Hi,
I have just bought an MPC 1000 after some excellent feedback on this forum regarding R,n,B drum programming. I hooked it up and day 1...perfect! got lots of work done... day 2...completely out of sync...actually, not just out of sync, but the pattern within the MPC sounded like it had dodgy quantizing applied to it.. it had lost all its groove as well as being out of sync. Day 3, worked perfect again... Day 4 (now) same problem again..

I havent been changing anything, in fact Ive left both the machine and the programme running for the whole period, though now I have tried turning off and on everything and re checking the syncing setup, but to no avail..

When I play back the sequenced pattern in the MPC independantly from the DAW its perfect, its just when its trying to run with Cubase it sounds like an early Corrs rehearsal! I have the syncing options in Cubase and the MPC set exactly as both manuals say to do. Send MIDI clock, (Via the emu 0404 MIDI port) receive MIDI clock... Cant think what else to do...
can anyone suggest what i should try??
thanks
Mike

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Sorry, never could do joined'e'uppy writing...
[url=http://www.mcorbitmusic.com]

Tough one, I'm not really familiar with the MPC but I have been messing around with MIDI sync in the past couple of days, I'm trying to get Sonar, a 24-track and a keyboard sequencer locked together.

It's worth remembering that MIDI clock and MIDI Time Code are not the same and this is what is giving me problems. MIDI clock (as monitored with MIDIOX) runs all the time, regardless of whether the sequencer is playing or not and it's speed is governed by the tempo set on the sequencer. Playback and so on is controlled by 'System Realtime Messages' (e.g. Start, Continue, Stop) and 'System Common Messages' (Song Position Pointer, Song Select) and this, confusingly, is different to MIDI Machine Control.

MTC on the other hand is like SMPTE, i.e. it outputs 30 frames per second (generally; however it can be changed) regardless of the tempo of the song. Unless you have adjusted the MTC offset, 00:00:00:00 (HH:MM:SS:frames) is the start of the song, it's worth setting the offset on the slave devices to at least one second because they respond to incoming time code rather than a 'play' or 'start' command and the offset will give the slave time to lock on.

I've kind of let this one run away with me but the point is, you have to make sure the MPC and Cubase are using the same time base - MIDI clock or MIDI Time Code - they're not the same. If you have decided to use MIDI clock, you have to remember to set the tempo on the master (Cubase?) to match the bpm of your song/samples/loops.

Hope this helps (even just a little bit!)...

Andy.

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No noise is good noise.

I presume that you are syncing the Mpc to Cubase then?

I generally sync logic to the MPC1000 which i find more stable

If yuo haven't already try that (with Logic i just set the sync out of ithe mpc and logic automatically respinds)

hope that helps

upgrade the OS

Yip,
after much trwling of the internet i realised that upgrading the OS was the only thing I could do..and its fixed, thank God. I upgraded from version 1.05 (which it came with) to version 1.07, and this resolved the MIDI sync problem. Also I was reading that there is a version 2.0 due sometime soon that will give the MPC1000 a bunch of new features...Im no expert, but apparently its gonna make it a way more powerfull machine then the MPC 2000..
anyhow, all is well
thanks for the help
Mike

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Sorry, never could do joined'e'uppy writing...
[url=http://www.mcorbitmusic.com]

But how does it sound???? Does it make a big difference to drums etc?

Also - do you like the swing quantise? (it's meant to be particularly nice)

Yes, it absolutely rocks! i spent three days trying to get a R,n,B tune to groove using stylus.. I had "that" sound (well...approaching that sound) within 5 minutes of plugging in the MPC. Its totally bringing my tracks to life, now Im on the sample hunt...listening to all my favorite records, trying to find what Kicks, snares, shakers..etc they are using.
I love the feel that the quantise has and thats saying something because im a bit of a quantise hater!
All in all, now that it sync's with Cubase, Im a very happy boy!
Mike

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Sorry, never could do joined'e'uppy writing...
[url=http://www.mcorbitmusic.com]

Excellent - I'm looking at going that way myself, so it's good to know it makes a difference.

How do you find the editing? - or do you use the computer for that??