Ok, after some thinking I have a thought on an MPC instrument definition. I’m working this up on my github project so I’ll include a link of the current version below.
Basically there are some standard things I would like to control on every track. I want to control common track parameters on every track like Volume, Pan, Mute, Send 1, Send 2, Send 3, Send 4. I setup a default track definition with these track parameters mapped in the instrument definition.
On non-standard tracks I may need to take the default track instrument definition and create a track specific instrument definition. For instance I have an Air filter effect on one of my drum tracks. For that drum track I can add to the instrument definition the CC’s for that effect unit, or pads, etc. And that would certainly allow me to import an instrument definition for the track and instantly get to play and work on automation that is pre-programmed. I also setup the pots to correspond to Volume, Pan and the 4 sends which gives me 2 pots to play with.
On the MPC side I have a default project I call HAPAX. The way I see it I can have 16 channels of midi going to the MPC (perhaps more with a USB connector now) and that gives me a lot of drum samples, maybe a couple instruments, etc to play with. A lot of different sound options. For example I’ll fill out a single track with 7 different 16 pad drum kits. That is a lot of different drum kits. If I repeated that over 16 tracks that is 1,792 different drum pads I can use. I use my sends to create some common efx racks I like. I’ll probably create some similar instrument definitions for each “return” track so I can automate them via the hapax as well.
The MPC doesn’t assign CC values up front and that’s why MIDI learn exists. However MIDI learn won’t allow you to actually just edit the CC assignment (I hate this btw). You have to tweak a knob or something to get MIDI Learn to pick up on the cc number you want to change. I find it is easier to setup tracks and samples on my computer (my workflow) so I’m using a pretty simple app on an ipad and will set the MIDI learn by changing the CC numbers and sending that to the MPC software.
So here is my process. First I’ll setup a default hapax track definition that I can use on any track with the default settings. I’ll use MIDI Learn to assign the cc number of my choice to Track 1 Volume (for example). Then as I load up a track with different assignments for efx, pad tweaks, etc I can save that track as a separate instrument definition.
I’m curious if any other MPC users have ideas?
Hope this is helpful. Here is a copy of the instrument definition so far:
I hate my MPC Live 2, bough it years ago thinking it will be “the brains” of my dawless setup but the thing never stood up to the task, its software is so buggy, its workflow its outdated and not intended to be used in live situations and it just got worse over time, it breaks my flow, the thing tries too hard to do so many things it doesn’t do anything half right. I just hate it, its a waste of time and money. sorry for the rant OP
i have a Launchcontrol XL 3 sitting on my desk waiting for me to take the time to figure out how to map its controls to my MPC One, which I typically dedicated six MIDI channels to on my Deluge as an external sequencer (one track for all my samples – vocals, percussion, beats, and the other tracks distributed among plugins, keygroups, drumsynth.). so i think some basic mapping that i feel like would be universal across all the different plugins and expansions is for (1) faders control the track volume for a given track; (2) not sure if the DAW Mode mute/solo functions for the bottom two buttons would translate 1:1 for a given MIDI track in the MPC but that would be a good control to have.
The real trick is mapping plugin functions/parameters.
Then on one of my tracks I have the Air Filter effect and so for that track I added the following mapping:
[CC_PAIR]
1:90 Volume
2:64 Pan
3:127 Mute
4:0 Send1
5:0 Send2
6:0 Send3
7:0 Send4
8:64 GlobalSemiTune
# These are specific to AAA Kit
12:0 lpfEnabled
13:0 FilterMode
14:0 FilterType
15:0 SaturationType
16:0 CutoffFrequency
17:0 Resonance
18:127 lpfOutputGain
[/CC_PAIR]
So the trick is that I need to treat different “instrument definitions” as different MPC tracks. I can rack my own efx for the track and if I want to control automations beyond the standard set I’ll have to set it up as a seperate instrument definition for that track.
Some extra work but probably more efficient when I just want to sit down and create.