AKAI MPC 3 Drum Tracks/Programs workflow explained 

I share Drum Programs since 2017 on my Patreon www.patreon.com/mpchead Sample packs mpchead.com/collections/sample-packs/Drum-kits+sample-packs

I like the new way of 3.0. Thanks

The point to me is the workflow was already a pain. So for ppl who have used the 2.0 flow for years and have a quick 2.0 muscle memory, they will have a period of time where theres a high risk of accidentally deleting their work. Akai shouldve put a message like "This will delete blah blah, Are you sure? Yes No Cancel" This would save a lot of learning curve pain. Just my opinion.

they mess uo w the natural mpc workflow ☹️

I just got into the MPC world last year after over a decade of using Maschine. This new way seems to make more sense to me than the way it is currently.

Ive never used an mpc and this shit is so damn confusing 😂 i sometimes think about buying one to make music elsewhere out of my house tho

Here's a 'MPC programs' workaround: 1. load up as many kits as you want to check out 2. create an empty drum track 3. in the main mode tap the left-side panel (vu meters) 4. use 'send to' to select the kits. Delete and Purge what you don't need, keep what you do; the empty drum track acts like a clone for others, it even responds to 16 levels and other midi e.g. it can be sequenced, automated. Hope that helps.

Its more complicated. More buttons pressing to work with programs.

I wish you could have a Program (track now) and have sub tracks with in it. Call it lanes Then you could have the old track mute by including Lane Mute. Lol won’t happen

I sold my MPC One because I just couldn’t get around the MPC workflow. I would think I “got it” and eventually I would hit a wall that had my head scratching for hours. It was really frustrating. This feels like a welcomed change. Pick one up again??

man, I bought an MP' 'cuz I wanted to keep me off on the FL Style and the computer screen. Since I introduce myself into the Legacy Workflow I done more beats than in a Daw and quickly. Lets say 1 Beat per day. It took me more than a week to finish a Beat in FL, and I gotta say that I hate this (beta)update, and I will keep it real the Legacy workflow…

It's astonishing how such a simple change can throw off and trick somebodies mind, if you are used to a specific method of doing something for a longer period of time. To me it feels quite intuitive how 3.0 works. And it all relates. We all wanted disc-streaming and now we get it. The old mindset tries to load everything into RAM, new logic just links available samples to a track, without the need to utilize RAM, simple and nice! All those samples which got left behind in the RAM which you had to delete all the time to keep the project clean was horrendous overhead work. No more needed, nice! it feels hard to see Marlow struggle with discovering this, but I was always a fan of his video style and I have high hopes that he will soon begin to love the new methods. :)

I can't be bothered with that new interface 5 years on my live ain't happening.

Thanks for the video, to bad your MPC screen only fills 1/4 of my screen. It makes it really hard for me to see your screen + reflection. I assume it's specifically for people who own your MPC model so they can see what buttons you push. Same with the "Mpc 3 comparison with Mpc 2.0 Screens" I wish they'd be the center, so I can see the little details of the video, which now is harder to see. Regardless I am looking forward to go through your you tube channel tutorials again just like I did with MPC 2, thank you!

thanks for your explanation much appreciated... Question...can you load an old project into the 3.0 ??

This is exactly where clips came in handy on the Force, and why it’s weird that they just ripped 3.0 software from Force instead of thinking through something a bit more custom to the MPC

To be honest, I think it's an improvement. I read a lot of people are complaining, but that happens every time something, they are used to, changes. People don't like change. I think, it is way easier now especially for people new to the mpc, but for me as well. A few years back as I started learning the mpc, I still remember, how confused I have been especially about programs. Sequences make sense, tracks make sense, but programs? What is that? That were my initial thoughts. To simplify that is the way to go and I would like to see that for other aspects of the mpc as well. Simplicity is where magic happens at least for me.😉

Does exploding tracks still allow for multiple tracks with a single program? Or is it duplicating programs for each sample?

As a Force users this breakdown was like a Force for MPC-Heads tutorial. Keep walk over to the Darkside! Nice Job breaking this down.

akai u are confused in the head

So glad this isn’t confusing at all and that’s not a Dig at you Marlow

Bro, in the save menu there is an option for saving drum programs. That same option is in MPC 2 right now.

Cooy program? So I have to copy ALL the samples every time i want a different drum sound on a different track? So my drum program has to be copied 4 times just to have kick, snare, hat, toms on separate tracks? Dang. Thats gonna unnecessarily clog up my SD card with duplicate samples.. i used to get by with 1 drum program and only 1 of each sample. Seems inefficient..

This is a great walkthrough. Really helped break down the smaller details of new workflow changes. Thanks!

certainly a lot cleaner to work with. tidy !

The way I see it is this : the old school way is so deep in our DnA it was always gonna be painful when progress comes calling. But it’s nessecary for what’s coming down the line. We need this and we have to adapt. It’s not gonna take as long as people think. BUT I’m still gonna have one of my MPC’s running 2.0 just in case. However I can see how I’m gonna end up flipping everything to 3 after the fine tuning and muscle memory happens.

So it sounds like MPCs just moved away from people who used them for live gigs and creative jamming, and became more of a "production only" machine. That's too bad. I hate losing old, trusted features to make way for new. Can't we have both?

I don't like that. Most of the time I use a template with drum programs I created previously (Kicks, snares, percussion..) so that I can immediately start. Furthermore I like to use one drum program in different tracks and have every time the same effects on it.

@Marlow Digs I so appreciate you for explaining that "Programs" are now "Tracks" in MPC 3.0, however that's not alot of people workflow on their MPC's. Especially not the legacy MPC users. @AkaiProVideo better add another ✅ checkbox in the "Audition" to "Play the MIDI data from the selected track" or something as a workaround. Until they do I'm deciding to stay put in the MPC 2.

Wait, if i see that right, this actually disables MIDI-Mapping.. When i work with a MIDI-Mixer like the Launch Control XL, i could make a template where i do 8 basic programs and every program is linked to a fader, a mute and solo button. So for every new program i used that template. The disadventage of this was, that i have to load all new samples in that programs - so a workflow like yours with the crop programs wasnt possible. (without re-mapping every MIDI button to the new program) But same here now - iam bound to create new Tracks/Programs so i would have to MIDI-map all over again and again. That sucks.

Listening to while you experienced MPC guys figure out all the Shortcuts makes me realize why guys like me could never wrap our heads around MPC workflow. I feel version three is going to make things way more useable for guys like me.

I just got an mpc and all the recent talk about tracks/programs has me so fuckin confused. I do not get it

Over the years I’ve seen tons of new MPC users struggle with the mental model behind Sequences, Tracks and Programs. While this new approach may limit the creativity of a few, it makes a ton of more sense to the many. Plus I’ve always run into problems when I start mixing programs and tracks around. Song mode doesn’t work anymore once you do that. So the decision to bind them into one makes a ton of sense to me, sorry.

It's still in the beta stage so I'm holding judgement until it's official released and if need be I'll just have to adapt to the new changes or just stay in 2.0 🤷🏿‍♂️

Hey Marlow, when you tap the save button and it went to the save menu screen, I saw an icon that had drum program and it had the 16 pads in red on the screen. Isn’t that also another option to save drum programs as well instead of having to save the track with the drum program on that track?

I try and keep every track in every sequence the same program this seemed to make sense. So now when you duplicate tracks iit carrys the program with it???if so this is short cut for me.

Many thanks for teaching us all of that! Very appreciated!

Maybe a vid just diving into the arranger and it's functions?

Just wanted to say thank you for saying you don’t know yet about clips. Saves me asking!

MPC 3 method is more simple and effective

About "resuing" a program in multiple tracks, I believe you can have a midi track sending notes and other messages to the program in another track. If that's the case, I guess you still get a similar workflow as before, though the Program Edit button will open the midi program instead, and the sample edit button probably doesn't do anything.

Edit: Ahhh nevermind I commented too soon, you answered my question 👍

I can’t wait to get 3.0 I think it’s gonna be a game changer for me I’m so used to using Reason

Hey Marlow (or anyone else who knows…), is it possible to revert back to 2.0 from 3.0 when you’ve installed 3.0 on standalone? All of the 3.0 talk has given me a whole new appreciation for 2.0… I don’t want to install 3.0 if I can’t go back.

yeah even with the clarifications about mutes and the song -> arrangement potential you highlighted in the earlier video, this still seens to break too much of what i've been doing with this machine since i've had it. automatically deleting programs because i try to switch between a few i'm auditioning? ayfkm? so i need a bunch of duplicate tracks in my project structure? like, i wouldn't be the least bit sour if this were a new device or an alternate Force-for-MPCs fork while they continued bug fixes and workflow improvements on the pre-3 platform. but this is not an upgrade to me, a person who already owned a current gen MPC. yes you can do most of the same things but that is true about Ableton vs FL Studio and yet no one wants to have to switch suddenly because the developer they'd invested years of their creative life with suddenly decided that actually the other company's DAW is sexier. i do not understand declaring "the workflow hasn't changed" and "everything is pretty much the same" while you detail structural level changes to projects. i also don't feel like i can trust the backward compatibility with older projects as being much more than theoretical when it is effectively converting them to a new format. being able to touch up songs in arrangement and create better transitions is cool in theory, but ultimately will still be part of what i'd use a computer DAW for even if i **do** transition to MPC 3. beyond that, reordering effects is the only part that has really tempted me and it's like... i've been used to that stupid needless limitation for almost 5 years since I bought an MPC (specifically an MPC not a Force I must note...) so i think i'll be able to continue surviving around it. 4-5 years of semi-regular semi-decent updates was... semi-alright for a product support lifetime. i don't mind some of the DAW features but i recognize that i'm in a tiny percentage of the reaction out here (and the fact that even ONE of us is less than euphoric seems to bother some people more than these issues actually bother us!) and it's okay that this will probably be my last MPC from date of manufacture. it's plain to see that they're going to ride this $$$ train as far as they can, and i can't even really blame the developers for it.

To me 3 is far superior. One track one program - makes sense.

I am really curious to see the people's reaction towards that massive change. To me, that approach throws a lot of the classic program workflow out the window and makes everything harder to mix. If you are working like me , which is all samples in a single program and each pad having its own track, you will have a hard time mixing. The solution of having empty drum tracks sending notes to a track program is not intuitive as you don't get the names of samples as you normally see in a program. + Changing the midi track volume does nothing for the sample / automations need to be done on the track that has the sample. Exploding the sequence will create multiple programs with a single sample. This is how you can work in the arranger and have everything laid out as i previously said, but that means you will have one sample per program. So you either do the whole sequence on a single track then explode after, or if you have multiple programs (I almost always load a 909 program and create a second one with synth bounces, samples etc) you will end up having two tracks on the arranger and do your mixing process in the pad mixer.

These are great instructions, and the way I do it now

Will it also delete the midi data of the track when you load a certain drum program into the track. So if you want to change the drum sounds on an existing track is that still working, Marlow?

someone mentioned that you could control a dum track with several midi tracks to work around the tracks and programs being one is that possible and is it still gonna be in the final version thanks for all your videos very helpful

very good video - well done

Actually Malo just shows you can swap a drum program even as it plays from the brow screen, you have to use the plus and minus buttons.

@mpchead Hey Marlow, great video thank you for that. Now imagine my workflow regarding stem separations. After separating the stems from my main sample, I start creating my beat with the original sample. Once the first tracks are up, I often love it to change the original sample within my tracks to the programs 'Other' or 'Bass' to hear how it sounds and with the benefit that my grid events stay intact. Hope this makes sense somehow. How should i do this right now? is this even possible? And is it possible to choose programs from my project pool instead of browsing thru my whole sample library all the time? thanx alot for clarification.

Thanks for the video Marlow. This is super helpful. I have a question - I have always played live sets using a 1 sequence + 1 program method. Seq 1 and Program 1 make up the whole song, Seq 2 and Program 2 is song 2, etc. It was easy to load, let's say, 25 Sequence+Programs into RAM and then you have 25 beats in a project to play live. Can this still be done easily on MPC 3?

So, in that case, can we have more than 8 plugin tracks?

So I can no longer if I like a drum from on kit and bass from another put it on the same track Ok that sucks

Why Ave sound like a hater when it comes to your opinion? 🤔

I can already see what's going to happen to a lot of people including my self. Loading a new program should automatically load it to the next AVALIABLE track instead of overwriting ones that are already there. Is there a set number of track that can be loaded or is it based on memory? They should also give an option for call it "Associate Tracks" giving us back the option of keeping what we have now but just with different verbiage for people who want to continue the older workflow. Like Track 2 and it associate Track 2a. Track 2a would essentially be everything Track 2 is but without the sequence data. The track option could just be added in the same location as the Track type creation screen.

I think you need to better explain the flaws with them "merging" programs with tracks. 1) you can't assign the same program to more than one track. Duplicating a track to get a copy of that program does not "fix" this problem. If you "duplicate" a program for 5 tracks and want to make a change to a pad, you'd have to do it 5 times. Same if you wanted to add a sample, you'd have to do it on 5 different tracks. 2) if you spend time sampling to pads and build a program, then you mistakenly change the track type to MIDI, you've now lost the program you just created as well as all the samples. This is just poor design. I really hope they bring back the ability to assign the same program to multiple tracks.

Linking tracks to programs doesn't make any sense, how many sounds are you going to use in one track. Why would I keep loading the same program over and over for every track. They totally changed up the entire workflow and made it slower. I like some of the new features but this ain't it.

Can you demonstrate in a future video on how to duplicate a track and copy events and apply a filter effect on the duplicated sample? Hope this makes sense thanks. great video by the way.

so if I load up 50 programs I will have 50 tracks? this is no good Akai

So, I just started a fresh project - I'll have a drum track. I load a drum loop to a pad and chop it. Hopefully I can still chop into a new program as we did before. But now,where's that program? I want to find it to load it into track 1,so I can then duplicate it twice so I have a kick track, a snare track and a hats track. But then, wait, I need some extras that weren't on the drum loop. So I create another program/track to add them,but wait so are heavier on the low end than other and it will mess with the mix,so I now have to duplicate that other program,or just make another. Then the sample,that I usually added to the same program where I had my dloop. Feels like a lot of work,but it's basically what I end up doing in Ableton,with the difference that my computer has a faster cpu than the MPC and I have way more ram... Very curious about all this... especially the converting the sample to another program. And Marlow, can we duplicate the whole sequence as before? To create a chorus for example.

RIP AKAI MPC! I refuse to upgrade to mpc3

the normal MPC ..."one sequence one song "... liveset style is over. this is really not good.......in 2.0 the program workflow was perfect and now we have to prepare a lot more and we search early in the morning on stage for the bassdrums on track 79 or 57 or .....before it was in every sequence always on track 1( that was the easy mpc way) new is not always better . in 2.0 the only thing to do, to have it streamlined (if you want) is to use the same programs on the same tracks in every sequence (could be easy i think ) and now everybody is talking about workflow better better and maybe i am the only one who is not convinced. i have fear for preparing a liveset and bring songs together and change something quickly in the last minute..

fk the MPC, Its just a daw in a box now. and a shtty one. if you are going to use a daw just use a real one.

Hi there, between yesterday and today I was using the new firmware. I understand that there is a big conceptual change and a big discussion around this topic. But my question is: what about the workflow for the live set? I understand that now it is more dynamic to produce a track in the studio. No discussion! It is much easier but I insist what happens when I want to create a live set? how should I think about the structure/architecture of the machine? If I load my live set from the MPC 2 it reads and plays it without problems but each sequence was a different song with its own tracks. This is no longer the case now. If each sequence had let’s say 5 tracks each. Now it looks all together, there is no way to discriminate which tracks each sequence contains. So now I have to see all the tracks of all the sequences in a sequence, which is very chaotic. I’m not trying to start a debate, I’m trying to get someone to help me understand. I have the feeling that MPC3 is more like a DAW: Logic, Sonar, Protools, Cubase, etc and therefore it is not ready to build a live set. So sorry, but I can't agree with you that it's exactly the same. Thanks