anyone know if there’s a pdf manual for mpc OS 2.9?
Can’t find anything on Google.
And it’s really hard to find it on the website of Akai as well. So, here is a direct link:
https://www.akaipro.com/amfile/file/download/file/1118/product/8366/
2 Likes
The Akai network midi driver works with all the MPCs in addition to the force.
I have had success using it both with an ethernet to USB adaptor on one end and , for the OG Live, USB to ethernet adaptors on both sides (OG Live doesn’t have ethernet, but still supports the Remote midi connection over USB).
1 Like
Very cool, thank you!
So if you haven’t tried this yet, I thoroughly recommend it! I set up my MPC Live with my Midi Fighter Twister last night, with Q-Links mapped to the MFT (QLink 1 on bottom-left knob, Link 16 on top-right knob) and the different modes mapped to the encoder push switches (I’ve got Main mode, Program Edit, Sample Edit, and Sampler in my top row – Pad Mixer, Channel Mixer, Pad Mutes, Track Mutes on my second row – Looper, Step Sequencer, Track View, and Next Sequence on my third row).
Everything works great in standalone, really nice.
It makes the MPC Live feel much more like hardware and much less like a touchscreen with pads. This sort of sells me on the workflow benefits of an MPC X. Having all 16 QLinks while e.g. editing a program in Program Edit, or getting the pads’ volumes right in Pad Mixer makes a big difference for the feel and ease of use.
8 Likes
I´m not sure if this has been posted before (my search in this topic didn´t give me any results) but I find this technique quite useful and opens up the synth aspect of the MPC a little when the included plugins aren´t really your thing.
10 Likes
Thanks, really enjoyed that and will play around with this! The Waveform download will be useful for the digitakt as wel 
1 Like
I already transferred all the waveforms I had on the DT onto the MPC after watching this 
I‘m just messing around with this technique and it revived my interest in the MPC again. The layering options are really a powerful option in terms of sound design.
1 Like
Wow, I need this setup in my life. I love my midi fighter twister. This will really open up the MPC Live! Would you mind putting together a few step by step instructions?
I kind of get it, but don’t.
Thanks
Will do later on today!
2 Likes
There are a few steps you need to take but they are fairly pain-free. Before we start, I should add that all credit goes to TheKikGen and all links & instructions are his/hers as well.
Ok, so let’s go:
1. You need to enable SSH on your MPC Live. To do this, go here and download the right modded firmware version for your MPC (I’m on 2.9, so I downloaded MPC-2.9.0-Update.img): MPC Live mod â Google Drive
–> You then need to transfer the file you just downloaded to the root folder of your MPC. The way I did that is by connecting my MPC via USB, copying the file as is into the root folder (but you could also load it onto a USB stick in the the root and just plug that directly into your MPC).
–> On your MPC Live, you now go into “Settings” (from the Main Menu), press & hold the SHIFT button and on the bottom right you should see an “Update” tab appear. Tap on that and follow instructions, your MPC Live will now be updated with the modded firmware.
2. You need to establish an SSH connection between your Macbook and your MPC.
–> Connect your MPC to your WIFI at home.
–> Once it is connected, find out the IP address of your MPC Live in your home network and write it down. (I just logged on to my router - a Fritzbox - and went into “Home Network”, “Connected Devices” and found the MPC Live in that list. I used that opportunity to also make that the “fixed IP address” of the MPC, which is an option on my router, this way the last two digits of the IP don’t change when I disconnect and reconnect the MPC – If you don’t know how to do any of that, you can just download something like the app IP Scanner on your Mac for free or on PC you can use something like Advanced IP Scanner – seemingly also free).
–> open the Terminal app on your Mac (PC it’s command line I think?) and type in the following line and hit Enter (WITHOUT the " " and obviously replacing “your mpc‘s ip address” with the actual IP address you just wrote down :)):
“ssh root@(your mpc’s ip address)”
–> Now you’re ready to access your MPC’s drives. To do this, I use Cyberduck on my Mac (freeware), on PC TheKikGen recommends the app WinSCP (also freeware). Open Cyberduck, click on the icon top left “Open Connection” – then in the dialog that opens up, in the drop down menu up top select “SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol)” On the same screen, enter your MPC Live’s IP address into the “Server” field and finally in the “Username” field, enter “root”. Connect. Now you have remote access to your MPC Live’s drive(s) and can browse it from your computer.
3. Open MPC app on your computer and midi map your controls
–> To open the Midi Learn panel, click on the second little icon from the left at the bottom right of your screen or hit SHIFT + COMMAND + L
–> In the Midi Learn panel, switch to the tab “GLOBAL” – here you will find a drop down list with all global controls. Select the Q-Links page.
–> Make sure your midi controller is connected and recognised by the MPC software. You can now enable the “Learn” function in the Midi Learn tab (top left button) and now map your controls to the Q-Links. If you have endless controllers and if your controller permits it (maybe even for regular knobs, not sure :)), program your knobs to send Relative CC which then will show up on the Midi Learn panel as “Rel. Offset” next to each mapped Q-Link knob. Map whatever else you want to map from the Global tab / its control pages.
–> When you are done, it is time to export your mapping. To the right of the dropdown list in the Midi Learn panel, there’s a tiny icon with three stacked horizontal lines. Click on that and select “Export” – give your midi mapping a name and save it somewhere where you’ll find it again
4. Copy your new Midi Mapping to your MPC Live and let the MPC know it’s there
–> Back to Cyberduck/WinSCP – open the connection to your MPC Live and copy your new midi mapping to the following folder:
/media/az01-internal-sd/MPC Documents/Midi Learn/
–> Next, navigate to this folder on your MPC: /media/az01-internal/Settings/MPC/ and download the “MPC.settings” file. Open the downloaded copy of the file with a text editor.
–> In your TextEdit, search the file for “AbletonControlMode.Workspace” – you will land on a line of code. Insert the following lines ABOVE/BEFORE the line that contains “AbletonControlMode.Workspace”, replacing “Your Filename” with the name you gave to your midi mapping earlier.
<VALUE name="MidiLearnEnabled" val="1"/>
<VALUE name="MidiLearnPreviousMapping" val="/media/az01-internal-sd/MPC Documents/Midi Learn/Your Filename.xmm"/>
–> Finally, save the MPC.settings file and drag it back onto Cyberdruck/WinSCP to upload it to your MPC (into the same folder you found it in). Overwrite the original when/if it asks you to do so.
5. Connect your midi controller to the MPC Live and set it to CONTROL
–> Back on your MPC Live, open the Settings menu, switch to the Midi tab and make sure “CONTROL” is active next to your controller’s name.
–> Reboot your MPC Live and it should work!
Hope this helps, let me know if you run into any issues.
8 Likes
That’s why I love this forum. Thanks so much for breaking this down.
2 Likes
Hey, quick question what’s the difference between this and midi learn in standalone mode
No global controls in Midi Learn in standalone. Akai locks those up — only in controller mode (or if you buy an MPC X) will they let you map eg a midi controller to the Q-Links or Modes.
Prefect, I’m nearly there. You mention changing the midi controller to send Relative CC. Can you do this on the midi fighter? When I map the type is ABS
Yes.
From the MIDI Fighter Manual…
Encoder MIDI Type
Each encoder can be configured to send any of the following MIDI messages.
Note:
The encoder sends Note On messages where the velocity corresponds to the Encoder Value.CC:
The encoder sends Control Change messages with a value corresponding to the Encoder Value.Enc 3FH/41H:
The encoder sends relative Control Change messages, a value of 65 is sent for each clock wise step, and a value of 63 is sent for each anti-clockwise step.
Cheers!
2 Likes
Cool, that’s done. What advantage does relative CC change have over ABS?
When I switch to relative I loose the LED feedback. Or doesn’t that work anyway.
No feedback from the MPC to the MFT. The relative CC gives you a more precise handling, the actual Q-Links are relative CC also, I believe.
Legend, I’ve reached the final step. So fingers crossed it works
1 Like