In MPC3, audio tracks have been integrated with instrument tracks, making it easier to use. In MPC2, you can also easily record guitar or bass by using the looper.
It went from like 2/10 workflow i.e. not feasible or fun, to a solid way of working - 7-8/10?
I wouldnât ever bother to record guitar/bass into my MPC in 2.0, but it is quite easy now. Just add an audio track, hit record and play/start and you are good to go (ignoring levels and any other setup-specific audio config).
On the main screen, you can go over to the arrangement tab and enable âauto record at loop startâ. So if your take was âless than perfectâ, you can hit record twice (once to stop record, once to queue record at loop start), and try another take without stopping the loop.
MPC3 saves all takes as samples, so you can chop them up as usual in an MPC. If you are like me and record 20+ âless than perfectâ takes, then you should be sure to purge unused samples from the project menu.
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AKAI: please bring back select pad for new tracks vs sequential add track 
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Another question for the experts. I am on Beta .092 and have been wondering: WHY are the Q-Links in a MIDI Program mapped horizontally, especially when the Q-Links box (yellow outline) is vertical?
I hope I am missing a setting, but this is doing my head in. Thanks!
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Does the MPC do real time chromatic time stretching (ala Variphrase) whereby, say, you sample a guitar riff, then play it up and down the keyboard and the pitch changes but the speed does not, ie, you donât get the chipmunk effect?
Yeah you can do that, but it has its limits before its starts sounding crappy in standalone, if youâre using it with the desktop software though the quality is very goodâŚ
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Great, thank you. Whatâs the octave range before it starts to sound crappy? I wonât be using the software.
Iâm no expert, but i noticed this the other day too. Seems like they havent finished mapping properly yet. Or maybe the loop brace isnt meant to be vertical.
Ive been making a list of these type of errors in 3.0 but im not convinced anyone will pay any attention to it.
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A nice touch in 3.0 is that if you use an audio track to make these kind of edits, there is an option âflatten elastiqueâ which renders all your edits using the elastique pro algorithm (rather than the subpar standard warping).
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Yeah, I need to document it and send it in as well. It is egregious.
I am disappointed that seemingly low-hanging things like this are not fixed in the beta.
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Thanks. Does that mean flatten elastique does not apply to chromatic time stretching?
I think it applies to pitch shifting and warping, which is what you would use. Im not sure if MPC actually does realtime pitch shifting/timestretch, ie. Playing pitched notes live while retaining a consistent length. Can be programmed in though.
Edit: I could be totally wrong though, Iâm pretty new to Mpc still!
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Itâs does do it, you load a one shot in a drum group, warp it in program edit them play it back on 16 levels note mode, like I said though sound crappy real fast at the extremesâŚ
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My bad, i forgot about 16 levels. Interesting that you can do this in high quality on desktop.
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Iâm a bit confused when looking at these plugins on 3rd party sites like this, to know which are actually for the MPC standalone. For example Flex Beat only mentions Apple and Windows in the system requirements, so does that mean this version wonât run on the MPC?
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To be honest, i only buy when its stated in the text that it is also compitable with standalone.
I also did saw this on the flex best plugin. No mention of standalone.
But, isnt that with akai, that when you buy a plugin its automatically also standalone? If its available as standalone?
When i bought the 2 other plugins, i had to register them on the inmusic software app. Only there its possible to register software serials (as far as i know).
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I think all plugins from inmusic that are normally standalone should work, even if MPC compatibility isnât specified. I recently took the chance and purchased OPx-4 because it was on sale at plugin boutique. It didnât say anything about it being compatible with MPC standalone, but I registered it with inmusic and was then able to download it onto my MPC via wi-fi.
I will say though, the process for getting it to work wasnât entirely clear to me. I feel like I aimlessly attempted a few things and at one point noticed that it was downloadable on my MPC. Thankfully it worked.
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Such a cumbersome process to meâŚdoes my brain in
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I feel like every YouTube video of people audio recording clips on mpc felt like there were lots of weird workarounds even for beta 3. The fw2 ones were definitely hideous (âsoâŚI just do the secret sigil to copy loop to pad and thenâŚâ etc). If thereâs one showing itâs easy now Iâd love to see it.