Installation & User Guide

Transcription

1 Installation & User Guide

2 The Concert Grand MPC Expansion Pack The Concert Grand is a beautifully multisampled Model D Grand Piano specifically configured and optimised for the MPC Live, MPC X, MPC Touch, MPC Studio & MPC Renaissance. The piano has been exquisitely recorded over 4 dynamic velocity zones to provide an incredibly realistic recreation of the original instrument across your MPC pads, along with alternate tonal variations for a variety of piano sounds, all fully configured and ready to play out-of-the-box. And to kick start your creative ideas we ve also included 20 unique & easily editable MIDI riffs, melodies and chords in drag & drop MIDI Pattern format, as well as 20 additional MIDI Chord Progressions for the MPC Software s Pad Perform mode.

3 Standalone Installation: MPC Live & MPC X First download the zip file via the link provided after purchase and extract the contents to any location on your computer. Enter the folder MPC X-MPC Live Standalone and inside you ll find the folder The Concert Grand this is the main expansion folder that we re going to transfer to your MPC X/MPC live. It s not possible to copy files to the 16GB internal drive on your MPC so let s assume you have a USB drive called MPC DATA connected to the USB port on your MPC Live/X (you can also transfer to an SD card or internal SATA drive). Connect your MPC X/MPC Live via USB to your computer and go to MENU > CHIP icon (top right of screen) and select CONTROLLER MODE. At this point, your USB disk will appear as a removable drive in your computer.

4 Now copy the Concert Grand folder to your MPC disk. To ensure that the pack is treated as a proper MPC Expansion (with the kit thumbnail image displayed in your Browser) make sure you first create a folder called Expansions in the root location of your MPC disk and copy the kit folder inside this Expansions folder: Now return to the root location of your disk and if it doesn t exist, create a folder with the exact name Progressions. Return to the original download folder, locate

5 and copy the Concert Grand Progressions folder inside the Progressions folder on your USB disk: You can now eject the disk from your computer and return your MPC Live/X to Standalone mode. You ll find the expansion contains a number of different presets to provide a variety of kit sounds. To preview and load kits, go to the BROWSER, select the Expansions tab on the left side of the screen and tap on the 60s Funk Kit thumbnail. Your kits should now be displayed on the right of the screen - make sure the programs filter is enabled:

6 If you have AUDITION > AUTO enabled (bottom right of BROWSER screen) you can tap a program file to hear a preview of each kit before you load it. Double tap to load the kit into your project and assign it to a KEYGROUP type track in your current sequence in MAIN. Select the Sequences filter to view and load the MIDI themes (please note that the MIDI pattern files are not compatible with Standalone Mode):

7 The custom chord progressions will be available in PAD PERFORM mode we ll look at this later in this guide.

8 Expansion Installation: MPC Software Inside the MPC Software folder you will find the Concert Grand Installer.XPN file. Drag & drop this file into the MPC Software and select Import. After installation, open the MPC Expansion Browser and click on the Concert Grand entry to reveal all the Expansion files.

9 Progressions Installation: Mac OS To install the 28 MIDI progressions on Mac OS, navigate to the following location:

10 /Library/Application Support/Akai/MPC/Progressions Enter the Progressions folder and paste the Concert Grand Progressions folder inside. Enter your admin password to complete. Your new progressions will be available the next time you launch the MPC Software. Progressions Installation: Windows

11 To install the 28 MIDI progressions on Windows, navigate to the following location: C:\Program Files\Akai Pro\MPC\Progressions Copy the Concert Grand Progressions folder here & re-launch the MPC Software.

12 Usage: Playing Instruments To reflect the natural note range of the original instruments, the programs are mapped out between banks B-G. All programs feature velocity sensitive sample switching (4 different dynamics levels provided per pad) so it s important to play with FULL LEVEL turned OFF to reproduce the realistic tonal variations of the source instrument. If you have a MIDI control keyboard you can route this to an MPC MIDI input and play your instruments using a traditional keyboard layout. You can either use a physical MIDI cable or, if available, connect your keyboard using USB and configure it via Preferences > MIDI. All instruments are fully compatible with Pad Perform Mode which can configure your pads to only playback notes from specified scales, or can be used to trigger entire chords from each pad (more details on the next page).

13 Usage: Pad Perform Mode With your piano instrument loaded, go to Pad Perform Mode : MPC Touch: MODE > PAD PERFORM, MPC Ren/Studio: PAD ASSIGN Select BANK A, PROGRESSIONS & under CHORD select your preferred progression & musical key. The chords of the progression are mapped across the 16 pads. Progressions from the Concert Grand are prefixed Concert Grand (or Conce. ).

14 Usage: MIDI Themes The Concert Grand contains 20 MIDI themes that can be used as the basis of a new composition. From the Expansion Browser, expand the Patterns group: Drag the selected pattern to an empty sequencer track. Now assign a KEYGROUP instrument to this track and hit PLAY to hear the pattern. Please not that standalone mode does not support the pattern file format, so the standard MIDI sequence versions should be used instead these are found under the Sequences group in the MPC Software Expansion Browser, or in the Sequences folder in the hardware UI browser.

15 Further Resources To learn more about editing & creating MPC KEYGROUP programs, please refer to MPC-Tutor s range of MPC Tutorial Books: