how many modules can a mpc 3000 control?

dmajor100

dmajor100

Active member
Just got my mpc 3000 and loving the solid sequencing and still gotta get the extra ram and zip drive but thinking about my future sound selection. I already have a motif xs,,fantom xr,korg r3 and currently saving for a access virus. With 4 total output is these all the mpc can control or does the midi thru allow even more modules to be slaved? Not sure if i wanna go modul crazy cause keepinb track of tracks and patches mighg be a pain but if i just had to have a another toy id like to know if it would be possiable to even controll 5 to 6 modules using midi thru.
 
It's best to think in terms of MIDI channels (there are 16 channels per MIDI port) in relation to the multitimbrality of your modules (how many channels they can play simultaneously) you see while you could have 16 modules to a MIDI port you would be limiting each module to a single channel.
 
Yeah, theoretically 64. In real-world applications, MIDI's serial nature & limited bandwidth is gonna pull the numbers down quite a bit - depending on what you're doing, of course. If sending/receiving a lot of control changes, for example, I've pretty much resorted to just going for one dedicated port per device.
 
But if the mpc has a,b,c,d midi outputs how can i even access the Other modules and play there tones if i cant switch to there input channel? Id figure if it was a sequencer module that the sequencer would sync and would follow the master but what about tabletops or racks.?

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:54 AM ----------

So are yall saying if i was to do a midi thru from a motif xs to a korg trition id have only 8 channels of midi cause they beem divided? Not sure im understanding.
 
dmajor100 said:
But if the mpc has a,b,c,d midi outputs how can i even access the Other modules and play there tones if i cant switch to there input channel? Id figure if it was a sequencer module that the sequencer would sync and would follow the master but what about tabletops or racks.?

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:54 AM ----------

So are yall saying if i was to do a midi thru from a motif xs to a korg trition id have only 8 channels of midi cause they beem divided? Not sure im understanding.
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you control the devices via the midi output. the midi input is honestly only important for say using a midi keyboard controller rather than using the pads to play everything. So for example Motif midi out to mpc midi in then use each out to whatever devices u want midi chained with midi out/in/thru whatever just be aware that u can only use 16 channels per port and since everything has to be assigned to a channel to work if u have more than 16 sources to one port u will get double triggers which can work for cool layered sounds but I would more often than not try to avoid doing so in that manner.

---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:37 PM ----------

A more literal example using software as an example is using your midi controller to send midi data to your DAW to your vst instruments this is how hardware works too. controller/hardsynth keyboard to mpc aka sequencer to vst aka rack modules its the same concept except in the software world there are less midi limitations than in the hardware world
 
Your Motif XS is 16 part multitimbral, what this means is that you can trigger 16 different sounds on 16 different MIDI channels/tracks if you want to, but doing this would use up all 16 channels of a MIDI port, so if you wanted to share the MIDI port with a Triton by using the MIDI thru connector of the Motif and not have both devices sound on the same channels you would have to reserve some channels for the Motif and some for the Triton otherwise they will both sound on the same channels and the resulting effect would be layering. It is often desirable to layer multiple sounds and trigger them together from just a single MIDI channel and it is this practice that frees up MIDI channels for other modules.
 
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