Creating And Editing A Song; About Songs; Creating A Song - Akai MPC4000 User Manual

4 Creating and editing a song

This chapter explains how to perform Song mode operations such as creating and editing a song.

About songs

A "song" consists of multiple sequences arranged in the order of playback. The MPC4000 lets you use 128
songs. Immediately after the power is turned on, all songs are blank. In order to use a song, you must choose
one of these songs in which to perform your song-editing operations.
To place sequences in a song, you will select a sequence for each step and specify the number of times that
the sequence will be repeated. A song can consist of up to 250 steps, as memory permits.
Note: The steps in a song contain only sequence numbers; not MIDI events. This means that if you a sequence
after you have registered it in a song, your changes will affect all steps that play that sequence.
In the same way as sequences, songs are kept in the internal memory of the MPC4000. If you turn off the
power, all songs in memory will be lost. If you want to keep a song you created, you must save all sequences
and songs from memory to an external storage device. (Refer to
Hint: A song you create can be converted into a sequence ( p.46).

Creating a song

Here's how you can arrange the sequences in memory into the desired playback order to create a new song.
1. Create or load sequences so that the sequences you want to use in your song are in internal
memory.
2. Press the [SONG] key.
The Song page will appear. In this page you can create, edit, or play songs.
2
4
5
7
G
SEQ/MAS field: Selects the tempo source for the song; either SEQ (the fixed tempo that is programmed
within each sequence) or MAS (a common tempo for all sequences).
H
Start bar field: Indicates the starting location of that step in terms of measure numbers in the song.
I
Step field: Indicates the step number.
J
Sequence field: Selects the sequence that will be played at this step.
K
Bars field: Indicates the length of the sequence that is selected for this step, in terms of a number of
measures. (Repeated measures are not included in this number.)
L
Repeats field: Specifies the number of times that the sequence will be repeated.
3. Move the cursor to the Song field and turn the [JOG] dial to select the song that you want to
create.
Immediately after the power is turned on, all songs will be empty. Empty songs are shown as "(Unused)."
4. Move the cursor to "(end of song)" in the Sequence field, and turn the [JOG] dial to select the
sequence that you want to play at the beginning of the song.
When you select a sequence, the "(end of song)" indication that shows the end of the song will move to the
next step.
1 3 6
8 9 J
for details of this procedure.)
p.38
A
Position bar: Indicates the current location
of the currently-playing sequence.
B
Now field: Indicates the current location of
the song in measures/beats/ticks.
C
Time field: Indicates the current location of
the song in hours/minutes/seconds/millisec-
onds.
D
Song field: Selects the song that will be
edited or played.
E
Tempo field: Indicates/sets the tempo of the
song.
F
Loop field: Turns looping on/off for the song.
K L
Creating and editing a song
43