Yeah, keep in mind that this is just a simple striped down Linux box… I think they have to balance between CPU power and latency. The fact that they allow external IO and it works is mind-blowing enough.
I’ve started finger drumming more and more often and I’m noticing lots of double/triple triggers. So a question for the finger drummers out there:
- is it Mpc related of technique related?
- would the ‘fat pads’ help?
- how would you change the settings in the hardware tab to reduce them?
That looks a lot cleaner and more immediately useful. Good UX improvement!
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cool. Wonder how this will translate to q links on the X
Double means the way you finger drum is harder than the current threshold so raise the sensitivity. Start with the smallest value until it goes away.
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I have found I get double triggers cuz I’m a shit finger drummer. I don’t seem to tap. I hit the pad and hold too long. So I imagine that because the initial downward pressure creates the first hit…as the pad is coming back up into my resting finger, it pushes up into my finger which is then depressing it again just enough to retrigger.
It doesn’t matter what setting I use. I’ve tried any and all combos. So I force myself to just tap. But my brain likes to rest my finger. I also have my MPC propped up on a foam angled mat so I can see the screen better. Probably introducing bounce on my taps. But I’ve seen this mad finger drummer on YT who’s MPC is on a stand and it bounces around like crazy.
So in the end I believe it’s due to finger drumming style. Practice.
The only thing I can’t figure to do then, is when playing, say a pad, how do you hold a sustained note. When I hold, as I said, about 60% of the time I get a double trig.
2cents
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I had another lesson yesterday, the guy corrected my right hand finger movement and all of a sudden no double triggers, clean hi hats and it all seems easier!
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Good reminder about the 16 levels button, I should use it more for drum variations. I tend to use effects for variations, including drum fx.
What I find confusing about 16 levels is that there’s seemingly no way of editing the 16 level stuff after the fact. A drum hit shows up as the same kind of note in the grid sequencer, regardless of eg pitch chosen.
This is a consequence of the sightly weird way the MPC does things. 16 levels doesn’t always record MIDI data (I think it does with velocity, but not with pitch). So if you go into the Grid editor, you won’t see any pitch data there after using 16 levels. The notes are all the same because you’re hitting the same pad - if the notes changed with the pitch, the pad being played would change.
If you switch to List edit mode, however, you’ll see the 16 levels pitch data recorded there as Tuning, which is a sampler/pad setting. You can edit the tuning amount from here.
That almost makes sense, but if you go back to Grid edit and select the pad’s Tuning as an automation lane, you still won’t see the data - it only appears in List mode. I assume this is because Grid mode only shows MIDI-related data, and List shows additional parameters relating directly to the sample engine etc.
It would still seem to make sense to see the Tuning changes in List and Grid mode, acting as you’d expect CC data to work, but… you don’t. I wonder which Tuning gets precedence if you record using 16 pads and then add Tuning data as automation? I’ll try that next time.
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Interesting! If you record 16 Levels tuned data and then add automation to the pad Tuning parameter over the top, it works as a transpose. But when you look in the List view, it’s all Tuning data. So it does function as though 16 Levels Tuning is going directly to the sample engine, while automation Tuning is working over the top of that as a MIDI CC layer. Could be useful as an easy way to transpose a 16 Levels sequence, or even to have two note sequences playing against each other.
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I’m excited as just pulled the trigger on a MPC Live 2, been considering for a while but on the fence, then saw one pop up at Andertons in the UK in their used sale for £700 and I had a voucher so ended up at £650 which was too good a deal to pass up.
Really excited to dive in. I’ll watch a load of tutorials before it arrives and will prob use standalone for a while, but also trying to think how to intergrate it into my existing/current set up.
At the mo I have a TR8S doing drums and Digitone, TD3 and Lyra 8 doing the rest.
Thinking the MPC will maybe replace the TR8S at the heart with it being the master midi clock-midi out to the DN and the TD3, then audio of the lyra and TD 3 into the DN and out of that into MPC. So MPC will take over drum and most sequencing duties…
That’s my current plan but if anyone has any tips on other uses with my rig let me know!! Likewise any more general MPC tips!? I’ve owned a Force before but this is my first foray into the MPC world…
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16 level tuning seems to be recorded as SysEx in MIDI data.
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I’d say definitely make the MPC the master brain, but don’t rule out the TR8S completely. They play really well together and compliment each other… recording TR8S loops into the MPC for further chopping:processing is a lot of fun.
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To give you an idea, I still have a Force but it ended up in storage and the Live ii is used daily. I absolutely love mine, I only regret getting the retro version instead of the black one.
It can be daunting at the beginning but it is a hell of a machine.
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You don’t regret getting the retro. 
The black one gets so gross with dust and dead skin. And is really hard to clean.
The retro (I imagine, I don’t have retro) must stay cleaner looking. 
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I have a Retro Live 2 and a black Live 2.
I much prefer the black one and use it 90% of the time.
In real term use, black wins.
In the looks department, retro wins.
Someday I’ll have the gold Live 2
Get out of here!
I prefer black as well…but I’m adverse to dust. And the amount of dust it collects…it repulses me. A battle I can’t seem to win.
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