Jolt Country

Last January I did the thing I do every year and bought myself something from my own Christmas wish list that everyone decided I didn't really want. This year's purchase was the MPK Mini MK3 MIDI Controller from Akai. It only has 25 black and white keys unlike a full-size piano's 88, but has conveniently located "octave" buttons that allow you to shift octaves up and down. Along with those keys the controller has 8 drum pads, 10 buttons, 8 knobs, a joystick, and a small, mostly unnecessary LED screen made for someone with better eyesight than mine.

For around $100, along with the MIDI controller you also get the digital audio workstation (DAW) MPC Beats which, according to dozens upon dozens of "producers" on YouTube, allows users to create super sweet, hard hitting drum tracks. Something Akai doesn't mention up front is that MPC Beats has some limitations, the main one being creators are limited to 8 MIDI tracks and 2 digital tracks. Truth be told if a person were simply wanting to create drum and bass tracks, rap beats, or simple songs, MPC Beats' 10 tracks are probably enough. Any external audio source (guitars, vocals, and even samples) tie up those precious digital tracks, so if you're wanting to use MPC Beats to record a traditional band (or find yourself running out of MIDI tracks), you'll have to upgrade to MPC2. MPC2 retails for $249, although from the moment you register MPC Beats you will begin receiving two emails a day containing a discount code that allows you to upgrade for $99. For a total of $200 -- $100 for the MIDI controller and another $100 for the software -- you'll end up with a fairly high-end DAW. While MPC2 looks identical to MPC Beats, it unlocks the track limitation and gives creators 128 tracks to work with. Those tracks can be any combination of MIDI or digital.

At first glance, MPC2 is even more confusing than the MIDI controller itself. The screen is filled with icons that don't mean anything to the average user. Many, many of the program's features are hidden underneath drop down menus that are impossible to find. Even the simplest of features, like resizing the main window or selecting different instruments, require multiple Google searches to accomplish. Fortunately, there are tons of YouTube videos by people with names like GhettoStyles and SumnSumnSumn HTK willing to help us crackers figure things out.

MPC Beats comes with enough drum and instrument packages to create most anything you could imagine, and MPC2 comes with even more. The drum packs include everything from live-sounding acoustic kits to 80s kits and everything in between. Also included are a seemingly never ending list of synthesizers, bass instruments, pianos, guitars, and other instruments. I don't fully understand why but some kits map sounds to the piano-style keys, some end up going to the drum pads, and some put things in both places. The software has a built in sampler that will let you import sounds (wav, mp3, whatever), chop them up, and assign them to pads. The software allows for recording, over dubbing, and for those with big dreams and no musical talent, the ability to literally draw notes onto a grid. Hit that snare a little too early or too late? Simply use your mouse to drag it around and put it where it needs to be. Like any good DAW, both versions of the MPC software support VST plugins, allowing for an infinite number of instruments and effects.

Like most DAWs, beats are created as sequence loops, which can then be assembled into songs. All of this takes a bit to wrap your head around, but once you "get it," you can crank songs out at an amazing pace. Each track can be mixed independently -- volumes can be adjusted and effects like reverb can be added -- and then results can either be saved or exported as an mp3/wav/ogg/whatever file.

YouTube's music identification system is incredibly advanced, and the more videos I edit and upload the more I find myself looking for public domain music or CC licensed songs that won't trigger a YT copyright claim. With MPC2, I am able to crank out background loops that, while they may not win me a Grammy, sound good enough for background and transition music.

If you're looping for a one stop solution, check out Akai's MPK Mini MK3. The free version of MPC Beats may be all many users need, and the upgrade to MPC2 gets you not only those unlimited tracks, but an even larger collection of instruments and effects to play with.

I have a rule of making one song with a piece of new equipment before buying another, and I have two pieces of equipment in my queue. But based on your review, I'll buy this for my birthday. Thank you for summarizing gift receiving at our age too, by the by, that was not lost on me. Ha! Haha!

There is one thing I do not understand about drum loops. Right now in Ableton, I will make the sounds of drums for like 4 or 8 measures. I'm not Bill Bruford over here, so yeah, it's gonna repeat. So I make them and then copy them and paste them. Now I have 16 bars. Then I copy that and paste it, now I have 32. Etc.

Sometimes it is useful just to have the same drum beat to start, but after I add some music, I'll go through and adjust the drums a little. But I am still - creating, copying, pasting.

It sounds like loops are somehow better or make it easier? Conceptually I guess I am not getting it. Does the DAW show it on a timeline as individual sounds? I hope my question makes sense.

Right, so. The way you would do that with MPC is, let's say you are building the drums for a chorus, so you might have a 4/4 loop, then repeat it a second time, then repeat it a third time, and on the fourth time (the end of the chorus) it changes up with a little drum fill or something. So to do that, you would build that first 4/4 beat and file that away as "sequence one" and then create the one with the drum fill and save it as "sequence two." Then you would use those to build a song, like this: "sequence one, sequence one, sequence one, sequence two."

The real advantage here is if you're building something like a rap song, You might create a sequence with drums, bass, keyboards, and synths. Then you could just copy that sequence a few times and on those copies, on one you could drop out the keyboards and piano and use that one for a verse, and one with no bass for maybe a pre-chorus, and so on. You can drop and drag them in the song editor and move them around.

Here's a short video of a guy making some bass heavy drum track. The music's not great but you can see what the normal piano roll view looks like.

Ok, that makes sense. I need like 6 weeks and I can join you in this world. Thanks for explaining that. I feel like I need this kind of thing demonstrated over and over to me.

Do ya have a TUNE that you are particularly proud of, Flack?? Can we do a TUNE SWAP for a little bit of electronica for our projects?

Proud? Not really. Here are a few loops -- ditties, really -- I whipped up. The piano one I plan to expand a little bit and use as a YouTube transition. I've got more to learn and it's just a matter of finding time.

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code ... UTY5wOv4W7

Akai has a series of YouTube videos grouped into a playlist called Beats Academy that explains some stuff but it doesn't get very deep. But like I said there are hundreds of people making videos on YouTube explaining every single icon and trick.

OK, lemme try to make something for one of your future videos. I have motivation now.

Any non-licensed music is appreciated and useful. Finding copyright free and royalty free is a huge time suck. I can't tell you how many websites advertise free music that then say "it's free to use, after you pay for it." A lot of the music released under creative commons retain their copyright which means when you use them in YouTube videos it shows a copyright claim with no penalty, but at any moment they can reclaim the music at which point you're screwed. I have found one or two people releasing decent and truly free music and they are goldmines.