MPC 2000XL Automate Mix Changes

Was looking around for a easy and effective way to automate mix changes on the MPC. I use this for pans and volume fades and effect wet/dry changes.

This is what I came up with.

  • Make a new track and label it MixChng
  • Go into Mixer settings (SHIFT + 7)
  • Go to setup in the mixer screen
  • Turn record mix changes to yes

If you want to remove all the mixer changes you will just need to delete the MixChng track. If you want to just want to edit the mixer settings that were recorded to the track go into Step Edit and use (Shift + <) or (Shift + >) to jump the sequencer to the next event in that sequencer.

Something old feels new again

I started to setup a portable multi-instrument system with my Apple Macbook pro. I picked up a few items to complete the setup. Here is a quick list.

Needed:
M-Audio Uno USB MIDI Interface
Plogue Bidule Modular Audio Software
I can now have 16 VSTi’s routed to my MPC 2000XL VIA MIDI

Screenshot to follow later this week.

With this setup I have used it with the Apple Core Audio and have not noticed major latency at all. In the future I will buy another external audio device and then I can process the output from my MPC also. Imagine a software sidechain compressor, limiter & distortion/bitcuncher.

MPC 2000XL Sample converter

I wanted to find a way to do a quick conversion of audio files for the MPC 2000XL. The needed WAV format is as follows:

  • Frequency: 44100Hz
  • Bits per sample: 16
  • Format: PCM

I found the best was to do this was to use SoX (SoundXchange) to write a quick and dirty batch script to loop though files for me. The first up will be a simple batch file that you can drag and drop your samples on. I am doing this on Windows 7, I will make another tutorial for the Mac.

This will normalize to 0DB and convert to 16Bit and 44.1KHZ

@echo off
Title=Normalized, 16Bit, Sample Rate 44.1Khz
cd %~dp0
mkdir converted_stereo
FOR %%A IN (%*) DO sox –norm=-3 %%A -b 16 “converted_stereo/%%~nxA” rate -v 44100

This will normalize to 0DB and convert to 16Bit and 44.1KHZ and make the sample mono

@echo off
title=Normalized, 16Bit, Sampe Rate 44.1Khz, Mono
cd %~dp0
mkdir converted_mono
FOR %%A IN (%*) DO sox –norm %%A -b 16 -c 1 “converted_mono/%%~nxA” rate -v 44100

Grimy Eddition: This will normalize to 0DB and convert to 12Bit and 44.1KHZ and make the sample mono

@echo off
title=Normalized, 16Bit, Sampe Rate 44.1Khz, Mono
cd %~dp0
mkdir converted_mono
FOR %%A IN (%*) DO sox –norm %%A -b 12 -c 1 “converted_grimy/%%~nxA” rate -v 44100
pause

If you would like to add the batch files to your right click “Send To” menu just do the following. Open an explorer window and copy and paste the following into the address bar.

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

Now place “shortcuts” to your BAT files in here and they will show up in your “Send To” menu.

 

Curent Setup

I currently have two spaces to work in, my studio at my parents house and my tiny setup at home. I have been focusing more on my home setup to get stuff accomplished with less travel and more time at the desk. These are the ideas I am trowing around and my current process. This is subject to change on a daily since I am constantly growing and learning new ways to accomplish my goals.

Quick Gear list:

  • Akai MPC 2000 XL (eb16 & 8-out)
  • Alesis Nanocomp
  • Apple Mac Book Pro
  • M-Audio MIDI Uno
  • Crappy tape recorder
  • Fostek Reel to Reel
  • Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro

The MPC is my main sequencer and sampler. I use my laptop just for software synths, more to come on them later. I use the Alesis Nano on the effect send/return on the Mackie and I use channel 8 on my MPC’s 8-out to trigger the sidechain.

more to come…