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Hey guys I'm pretty new to live performance with electronic music and I own an Akai MPD 32. I want to use it to trigger clips in session mode live but I dont understand how people can fit their whole set on just 1 mpd. Any help would be great, I'm thinking of getting a launchpad to trigger clips easier if i cant get this worked out.

Thanks in advance!

Taste Tester wrote:Hey guys I'm pretty new to live performance with electronic music and I own an Akai MPD 32. I want to use it to trigger clips in session mode live but I dont understand how people can fit their whole set on just 1 mpd. Any help would be great, I'm thinking of getting a launchpad to trigger clips easier if i cant get this worked out.

Thanks in advance!

my terminology may not be correct, and i dont know how "they" use 1 MPD for an entire set, but basically, my guess would be.... utilizing presets, or banks, or i dno wtf they're called.

i do not know if this is applicable to the MPD (i dont see why not though) but on my midi controller, which has 32 physical knobs and 9 physical sliders, i map preset/bank #1 with custom-assigned midi cc#'s or channel #'s to each physical knob/fader, and then switch over to preset/bank #2 and map the same knobs/faders to different midi cc#s/channels and do the same for preset/bank #3, etc. making sure that there are no conflicting value assignments. just read up on midi and there's prbly somebody here who knows how to do what you wana do on the MPD.

again, i dno if my midi syntax is correct, but whatever. i know how to make it work.

EDIT: i forgot the most important thing, the math! so 32 physical knobs and 9 physical sliders and 16 programmable (on my controller) preset/banks = 32x16=512 knobs and 9x16=144 sliders. (if my math is correct)

Taste Tester wrote:Hey guys I'm pretty new to live performance with electronic music and I own an Akai MPD 32. I want to use it to trigger clips in session mode live but I dont understand how people can fit their whole set on just 1 mpd. Any help would be great, I'm thinking of getting a launchpad to trigger clips easier if i cant get this worked out.

Thanks in advance!

We have a bunch of launchpads at uni, and despite the possibility of some shortcomings against a trigger finger, they are a bit of a godsend for this kind of thing.

I want to get into this!

LFpHUNK wrote:

Taste Tester wrote:Hey guys I'm pretty new to live performance with electronic music and I own an Akai MPD 32. I want to use it to trigger clips in session mode live but I dont understand how people can fit their whole set on just 1 mpd. Any help would be great, I'm thinking of getting a launchpad to trigger clips easier if i cant get this worked out.

Thanks in advance!

my terminology may not be correct, and i dont know how "they" use 1 MPD for an entire set, but basically, my guess would be.... utilizing presets, or banks, or i dno wtf they're called.

i do not know if this is applicable to the MPD (i dont see why not though) but on my midi controller, which has 32 physical knobs and 9 physical sliders, i map preset/bank #1 with custom-assigned midi cc#'s or channel #'s to each physical knob/fader, and then switch over to preset/bank #2 and map the same knobs/faders to different midi cc#s/channels and do the same for preset/bank #3, etc. making sure that there are no conflicting value assignments. just read up on midi and there's prbly somebody here who knows how to do what you wana do on the MPD.

again, i dno if my midi syntax is correct, but whatever. i know how to make it work.

well, there are 4 pad banks on the MPD32 (A,B,C,D) and it just doesnt seem like thats enough for a whole set containing so many clips. is there a way to have more banks on ableton or something? I have done what you said with the mapping but it just doesnt seem like enough but i have seen many musicians do it before (flying lotus, nosaj thing, low limit, even rusko i think?)

Taste Tester wrote:

LFpHUNK wrote:

Taste Tester wrote:Hey guys I'm pretty new to live performance with electronic music and I own an Akai MPD 32. I want to use it to trigger clips in session mode live but I dont understand how people can fit their whole set on just 1 mpd. Any help would be great, I'm thinking of getting a launchpad to trigger clips easier if i cant get this worked out.

Thanks in advance!

my terminology may not be correct, and i dont know how "they" use 1 MPD for an entire set, but basically, my guess would be.... utilizing presets, or banks, or i dno wtf they're called.

i do not know if this is applicable to the MPD (i dont see why not though) but on my midi controller, which has 32 physical knobs and 9 physical sliders, i map preset/bank #1 with custom-assigned midi cc#'s or channel #'s to each physical knob/fader, and then switch over to preset/bank #2 and map the same knobs/faders to different midi cc#s/channels and do the same for preset/bank #3, etc. making sure that there are no conflicting value assignments. just read up on midi and there's prbly somebody here who knows how to do what you wana do on the MPD.

again, i dno if my midi syntax is correct, but whatever. i know how to make it work.

well, there are 4 pad banks on the MPD32 (A,B,C,D) and it just doesnt seem like thats enough for a whole set containing so many clips. is there a way to have more banks on ableton or something? I have done what you said with the mapping but it just doesnt seem like enough but i have seen many musicians do it before (flying lotus, nosaj thing, low limit, even rusko i think?)

i just took a REAL REAL quick look at the MPD32 manual and it says you have up to 30 presets. so, with 4 banks per preset you get 120 different configs...

again, that is if my logic is correct, which i cant be sure of unless i had the device in my own hands.

ohhhhhhhhhh. thanks, i just realized what you meant by presets. that helps a lot.

Taste Tester wrote:ohhhhhhhhhh. thanks, i just realized what you meant by presets. that helps a lot.

lol, like i said, my midi (or all) terminology is shit. but, glad i could be of some assistance.