Beginner's Guide to the MPC Live 2: Workflow You Need to Know!

what's going on this ballistic ballistic beats blister Productions ballistic this that all that uh back with another video this particular video is a little bit overdue and I know that but I'm here and I'm doing it now so show some love hit the like button hit the Subscribe button if you like this if you want to see more give me that motivation and and show some positive feedback if you got negative feedback just click off the video and do do something else but we back I'm doing another um NPC workflow video though I'm just gonna turn it on no edits and give you just a walk through and my thoughts as I make a beat on the NPC Live 2 today um might do another one with the NPC key which is pretty much the same thing except it got keys it's a little bit easier to get the Melodies out when you got a full 61 key keyboard but it's another thing um but anyway I don't want to hold this up too long like I said we're just gonna go through it and I'm gonna try to explain most of what I see what I'm doing and just give you an over my shoulder type of look at the flow let's go all right so we had to get plugged in because I just literally had to dust this thing off because I've been using the other stuff uh when I do make beats or whatnot so now we got some power and let's power it up we're gonna go through a basic workflow unscripted I'm planned um it's crazy that my last workflow video was one of the best performing and I ain't really been doing them like I should have after that um and that video was the same way it was just something that I just decided to share because a lot of people want to know and learn like you're in the same room with me or whatnot so if I was gonna make a beat right now this would be the flow that I would take to do so um so yeah we just loaded back up if you get the splash screen that asks you to create a template or this or that then I would just choose the empty template but I actually went in and turned that off um and to be all the way transparent I'll go through and show how to do that too so you would go into preferences project defaults new project dialogue I got demo demo template recent or whatnot that's probably where it is if you never changed anything but I turned that to off all right so what we gonna do I guess I'll start with some um some sounds or whatnot since that's like recent updates so I'ma swipe from the side there you can go in the menu and click sounds right there or you can swipe from the side of the main menu and sounds right there I hit back and we actually want to look for plug-in and I keep hitting back I actually haven't found to where it always just goes straight to this screen to pick plugins but I'll just hit back to get to this main screen and right now to start uh I like to start with a piano type sound even if I switch it out later or whatnot so go through these let's make sure we get some sound first I ain't even tested this setup [Music] make sure my speaker off [Music] yeah speaker off dang I've been neglecting my live man is 2.11.9 available now I'm Gonna Cancel I'll update that after this or whatnot alright so we got the audio we got everything going we go to the main menu hit Pat perform and I'm gonna try to chord progressions right now because we're just trying to do something quick so progressions think imma go with E flat and classic Miner to start and you see how I did that I'm I'm trying to remember to explain everything that happens um because I just it's like muscle memory to do certain stuff I hit the key that's way too high um instead of like changing the octave and stuff in here it's like that because it's showing Bank C right now and if you go up and down these Banks while you're in Pat perform mode it'll go up and down the um the octaves too so if I go down to B and down to a [Music] which is still not where I want it so since that's not where I wanted I'll hit scale and octave right here double click if I hit back it's on octave four I'm gonna go down to like octave two actually choose it go back to E flat or D sharp I like that range to get started [Music] I don't like those skills those yeah that ain't it well just let me try notes [Music] hmm [Music] you sound crazy right [Music] laughs foreign [Music] we'll figure that out uh since that's like part of the idea um I'll show how I'll do that sometimes with this so I'm gonna go back to the main menu we are on 140 BPM which is decent I'm gonna put it on like 147 I might go back um if I had a bigger idea I would probably go to like eight bars I usually do eight bars especially like playing keys and stuff um but for this we'll do it a little simpler I'm gonna leave it on four bars and show how I plug in stuff like and just get the ideas out on the Fly um so I guess I'll just record what I was just doing [Music] all right so I wanted a little turnaround piece at the end so that's cool and it's that speed caught me off guard but it just sometimes I just want to adapt with where it goes but then now I hit overdub when I recorded and now I can just hit over the wallet's plan and just plug stuff in and then when I finish it over dub again and if I don't like that then I could hit undo and that'll undo everything you did since the last time you hit overdub if that makes sense so let's see [Music] okay so that's cool but I heard one note that I want to change and I could just undo it and do it again but I'm gonna show another way I hit the grid icon this little tic-tac-toe looking thing and while I'm on this last magnifying glass looking thing I can move around and zoom and all that so now that I found I think it's this note right here that I want to change so I'm gonna hit this um little dotted line square and highlight just that note and we want to transpose it at the bottom nudge moves it back and forth and transpose goes up and down to different notes so I want to bring that down let's see yeah like that it's simple but because I was hearing that and it wasn't doing it it was kind of throwing me off so that's cool for the pier actually it's not cool for the piano so we got our piano laid out and I'm like I want to spice it up a little bit um air flavor Pro isn't I think you got to pay for it no matter which instrument you get um I did get that extra but this step can be any effect uh that you choose so I'm hitting this eyeball at the top left next to the sequence and I'm on this program which is the four squares so it'll affect the whole program and click inserts on insert number one double tap go down the harmonic modulation is that it is it on here I hope it's on here it's on my um NPC key let's see bro all right oh I see I just got it like separated different on here it's fine [Music] foreign in some of these menus but basically uh air flavor Pro is kind of changed the harmonics and just the sound overall so that's one way to remember it and then you got Dynamics which is going to be your compressors and limiters and stuff like that so that's easy to remember but when it comes to harmonics and modulation I always confuse it a little bit but I find it uh air flavor Pro right here under harmonic you see it already gave it a little character I always liked that main first preset too I'll probably come back to it but try some of the others VHS is pretty cool SP 1200 I do like that a little bit better than the um old SP 1200 plugin thank you foreign I know everybody been arguing about the old sound versus the new sound and these give you a little bit of the characteristics but yeah they don't punch out the same way as if you actually had the hardware and the converters and stuff from the old one but if you get part of the way there and then get in the doll or whatnot when you're doing your Final Mix it's gonna hit like I don't understand how people feel that stuff don't hit hard as they wanted to I understand if you're like tied to that and I'll probably do another video on just this but if you look at 808 Mafia and all these people that some people might see certain ways and see real hip hop or messing up hip hop like I'm from Georgia is that's what it is now it's like they're taking over that's why that sound is taking over and nobody beats really hitting harder than them I mean I guess Dre and um Dre on some other stuff though but anyway I'm getting off off topic point is you can make beats in FL Studio or something and if the mixer know what they're doing they're gonna get it to hit like hitting ain't a problem [Music] so yeah we're gonna go back to that Main uh preset I'm gonna turn this down a little bit all right and hit track go to track two hit uh over the plug-in I hit this plus sign because if I don't and I stay on plugin one it's gonna change the plugin we just did and we definitely don't want that so now I can go back swipe over hit sound and try something else like uh I've been using strings a lot going to Strings maybe some chamber let's see am I good to go and what just happened I just thought about it I haven't been on my live like that so if you're thinking about the uh mpcx SC and the NPC key that have the four gigs around these sounds do load up a little bit faster in those uh so I'm on this string so I'm gonna change it and keep hitting and you'll see that it'll take a little bit to catch up all right that one was a little bit more about that that took a long time so yeah that's that's a thing foreign that's cool all right that's cool everything sounds on beat I'm gonna go to track three now it's time to start putting some drugs in so I'm gonna hit my drone track a program track um and I can double tap the menu button to get to my sounds or I can hit menu and go to the browser there but this little browse these secondary commands you can either hit shift and then hit it and it'll do the secondary command that's under these buttons or you can just double tap the buttons like main goes to grid and I get it once and go back to main back to grid and flip between them with the same button so back to menu places I have internal and this NPC live is actually my external um well internal drive that I added in later you know you can add in a hard drive if you want more space um I know there's basic knowledge usually but some people might need to know that still expansions I actually have this Neo Soul Quest and tape series that I added in so I'm gonna use this tape series one right now and this program I'm on right now is empty so is this doing nothing it's just highlighting pads I'm gonna try to put something on this first pad so I'm gonna highlight that one in my search I'm gonna hit kick because I know this kit has a lot of loops and stuff that I don't really care that much about I just want to get to the drum so I found this way it's easier for me to find like kicks and stuff and I like to scroll through the sounds the drum sounds while the beat Loops because that way you can easily find what sounds good with it basically [Music] that actually sound cool I always put my 808 right there and then hit load I'm gonna go back to the main one [Music] foreign I'm looking for either so I'm gonna hit this other pad and load that onto there and hit this main one still looking for a basic kit [Music] that's hard that's hard yeah that's that now I need some high hats so I hit search and type in hi-hat that ain't come up so I don't know how they say it I'ma just put hats so I know the hot hats got had in the title [Music] thank you I guess over Heather regular I need something open foreign that's cool it ain't open but the Reverb and stuff on it make it feel that same type of uh space that I'm looking for and I need a snare typos there in the search [Music] thank you I don't usually use them kind of snare so I'm thinking I might check that out yeah that's cool um maybe effects [Music] this adds some kind of extra background thing [Music] thank you foreign [Music] I don't think I need a clap for this one I'll check out to see how they sound though it might change my mind I'd already kind of changed my mind so I made a clap right there all right so now I'm gonna start with the hi-hat and you can double tap note repeat to lock it on or turn it off you can hold shift and hit it to lock it on or you can just um hold it down as you need it and it's only going to work while you're holding it so all right so yeah um start with that on these um when you hold the note repeat or you have it latched on you'll see the values at the bottom the quarter note 8 16 32nd 64th or the triplet you could turn the triplet on either one um so you can have regular eighth notes and then you eight eight triplets and you can do 16. so yeah that's that I don't know why I preferred a whole note repeat but I do um yeah let's get this recorder [Music] yeah that clap sound good [Music] and I guess the kick [Music] foreign [Music] and then the other thing [Music] thank you at the snare [Music] I need to do something to that snare so I'm gonna hit this eyeball and pad and hit that thumb on the uh snare and I'm gonna go into EQ and filter and then we'll go to error enhancer and that Refreshments preset that enhance it the way I need it it made it like brighter and less muffled bring it down some [Music] good I don't know if I want to add anything also not I have my take five synthesizer connected um that would need its own um separate video but to get to external synth if you have it connected through midi with the USB cable from the synth to here and then the inputs going into the ends and the outs ah have it in the output on the synth go into the inputs on the NPC and now it can communicate that way um if you don't get sound you actually have to go into the sampler from the menu and hit monitor in because like now I turned it off and now I get sound and that's the way you're gonna hear the sound that you get um I may or may not use it but let's mess around because I like this bass in here [Music] thank you so I'm gonna go to track four and hit this midi icon and on the midi Port since I have the USBs connected um take five shows up there so now the midi from here or any keyboard that I have connected or whatever I was gonna control the Take Five [Music] foreign foreign [Music] thank you I just like that steady note so I'm gonna put it in just holding that low end up [Music] that's dope all right and I was messing with the filter on there and I can open it up or muffle it a little bit with the um lower high pads or whatnot um a lot of people want to know when you use the external synth what's the way that I would choose to um record it because right now it's just midi if I save this and turn that stuff off and come back to this project only the midi notes are going to be there and you won't hear what it's controlling it'll try to pull from there and if it's on it'll pull whatever sound is up so if I want that sound to be in here and not have to worry about that um I'll hit audio and since right now that's the only thing coming through my um like externally like in my inputs um you really can just hit record and hit play [Music] I actually have to be kind of quiet there because the mic actually probably would have came through there like if I talked it would have recorded me too but even if I get a little his this or tutorial is fine um ideally you will want to cut off the mic or anything else but is fine so now I will go back to MIDI here at the bottom and mute that so now it's not controlling there and the base that you hear is going to be coming from the audio track [Music] I just muted the drums here's what's going on [Music] yeah all right so that's pretty much that um what you would do before you export everything um on your drum track since everything is on the same program and track like program the I didn't go over that either you got your sequences which is like the whole little piece that you're working on under that you have tracks and inside the track you could have a program or many programs um so in this track I'll break that down in another video too um in this track I'm gonna hit the little pencil off to the side of the track that has this program with the drums and I want to explode and what that does is now that track three goes to the next empty track I had Take Five On Track four so it's gonna skip that and go to track five now I have each one of those drums on a separate track the kick is on one track the snare Zone one track the clap on the track one hi-hat the other hi-hat on another tracks um and so forth the effects on the track that that sound so yeah and then from here you can hit menu and of course save and when you save it you can do audio mix down and if you want everything to export out as stems um you can where is it check the box right here that says explode tracks and that means every track is going to have a separate audio file and I have wave selected you could change it to MP3 and stuff wave is the highest quality um you would at least want to have those waves in case anybody asks for them later or whatnot you can do MP3s later on but if you're gonna mix or something or arrange in a doll which I prefer to do because you can do the song mode on here which again I may do another video on that I know this is all encompassing but it's still some things that's going to require a dedicated video um I'll just export everything as waves I'm gonna put it in like Ableton or whatnot and arrange and mix and everything in there um so yeah once you do that just hit export export and it's gonna export it out [Music] foreign that's pretty much it though um it's overdue for this again but I'm spent a lot man but I'm trying I think I'm got everything set up and back to where I can do what I need to do and help you guys and make more content give my input my thoughts and just be a bigger part of the community hope y'all can help me grow so if you haven't already hit that subscribe button hit the comment section um anything that's reasonable that I might have some input on or answer for I do respond so if you got anything to say to me just hit the comment section and we'll go from there hit the like button for sure but um I'd appreciate it if you did and then you hit the Subscribe button already like let's do that too let's get it up there uh till next time though y'all hold it down and stay safe all that good stuff peace out

Channel: Brandon B'Lystic Lee

Views: 2,627

Keywords: mpc live tutorial beginner, Music Production, MPC, MPC Live, MPC One, mpc beginner tutorial, mpc beginner, mpc beats beginner tutorial, mpc one beginner tutorial, mpc x beginner tutorial, mpc beats beginners walkthrough, mpc live beginners, mpc live 2 beginner tutorial, mpc software for beginners, best beginner mpc, akai mpc one, how to make beats, how to make beats for beginners, how to make beats without a computer, Mpc live 2 begginer tutorial, mpc live 2 tutorial beginner

Id: K18JtqrIDNM

Length: 35min 20sec (2120 seconds)

Published: Sun May 14 2023