Akai MPC 60 Operator'S Manual Download Page 21

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Section 2: The Basics

2.5 The SOFT KEYS (1 - 4)

In the upper right corner of the front panel are four buttons labeled SOFT

KEY 1, SOFT KEY 2, SOFT KEY 3 and SOFT KEY 4. The functions of

these buttons change from one screen to another and are always displayed

on the lowest line of the screen. For example, while the PLAY/RECORD

screen (accessed by pressing the MAIN SCREEN button) is showing. notice

the lowest line:

There are four titles enclosed in angle brackets ("<" and ">"). The titles are

<Trak=ON >, <Solo=OFF>, <Tmpo=SEQ> and <SortTrks>. These

four titles indicate the functions of the four soft keys, but only while this

screen is showing. Each of the many functions in the MPC60 displays a

unique screen of data, and the lowest line of each of these screens indicates

the function of the 4 soft keys while that screen is showing. Demonstrate

this by pressing the ERASE key, then the TIMING CORRECT key, then

MAIN SCREEN to return to the PLAY/RECORD screen. Some screens

have less than four active soft keys and some have none.

Summary of Contents for MPC 60

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Page 4: ... please disconnect the power cord then set the switch to the correct voltage for your area using a flat screwdriver What you should know to protect yourself and the Akai MPC60 Watch out You might get an electric shock Never touch the power plug with wet hands Always pull out the power plug by the plug and never the cord Only let a qualified professional repair or reassemble the Akai MPC60 An unaut...

Page 5: ...se will be required to take whatever measures may be required to correct the interference This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class A limits for radio noise emissions from digital apparatus set out in the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian Department of Communications For customers in the UK IMPORTANT FOR YOUR SAFETY TWO CORE FLEX The wires in the mains lead of your machine are ...

Page 6: ...key how to exit any function 2 12 The RESET TO DEFAULTS function SECTION 3 RECORDING SEQUENCES 3 1 Overview 3 2 How sequences tracks and channels are organized 3 3 The PLAY RECORD screen the main operating mode of the MPC60 3 4 How to assign drums and non drums tracks 3 5 The PLAY RECORD keys 3 6 An example of recording a drum sequence 3 7 An example of recording a sequence with both drums and key...

Page 7: ...data 4 3 7 Copying an entire sequence to another sequence 4 3 8 Converting a song into a single long sequence 4 3 9 Shortening or lengthening a single bar 4 3 10 Changing the velocity or duration of a group of notes after recording 4 4 The STEP EDIT key 4 4 1 The step edit screen 4 4 2 Using step edit 4 4 3 Step recording 4 5 The EDIT LOOP key 4 5 1 Using EDIT LOOP as an UNDO function 4 6 The TRAN...

Page 8: ...the DISK key SECTION 8 SYNCING TO TAPE AND OTHER DEVICES 8 1 Overview 8 2 The Sync screen 8 3 Syncing to SMPTE 8 4 Syncing to FSK24 8 5 Syncing to 1 4 note clicks 8 6 Syncing to Midi Clock and Song Position Pointer 8 7 Syncing to Midi Time Code SECTION 9 MIDI FUNCTIONS 9 1 Overview 9 2 The midi input filter midi soft through sustain pedal processing 9 3 External drum triggering the midi drums chan...

Page 9: ...Section 1 Introduction ...

Page 10: ... bring to you a product which we truly believe answers the needs of today s professional musician I am sure you will find that the combination of innovative features high sound quality ease of use and attention to detail will be very useful in the process of composition recording and performing It has been said that technology has always had a profound influence on art If this is true I invite you...

Page 11: ...rough sections 2 and 3 The Basics and Recording sequences to get a general understanding of the MPC60 After that you will find that most other functions are very easy to figure out by experimentation 1 Press the key which you think would most likely contain the function you are looking for For example to sample a new sound press the SOUNDS key 2 Follow the instructions presented on screen If you r...

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Page 13: ...Section 2 The Basics ...

Page 14: ...MPC60 to your system Enter and change data and parameters using the CURSOR keys the NUMERIC KEYPAD the DATA CONTROL and the keys Use the SOFT KEYS and the HELP key Play the drums and use the associated keys Adjust the stereo drum mixer Play the preset sequences Adjust the playing tempo and a few other basic functions 14 ...

Page 15: ...i master keyboard and separate multiple midi sound modules 1 Connect the MIDI OUT of the midi keyboard to the MIDI IN 1 of the MPC60 You may alternatively use MIDI IN 2 Both inputs merge together 2 Connect the MIDI OUT 1 of the MPC60 to the MIDI INPUT of the first midi sound module 3 Connect the MIDI THRU of the first sound module to the MIDI INPUT of the second sound module 4 Connect the MIDI THR...

Page 16: ...by a battery is much more expensive than the type of memory commonly used We at Akai believe the customer would prefer to pay a substantially lower price for the minor inconvenience of saving his work to disk before powering down For this reason whenever you do any sampling or editing of sounds or recording or editing of sequences you must always save the changes to disk or the changes will be los...

Page 17: ...ant to return to this mode press the MAIN SCREEN key Note There are three other disks included with the MPC60 ROCK SET and SYSTEM ALL DRY SET and SYSTEM ALL and SYNTH SET and SYSTEM ALL These disks contain 3 additional sets of drum sounds but contain the same demonstration sequences To hear the sounds on these disks follow the above instructions again but use one of these disks instead It is also ...

Page 18: ...ns usually to the right of a colon These areas are called DATA FIELDS and each one controls a specific parameter For example the upper leftmost data field is called SQNC an abbreviation for sequence To the right of this field is another field containing the name for the selected sequence number followed by the TMPO field an abbreviation for tempo The PLAY R ECORD screen is one of many screens avai...

Page 19: ...pressing the DISK key causes the following screen to be displayed If a screen like this is displayed you are expected to select one of the options by pressing a single number it is not necessary to press ENTER afterwards The DATA CONTROL Another way of changing on screen data is to use the DATA CONTROL While the cursor is in a data field if the DATA CONTROL is rotated one step to the right as you ...

Page 20: ... notice that with each step of the control a different preset option appears The and keys Pressing the key has the same effect as turning the DATA CONTROL one step to the right It either increments a number in a numeric field or chooses a new option in a choice field Pressing the key has the same effect as turning the DATA CONTROL one step to the left It either decrements a number in a numeric fie...

Page 21: ...est line There are four titles enclosed in angle brackets and The titles are Trak ON Solo OFF Tmpo SEQ and SortTrks These four titles indicate the functions of the four soft keys but only while this screen is showing Each of the many functions in the MPC60 displays a unique screen of data and the lowest line of each of these screens indicates the function of the 4 soft keys while that screen is sh...

Page 22: ...about the function you are currently working with To return to the previous screen release the HELP key There is a different help screen for every data field in every screen in the MPC60 To demonstrate this 1 Press HELP notice the screen then release it 2 Move the cursor to a different field 3 Press HELP again notice the different screen and release it 22 ...

Page 23: ...y This key has 2 functions but only one may be in use at a time 1 It may be used to play a single drum at 16 fixed dynamic levels using the 16 pads 2 It may be used play a single drum at 16 fixed tunings using the 16 pads To select which of these 2 functions is currently in use press the SOUNDS key then select option 8 Mixer hihat other and the following screen will appear Now move the cursor to t...

Page 24: ...he drum you played in step 1 will sound when any of the pads are played but at 16 fixed dynamic levels if 16 VOLUMES is active or at 16 fixed tunings if 16 TUNINGS is active 3 To turn this feature off press 16 LEVELS again and the light will go off NOTE The 16 TUNINGS feature does not operate if the Hihat is selected NOTE 2 The MPC60 performs its tuning all digitally without any distortion but sub...

Page 25: ...s to another To do this read section 6 9 of the manual entitled Mixer modes hihat decay thresholds mufti pitch mode The decay information is recorded into the sequence with each hihat note allowing every nuance of your hihat performance to be remembered Normally the WHAT DECAY slider has no effect on hihat notes playing back from sequences However if the AFTER key is pressed and the light goes on ...

Page 26: ...is being changed To adjust the pan position of a particular drum 1 Press the pad of the drum to be adjusted the small triangle will move to directly above the selected drum 2 Press the CURSOR UP key the small triangle will now point upwards toward the graphic pan knob 3 Rotate the DATA CONTROL As you turn it the graphic pan knob will move between one of 15 pan positions indicating that the pan of ...

Page 27: ...ppear directly to the right of the sequence number 7 Press the PLAY START key sequence number 2 should start playing in a loop 8 Press the STOP key the sequence should stop playing 9 Turn the data wheel very carefully one step to the right which should cause the sequence number to increment to 3 10 Press the PLAY START key sequence number 3 should start playing in a loop 11 Press the STOP key the ...

Page 28: ...lower you must use the numeric keypad remember to press ENTER after you have entered the new sequence number NOTE 2 If you notice a timing irregularity at the point of transition from one sequence into another the problem may be due to the assignments of the PROG field in the PLAY RECORD screen for the sequence which plays immediately after the timing irregularity The PROG field is described in se...

Page 29: ...e the cursor to the TMPO field this is the tempo setting 2 Change the tempo either by typing in a new tempo number and pressing ENTER or by turning the DATA CONTROL There are other ways to adjust the tempo and many other tempo related parameters These will be discussed later in the section entitled RECORDING SEQUENCES ...

Page 30: ...Pressing the MAIN SCREEN key at almost any time will return you back to the main PLAY R ECORD screen of the MPC60 without damaging any data Use this key as a panic button if you find yourself in some function you don t understand and want to get out 30 ...

Page 31: ...es when it is desirable to reset all of these settings to their original factory preset settings There is a special function called Reset to defaults which does exactly this To perform a reset to defaults 1 Press the OTHER key and this screen will appear 2 Press SOFT KEY 1 Defaults 3 A second screen will appear asking you if you are sure you want to reset to defaults Press SOFT KEY 1 again Reset t...

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Page 33: ...Section 3 Recording Sequences ...

Page 34: ... tracks The keys in the PLAY RECORD section of the panel How to record both a drum sequence and a multi track keyboard sequence How to use the TIMING CORRECT function The TEMPO function The WAIT FOR KEY and AUTO PUNCH keys How to use the recording metronome How to use the foot switches How to see how much memory is available for new sequence recording How to record Midi system exclusive data How t...

Page 35: ...ch contain the actual midi events These may be thought of as the tracks on a mufti track tape recorder they each contain a specific instrument or piece of the total arrangement but all play simultaneously For example track 1 could be drums track 2 percussion track 3 bass guitar track 4 piano track 5 horns track 6 more horns etc Each track may be either a drums track or a non drums track but not bo...

Page 36: ...rding A detailed description of each of the data fields and soft keys follows If this message appears it means that the currently selected sequence is ready to be recorded into If the Record ready message is not displayed and you want to record into the current sequence press either the RECORD or OVERDUB keys once and the Record ready indicator will be added to the title line indicating that the c...

Page 37: ...a blinking block at the beginning of the field indicating that the alpha keys have returned to their normal functions Note If the DATA CONTROL is not turned while the cursor is in this field moving the cursor one position to the left or right will move to the previous or next data field not the adjacent character position within the sequence name If no sequence data exists the name is always Unuse...

Page 38: ...ops back to the specified bar The Track data area lines 5 and 6 The TRAK field This field displays the active track within the sequence The active track is the track which when record or overdub mode is entered will be recorded into Only one track may be active at a time The Track name field This field has no on screen title but is the 16 character name of the active track located directly to the ...

Page 39: ...not the data contained in the track For this reason they are not saved within sequence files or ALL files They are however retained in memory after power is removed and are also saved within parameter files The CH field line 6 This field allows a second midi output channel to be assigned to the active track in addition to the one displayed in the upper CH field so that the active track may play in...

Page 40: ...restarting the sequence will no implement the program change If the MPC60 did send out all assigned program numbers whenever PLAY START was pressed this problem would be corrected but there would also be a brief delay at the start of the sequence because the external synthesizers must take time to change their program data If you do want a program change to be sent out whenever PLAY START is press...

Page 41: ...ly entering numbers the cursor will not move to this field This field is normally changed by using the and keys or the LOCATE function described in another section Also these fields change in real time while the sequence plays However the rightmost part of each field the clocks and frames parts are replaced with 2 dashes while playing because they would otherwise change too quickly to be useful Th...

Page 42: ...red Many of these operations may be required to put the tracks in the desired order To perform this function enter the track number to be removed in the MOVE TRACK field enter the track number you want to insert the moved track before in the BEFORE TRACK field then press Execute and the PLAY R ECORD screen will be re displayed ...

Page 43: ...ssign a track as a non drums track Set the track s output midi channel the CH field in the PLAY RECORD screen to any channel other than 16 A B C or D Once a track has been recorded as a non drums track DO NOT change its midi output channel assignment to 16 unless you have erased all the notes in the track first Note Although the internal drums normally receive their data on channel 16 A B C or D t...

Page 44: ...e number conversions are only performed on drums tracks it is important that you DO NOT do the following DO NOT record a drums track then change its midi channel assignment to a channel other than 16 Otherwise when the sequence is played midi note numbers 0 31 will play instead of the correctly assigned note numbers DO NOT record a non drums track then change its midi channel assignment to 16 Othe...

Page 45: ...nch in into overdub mode while playing To do this 1 The top line of the PLAY RECORD screen must display the words Play Record Record ready This means that the sequence is ready to record If the words Record ready do not appear in the title simply press and release the RECORD or OVERDUB keys once while stopped 2 While the sequence is playing simultaneously press the OVERDUB and PLAY keys Overdub mo...

Page 46: ...oop This prevents accidently erasing any data which was recorded on the previous pass through the loop If however RECORD mode is entered while the sequence is set to loop to a bar higher than bar 1 RECORD mode will automatically be turned off at the moment the sequence reaches the end and starts to loop NOTE If an empty sequence is selected the sequence name says unused and either RECORD or OVERDU...

Page 47: ...Y 4 Load Now causes the contents of the NOW field to be loaded into the marker field currently containing the cursor To load any of the three markers move the cursor to it and enter the desired bar numbers in the format BAR BEAT CLOCK separated by using the numeric keypad If you only want to enter the bar number type it followed by ENTER and the note and clock numbers will be automatically reset t...

Page 48: ...l make the current sequence ready for recording 4 The TRAKfield should contain a 1 If not move the cursor to the TRAK field and select 1 ENTER 5 The upper CH field should contain 16A If not move the cursor to the upper CH field and select 16 Enter and A in the field directly to the right 6 While holding OVERDUB press PLAY START The OVERDUB and PLAY lights should go on and the metronome should be h...

Page 49: ...gh 8 above except this time hold down the RECORD key and press PLAY START In RECORD mode any existing notes in the track are erased as you record new notes just like a tape recorder whereas in OVERDUB mode new notes are merged into the existing notes in the track If you only want to erase a particular drum from the sequence you just recorded follow these steps 1 Press the ERASE key The following s...

Page 50: ...first synthesizer to the MIDI INPUT of a second synthesizer Set that synthesizer to play a piano like sound and set its midi receive channel to 2 4 Set your audio mixer so that the MPC60 s drums the bass synthesizer and the piano synthesizer are all at the desired volume 5 The PLAY RECORD screen should be showing if not press MAIN SCREEN 6 The upper line of the screen should display If not press e...

Page 51: ... sequence and create a new format of 4 bars of 4 4 time Once finished the previous EDIT screen will be redisplayed 6 Press MAIN SCREEN to return to the PLAY R ECORD screen Note Whenever you start recording in an empty sequence the settings in this screen are used to create the default format of time signature and number of bars for that new sequence Now that you have changed these settings to 4 ba...

Page 52: ...n within the sequence 4 Record the drum part by playing the drum pads in time to the metronome Every time the four bar pattern loops back to the start any drums recorded on the last pass will be heard at the position they were recorded except that any timing errors will have been corrected Keep adding drums until your drum part is complete 5 If you accidently played one or two wrong notes you may ...

Page 53: ...l other than 16 has been selected this track is now a non drums track 4 If you play the midi keyboard now the bass synthesizer should sound If not check the midi connections check the setting of the MIDI SOFT THRU field and re check the previous three steps 5 Press the COUNT IN key the light will go on This will cause the metronome to play one bar before the sequence plays to cue you to start play...

Page 54: ...ield and re check the previous three steps 4 Enter OVERDUB mode by holding OVERDUB and pressing PLAY START 5 Record your piano chords part in time to the drums percussion and bass parts 6 Press STOP Finally overdub the piano melody part on track 5 1 Move the cursor to the TRAK field and type 5 ENTER to make track 5 active 2 Move the cursor to the upper CH field 5th line and type 2 ENTER then selec...

Page 55: ...f corrected notes is instantaneous Also it is possible to correct the timing of notes which were previously recorded One of the problems with timing correction sometimes called quantizing is that on many sequencers it has the effect of truncating deleting or elongating notes making the feature impractical to use The MPC60 avoids this problem by only correcting the attacks of a note then moving the...

Page 56: ...s used 96 divisions per 1 4 note This value also affects two other functions in the MPC60 1 It sets the NOTE REPEAT value described later in this section 2 It sets the amount by which the current sequence position changes when either the or rewind fast forward keys are pressed The SHUFFLE field This is the shuffle setting described in the section below entitled The shuffle function This only has a...

Page 57: ...VALUE SHUFFLE SHIFT TIMING and AMOUNT fields 3 8 2 The Shuffle feature The shuffle feature is a variation of timing correction Whereas the timing correction feature moves your notes onto perfect note intervals the shuffle feature moves your notes onto shuffled swing time note intervals but only operates on either 1 8 or 1 16 notes The amount of shuffle is measured as a percentage of the odd number...

Page 58: ...they are recorded into the sequence so your notes are instantly played back with the specified amount and direction of shift Also as with timing correction this effect can be used on existing sequence data by using the Move Existing SOFT KEY NOTE It is important to note that the this function only operates in conjunction with the TIMING CORRECT function This means that it is not possible for this ...

Page 59: ...e recording To use this feature press and hold TIMING CORRECT while in OVERDUB or RECORD mode and the top line of the PLAY RECORD screen will change If any drum pads if the active track is a drums track or keys if the active track is a non drums track are held while TIMING CORRECT is being held they will be automatically repeated at the TIMING CORRECT note value setting Further the velocity level ...

Page 60: ...IMING CORRECT also hold the SNAREI pad varying the pressure as you hold it You should hear a snare drum roll This same procedure can be used in exactly the same way when recording keyboard sequences In this case hold TIMING CORRECT while holding the key on the midi keyboard In order to use the varying pressure technique you will need to use a keyboard which sends channel pressure messages 60 ...

Page 61: ...ORD screen When pressed it instantly switches between two preset tempo settings the MASTER and SEQUENCE tempo These two tempo settings will be described later in the Tempo screen section This feature is useful for example to quickly switch between the normal playing tempo and a slower tempo for recording 3 9 1 The TEMPO screen To display the TEMPO screen press the TEMPO SYNC key and the following ...

Page 62: ...urrent value of the sequence tempo described above The MASTER TEMPO field This is the current value of the master tempo described above The BPM FPB field This field selects one of two display methods for the tempo readouts BPM Beats Per Minute This is the most common method in use to specify a tempo setting Using BPM the range of tempo settings in the MPC60 is from 30 BPM to 300 BPM Beats Per Minu...

Page 63: ...urope 24 24 frames per second This is the standard for film However since film is usually transferred to video for scoring the composer still works with the video standard frame rates Using this mode the tempo range of the MPC60 is from 48 0 to 5 0 FPB The TAP AVERAGING field This parameter is used in conjunction with the TAP TEMPO key The TAP TEMPO key is used for quick setting of the playing tem...

Page 64: ...change at preset locations within a sequence To insert tempo changes into the active sequence or to view existing tempo changes press the TEMPO SYNC key then press the Tempo Changes soft key and the following screen will appear In the center of the screen is a group of fields labeled CHANGE BAR CHANGE and TEMPO In this case the labels are located directly above the actual data fields These four fi...

Page 65: ...splays the actual tempo which will play once the tempo change is active in addition to the percentage This number is automatically computed from the displayed percentage of change times the main playing tempo either master or sequence So to view the entire list of tempo changes simply change the CHANGE field and notice the different settings of the other 3 fields as you change it Even if no change...

Page 66: ... done while the sequence is playing Normally only two taps are required before the MPC60 recalculates the new tempo However it is possible to set this feature so that it recalculates the tempo by averaging the last 3 or 4 successive tap intervals This is set in the TAP AVERAGING field located in the TEMPO screen and is explained further in that section of the manual 3 9 4 Sequencer speed limitatio...

Page 67: ...acks you are not recording for each pass by using the Trak ON soft key in the PLAY R ECORD screen Since the unrecorded tracks are turned off the computer does not have to use as much time to process them and can use all of its time to play the tracks which are being played avoiding the delay when all tracks play Note that this delay is not affected by the number of tracks which playing but rather ...

Page 68: ...irst key which is played to start the sequence is NOT recorded into the sequence it only starts the sequence and any keys played afterwards are recorded into the sequence To turn WAIT FOR KEY mode on press the WAIT FOR KEY key once and the light goes on to indicate it has been activated To turn WAIT FOR KEY mode off press the WAIT FOR KEY key again and the light will go off to indicate it has been...

Page 69: ...AUTO PUNCH light goes on The AUTO PUNCH IN and AUTO PUNCH OUT fields These two fields are used to specify the locations within the sequence at which the punch in and punch out will occur To enter a number into either of these two fields type the bar number a period the beat number a period and the clock number then ENTER If the number you wish to enter is at the start of a bar simply enter the bar...

Page 70: ...d Instead the RECORD light blinks until the PUNCH IN point is reached When it is reached RECORD mode is automatically entered and the RECORD light stops blinking and stays on continuously When the PUNCH OUT point is reached RECORD mode is automatically exited and the RECORD light goes off but play continues It is also possible to use AUTO PUNCH to automatically enter and exit OVERDUB mode To do th...

Page 71: ...ND SEQUENCE key and the following screen will appear To turn the second sequence on first select the sequence number which you would like to play simultaneously with the active sequence in the SEQUENCE field The name of the selected sequence is displayed to the right of the number for convenience Next move the cursor to the ON OFF field and select ON by turning the DATA CONTROL one notch to the ri...

Page 72: ...begin playing in the middle of the bar after one bar of count in which would not make musical sense NOTE 2 Any keys played on the input midi keyboard while the COUNT IN bar is playing will not be output through midi by the MIDI SOFT THRU function until the COUNT IN bar has finished For example if you were to play a chord towards the end of the COUNT IN bar just slightly before bar 1 of the sequenc...

Page 73: ...etronome Normally the metronome plays 1 4 notes In this field it is possible to change that value to one of eight options 1 4 notes 1 4 triplets 1 8 notes 1 8 triplets 1 16 notes 1 16 triplets 1 32 notes 1 32 triplets The IN PLAY field This is a choice field which has two options 1 NO The metronome is only heard during RECORD or OVERDUB modes but not while in PLAY mode 2 YES The metronone is heard...

Page 74: ...PLAY again for STOP PLAY STRT STP Play start stop Press once for PLAY START again for STOP ERASE Press to duplicate the function of pressing ERASE This is very useful for hands free use of the real time erase function TIMING CORECT Timing correct Press to duplicate the function of pressing TIMING CORRECT This is very useful for hands free use of the NOTE REPEAT function Press to duplicate the func...

Page 75: ...duplicate the function of punching out of OVERDUB mode back into PLAY mode Press to duplicate the function of pressing the key This is very useful for stepping backwards through the sequence while STEP EDIT is on Press to duplicate the function of pressing the key This is very useful for stepping forwards through the sequence while STEP EDIT is on TAP TEMPO Press to duplicate the function of press...

Page 76: ... memory display To see how much memory is currently available for sequence recording press the OTHER key The FREE SEQUENCE MEMORY field displays the percentage of total sequence memory which is available for new recording 76 ...

Page 77: ...ages from sequences there is no standard method for identifying the midi channel number within the message and therefore the MPC60 cannot assign the output midi channel over which the message will be sent This means for example that a System Exclusive message sent over midi channel 3 while recording into the MPC60 will always be played out of the MPC60 on midi channel 3 regardless of the track s o...

Page 78: ...rd one track at a time However there is a special mode of recording which allows you to record all 16 channels at once which is very useful when transferring sequences from other sequencers This feature works by recording the 16 incoming channels onto the first 16 tracks of a newly created empty sequence with each track is assigned to the same numbered midi channel For example track 1 assigns to c...

Page 79: ...e now created a new sequence containing one bar of the time signature you entered in the previous screen The first 16 tracks have been assigned to midi channels 1 through 16 as described above Assuming channel 16 is the assigned drums channel track 16 is therefore assigned as the only drums track Because of this you should transfer any drum data on channel 16 and check to see that the note to drum...

Page 80: ...ing of its sequence As soon as the MPC60 receives the sync signals it will enter RECORD mode and begin recording the data from the other sequences in real time Once the transfer is finished stop the external sequences and the MPC60 will stop automatically or manually stop the MPC60 NOTE The OVERDUB key is disabled during this mode 6 The MPC60 now contains the transferred sequence and may be played...

Page 81: ... you first select a sequence which is very long then press any of the FAST FORWARD REWIND or LOCATE keys 3 After you perform one of the EDIT operations 4 In SONG mode after you change any parameters in the song but only if the song contains many different sequences This waiting time is normal and is necessary in order for the MPC60 to create what programmers call an index table for the newly selec...

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Page 83: ...Section 4 Editing Sequences ...

Page 84: ... Create a new format of time signature number of bars Insert blank bars into a sequence Delete selected bars from a sequence Copy a selected range of bars from a sequence and insert them elsewhere into the same or another sequence Copy a range of bars from one track to another track Merge two tracks together Copy one sequence over another Convert a song song mode into one long sequence for more de...

Page 85: ...e If the ERASE key is pressed and held during OVERDUB mode the top line of the main screen changes for as long as ERASE is held If during this time you press a drum pad if the active track is a drums track or hold a key on the midi keyboard if the active track is a non drums track any occurrences of that drum or key on the selected track while both the ERASE key and the appropriate pad or key are ...

Page 86: ...ONLY ERASE NOTES or ALL EVENTS The FROM and TO fields These two fields set the region to be erased starting with the location specified in the FROM field up to one clock before the location specified in the TO field They are both BAR BEAT CLOCK type fields allowing you to set the region to be erased in increments as small as one clock The ERASE FILTER section This section of the screen allows you ...

Page 87: ...lues are automatically entered into these fields when the screen is first displayed The PRESS DRUMS TO BE ERASED area Drums tracks only To specify the drums to be erased press each of the drum pads you want to be erased and the 4 character names of each of the drums entered will be listed in this area If more than 8 drum pads are pressed only the first 8 are displayed followed by a SOFT KEY 1 Eras...

Page 88: ...ence Converting a song to one long sequence Lengthening or shortening a bar by changing the time signature Changing the velocity or duration values of a group of notes after recording When the EDIT key is pressed the following screen is displayed Pressing a single number key will cause the screen for the selected function to be displayed 4 3 1 Viewing time signature changes This function displays ...

Page 89: ...used to create an entirely new sequence format for the active sequence However this erases the entire contents of the active sequence To use this function press option 2 from the EDIT screen and the following screen will be displayed The following is a description of the on screen fields The TIME SIG field time signature This is the time signature of the bars which will be created This is actually...

Page 90: ...pear to the right of the colon 2 Move the cursor to the number directly to the right of the colon and enter the number of the midi channel you want the selected track to play through 1 16 If you don t want that track to be active at all enter a 0 here 3 Move the cursor one position to the right and use the DATA CONTROL to select the output port you want the selected track to play through A B C or ...

Page 91: ...sequence enter here the number of the bar which is one higher than the last bar of the sequence SOFT KEY 1 Execute Pressing this soft key performs the insertion according to the above displayed parameters NOTE If the sequence is set to loop to an earlier bar in the time signature ending status screen and the new bars are inserted before the loop bar causing the sequence to now loop to a different ...

Page 92: ...n the time signature ending status screen and the deleted bars are before the loop point causing the sequence to now loop to a different place the bar number specified in the LOOP field will be automatically changed to compensate for the insertion 4 3 5 Copying a section including al tracks and inserting it elsewhere This function allows you to copy a specified range of bars from one sequence and ...

Page 93: ...his would be set to 1 The INSERT BEFORE BAR field This field specifies the bar number which the copied data will be inserted before To insert the bars after the end of the sequence enter here the number of the bar which is one higher than the last bar of the sequence SOFT KEY 1 Execute Pressing this soft key performs the copy according to the entered parameters NOTE If the sequence is set to loop ...

Page 94: ...his is the sequence from which the data will be copied The active sequence number is automatically inserted here when this screen is entered The TRACK field the COPY MERGE A TRACK FROM section This is the track from which the data will be copied The active track is automatically inserted here when this screen is entered The FROM and TO fields These fields are used to set the region of the track wh...

Page 95: ... the newly copied data the existing events are overwritten 2 MERGE In this mode the copied data is merged or added into the existing events SOFT KEY 1 Execute Pressing this soft key performs the copy as specified in the above fields NOTE 1 This function provides a way to shift the timing of tracks forward or backward by any amount To do this simply copy a track to itself but slightly earlier or la...

Page 96: ...AY RECORD screen of the source track will be copied to the corresponding fields of the destination track 4 3 7 Copying an entire sequence to another sequence This function is useful if you want to make a perfect copy of a sequence including all parameters into another sequence number replacing all data and parameters previously contained in that sequence number To use this function select option 7...

Page 97: ...sequence editing features to complete the song This function does that conversion All the sequences in the song including the repetitions are copied end onto end to the specified sequence number Additionally the songs loop status is used for the sequence s loop status Also the track names midi output channel assignments midi program change assignments stereo mixer settings echo mixer settings tuni...

Page 98: ...channel assignments for each of the sequences match from sequence to sequence It is especially important that drums channel 16 or non drums channel 1 15 status of each track match from sequence to sequence within the song If an attempt is made to convert a song which has a mismatch in midi assignments the following error screen will be displayed and the conversion is aborted To correct the problem...

Page 99: ...ish to change to in the TO field in the second line To perform the change press the Execute soft key 4 3 10 Changing the velocity or duration of a group of notes after recording This new feature allows you to globally modify the duration or velocity values of a group of notes within a track You may set them to a fixed value add or subtract an amount from them or multiply them by a selected percent...

Page 100: ...by the number in the VALUE field A value of 100 no change values of 101 to 200 proportionally increase each note s velocity values of 0 to 99 proportionally decrease each note s velocity value 4 SET EACH TO VALUE This selection changes each note in the range to the number in the VALUE field SOFT KEY 1 Execute After you have entered the correct data in each of the above fields pressing this soft ke...

Page 101: ...nter step edit mode press the STEP EDIT key The following screen will appear displaying any notes or events which exist in the active track at the current sequence position A description of the fields and soft keys follows The event display area lines 2 through 6 of the LCD screen This area of the screen displays up to five events one per line existing in the active track at the location within th...

Page 102: ...s of notes or chords one 1 16 note for each without having to manually advance to the 102 LOCATE keys As this value changes the event display area is constantly updated to display the events contained at this displayed location As in the PLAY RECORD screen the distance moved by pressing the or keys is set in the NOTE VALUE field in the TIMING CORRECT screen SOFT KEY 1 Insert Pressing this soft key...

Page 103: ...2 clicks were heard The STEP EDIT DISPLAY FILTER section This is a filter similar to the erase filter or the midi input filter except this one controls which types of midi events existing in the track get displayed in the step edit screen For example if the only events you wanted to edit were pitch bend messages it would be bothersome to have to view all the other events Another example would be t...

Page 104: ...ich exist at the the exact location displayed in the NOW field This can sometimes cause confusion For example in a sequence containing a series of 1 32 notes playing a major scale if you are stepping through the sequence one 1 16 note at a time by repeatedly pressing the key you will hear only the odd numbered notes in the scale with each new key press the even numbered 1 32 notes will be hidden b...

Page 105: ... pitch bend program change etc The other fields to the right are unique for each type of event The available types of events and their associated data fields are O1 NOte C 3 Ve1 083 064 Dur 0142 This is a NOTE event The fields are 1 PITCH untitled This choice field has no title but contains the pitch of the note showing the note name C through B sharps are indicated by a followed by the octave 2 t...

Page 106: ...ue of the displayed controller event O1 Program Change Val 64 This is a PROGRAM CHANGE event The single field is VAL with a range of 0 127 used to select the program number O1 Channel Pres Val 64 This is a CHANNEL PRESSURE event This is also called after touch and applies to all notes played on this channel The only field is VAL value with a range of 0 127 O1 Poly Pressure Note C l Val 64 This is ...

Page 107: ...of the 32 drums this event applies to and VAL the new echo mix setting 0 127 1 01 SysEx Size 999 Byte 999 Val 127 This is a SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE event It represents any system exclusive message There are three fields SIZE the total number of data bytes BYTE the number of the byte whose contents are currently displayed in the Val field and VAL the current value of the byte number displayed in the BYTE ...

Page 108: ...nt the last played value of that controller will remain until another occurrence of the same controller is played even if you stop the sequence and start playing it from another location Because of this whenever you use one of these events within a sequence it is important to insert another event of the same type at the beginning of the sequence to set the controller to an initial value 4 4 3 Step...

Page 109: ...our midi keyboard as you would to record in real time 2 Rewind to the start of the sequence 3 Press STEP EDIT 4 Press SOFT KEY 4 Options 5 Set the AUTO STEP INCREMENT ON KEY RELEASE field to YES 6 Press STEP EDIT again 7 Play a series of notes or chords one at a time 8 Press PLAY START the notes you have just entered will play back as a series of perfect 1 16 notes ...

Page 110: ...rns the edit loop on It also causes the PLAY RECORD screen to be re displayed and the EDIT LOOP light to go on indicating that an edit loop is active If EDIT LOOP is again pressed while an edit loop is active the same screen will appear with two changes 1 The first two fields are displayed but all changes are locked out 2 The bottom line changes to If SOFT KEY 1 Turn it Off is pressed at this time...

Page 111: ...e steps will allow you to try it first then restore the sequence back to its original state if you don t like it 1 Fast forward to bar 4 2 Press EDIT LOOP 3 Set the NUMBER OF BARS field to 1 4 Press SOFT KEY 1 Turn Loop On which will turn the EDIT LOOP on now bar 4 will repeatedly play in a loop 5 Overdub your drum fill 6 Press EDIT LOOP again 7 If you didn t like how the fill sounded press SOFT K...

Page 112: ...ster way to set this field is to simply press a key on the midi keyboard the amount will be automatically set by the location of the key in relation to middle C For example pressing a key one octave below middle C would set the direction field to 12 If the amount field is set to any value other than 0 the transpose light will go ON indicating that the transpose function is active It will turn OFF ...

Page 113: ...n amount equal to the distance the key is from middle C Pressing any key below middle C will instantly transpose the sequence down by the distance the key is from middle C When you press the key it will only be used to transpose the note will not sound Be sure to press the key immediately before the instant at which you want the transpose to occur To remind you that your sequence is being transpos...

Page 114: ......

Page 115: ...Section 5 Song Mode ...

Page 116: ...ng sections such as drum parts Song mode has the following advantages over using a long sequence to record a song The song structure can be created very quickly The content of the sections of the song can be changed very quickly Technically a song in the MPC60 consists of up to 256 steps each of which contains a sequence number and the number of times it will repeat before going on to the next ste...

Page 117: ...song number 1 20 There are 20 songs each containing a unique list of 256 steps The song name field untitled This field has no title but exists directly to the right of the song number It is the 16 character name for the active song Changing the song name is done in the same way as changing the sequence name in the Play record screen The LOOP field This field indicates what will occur when the curr...

Page 118: ...d either stop playing or loop to a previous step number depending on the settings of the END and LOOP fields The BARS field This field shows the total number of bars in the selected sequence The TEMPO field This field shows the sequence tempo the tempo value stored within the sequence not the master tempo of the selected sequence The NOW field This has nearly the same effect as in the PLAY R ECORD...

Page 119: ...times before completing step 1 7 Press Step 1 to move on to step 2 8 Enter a 7 in the SQNC field and a 1 in the REPS field indicating you want sequence 7 to play only once as the contents of step 2 9 Press Step 1 to move on to step 3 10 Enter a 12 in the SQNC field and a 2 in the REPS field indicating you want sequence 12 to play twice as the contents of step 3 11 Press Step 1 to move on to step 4...

Page 120: ...r the problem may be due to the assignments of the PROG field in the PLAY RECORD screen for the sequence which plays immediately after the timing irregularity If a sequence containing these program assignments is played in SONG MODE the sequence s program assignments are sent out at the moment that the sequence starts to play in the song This can present a problem because most synthesizers require...

Page 121: ... of using song mode but song mode is very useful for quickly assembling the basic arrangement of a song The MPC60 has a feature which allows a song to be automatically converted into one long sequence This feature actually copies all sequences in each step end onto end into one long sequence This allows you to quickly construct a song using song mode then convert it to a sequence for detailed edit...

Page 122: ......

Page 123: ...Section 6 Sampling and Editing Drum Sounds The SOUNDS key ...

Page 124: ...ing rate in the MPC60 allowing the audio quality to be very high because all audio circuitry is optimized for lowest noise and highest fidelity at this single sampling rate Also all audio outputs operate at the fixed 40 KHz clock rate regardless of the tunings of the drums Tuning is performed mathematically without distortion by the custom LSI sound chip Using this method all tuning dynamic contro...

Page 125: ...s which follow are described in the following sections This section of the manual does not describe the process of loading or saving sounds to disk To learn how to do these operations consult the Disk section of this manual NOTE As with all samplers all sounds are lost when the power is removed This means that you must load in sounds from a sounds disk every time the MPC60 is turned on and you mus...

Page 126: ...If you have sequences or songs in memory which you do not want to lose press the DISK key and then save them before proceeding Move the cursor to the DRUM field to select the desired drum then press Proceed and the main sampling screen will appear All sampling is done while this screen is showing A description of screen fields and soft keys follows The DRUM field This is the drum you selected to b...

Page 127: ... the attack will not be truncated Since this adds time to the beginning of the sample it will cause the sound to be slightly delayed when played To trim the start of the sample use the EDIT A SOUND option from the initial SOUNDS menu screen A good value for this field is 2 milliseconds The HEAR INPUT field The signal from the sampling input is normally heard equally at the left and right stereo ou...

Page 128: ...ing as soon as the threshold is exceeded When Ready is pressed the lower two lines change to the following As the seventh line states the RECORD light will come on to indicate the threshold has been exceeded and recording is now in progress Once the recording is completed the previous two lower lines are re displayed If the Cancel soft key is pressed during this time the record ready status is can...

Page 129: ...selected the drum to sample into proceed to the next step by pressing Proceed and the following screen will appear This is the main sampling screen 4 Move the cursor to the LENGTH SEC field and select the amount of recording time you want to use for your sample All sampling is done at the full 40 KHz sampling rate no other sampling rates are permitted This allows the circuitry to be optimized for ...

Page 130: ...the need to manually fade down the level at the end of the sample Since the fadeout will always end exactly at the end of the sample this setting actually sets the position within the sound at which the decay will begin This setting may also be adjusted after sampling both from this screen and the EDIT A SOUND screen A good starting value for this field is 1 2 of the sampling time 8 Move the curso...

Page 131: ...und plays but not into the clipping region indicated by to the right of the meter if full level is exceeded If the meter does not go high enough with a record level of 99 move the GAIN switch to MID or HIGH NOTE 1 During the time that the sample is being recorded the audio meter does not function so you must set the level before actually taking the sample NOTE 2 Tuning in the MPC60 is performed ma...

Page 132: ...ned Further this distortion will only occur at certain tuning settings To test for this select the tuning screen SOUNDS key option 4 and play the sound you have just sampled at various tunings If you hear distortion you must re sample it at a lower level following the above steps If no distortion is heard skip down to the next step 16 It is a good idea to save your sound to disk now IF YOU DON T T...

Page 133: ...2 to select the EDIT A SOUND option and the following screen will be displayed This is the first of two screens which together present for editing all parameters associated with each of the resident drum sounds The fields and soft keys are The DRUM field This field is used to select the drum drum pad which contains the sound to be edited All other fields display the data for this drum The NAME fie...

Page 134: ...re to also play a tom This will give the snare a deeper sound which could not be achieved with a single snare drum Another idea is to load two snares into memory and assign one of them to automatically play both of them 2 Stereo sample playback DOUBLE PLAY can also be used as a very rudimentary way to play back samples in stereo For example here is how you would play a stereo snare drum sample A S...

Page 135: ...a way to tune the three individual hihat sounds CLSD MEDM and OPEN The START field This is the address within the sound at which play starts adjustable in one millisecond increments Increasing this value will start the sound later into the sample but will not delete the unused beginning of the sound from memory However the beginning may be deleted from memory by using the Cutoff ends soft key desc...

Page 136: ...k Pressing this soft key causes the following screen to be displayed Pressing Execute will cause the sound to be reversed front to back When complete the previous screen is re displayed This is not an irreversible operation if you decide that you do not like the reversed sound you can re reverse it back to the original sound NOTE The reverse function does not change any of the other settings in th...

Page 137: ...two different tunings and you press the Execute soft key the drum will no longer be assigned to this sound but the sound will not be deleted from memory This is because the other drum is still using the sound To delete the sound from memory you must delete it from all other drums which are using it SOFT KEY 4 Page 2 This soft key changes the screen to display the second page of parameters which co...

Page 138: ... field is added to the START field The VEL ATTACK MS field This field allows the incoming note velocity to modulate the attack time of the sound This is very useful for simulating dynamics on drums because a drum sound played with a soft attack time sounds very much like the same drum played softly The contents of the field sets the maximum time in milliseconds which will be added to the ATTACK fi...

Page 139: ...of the screen fields and soft keys follows The PRC1 through BASS fields These are the current tuning settings for the first 16 drums If the BANK 2 light is ON the second bank of drums DRO1 DR16 is displayed To change the tuning press the desired drum s pad or move the cursor to the desired drum field and change the setting using the DATA CONTROL or NUMERIC KEYPAD To change from to turn the DATA CO...

Page 140: ...the tuning settings from the disk file are loaded into the MASTER settings SOFT KEY 1 All 0 Pressing this soft key resets all tunings to 0 NOTE The settings in this screen are added to the other tuning settings in the EDIT A SOUND and the STEP EDIT screens For example a TUNING setting of 10 in the EDIT A SOUND screen a TUNE DRUMS setting of 6 and a Step edit TUN setting of 20 would produce a final...

Page 141: ...pad and turn the DATA CONTROL As with the stereo mixer if SOFT KEY 1 is pressed the mixer changes to a mode in which the settings for all drums are changed simultaneously Also If the BANK 2 light is ON the second bank of drums is displayed for adjustment The output of this mix appears at the rear panel ECHO MIX OUT jack There is a OUTPUT LEVEL control next to the jack to adjust the overall level t...

Page 142: ...uence If the echo mixer is not being used it may be used as a ninth individual mix output Another reason for taking each drum into its own input on the console is to set a different EQ for each drum Many will find that the 18 KHz bandwidth and low noise of the MPC60 will reduce the need for external EQ To assign which drums are sent to each of the 8 individual mix outputs press the SOUNDS key then...

Page 143: ... in the MIDI OUTPUT field described below 2 Connect a second midi cable from the external sampler s MIDI OUT jack to the one of the MPC60 s MIDI IN jacks it doesn t matter which one you can select either in one the MIDI INPUT field described below Receiving and sending Midi sample dumps are individually described in the following two sections Receiving a Midi sample dump from an external sampler T...

Page 144: ...er of available samples The DRUM and NAME fields The DRUM field is used to select which drum drum pad the transferred sound will load into The NAME field shows the name of the sound which is currently assigned to that drum If a name appears in the NAME field the selected drum is currently in use and will be overwritten when the transfer is executed If the name unused appears the selected drum is c...

Page 145: ...splayed If you wish to cancel the sample dump press the Cancel receive soft key NOTE It is not necessary to press Receive to initiate an incoming sample dump If the MPC60 receives a sample dump at any time it will immediately display the Receiving midi sample dump message and load the incoming sample dump into the drum selected in the DRUM field In this case the REQUEST CHAN and REQUEST CHAN field...

Page 146: ... the dump request message and the dump is sent out on that channel The SELECT SOUND TO SEND section The two fields in this section are only used if the send is initiated by pressing the Send soft key if the send is initiated by an externally generated dump request message the external sampler determines which sound will be sent The DRUM field is used to select the sound to be sent As you change th...

Page 147: ...ime it will immediately display the Sending midi sample dump message and begin sending the requested sound to the external sampler The DRUM field will immediately change to display the requested drum Further if a sample dump is received while the Receive midi sample dump screen is showing described in the previous section the screen will immediately change to the Send midi sample dump screen and b...

Page 148: ...o use this feature connect the triggering signal to the SYNC INPUT on the rear panel of the MPC60 The triggering signal can be any percussive sound but best results will be achieved by using a signal of consistent dynamics and no background noise The SYNC INPUT LEVEL control on the rear panel should be used to set the triggering threshold The only field on this screen is the PLAYS DRUM field This ...

Page 149: ...ng the midi controller number for the hihat decay Setting the 16 LEVELS key to provide either 16 volume levels or 16 tunings mufti pitch mode To view this screen press the SOUNDS key and type an 8 to select the Mixer hihat other option and the following screen will be displayed There are three sections to this screen The MIXER MODES section This section contains four fields The STEREO MIX field Th...

Page 150: ...he same line STEREO MIX or ECHO MIX is set to SEQUENCE RCRD LIVE CHNGS is an abbreviation for record live changes and these are choice fields which have 2 options NO and YES If set to YES all changes made to the stereo mixer or echo mixer while in RECORD or OVERDUB modes are recorded into the active track in real time just like an automated mixer When played back the mixer settings will change exa...

Page 151: ...another event of the same type at the beginning of the sequence to set the controller to an initial value NOTE 4 The RCRD LIVE CHNGS field for the stereo mix will only appear if the STEREO MIX field is set to SEQUENCE If set to MASTER the field disappears is internally forced to NO The same rule applies to the echo mixer The HIHAT DECAY SWITCH THRESHOLDS section The HIHAT is unique among the other...

Page 152: ...the 16 pads from 120 to 30 in increments of 1 semitone If this mode is active and the pads are played while recording these tunings are remembered within the sequence After recording the tuning of each note may be adjusted in Step edit mode This is explained further in the Step edit section of this document NOTE 1 The 16 TUNINGS feature does not operate on the hihat NOTE 2 As explained in the sect...

Page 153: ...Section 7 Saving to and loading from disk ...

Page 154: ...1 SAMPLE FILE_NAME SEQ This file contains a single sequence 2 SAMPLE FILE NAME ALL This file contains all 99 sequences and all 20 songs 3 SAMPLE_FILE_NAME SND This file contains a single drum sound 4 SAMPLE FILE NAME SET This file contains all 32 drum sounds 5 SAMPLE FILE NAME PAR This file contains all settings which are normally retained with power removed but which are not saved within any othe...

Page 155: ...ion 7 Saving to l loading from Disk 155 This screen displays a list of disk options To select one type the number of the desired option Each of the options are described in detail in the following sections ...

Page 156: ...nd DISK SPACE AVAILABLE SIZE displays the size in bytes of the selected sequence DISK SPACE AVAILABLE displays the available space in bytes on the disk currently inserted in the disk drive The sequence size should be smaller than the disk space available for the file to fit on the disk 2 Press SOFT KEY 1 Save it to disk to save the sequence file to disk The file extension of sequence files is SEQ ...

Page 157: ...space on disk to save the file SIZE and DISK SPACE AVAILABLE SIZE displays the size in bytes of the All file DISK SPACE AVAILABLE displays the available space in bytes on the disk currently inserted in the disk drive The All file should be smaller than the disk space available for the file to fit on the disk 2 Press SOFT KEY 1 Save it to disk to save the sequence file to disk The file extension of...

Page 158: ...ays the size in bytes of the selected sound DISK SPACE AVAILABLE displays the available space in bytes on the disk currently inserted in the disk drive The sound size should be smaller than the disk space available for the file to fit on the disk 2 Press SOFT KEY 1 Save it to disk to save the sound file to disk The file extension of sound files is SND After the file is saved the Save a Sound scree...

Page 159: ...ved To name the file use the same method as used to name sequences A Rotate the DATA CONTROL one step in either direction to change the alphabetic keys to their letter functions B Type in the new name followed by ENTER There are two on screen fields to determine whether there is enough space on disk to save the file SIZE and DISK SPACE AVAILABLE SIZE displays the size in bytes of the SET file DISK...

Page 160: ...re nearly all of two disks to save a single SET file If you are attempting to save a very large SET file to disk it must be split between two files one on each disk The first file will have the extension ST1 and the second file will have the extension ST2 To save one of these large SET files use the following procedure 1 Prepare two blank formatted disks and insert the first disk in the drive 2 Fo...

Page 161: ...re retained after power is removed and which are saved within parameter files Play record screen Solo mode on off 8 character names for all 64 midi channels Locate screen Markers A B and C Tempo screen Tempo source select Master tempo BPM FPB Frames sec Tap averaging Sync screen Sync input mode Shift sync early Midi input select 1 4 note click sync starts at current bar bar 1 Sync output mode FSK2...

Page 162: ...ly notes mix tune 128 assignments for outgoing drums to note numbers Midi drums channel Midi key screen 3 Midi in out Unit Unit channel for each of 2 units Plays for each of 16 trigger inputs Sensitivity for each of 16 trigger inputs Trigger for each of 16 trigger inputs Capture time for each of 16 trigger inputs Recovery time for each of 16 trigger inputs On time for each of 16 trigger inputs Vel...

Page 163: ...mix screen Master echo mix settings 32 Assignable mix outs screen Assignable mix outs settings 32 Midi sample dump screen Midi input port Midi output port Dump format standard 5900 Dump request sample number Dump request channel number Drum trigger screen Select drum Auto mix etc screen Stereo mixer mode master sequence Stereo mixer record live changes on off Echo mixer mode master sequence Echo m...

Page 164: ...in bytes on the disk currently inserted in the disk drive The parameter file should be smaller than the disk space available for the file to fit on the disk 2 Press SOFT KEY 1 Save it to disk to save the sequence file to disk The file extension of parameter files is PAR After the file is saved the Save Parameters screen remains so that you can save another parameter file if desired NOTE If you att...

Page 165: ... alphabetical list of files on the disk will be displayed in the FILE field with its size in bytes displayed in the SIZE field In the lower half of the screen are two fields showing the available memory in both the sequence memory and the sound memory By comparing the file size to the available memory you will be able to see if there is enough space available to load the selected file Loading file...

Page 166: ...e Once loaded the previous screen will be re displayed NOTE If the sound file you are loading already exists in memory assigned to a different drum the MPC60 recognizes that it is already in memory and doesn t load it Instead it internally assigns the existing sound to the two drum pads to save memory This is very useful for example if you want to play a single tomtom sound from four pads at diffe...

Page 167: ...he fields have been set press Load it and the selected sound will be loaded into the selected drum NOTE If the SET file contains a sound loaded into more than one drum the same sound will appear if either drum is selected For example FLOOR TOM could be loaded into both TOMS and TOM4 but the settings from the EDIT A SOUND screen including tuning envelope parameters etc for TOM3 and TOM4 are differe...

Page 168: ...you want to erase the selected file If you are sure press Erase it and the file will be erased permanently from the disk Once erased the previous screen is redisplayed Renaming files If Rename is pressed the following screen is displayed Rename a file Rename the file MY_FAVORITE_SONG SEQ to the new name MY SONG SEQ Rename it The upper line shows the current name of the file The cursor rests in the...

Page 169: ...the renamed sequence or sound back to disk 7 7 1 Files which automatically load on power up It is possible to create an ALL file or a SET file all sequences or all sounds which automatically loads into memory when the power is turned on For example each of the four disks included with your MPC60 automatically load a set of sounds and a collection of demonstration sequences if inserted into the dis...

Page 170: ...ct the FORMAT DISK option and the following screen will appear To format the disk currently in the drive press Format it This will take about 1 1 2 minutes Once complete the previous screen will be re displayed It is a good idea to format a large number of disks and set them aside to have them ready when you need them Otherwise every time you want to save a file to a new disk you must first take t...

Page 171: ...he copy Press Yes proceed to proceed with the copy and the following screen will appear When you see this screen insert the original disk in the disk drive and press Proceed The bottom line will then display the message Copying source disk Please wait When it has copied as much as it can fit in memory it says Now remove the original disk and insert the blank formatted disk then press Proceed The b...

Page 172: ... detected on the disk Here is an example When an Attention screen such as this is displayed the current operation is suspended awaiting an action from the operator In each case the problem is described a suggested solution is given and a special technical error code is given This is to help the service technician over the phone should a problem arise Also one soft key usually exists to allow a pat...

Page 173: ...t if you don t save these changes to disk before turning the power off you will lose them Once you save to disk whatever you have changed the DISK light will automatically go off indicating that the changes have been safely saved to disk NOTE If you would like to manually turn the light off without saving the changes press the DISK key and type a 9 This will turn the light off even though this opt...

Page 174: ......

Page 175: ...Section 8 Syncing to tape and other devices ...

Page 176: ... MPC60 which are related to syncing to tape or other devices In this section you will learn to Use the SYNC screen Write and sync to SMPTE time code Sync to Midi Clock signals Sync to Midi Time Code Sync to FSK and PULSE sync codes Sync to 1 4 note clicks 176 ...

Page 177: ...selected sync input mode the MODE field in the second line of the screen In the above example the MODE field is set to OFF indicating that the MPC60 is ignoring all types of incoming sync signals This field is a choice field and has 7 options besides OFF and each one presents additional on screen fields The 7 options are FSK24 PULSE96 MIDI CLOCK MIDI CLOCK WITH SONG POINTER MIDI TIME CODE SMPTE an...

Page 178: ...NTER is selected in the MODE field the following screen is displayed If FSK24 is selected in the MODE field the following screen is displayed If PULSE96 is selected in the MODE field the following screen is displayed Finally if 1 4 NOTE CLICKS is selected in the MODE field the following screen is displayed ...

Page 179: ...en possible types of sync which the MPC60 may accept are listed below This field is used to select which one of these signals is currently active 1 FSK24 This is a standard general purpose tape sync code commonly used in drum machines and sequencers It stands for Frequency Shift Keying at 24 2400 Hz 1200 Hz transitions per U4 note This code contains no location information so when syncing to it yo...

Page 180: ...e disk file 4 MIDI TIME CODE Midi Time Code is SMPTE time code sent and received over midi This is a new code which is becoming very popular because it allows the advantages of SMPTE without the cost of SMPTE hardware Incoming Midi Time Code is treated exactly the same as SMPTE The only difference is that Midi Time Code cannot be recorded on tape so it is only useful for syncing to other devices H...

Page 181: ...he sequence from a predetermined bar number This is described in the description of the 1 4 CLICKS START AT field There is an eighth setting OFF which disables all syncing to external sources The SEQUENCE STARTS AT SMPTE field appears in SMPTE and MIDI TIME CODE modes only This field is used to set the incoming SMPTE time number which must be received in order for bar 1 of the sequence to start pl...

Page 182: ...1 may be used simultaneously to receive midi keyboard data The 1 4 CLICKS START AT field appears in 1 4 NOTE CLICK mode only This field is a choice field and has two selections BAR 1 and CURRENT BAR It is only used when the sync input mode is set to 1 4 NOTE CLICKS and is used to determine whether the sequence will start playing from the start or from the start of the current bar when the first cl...

Page 183: ... when adding MPC60 parts in sync to SMPTE to a recording in which existing tracks were already recorded using a different SMPTE to MIDI CLOCK converter all at the same tempo it is still possible that the MPC60 parts will gradually slip out of sync with the existing parts due to inaccuracy problems in the other converter For this reason it is a good rule to only use one SMPTE to MIDI CLOCK converte...

Page 184: ...PC60 and the receiving device to the start of their sequences in order for both to play in sync When an external device is syncing to the MPC60 the tempo is controlled by the MPC60 The MIDI CLOCK field appears in all modes The Midi clock with song position pointer signal is output while the MPC60 is playing This field selects which of the four Midi outputs it will be output through There are five ...

Page 185: ...he U S and Japan so to assure widest compatibility for your recordings use this standard if you live in those areas 30 DROP 30 frames per second drop frame This is the standard for NTSC color television Using this mode the tempo range of the MPC60 is from 59 7 to 6 0 FPB 24 24 frames per second This is the standard for film However since film is usually transferred to video for scoring the compose...

Page 186: ...EMPO SYNC then the Sync Screen soft key then the GenSMPTE soft key and the following screen will appear 3 Set the START fields to 00 00 00 00 4 Set the FRAMES SEC field to 30 U S and Japan or 25 Europe and U K The other types of SMPTE are used for specific purposes If you are unsure of which type to use check the above descriptions of each type to match it to your application 5 To set the recordin...

Page 187: ...e received If set to a different frame rate the playing tempo will be inaccurate 6 Press the Sync Screen soft key and the sync screen will appear 7 Move the cursor to the upper left field MODE and select the option SMPTE 8 Move the cursor to the SEQUENCE STARTS AT SMPTE field and enter the number of the incoming SMPTE location you want your sequence to start at If you don t know use 00 00 10 00 00...

Page 188: ...d the lowest setting at which the MPC60 responds then increase the level by about 1 2 turn NOTE 2 When playing a sequence from bar 1 in response to incoming SMPTE the timing of the first note in bar 1 may be slightly late To get around this problem insert a blank bar at the start of the sequence or song This will cause the late timing to occur within the initial blank bar so that the timing is sta...

Page 189: ... on your multi track tape recorder 2 Press the TEMPO SYNC key then press the Sync Screen soft key and the sync screen will appear 3 Set the MODE field Sync output section to FSK24 4 Press the MAIN SCREEN key 5 Compose the basic structure of your song including the correct tempo and any tempo changes 6 Once the basic structure is completed set up all track assignments and set all levels to record t...

Page 190: ... start playing its new parts in perfect sync The current tempo setting is not used tempo is provided from the sync tone on tape To use FSK24 you must always start the tape from the beginning of the recording as in this example NOTE If the MPC60 doesn t respond to the sync signal try adjusting the SYNC INPUT LEVEL control on the rear panel Find the lowest setting at which the MPC60 responds then in...

Page 191: ...st received set the 1 4 CLICKS START AT field to BAR 1 If you set it to CURRENT BAR the sequence will start playing from the start of the current bar when the clicks are first received 6 Press the MAIN SCREEN key 7 Record the parts to be overdubbed into the MPC60 8 Rewind the tape to the point at which the 1 4 note clicks start 9 Set the tempo of the MPC60 as close as possible to the tempo of the ...

Page 192: ...CK field This field has five options OFF MIDI1 MIDI2 MIDI3 and MIDI4 OFF turns generation of Midi Clock off The other four options are used to select whether the signal is output from Midi output jacks 1 2 3 or 4 Both Midi Clock and Song Position Pointer are generated simultaneously Set this field so that the desired midi output jack outputs the midi clock signal 3 Now whenever the MPC60 is played...

Page 193: ... 6 Create your sequence on the MPC60 7 Now start the external device and the ASQ10 will automatically play in sync If Song Position Pointer messages are not being used you must position each device at its start before playing the master To play back a Song Song mode in sync to the Midi Clock To play back a Song in sync to the Midi Clock signal follow the above instructions except select the SONG M...

Page 194: ...MIDI IN field to l 2 From the PLAY R ECORD screen select the sequence which you intend to record to tape 3 Press the TEMPO SYNC key and the tempo screen will appear 4 Set the TEMPO SOURCE SELECT field to SEQUENCE This causes the MPC60 to use the tempo setting stored within the sequence so that it will always be remembered even if the sequence is saved to disk and later recalled It is important for...

Page 195: ...as been set to 10 seconds the MPC60 will automatically start playing from the beginning and will not stop until the sequence has completed To stop it early press the STOP key on the MPC60 12 To shift the playback earlier or later by any amount adjust the SEQUENCE STARTS AT SMPTE field to an earlier or later location NOTE When playing a sequence from bar 1 in response to incoming Midi Time Code the...

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Page 197: ...Section 9 Midi Functions ...

Page 198: ...ect the Midi channel which the internal drums play from Remotely control the Akai ME 35T Audio Midi Trigger interface And more When the MIDI key is pressed the following screen appears There are four options The fourth option ALL NOTES OFF causes a midi All notes off command to be sent out on all channels forcing any notes currently playing to be immediately turned off Sometimes because of slight ...

Page 199: ...ata so as not to take up excess memory recording them and to reduce the processing requirements on playback The fields are The EVENT and PASS EVENT fields The EVENT field is a choice field and may be set to any one of the following event types Pitch bend BEND Program change PRGM CHNG Channel pressure CHAN PRES Poly pressure POLY PRES System Exclusive SYS EXCL Drum mixer volume MIXER VOL Drum mixer...

Page 200: ...ous data event types meaning that large numbers of these events are used to simulate a gradual change in the specified parameter For example when you move a pitch bend wheel on a keyboard a large number of pitch bend events are output from the keyboard and all of them would be recorded into the active track The problem with recording all of these events is that they use a large amount of memory an...

Page 201: ...o FIXED all incoming velocity values are replaced by the value specified in the FIXED VELOCITY field 1 127 The OTHER MIDI section The MIDI SOFT THRU field If set to ON any incoming Midi data is routed in real time to the selected track s output Midi channel If set to OFF it isn t If you are using a single keyboard synthesizer the keyboard and sound generator are together in one unit this field sho...

Page 202: ... message all notes after that location will be sustained 3 If you play 2 or more tracks into the same midi output channel and only one track has sustain pedal information the notes on the other tracks will also be sustained 4 If you merge a track with sustain pedal information into a track without sustain pedal information all notes on the resultant track will be sustained 5 If you overdub notes i...

Page 203: ... it into the sequence For these reasons the MPC60 s special sustain processing may be defeated To defeat this special feature and record midi sustain messages controller 64 into sequences set the SPECIAL SUSTAIN PEDAL PROCESSING field to OFF Normally keep this field set to ON SOFT KEY 1 All notes off Pressing this soft key has exactly the same effect as selecting option 4 from the MIDI screen it t...

Page 204: ...his feature on or off select ON or OFF in the INCOMING NOTES PLAY DRUMS field To view or change an assignment select the desired incoming midi note in the NOTE field you can also play a key on the midi keyboard to set the value then view or change its drum assignment in the PLAYS field The default assignment for all incoming notes is NONE except NOTE When playing the internal drums from an externa...

Page 205: ...rum related data is sent out over midi when drums play If no external drum generator is used in addition to the MPC60 s internal drums this option could be used in order to reduce the amount of work the internal computer must perform and therefore allowing the MPC60 to operate at highest timing efficiency This is the default setting 2 DRUM NOTES If this option is selected a midi note command is se...

Page 206: ...i keyboard The default settings are the same as for the ASSIGN INCOMING NOTES TO DRUMS section except in reverse The OTHER section This third section of the screen contains only one field MIDI DRUMS CHAN an abbreviation for Midi drums channel This field selects the midi channel over which the internal drum generator receives its play note commands from the internal sequences or from another midi s...

Page 207: ...d may also be saved in Parameter type disk files When the above screen is first selected the screen data fields contain these internal settings To view the ME 35T s settings for the selected input on the screen press Load from and this action will overwrite the MPC60 s internal settings for the selected input To change any settings first make the change in the data field then press Send to this wi...

Page 208: ...pad causes the overload LED on the front of the ME 35T to flash on The range is from 0 to 127 TRIGGER This is the trigger threshold Only notes with velocity values above this threshold will be sent from the ME 35T The range is from 0 to 127 CAPTURE TIME This parameter sets the amount of time the ME 35T uses to determine the note velocity in milliseconds This setting is a compromise between respons...

Page 209: ...KEY 2 Send to When this soft key is pressed all of the settings for the selected input number will be sent from the MPC60 to the externally connected ME 35T Pressing this key is the only method by which data is sent to the externally connected ME 35T For this reason you must always press this soft key after making an adjustment to one of the data fields before the the change will take effect in th...

Page 210: ...asic Default 16 16 Channel Channel 1 16 1 16 Default 3 3 Mode Messages X X Altered X X Note 0 127 0 127 Number True Voice 0 127 0 127 Velocity Note ON O O Note OFF O Always 64 X After Key s X O Used in Note Touch Ch s X O repeat feature Pitch Bender X X Control 20 O O Hihat decay cont Change Prog X X Change True X X System Exclusive O O See note 2 System Song Pos X X Song Sel X X Common Tune X X S...

Page 211: ...O Common Tune X X System Clock O O Real Time Commands O O Aux Local ON OFF X X Mes All Notes Off O sages Active Sense X X Reset X X Mode 1 OMNI ON POLY Mode 2 OMNI ON MONO Mode 3 OMNI OFF POLY Mode 4 OMNI OFF MONO Note 1 When the control code 64 damper or sustain pedal is received while recording it is not recorded Instead all keys held down at that time are held on until the sustain pedal is rele...

Page 212: ...14 full right Echo mixer volume change 11110000 System exclusive header 01000111 Akai ID 47H 0000xxxx Unit number midi channel 1 16 01000100 44H 01000xxx Akai product ID MPC60 45H ASQ10 46H 00000011 Parameter ID 03 Drum mix volume 000xxxxx Drum number 0 31 0xxxxxxx Data 0 off 127 full volume Drum tuning change 11110000 System exclusive header 01000111 Akai ID 47H 0000xxxx Unit number midi channel ...

Page 213: ...SECTION 10 APPENDEX ...

Page 214: ...to 1 5 megabytes sampling RAM 256K bytes program ROM Very fast internal 10 MHz 80186 16 bit microprocessor Sequences section Both linear and pattern style song mode recording are supported Both drum machine style features and sequences oriented features are integrated into one universal easy to use operating system 60 000 note sequences capacity 99 sequences may be held in memory at once Each sequ...

Page 215: ... tapping a key in the time of 2 1 4 notes Programmable tempo changes in mid sequence or mid song are supported Time signature changes in mid sequence or mid song are supported Auto punch feature allows automatic punch in and punch out at preset times within the sequence 2 foot switch inputs allow functions such as PLAY STOP and PUNCH IN OUT to be remotely controlled Current position within sequenc...

Page 216: ...programmable echo mixer and echo return inputs to be used with an external digital reverb Stereo and echo mixers are automated any changes made while recording will be automatically repeated on playback Each of the individual mix outputs may contain one or any mix of the 32 drums Sounds may be reversed A multi pitch mode is supported allowing a single drum to be play and recorded at 16 chromatic p...

Page 217: ...12 bit format for much lower noise than 12 linear systems Tuning range 1 2 octave 1 octave Maximum number of drum sounds in memory 32 Maximum number of voices which may play simultaneously 16 Custom LSI sound processing chip Sequencer section Note capacity not event capacity 60 000 512K bytes Timing resolution 96 divisions per 1 4 note Maximum number of sequences in memory 99 Number of simultaneou...

Page 218: ...rn inputs 2 left and right Echo return input level 3 dBv standard Imp lO Sync input dual function also trigger input balanced 1 Sync input level control 1 Sync input level 0 5V p p 1V p p Sync output 1 Sync output level 1Vp p Imp 220 Metro output clocks 1 MIDI inputs 1 MIDI outputs 4 fully independent and simultaneous Foot switch inputs 2 independent assignable RS 232C computer port 1 Note For imp...

Page 219: ...wed Although we have tested the MPC60 s software extremely thoroughly before release there are literally thousands of ways to use the machine and therefore a bug could have gone undiscovered Further because of the high complexity of the MPC60 some of these bugs can be extremely difficult to duplicate and our software engineers must be able to first duplicate the problem before they can correct it ...

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Page 221: ...SECTION 11 INDEX ...

Page 222: ...SK functions 7 X Disk attention screens 7 10 Disk copying an entire 7 9 Disk files which automatically load on power up 7 7 1 Disk formatting a 7 8 Disk loading a single sound from a SET file 7 7 Disk loading erasing or renaming files from 7 7 Disk saving a drum sound to 7 4 Disk saving a sequence to 7 2 Disk saving all drum sounds to 7 5 Disk saving all sequences and songs to 7 3 Disk saving para...

Page 223: ...po 3 9 1 Master sequence tuning 6 4 ME 35T interface screen 9 4 Metronome 3 14 MIDI INPUT jacks 1 2 9 1 MIDI key 9 X MIDI OUTPUT jacks 1 4 3 3 Midi channel for internal drums 9 3 Midi channel name 3 3 Midi clock 8 2 8 6 Midi feedback loop 9 2 Midi implementation charts 9 5 Midi input filter 9 2 Midi note numbers assigning drums to 9 3 Midi note numbers assigning incoming notes to drums 9 3 Midi Sa...

Page 224: ...equence tempo 3 9 1 Sequence defined 3 2 SHIFT TIMING feature 3 8 3 Shift sync early 8 2 Shortening or lengthening a bar 4 3 9 SHUFFLE feature 3 8 2 SMPTE accuracy 8 2 8 3 SOFT KEYS 1 4 2 5 Soloing tracks 3 3 SONG MODE key 5 X Song mode screen 5 2 Song creating and playing a 5 3 SortTrks sort tracks 3 3 Sound assignments 6 3 Sound name 6 3 SOUNDS key 6 X Speed limitations at fast tempos 3 9 4 STEP...

Page 225: ...e l number of bars creating a new format of 4 3 2 Time signature number of bars 4 3 1 TIMING CORRECT key 3 8 Timing correct note value 3 8 Tmpo MAS soft key 3 3 Track name 3 3 Track volume 3 3 Track defined 3 2 Tracks 3 2 3 3 3 4 Transferring sequences to and from other sequencers 3 18 TRANSPOSE key 4 6 Triggering a drum from an audio signal 6 8 Trak ON soft key 3 3 Tuning the drums 6 4 Undo 4 5 1...

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Summary of Contents for MPC 60

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Akai MPC 60, Operator'S Manual, Page: 21 / 228

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Summary of Contents for MPC 60

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