Radias Help. Arrrrgh!

[JamesJeffery]

My Radias is hooked up to the MPC 2500. All works fine, but I am baffled.

First issue is the number of channels. Lets say I want a bass, a lead, a synth and some effects.

To my knowledge each program has 4 timbres. I can only use 1 program with the MPC ... right? So that means I only have 4 sounds to play with?

What if I wanted to have bass on channel 1A, synth on 1B, drums on 1C, lead on 1D, effects on 1E, piano on 1F .... how is that possible if I can only have 4 timbres?

For the price, I would hope it's possible to have more than 4 sounds otherwise I'm kinda limited and layering is a no no.

So, the sum up the question. Can I set different programs to different midi channels?

[tpantano]

My Radias is hooked up to the MPC 2500. All works fine, but I am baffled.

First issue is the number of channels. Lets say I want a bass, a lead, a synth and some effects.

To my knowledge each program has 4 timbres. I can only use 1 program with the MPC ... right? So that means I only have 4 sounds to play with?

What if I wanted to have bass on channel 1A, synth on 1B, drums on 1C, lead on 1D, effects on 1E, piano on 1F .... how is that possible if I can only have 4 timbres?

For the price, I would hope it's possible to have more than 4 sounds otherwise I'm kinda limited and layering is a no no.

So, the sum up the question. Can I set different programs to different midi channels?

No.
4 sounds max at a time.
BTW, channels are numbered 1-16, not 1A, 1B, 1C, Etc.
It's a synth, if you wanted high timbre counts you should've purchased a workstation.
Actually, it's rare that the Radias has something like drums in the first place. The Radias is very advanced for a synth, try not to hurt its feelings.

Think of a synth like the Radias as a guitar. It can sound great on its own, but if you want to make complete music you'll need a band. The band can either be other keyboards, or literally a band of other people on drums, bass etc. If you want to be a one man band, you'll need more boards, be they boards with their own sounds, or midi controllers for VSTis.

[JamesJeffery]

Don't get me wrong, I love this beast! If I only have 4 sounds at a time ... 4 sounds it is.

When I was talking about drums, I was using that as an example. I do all my drum work in the MPC using samples.

You will probably see me posting some questions around the forum. Hopefully I will get to a level where I can offer others advice. This is my first hardware synth. Have to admit, I am in love.

[JaymzDestroy]

I'm not a Radias owner but I use the MPC2500 with my R3, MS2000br etc.

*EDIT* I forgot to mention that I obviously only sequence the 2 timbres in 1 program at a time*EDIT*

To control 2 timbres on my R3, I usually send the midi info on different channels. So it would be Midi out A on the MPC to R3 midi in and then in my sequence on the MPC i'll have 2 tracks sending midi note/cc data.

The 1st track in the sequence outputs midi notes to A1 (A being the output and 1 being the midi channel), the 2nd track in the sequence outputs notes to A2. So A1 being a bassline and A2 being a lead melody (just examples). I then set Timbre 1 on the R3 to receive sounds from midi channel one, and Timbre 2 to receive on midi channel 2.

I dont know if this helps but I'm thinking the radias will allow you to send info to all 4 Timbres at once. Means you could send chords, basslines etc. The 8 note polyphony on the R3 is limiting but the Radias should be able to handle it no problem, and any other parts you need you could always sample straight from the Radias

I usually write my midi parts (notes, cc's of filters etc) in Ableton, then drop them onto my MPC. This means the Midi files can be pre-programmed with the correct cc's for my R3, Ms2000br etc along with all their filter changes and what not, keeping my hands free!

Hope this was useful dude, nice to have another MPC user around here

[JamesJeffery]

I'm not a Radias owner but I use the MPC2500 with my R3, MS2000br etc.

*EDIT* I forgot to mention that I obviously only sequence the 2 timbres in 1 program at a time*EDIT*

To control 2 timbres on my R3, I usually send the midi info on different channels. So it would be Midi out A on the MPC to R3 midi in and then in my sequence on the MPC i'll have 2 tracks sending midi note/cc data.

The 1st track in the sequence outputs midi notes to A1 (A being the output and 1 being the midi channel), the 2nd track in the sequence outputs notes to A2. So A1 being a bassline and A2 being a lead melody (just examples). I then set Timbre 1 on the R3 to receive sounds from midi channel one, and Timbre 2 to receive on midi channel 2.

I dont know if this helps but I'm thinking the radias will allow you to send info to all 4 Timbres at once. Means you could send chords, basslines etc. The 8 note polyphony on the R3 is limiting but the Radias should be able to handle it no problem, and any other parts you need you could always sample straight from the Radias

I usually write my midi parts (notes, cc's of filters etc) in Ableton, then drop them onto my MPC. This means the Midi files can be pre-programmed with the correct cc's for my R3, Ms2000br etc along with all their filter changes and what not, keeping my hands free!

Hope this was useful dude, nice to have another MPC user around here

Thanks for the info bud, sounds like what I'm doing already What 2500 you got? The black or the white one? I got the SE version.