Using The Akai MPC With Ableton Live Written By Andy Avgousti (MPC-Tutor) Copyright © Andy Avgousti 2012 Published by MPC-Samples.com 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this book, nor any of its associated tutorial files may be reproduced, resold, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the Publisher. The Author and Publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the Author nor Publisher, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book, or by the software or hardware products described herein. The Author and Publisher are not endorsed by, nor affiliated to Ableton AG. Ableton Live is a trademark of Ableton AG. MPC-Samples.com is a trading name of Beat Box Digital LTD, a company registered in England & Wales, Company No. 6810062. This book has been written as a guide for Akai MPC owners who wish to utilise the unique and intuitive music creation software, Ableton Live. Throughout this book I assume that you are already familiar with the general usage of the MPC, so have a basic grasp of the main sequencer functions, like sequence recording, STEP EDIT, and adjusting MAIN page parameters like track program assignments etc. This book is not intended as a complete beginners guide to using the MPC itself (we already have those at http://www.mpc- samples.com/section.php/8/0/ ). Similarly, this book is not intended to be a complete guide to using Live - that would require much longer book! In these 120 pages, we’ve concentrated only on the specific skills you need to learn to integrate Live into your MPC-based music creation processes; be it as a live performance tool, an intuitive song writing aid, or a more traditional DAW used to create polished, professionally mixed beats and songs. I advise that you first locate the folder ‘MPC Project Files’ and transfer the project files for your MPC model to your MPC’s disk (CF card, zip, hard drive etc). This means you can quickly load up the relevant MPC files when working through each tutorial. If you need help transferring files, please consult the file transfer FAQ on our site here: http://www.mpc-samples.com/transfer.php Enjoy the book, and happy beat making! 001 Initial Hardware & Software Set Up 6 Basic Requirements 6 MIDI & Audio Basics 6 Choosing Your Audio Interface 8 Audio Hardware & Software Set Up 9 MPC Audio Connections 11 Live Channel Configuration 14 MIDI Hardware Configuration 16 Live MIDI Set Up 16 002 Using Ableton Live As A Sound Module 18 Overview 18 Live Software Setup 18 Creating Your Instrument Tracks 20 Setting the Audio Outputs 23 Setting the Receiving MIDI Channels 25 MPC Sequence Settings 27 Recording your MIDI Performances 38 Dealing with the Mix 38 Setting a project tempo 40 003 MPC MIDI Control of Live 42 Working with Clips 42 Using MPC pads to Launch Clips 43 MPC Set up 43 MIDI Mapping in Live 44 Clip Playback Options 47 Launch Modes & Quantization 48 Utilizing Follow Actions, Chances & Scenes 54 Controlling Live With Q Links (JJOS 2/XL & MPC4000) 57 004 Syncing Your MPC With Live 60 MIDI Sync Overview 60 Syncing with MIDI Clock (MPC as Slave) 62 Syncing with MIDI Clock (MPC as Master) 67 Adjusting MIDI Sync Delay 73 Syncing with MTC (MPC as Master) 74 005 Transferring MPC Audio into Live 79 Why Do We Track? 79 Recording audio – initial steps 81 Audio tracking – ‘manual’ method 86 Audio tracking using MIDI Clock 91 Audio tracking using MTC 93 Recording Individual drum tracks 96 Multi track audio recording 98 Grouping Tracks 100 Importing Audio Into Live 101 Resampling your MPC outputs 102 MPC Audio Tracks (JJ OS) 105 MPC5000 hard disk recording export 106 Importing Audio as Live Clips 107 006 Transferring MPC Sequences into Live 110 Importing MIDI into Live as MIDI Clips 110 Exporting MIDI From Your MPC 110 Creating your MIDI Clip 116 Recording MPC MIDI in ‘Real Time’ 117 007 Final Word 120 Importing MIDI into Live as MIDI Clips In chapter 5, we ‘tracked’ out our MPC drum performances into Live, which not only created dedicated audio tracks like we’d find in a traditional ‘DAW’, but also gave us audio ‘clips’ which we can also use in clip slots in Session View. These clips used sounds assigned to MPC programs, and MPC-specific event data recorded to the MPC sequencer, but ended as pure audio within Live. To completely remove the MPC from the equation and instead manipulate everything within the Live environment, we need to transfer the actual MIDI event data we’ve recorded on tracks 4, 5 and 6 in sequence 2 of our MPC ‘LIVE’ project – these are the MPC sequencer tracks that trigger the Live instrument sounds, as set up in chapter 2 of this book. So, rather than have the MIDI data played within your MPC, we’ll simply shift that MIDI data directly to the relevant instrument track in Live in the form of a self contained MIDI clip; remember, a Live instrument track is just a MIDI track that outputs via an instrument plug in. In Live, load up the ‘MIDI Tracking.als’ session file from the ‘Live Project Files’ folder; this is our 80 BPM project which contains three Live instrument tracks; bass, piano, and fx, and an audio track containing the stereo drum clip we tracked over to Live as pure audio in chapter 5. In your MPC, load up the ‘LIVE’ project, and select sequence 2 – this sequence has bass, piano and fx MIDI events already recorded on tracks 4, 5 and 6, with drums provided on tracks 1-3 using an MPC drum sample program (PT- KIT.pgm). Exporting MIDI From Your MPC So how do we transfer this MIDI data directly to Live? Well it’s actually quite easy. LIve will let you import MIDI data from any sequencer as long as it is in standard MIDI file format, and luckily, all MPCs give you the option to save individual sequences in standard MIDI file format. So what is standard MIDI file format? Well, it’s an MPC sequence file with all the MPC –specific stuff stripped out. So, no q-link events, no filter/attack/tuning/decay events, no program or effect bank changes etc. Instead, you have just standard MIDI events, such as note value, velocity, duration, etc. For this part of the tutorial, we’ll create a standard MIDI file of sequence 2 of our ‘LIVE’ project – so load up that project and select sequence 2 (PT-FINAL). Depending on your MPC, now do the following: MPC1000/2500 (Akai OS) Go to SAVE (MODE and pad 3) and under ‘type’ select ‘SAVE A SEQUENCE’. Under ‘Item’ select ‘02-PT-FINAL’. Under ‘To:’, save to the folder you currently have all your tutorial files for this book. Hit DO IT (F6) to bring up the ‘Save A Sequence’ screen: Use your jog wheel to change SEQ to MID. This will save your sequence as a standard MIDI file. Hit DO IT (F5). JJ OS Go to SAVE (MODE and pad 3) and in the top left of the screen, select ‘Save: A SEQUENCE’. From the list, select ‘Sq:02-PT-FINAL’. Hit DO IT (F6) to bring up the ‘Save A Sequence’ screen: Use your jog wheel to change SEQ to MID. This will save your sequence as a standard MIDI file. Hit DO IT (F5). MPC500 Go to SAVE (MODE and pad 3). Change ‘Save’ to ‘Sequence’, and ‘Item’ to ’02-PT-FINAL’. Press DO IT to show the ‘save a sequence screen’: Select the save type as ‘Mid’, giving you a standard MIDI file. Press DO IT. MPC5000 The MPC5000 only saves in standard MIDI file format. Go to DISK (MODE and pad 3), select SAVE (F2) and choose a location to save the file. Under ‘Type’, select ‘SAVE A SEQUENCE’ and under ‘Item’ select ’02-PT-FINAL’. Hit DO IT and your MIDI file is saved. MPC2000/XL The MPC2000/XL saves all its files in standard MIDI format by default. Go to SAVE (SHIFT and ENTER) and under ‘Type’ select ‘Save a Sequence’, under ‘File’ select 02-PT-FINAL’. Hit DO IT (F6) to bring up the ‘Save A Sequence’ screen: Choose ‘MIDI FILE TYPE 1’ and hit SAVE (F5). You’ll now have a single MIDI file containing all the tracks from your MPC sequence. MPC3000/60 Press the DISK key, then 1 (‘A Sequence’). Choose ‘MIDI FILE TYPE 1’ and hit <Do it>. MPC4000 Go to [SAVE] > SAVE SEQUENCE. From the ‘Sequence List’, select sequence 2 (PT-FINAL) and MIDI File Type: 1. Hit DO IT.