MC-808 User's Manual

27 Mar 2007, 10:51

Is it just me, or is the user's manual for the mc-808 vague and non-intuitive? I have programming patterns with multiple parts down pretty good, but when it comes to making a song with fade ins, control changes and other vaying degrees of intensity for a pattern, I can't seem to figure out how to make these edits without creating a new pattern for each instance of the song.

I have a couple of questions I couldn't find in the manual or on the faq.

1. I am recording a song that I intend on using one pattern with different combinations of mutes, fade ins, and various other control changes. I also want to put a long running sample as a sort of "vocal track". I don't mind chopping up the sample and triggering it as the song goes, it is a bit of extra work, but no biggie. My quesiton is:

-First, if I make a part fade in from the first of the song, starting at level 0 and fading to 127, when I play it back, the part doesn't start at level 0. it starts at the higher level. I have to manually put the fader at 0, so if I were to load the song and forget that part 5 starts at level 0, it won't start at zero. Also, if I stop recording a control change in the middle of a pattern, the change doesn't register for the amount of time I recorded the change.

-Second, if I change a patch sound to mix well with my song (like changing the cutoff or the matrix) the change doesn't save when I reload the pattern, the patch goes back to its original state. Do I have to save a new patch every time I make a change? So, if I wanted the TR808 rythym set to have one control change in one pattern, and a different control change in another pattern, I have to save 2 patches of the TR808 for each control change?

Oh jeez.... someone help please.

Re: MC-808 User's Manual

27 Mar 2007, 19:29

Hi satuyrn,

all these changes create midi control messages. You should create midi control messages so that the pattern allways starts in a defined state, e.g. volume at 0 means

CC #7 at first beat of first bar at value 0. This will set the volume at the start of each pattern to 0. For the cutoff thing look into microscope edit which control messages were generated for this and create also a control message at the beginning of the pattern with the correct initial value.

Hope that helps!

Ciao, Dirk.

Re: MC-808 User's Manual

3 Apr 2007, 13:46

... I figured some of this out before I read the reply, however, the information in your reply was very helpful, thanks!

ummmm.... except, how do I set a control message to start at 0? It seems like controls remain in a state until a change occurs... example, I want a part to start at 0. If I move the fader up to 5... then restart the pattern, it remains at 5 until the next control message occurs instead of the initial 0 setting. OR, even better, if the original setting is set to 3, and I want to modify the part to begin at 5... I have to record a control change that barley moves the fader up and down around 5, instead of just making the setting to just use 5 the whole time. The only way I can get the change to be definitive is if I record a constant change. Am I missing something?

I guess the problem is I am still learning where everything is in the user interface... and the manual doesn't help much. A flow chart would be nice, but hey, can't have everything, right?

Re: MC-808 User's Manual

3 Apr 2007, 17:32

This may not help, but just in case:

When you save a pattern, the state of all the sliders should be saved along with it.

One thing I had trouble with, was muting and unmuting. If I wanted to mute the last two measures of a four measure track, it seemed like this worked:

1) In recording standbye, mute the part you want to umute
2) Start recording
3) During the recording countdown, unmute the part; this creates an unmute event at zero time
4) Mute the part at the normal spot
5) Stop recording

Now when you play the track, it will unmute at the start of the pattern as desired