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If you hook up the control keyboard to your MPC and press a C note, your MPC will
receive this MIDI data and record it to it's internal sequencer. At some point later,
you could then connect your MPC to a sound module and press PLAY on your MPC.
The recorded MIDI information will be transmitted to the sound module and the C
note will be played (out of the sound module audio outs, not the MPCs!). Now the
MPC is acting like a MIDI controller. At no point in this situation does the MPC output
any audio sounds - only the sound module will output sounds - remember, MIDI just
carries the instructions (sorry, but this is a misconception that arises A LOT!).
What About Internal Samples?
The MPC can be set to either play external sounds via MIDI connections to sound
modules, or you can sample (or load) sounds into the MPC and use the sequencer to
play these. In fact you can have the 'best of both worlds' - you can use you MPC to
play MIDI devices and play internal samples. So for example, you can have a
sampled drum loop playing that is stored inside the MPC and you can have a bass
line being played by a sound module controlled by your MPC.
We'll describe all this in much greater detail in the forthcoming tutorials.
Main MIDI Situations with an MPC
There are several uses of MIDI in relation to our MPC and we shall look at the main
ones now. Do not worry if this sounds a little confusing - you can always refer back
to this section when you need it later. Before we look at the more complex uses of
MIDI, we'll first look at a way we can use MIDI signals to control samples that we've
loaded into our MPC.
Controlling the MPC pads with a keyboard
This is the simplest MIDI set up. As I'm sure you know, your MPC is a sampler, which
means you can sample sounds into it and play those sounds by pressing the rubber
PADS on the right hand side of the machine. But, we do not have to play these
internal MPC sounds with the PADS - we can use a MIDI controller keyboard instead.
As I've already mentioned, a controller keyboard is simply a keyboard with no
sounds inside it that is used to instruct sound modules to play their internal sounds.
Well, in this case, our MPC can be considered a 'sound module' - i.e. it's a machine
capable of receiving MIDI instructions, and these instructions will tell it which internal
samples it will play.
Set-up is simple. All you do is connect one end of a MIDI cable to the MIDI out port
of the control keyboard and the other end to the MIDI IN port of the MPC (I would
connect to MIDI port 1 by default).
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