all the samples in the project as described above, it seems they have, once again, become corrupt. And, just like before, if I then delete those corrupt samples and reload the originals, the fidelity returns. WTF?
I have noticed that every time you save a project, it collects and resaves ALL the samples, overwriting each and every one of them as it goes, regardless of whether or not anything has changed. Could this be whatās causing the corruption? That seems like odd behaviour to me, and a recipe for disaster. At any rate, Iām at a loss here. All I know is, if I have to delete and reassign 512 samples, 4 layers deep, to 128 pads again, Iām going to lose my mind.
Never happened to me Johnā¦Have you contacted support?As i recall somewhere i saw people having problems with corrupted projects saved in previous OSāsā¦Itās like the bug has been transferred to the new OSā¦
Maybe thatās an issueā¦Have you tried to save your sequences/programs from the old project and reload them to a fresh new OS 2.5 project then save it?
Thanks, Yorgos. Ya, Iāve tried that. No luck. I started this project on 2.4, and Iām now on 2.5ā¦ This bug, or whatever it is, has now happen on both of those operating systems, and most recently on the project that I had resaved to a different location, under a different name, etc. Never mind that it has also happened on two different storage devices as well.
My instinct is telling me that this is somehow related to the fact that the MPC insists on gratuitously overwriting all the samples with every save. It doesnāt make sense to me why it should need to do that. It seems like itās just asking for trouble. Regardless, youād think Iād be able to save as often as I want without consequence. I canāt say that Iāve ever thought twice about it on any other electronic medium. Anywayā¦
Iāve contacted support. Weāll see if anyone in-the-know actually gets back to me with a comprehensive answer. Seriously thoughā¦ Argh!
Does anyone know how to get samples on to a hard drive on the Mpc live without using the Mpc software. Having a nightmare trying to open the software up
If you put the MPC Live into controller mode, its hard disk should appear as external disk in your Finder. Then you can just copy over.
Alternatively you can copy your files onto an external USB drive, then connect it to the Live and copy those over to your internal disk.
NOTE: we are talking about an ADDED hard disk (hdd/ssd) in the MPC Live, the 16GB internal storage is not really accessible from outside the MPC Liveās standalone mode. Itās recommended that you do all your saving and storing on such an additional drive (hdd/ssd/sd card), NOT on the internal storage.
Hi.for some reason I canāt open the software on the computer so itās not seeing the Mpc on the computer at all. I was hoping I could drop and drag the files over
You donāt need to open the software, any hdd attached to the mpc is mounted on the computer when switching to controller mode without the MPC software open.
Pretty sure this is another case of what caused the horrendous mount time of external HDD from 2.2 to 2.4 (not sure about version numbers): Akaiās programming team is not up to the task. This is very very basic stuff and the fact that they mess it up is quite telling of what Akai is actually capable of.
Iām a bit confused why your MPC is resaving all your samples every time. I donāt think that has happened to me? OTOH I mostly just use MIDI dat with a few factory kits thrown in, but t least for those, resaving takes only a second and I dont recall it resaving the samples like that?
fwiw Iām using an internal 500GB SSD (Samsung Evo)
It does! The samples, programs etc are all saved with the project. In the browser on the MPC Live go to your project folder and on the top right you should see an icon thatās a folder with āMPCā written on it and crossed out. This will hide all āmpc system-relevant filesā. If you tap on that, you should see the projectās own folder inside of your project folder (usual named āYOURPROJCET [MPC Data]ā I think). The programs and respective samples used in the project will be saved in that folder.
Because Akai donāt understand technology as they claim they do All jokes aside, SSDs have a finite number of write operations before seeing their performances decrease, so writing all samples to disk when not needed is a bad move, but as usual, one that will only impact users in the mid to long run, so not their problem I guess.
Some info, with regards to the Samsung 860 EVO SSD.
"The 860 Evo addresses that issue by offering 150TB TBW on the smallest 250GB drives, and then doubling that number at each subsequent size. At 1TB the TBW is an impressive 600TB, and the 4TB mechanism has an incredible 2,400TB or 2.4 Petabytes TBW.
Yes, weāve got to the P-word. So long terabyte, hello petabyte!
To put that in perspective; if you wrote the entire contents of a 50GB Blu-ray to the 4TB 860 Evo every single day it would take 131 years to hit the predicted failure point of the 4TB unit.
This isnāt a claim we can practically test given deadlines, but it would strongly suggest that even with the smaller mechanisms the Samsung 860 Evo is highly unlikely to fail within the typical lifespan of a modern computer.
The most popular size is likely to be the 860 Evo 500GB, and with that you get 300TB TBW, or the equivalent of writing a 50GB Blu-ray each day for roughly 16 years, and that is plenty unless youāre editing 4K video for a living. Those that have that sort of write level should probably go for the larger models where even their excessive use seems well within the longevity of their new design"
Sure, if youāre using mostly MIDI programs, and only loading a few factory kits with 16 pads and 16 samples per kit, you wouldnāt likely be able to see the overwriting process happening, as it would only take a fraction of a second. However, the drum program in the project Iām talking about contains 512 samples (128 pads with 4 velocity layers per pad), and it takes a solid 30 seconds to write to disk. It absolutely collects and overwrites every single sample, every single time. Honestly, itās painful to watch.
That said, Iām not really concerned about the life of the drive per se ā itās a 250-gig EVO with more than enough capacity for overwriting data; hell, itāll probably outlast the MPC itself ā but, with the files being resaved each time, the MPC is effectively making a copy of a copy of a copy of a copyā¦ File corruption is bound to happen with a system like that. Evidently!
What should be happening is, the MPC should only be saving that which has been changed since the last save; but it doesnāt seem to remember that. WTF?
Still no word from Akai, of course; and Iām fully expecting the āhave you tried turning it onā response from some kid reading from the customer service playbook. Anyway, thanks for the responses, peeps! I appreciate the conversation regardless.
Cheers!
P.S. As it stands, Iām stubbornly finishing the project using the corrupt samples; after which, when there are no more saves to be done, I will purge the sample pool, once again, reload the clean samples, and reassign them to their respective pads. A pain in the ass, to be sure, but itās the only workaround I can think of. It does seem to fix the issue at least, if temporarily. Iām assuming (or hoping rather) that I wonāt see any further degradation, going forward, if all Iām doing is loading the project to play (fingers crossed). For the record though, now that I know what Iām listening for, the samples do in fact get noticeably noisier with every save, so something is definitely going wrong there (sigh).
Iām in Canada, but thanks anyway. Ya, Iāll give them another week to āreply within 72 hoursā, after which Iāll be placing a direct phone call. Either way, I will not be ignored.
just to say that the MPC doesnāt OVERWRITE your samples, it just duplicates them in your projectās dedicated project folder. What file format are those drum samples in?
All jokes aside, SSDs have a finite number of write operations before seeing their performances decrease, so writing all samples to disk when not needed is a bad move, but as usual, one that will only impact users in the mid to long run, so not their problem I guess.