Akai MPC 3000 Operator's Manual page 215

Chapter 10: Syncing to Tape and Other Devices
sequence you intend to use is selected before setting this param-
eter.
7. Press the MAIN SCREEN key to return to the Play/Record
screen.
8. Play the tape from a point just before the beginning of the
SMPTE timecode. Once the code reaches the start time you have
Start
entered into the
start playing from the beginning of the sequence, and will not
stop until the sequence comes to its end (or the tape recorder is
stopped). To stop playback early, press the STOP key on the
MPC3000 or stop the tape recorder. To play in sync from a
location in the middle of your sequence, fast-forward the tape
recorder to any point within the duration of the sequence and
start playback of the tape. The MPC3000 will start playing from
the correct location within the sequence.
COMMENT: If the MPC3000 doesn't respond properly to the
sync signal, try adjusting the SYNC IN LEVEL control on
the rear panel. Find the lowest setting to which the MPC3000
responds, then increase the level by about 1/4 turn.
COMMENT: When playing a sequence from bar 1 in response
to incoming SMPTE, the timing of the first note in bar 1 will
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 stable well before the notes (starting in the second
bar) start playing.
To play back a song (in Song mode) in sync to the SMPTE time
code on tape:
1. Connect the output of the tape track that contains the SMPTE
signal to the SYNC INPUT of the MPC3000. Set the SYNC IN
LEVEL knob to about 1/2.
2. In the Tempo/Sync screen, set the
SEQUENCE
. This causes the MPC3000 to use the tempo setting
that's stored within the sequence, so that it will always be
remembered. (This is true even when the sequence is saved to
disk and later recalled, as master tempo settings are only saved
in PAR files, not in ALL files.) Then, set each sequence in your
song to the desired tempo setting. It is important for the
MPC3000 to remember the tempo setting because SMPTE
timecode does not provide any tempo information.
3. In the Sync screen, set the
KEY 1 until it shows
to the same SMPTE frame rate as that of the incoming SMPTE
Start
signal. Ignore the
only to active sequences, not to songs.
4. Press the SONG key and set up your song to play as you want it
to. In the Song screen, set the
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field, the MPC3000 will automatically
Tempo source
Mode SMPTE
field to
<SyncIn=ON> , and set the
field because this start time applies
SMPTE Start
field to
. Press SOFT
Frames field
field to the