ASR10/ MPC2000 MIDI Sync up w/Dick Hifi

Making the Ensoniq ASR10 and Akai MPC2000 play nice together. The proper (?) way to connect, and control these machines to work with predictable outcome.

[@strongocho]

12:07 you need to go to the main screen of your MPC, and to the left of where your midi track is, change it from "DRUM" to "MIDI". When it is on "DRUM", it will always play the MPC program sounds when the corresponding key is pressed. When on "MIDI", it will bypass the program and only play what you have connected by MIDI.

[@waynepryce34]

I was sooo frustrated bro.. I watched this video about 5x before going to the comments. Thank you sir

[@Brad5200x]

@Albatross Studiohouse - To avoid having to refer to a cheat sheet, you can create and save a program within the MPC that aligns the pads sequentially with the keys on the ASR. You do not need to assign any sounds to the program, just adjust the MIDI notes in the correct order. The base program within the MPC assigns notes like A01-Note37, A02-Note36, A03-Note42 and A04-Note82, which is troublesome. Create a new program where pad A01 now starts at Note36 and then increments up by 1 for each subsequent pad. By the end, you should have A01-Note36 | A16-Note51, B01-Note52 | B16-Note67, C01-Note68 | C16-Note83 and D01-Note84 | D15-Note98. NOTE: The MPC caps out at Note98, so you cannot assign Note99 to D16. Be sure to save the program so you can quickly load it up for use in the future.

[@bandeco75]

Great idea!!! I’ll make a video for that.

[@Shakeabreaka]

I did the same thing, it’s perfect

[@pascaldeshayes5459]

I also did that. The MPC being drums oriented, its basic midi note pad assignments are those of the General midi, which don’t align with the traditional keyboard layout.

[@lawrenceonethree6872]

You making this tutorial on the pairing of these two machines feels super significant.

[@kannon3979]

Thanks Dick! You came through again! 🎶

[@ceebreeeze]

Nice video man, Salute to the cats out there still using this method of beat production.

[@adamfreiholtz929]

Great video! Wish i had this 10 years ago when I tried to sync my mpc 1000 to my asr. It felt to complicated so I ended up going all software. Still have my asr in storage. May have to pick up a 2000 and give it another shot lol

[@bandeco75]

Please get that ASR out of storage! Nothing is worse for gear than just sitting up. I have repair bills to prove it. Software has its place but using old clunky gear does two things for me. First, it gets me off my seat. I work standing up and moving around jumping between turntables, MPC, ASR, EPS, amps , guitars....whatever. Nothing is worse than sitting in a seat like a cubicle drone. You can expect much creativity from a situation like that. Which leads me to my second point. Moving around, and reaching for stuff and simply just staying on your feet or mobile puts you in a better position to do something different or creative. I think.

[@RonRicoOfficialChannel]

Can you do a video showing how to syncing the ASR to a DAW to dump the stems into?

[@That125Kid]

Glad I watched the video because I was missing the last step in the hookup and that was edit:track thanks mow I can have my different sounds on each midi channel.

[@pascaldeshayes5459]

You could also route the MPC audio outs into the ASR audio inputs and record your MPC drums as audio tracks.

[@Metamophisis]

Dope video yo!

[@bandeco75]

Thanks. Let me know how they’re useful and what else you’d like to see.

[@dufurst]

Awww yeah! I don’t be feelin’ my own bounce when I tap the beat out on a keyboard. Even though one of my dreams is to one day get the weighted version/maxed out ASR-10 in case I literally just want to have a piano experience. 😂 Thank you for all your videos and knowledge #dickhifi

[@luisfernando4725]

Would this also work with an Mpc1000 & the EPS?

[@randyrebel4952]

MIDI IZ FUN!!!!!!

[@bandeco75]

It is!

[@alfredbaxter1061]

Kanye west love this thats what he got

[@adamfreiholtz929]

I’d like to see you make a beat with this setup using effects etc in the asr and possibly resampling back to the mpc. Or just show us your workflow of completing a beat with this setup

[@bandeco75]

I have been hesitant to do this type of video because the point of this series is to impart knowledge and not about what I do. But everyone is asking for it and maybe it’s helpful. It also gives me a shameless way to promote my music 🤣

[@MakeMeLoveYeah]

Great video sir. How do you connect the audio cables in the setting in the video? Please tell me. Thank you in advance.

[@bandeco75]

I ran the outputs of both machines into a mixer. I just mic’d the monitor in the next room for that. That mic was going direct to camera. The mic I’m wearing also went direct to camera. Does that help?

[@duckthomas2795]

Yo what it do u from New Orleans..

[@bandeco75]

Yes. Algiers.

[@duckthomas2795]

@@bandeco75

[@patrickclements9700]

How do you plug in the speakers? Do you just need the speakers hooked up to the 2000 or do you need them both plugged in?

[@bandeco75]

You want the outputs of both instruments connected to speaker/mixer/amp etc. The sounds still come out of their own outputs.

[@patrickclements9700]

@@bandeco75 okay thanks

[@grxengine6188]

Here’s a thing we use to do. The sequencer on the Ensoniq does not have that solid timing like the MPC even after quantize, but we loved its dirty sample sound. So we’d do our original sequences on the Ensoniq then dump them (the MIDI data) to the MPC or to an early DAW at the studio, quantize it there….then dump back to the Ensoniq & save them to disk there and go home. Load it up on the Ensoniq later with clients in the room and those sequences would explode out of that thing like an MPC! Here’s an example of one we did like that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4mbY5yErJmmd9U The guitar was done live but everything else was originally done on an EPS Classic and then mixed later from an ASR-10.

[@bandeco75]

That’s super cool. How do you dump the midi data?

[@grxengine6188]

@@bandeco75 Oh we weren’t very smart back then. Trial and error mostly. I was not very experienced with an MPC. Just Ensoniq boards. I’m sure it simply involved setting the Ensoniq to external sequencer mode slaved to whatever device we wanted to dump to. Then press play and record on the receiving device & the Ensoniq would play its sequences & be recorded to the receiving device in real time. You knew you got it right if you accidentally dumped all the incoming midi tracks to track 1. We only cared about the drum track so I think we muted any other tracks prior to the dump. A quick quantize and then we’d do our session with the fixed drums & then one night I decided to see if the Ensoniq would let me reverse the process & record the corrected drums back to it to save to my disk. It worked, but the magic part was that solid timing transferred too.

[@bandeco75]

Not very smart?!? That’s straight genius! Using a method that was never intended to get the needed results? That’s how the story progresses. Highest marks to you A++. Thanks for sharing. At this point I feel compelled to invite you to hear my work. Just to share. I make it a point to not throw this at people but I’d be honored if you wound up liking my music. And you’ll never like it if you don’t listen. It’s called Hifi-Lobotomy. It’s on all the internet’s audio brothels such as Spotify, Apple Music, etc, etc….

[@grxengine6188]

@@bandeco75 , I LOVE it! It’s like you snuck into Trent Reznor’s house & made a HipHop acid jazz record. There a million good ideas in those songs. I thought I’d just be hearing HipHop. Obviously it’s way more than that. SomaFM should be playing you.

[@chanevision1]

will this work with the ASR / MPC X? I can't get my x to play my asr

[@bandeco75]

Hi. I’m not familiar with the MPC X, but if it’s got MIDI ins and outs, it will play along. Get in the midi menu and experiment. Also check your midi connections. As in physical connections…as in cables. It is not infrequent that I put an “in” when it should be an”out” and vice versa. Good luck.

[@chanevision1]

Thank you. I switched the in/out with the midi and it worked!

[@bandeco75]

Congratulations! It’s such a good feeling when the fix is that easy. Whenever problem solving, start with the simplest and most obvious thing. 9 out of ten times my problems are centered around bad patching (read: lack of concentration). Listen to Hifi-Lobotomy on any music platform. Peace!

[@kennylee5621]

Are you in New Orleans ? I see the Nola on your shirt.

[@bandeco75]

Yes. Yes I am.

[@kennylee5621]

@@bandeco75 Cool I'm in Baton Rouge.

[@JEFFMAN90]

On 3:44 it does not give me those midi options on my EPS classic. When I hit edit track it just shows me the instruments mute options and the mix/pan options

[@JEFFMAN90]

Am I missing a step??

[@bandeco75]

No. I don’t think you’re missing a step. The EPS is a little different. It should just be good to go. My EPS is set up in the 2000 as well and has worked with no trouble.

[@JEFFMAN90]

@@bandeco75 Hmm it didn't work for my yesterday but I'll try it again tonight

[@bandeco75]

I’ll try it this weekend and see if I can get some clarity on the situation.

[@JEFFMAN90]

@@bandeco75 Sure.

[@jaydenlopez1865]

Dope Video! Question why is it when I tap a key from the ASR my drums sound like their phasing but when I tap the pad on the mpc they sound clean.. some instruments I want to hit from my ASR keys but they sound “doubled up” is there a way to fix that?.. 🙏

[@bandeco75]

It doesn’t happen once you record the sequence. At least that’s how it goes with my set up. I definitely hear the phasing while I’m working but playback on the sequence is clean.

[@HowardKarpfendale]

If I understand you correctly, the key you press plays the sound 2x at that moment, right? If that is your problem, it can definitely be controlled. I don't know if it's the same on the 2000 as it is on the 2000 Xl, but it drove me nuts after I bought it and I spent 2-3 months searching the net for it. The way is like this: On the main screen you have to click on the bottom left on the "S" field, where Midi should be and next to it the number of the bank of the ASR, which you want to play. If you now switch to exactly that number to the right and press "Open Window", you get to the Midi Output menu. At the top there is the option "Soft thru", which causes the problem. Just move the wheel to the left to "Off" and your problem should be solved.

[@bandeco75]

Thanks Mr.x. Good to know. I wonder if the XL is different. Never fooled with one.

[@HowardKarpfendale]

@@bandeco75 I think the complete sequencer is the same, just that the XL can do things like timestretch and small other updates that simplify the workflow. But I think the Midi Output menu should be the same on both, so with Soft Thru on off it should work as well. If I understand this Soft Thru correctly, once the sound comes out of the ASR, it is then sent as Midi to the MPC, and the MPC sends it back via Midi to the ASR, which plays the sample again. After the recording, however, you no longer press the key on the ASR, so only the midi signal from the MPC arrives and therefore only plays it once.

[@JEFFMAN90]

Dumb question but while doing this is the sound coming out of the asr or the MPC? I recently got myself an EPS classic keyboard and I'm interested in doing this workflow with my MPC Live 2.

[@bandeco75]

The sound comes out of itself. You’re just triggering the sound “remotely “. So any sounds loaded into the ASR come out of the ASR. And vice versa. EPS is a fine fine instrument.

[@othaderekhernandezpena2723]

1:22 Two ostriches are being fed an apple by a person with blue fingernails.

[@bandeco75]

Close. They’re emu’s.

[@othaderekhernandezpena2723]

@@bandeco75 Haha I swear I looked at pictures and emus and ostriches for 10 minutes before posting that comment and I still got it wrong.

[@othaderekhernandezpena2723]

@@bandeco75 You're killing it with these videos. Keep it up!

[@titanjake8640]

Vintage greatness Why work with them? ASR - sucky sequencer. (ensoniq fail) MPC - sequence for days and chop pad

[@JEFFMAN90]

For the sound

[@titanjake8640]

@@JEFFMAN90 I agree. Best synth/sampler combo to me to this day. Sound is amazing.

[@mske903]

this was a good Analog synth. unfortunately no longer up to date

[@That125Kid]

Bro you should do a video on how to save a bank damn that's a good 👍 idea don't you think so🤔

[@bandeco75]

Pretty sure that exists. One of the previous episodes from ABC’s of the ASR.

[@bandeco75]

Episode 3

[@1980VINZ]

1:22 x0.25 WTF?