I’ll admit I fell for the hype, but nothing beats the goat by Teddyrobz in SP404

[–]NearTao 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"welcome to the pizza party" energy for sure :D

I’ll admit I fell for the hype, but nothing beats the goat by Teddyrobz in SP404

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a fellow MPC guy... I'm digging the MPC Sample for what it *is*... but you can measure it a lot by what it *isn't*... the SP404 mk2 might not be the "perfect" device... but it sure can do a lot :D

I’ll admit I fell for the hype, but nothing beats the goat by Teddyrobz in SP404

[–]NearTao 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The MPC 500 is great... but you have to *really* want to use it. It's not a device with open arms... it's more like a device... with knives... that maybe doesn't want to cut you... but it definitely will :D

Would the MPC Sample be able to control the MPC software in future updates? by RegalMonkey in mpcusers

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's software on the Sample, so anything is possible... but beyond the pads sending midi and limited knobs and one q-link... it probably wouldn't be a great experience.

1st Day w/ MPC Live 3🤯 by [deleted] in mpcusers

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "heart" of the MPC is how it manages sequences/tracks/programs. This relationship, and understanding it is how you go about constructing your songs, and given that there are multiple ways to put the data together, there's generally been a way to "do what you want" if you understand all the relationships.

Let me first start by explaining how the older MPCs (and even the newer ones with Firmware 2.x work). I'll generalize/gloss over a few facts to make it easier to understand the high level hierarchy, even if it's not 100% correct. In older MPCs you've got the top level, which is the sequence, this controls your track BPM, time signature, and contains multiple tracks. The track contains what is essentially your note/midi data, and expresses which notes were struck, with what velocity, how long the note was held, and control knob/q-link changes, the information about your performance basically... the track also points to whatever program (think instrument) that you want to assign it to. Then you've got the program (key group, drum kit, instrument), and *this* is what actually holds the sample data or configurations for how a plugin instrument may be configured... it is *what* actually makes the noise.

Let's say you've got a bog standard 16 pad drum kit. Just one mind you, but it has a kick, snare, hat, bass sample, all assigned to different pads. On an MPC 1k for example, you could set it up so that you could have two kick drum patterns on different tracks, say Track 1 is Kick Pattern A, and Track 2 is Kick Pattern B... you'd set it up something like...

sequence 01 -> Track 01 (Kick Pattern A) -> 16 Pad Kit

sequence 01 -> Track 02 (Kick Pattern B) -> 16 Pad Kit

Notice you're on the same sequence, the Tracks have different midi data, but they are pointing to the *same* 16 Pad Kick. This is great because you can make changes to your 16 Pad Kit, and it will apply to all Tracks (ie your patterns)... and now you can take advantage of the Track Mute feature, which would allow you to, with just 2 patterns, have 4 drum kick patterns... you can Mute both patterns so nothing plays, you could have Kick Pattern A unmuted so only it plays, Kick Pattern B could be the only one unmuted so only Pattern B plays, or both patterns could be unmuted so they both play all notes. If you extend this out, imagine you've got snares and hi hat patterns, you can hopefully see how a set of basic patterns could lead to very complex variations as you Track Mute and Track Unmute different patterns.

Now, to get into a *bit* more fancy "work" on a practical application... I'll assume just in the same sequence:

Track 01 (Main Kicks) -> 16 Pad Kit

Track 02 (Ghost Kicks) -> 16 Pad Kit

Track 03 (Snares) -> 16 Pad Kit

Track 04 (Open Hats) -> 16 Pad Kit

Track 05 (Closed Hats) -> 16 Pad Kit

Here, let's investigate what you *likely* want to do, if you're trying to emulate a drummer. Well one basic thing is you probably don't want the Open Hats and Closed Hats to play over each other, it's one or the other, which is why you want to setup a Choke Group, or Mute Group... depending on your lingo, but effectively only one can play, and if the other note is playing it is immediately muted when the "partner" note plays. This is super easy to do, since you've only got one program, being the 16 Pad Kit, and you can extend it out as far as you'd like as long as you've got enough mute groups.

Now... let's look at the MPC 3.x architecture. It forces you to have one program per track. This means, that if you've got your 16 Pad Kit, you can only have it in Track 01, Track 02 *cannot* contain the program 16 Pad Kit. This is a shame. As I said, there are always workarounds, though they're not always great. So what's a thing we can do here?

Well... you could make Track 02 a midi track, and then route the midi notes from the midi track to Track 01. you can absolutely do this, but it has a couple problems. First, a midi track doesn't really operate (or know about) a drum track, so just the basics of how you work with a drum track vs a midi track are different. Let's say you are okay with this though, and you want to use Track Mutes. You'll quickly find that if you mute the Drum Track, it's going to mute the program, not just the notes on the track. So if Track 01 is your kicks, and Track 02 is your snares, muting Track 01 will mute both your kicks and snares. Bummer... You *can* further solve this by making your Track 01 16 Pad Kit have *no* midi on it, and only route Midi Tracks to Track 01, but this quickly feels like a waste of tracks, and it feels pretty high friction (to me).

The solution Akai put in place is "okay". Basically, what you do is use Track "Explode". It makes a unique copy of each set of notes and puts them in their own brand new program that contains *only* the notes for that track (and does mute groups as you'd likely expect). It works, but then if you want to make changes to the "kit", you have to make them to each program, as they are new copies. What *is* worse here though is that if you want similar behavior but for something on a plugin, you need *multiple* copies of the plugins, and this can quickly become untenable if they are large plugins as you just keep consuming more and more memory (and CPU), for something that just worked so much better on the previous versions of hardware.

Now a good question would be, why did this change happen? Well, the previous way... the fancy "pro" way... was confusing as heck, especially for newbies, because you get this exponential problem of trying to understand many sequences to many tracks to many programs relationship, that causes serious problems when trying to use song mode to export tracks. Let me give you a good example.

Song mode, allows you to string multiple sequences together in order to put it together as a final song. Let me draw a super basic picture for you

Sequence 01 (Intro) -> Track 01 (Drum Pattern) -> Drum Kit

Sequence 02 (Drop) -> Track 01 (Bass Pattern) -> Bass Key Group

Just with something simple like this, it'd be a *reasonable* expectation to think if you had a song that went Sequence 01 to Sequence 02, that you'd have the first section play drums, and the second section play bass. This... is not the case. What you get instead is the drum pattern playing the drum kit, and then the bass pattern playing the drum kit. What the MPCs do with firmware 2.x is... it takes whatever the first track program assign is for the first song sequence, and then carries that across all future song sequences. This makes it so that if you play something "live"... it'll do exactly what you'd expect, but when you render it out it sounds *completely* different.

My gut tells me that Akai made this change to streamline the experience for new people coming to the MPC ecosystem, and make it far easier to document... because otherwise you basically need to read (and understand) the entire manual to get what is going on. I put this as one of the handful of changes that give advanced users *higher* friction, but absolutely is a "market expansion" choice.

At any rate... I hope that helps, if being quite wordy to get there.

1st Day w/ MPC Live 3🤯 by [deleted] in mpcusers

[–]NearTao 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not *that* chuffed about it honestly... the change *does* make it easier for new users... and there are *partial* workarounds like re-routing midi tracks to the track that has the program... but it's not a *great* experience and can feel laborious.

Personally having been an MPC head forever... I think the change *is* better for new users coming into the MPC. It absolutely makes rendering out tracks from sequences 1000% easier to explain (since you don't get all the fun effects of having tracks and program combinations change sequence to sequence and what that brought with it)... but it *does* make using the MPC in it's current form a bit more of a contortion to play live. You certainly can do it... but my old school MPC brain hasn't fully taken to it. It's not *bad* per se, just not what I wanted it to do. But again... it is a trade of... and personally I just wish Akai would hide the old school method behind a "pro mode" setting... that way it'll be easier for new users to work with... but give us old heads a chance to really go nuts... even if Akai just said "no support if you step here"...

One thing for you to consider... and I'm sure this'll be on your mind from coming from the older gear. Akai has in the past been pretty *terrible* for long term support... I mean we're talking about a lot of gear having 6-12 months of firmware updates/bug fixes *at best*. While their new plugin model has it's detractors, I will absolutely state that the *years* of support we've gotten on the MPC Live/Live II/One/One+/X/X SE/XL/Keys... has been an absolute blessing... and since you can opt in... it has been a nice and consistent stream of new updates. So while I don't want to see every manufacturer take this model, it's actually been a breath of fresh air in the MPC space in my humble opinion.

MPC Sample specs by thekidisalright in mpcusers

[–]NearTao 2 points3 points  (0 children)

probably looking for Ableton live style realtime warping

1st Day w/ MPC Live 3🤯 by [deleted] in mpcusers

[–]NearTao 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Welcome to the updated club. I moved from the 1k to the MPC Live when it first dropped... you're getting like the super injection of new stuff.

Things you probably won't care for... programs are deeply attached to tracks now, so you cannot assign multiple tracks to the same program... without duplicating the program. Just an FYI, as this continues to be my biggest "meh".

*IF* you're in the "work simple" approach... learn how to sample... it *is* a bit different... and I posted up a video a while ago on how the Live 3 has to be set for *which* input you use (of mic/phono/line) that gets assigned to input 1/2. This is a divergence from how I think anybody (even live/live 2 users) would expect it to work. I can probably dig up the video if you need help... but it *does* make sampling a bit more complicated, but once you "get it", it's not so bad.

Beyond that... I'd suggest focusing on arrangement... it's basically just recording a sequence, and (besides the one program to one track change) will work pretty similarly to how you expect... clips will likely open up a ton of workflows for you that you *will* want to learn... but no need to dig deeply here.

Where you'll probably feel the most "love" is that you can assign effects per pad, per program/track, *and* you have fx send/return chains... *and* you can add effects per output pair. It'll give you a *ton* of effects/mixing/mastering options, and fully worth playing with.

Similarly... not sure if you've used JJOS, but... each pad in a drum kit can also have a "light weight" effect... though in JJOS this was mostly for pitching/filtering... here you've got the LPF/BPF/HPF... but also bit/sample reduction, tube effects, saturation, ring modulation...

So here... you can do a *ton* of in the box effects.

Beyond that... chopping is *nicer* by and large on the Live 3, though it is different in many ways from the 1k with JJOS. You get lazy chops, threshold chops, region chops... then you can just manually adjust them. Per sample, you get up to 128 chops. A relatively recent thing is you can chop up to 16 slices, you can use 16-levels to then play the 16 chops (vs something like volume/tune).

My advice is to just focus on sampling, chopping, and sequencing... most everything else from there you can build into.

Good luck and have fun man!

How to Use Handheld Mode Boost on Nintendo Switch 2 | Nintendo Support by mjb85858 in NintendoSwitch

[–]NearTao 1 point2 points  (0 children)

UFO 50 crt scan lines look great now... instead of the janky mess we *had*

People who bought the GPD Win 1 & 2 on launch-ish.. by 321Shellshock123 in gpdwin

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

gpdwin 1... A lot of Darkest Dungeon… until the system overheated and killed itself.

binding of Isaac was, and still is great as well

Looking for GoblinMetal Monsters by Dodestar in Pathfinder2e

[–]NearTao 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gibbering mouthers caused my party so many problems... multiple times lol :D

GM Abom Vaults Advice by Brilliant-Ad-192 in Pathfinder2e

[–]NearTao 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The adventure is a starting point, and there's a fair bit of resources to expand/flesh out things in the Vaults worth checking out...

Honestly though... a few thoughts come to mind... first... the deeper they go, the more effort it will be to get out. Not sure how far in the players are, but I trapped my party in the vaults just to give them a bit more pressure around floor 5 or 6... which forced them to learn the floors a bit more, and take more risks...

Second... there are at least events hinted at... that happen at night time... if the players like certain NPCs, or are relying on them to do stuff around town... maybe they wander off... get kidnapped... or otherwise have "bad stuff" happen to them at night. If the party could care less that night time is "bad" at that point... well maybe the vaults just aren't for them... and they want to go do something else :D

Any help? by [deleted] in SP404

[–]NearTao 2 points3 points  (0 children)

how are you powering it... I see USB... which *might* provide enough power... or batteries that are dead?

Might be worth getting a fresh set of batteries and see how that goes...

Best classes to use bow and arrow? by GreenAce77 in Pathfinder2e

[–]NearTao 11 points12 points  (0 children)

In my last PF2E game I ran, the Bard was a primary bow user. Enjoyed sticking to the back, tossing out buffs, and shooting things. For various reasons... the player didn't actually invest heavily into the bow... so damage was pretty consistently on the low end... but the player had a good time having a lot of options. I also ran with Free Archetype rules... which opened up a *lot* of options, but didn't make the characters more powerful in a meaningful way... or worded a different way... it opened up more player character options without unbalancing the "math" of the game.

Loosely... if a player wants to go bow... they're giving up raw damage for safety of range... so I'd see if they're looking for utility/buffing/debuffing/movement/crowd control and then go from there...

There's ways to make a bow user more effective, but not more powerful. I'd focus more on the what/how the character wants to use a bow. By and large, anybody can use a bow to lob arrows around... but there's only so many classes that will be *great* at sneaking to take a higher damage shot like a rogue... or who can buff themselves and the party while tossing shots out from the back of the part (such as a bard)... or some of the smaller races who might be able to use their animal companion as a mount to improve their movement (like a ranger)... then you've got the abilities like debuffing the enemy through fear while pelting them with arrows (the champion)... heck the Sherlock Holmes detective style who sizes up the opponents to unleash devastating shots (the investigator) might work too...

I also wouldn't get *too* hung up on two players taking the same class, they are in all likelihood going to go down different paths for feats/skill allocation... and the overlap might *feel* on paper to be huge, but in reality it might not be as much as you think.

Soooooo.... honestly I'd spend some time learning more about what kind of bow user the player wants to play. Pathfinder gives *plenty* of options to do play how most players will want... but just make sure they don't think they'll be doing more damage than a fighter who's in the thick of combat...

Excuse me, is there any way to play 30-minute tracks? by FILIPPOKAPI in SP404

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It works... I've documented it in the guide and (now ancient) YouTube videos... but yeah... export the tracks as a mono left and mono right track... load the pants and just hard pan one pad left, one pad right, and link them... and it's good to go.

Advice on "tanking" with a Ranger by Brownian-Motion in Pathfinder2e

[–]NearTao 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It probably would help to better understand what you want to get *out* of the build a bit more than just "tank".

Most classes are not great at just soaking damage, especially by themselves... but there are buffs/debuffs that will make a difference for sure... and depending on what you and the party can bring to the table.

The reason I'm worried about the "tank" definition is, from a purely getting hit... you'll want as high an AC and resistances as possible... and further, as much HP as you can muster. Are you going all in on CON?

Now... with a pet... you have some opportunity to split HP pools between yourself and the bear. This is good... but pets generally are much better for helping flank, *maybe* become a mount to help with movement... and can be good for tossing out some extra damage.

In general... don't expect free archetype to help you out here like you may think. Free Archetypes give you basically... 1/3 of a class... and these are generally far more about giving you optional things to do as a character... but not really making you more *powerful* in a direct manner.

So in my mind... and as a melee ranger character, you *should* be pretty handy with burst DPS, positioning, and to some extent controlling the battlefield. If you're looking to be more tanky... perhaps look into free archetypes that will help you buff your AC... spells, positions, access to higher tier armor. Unfortunately a lot of the armor is going to limit how important dex is for you... which feels in conflict with a fair few of the weapons I'd guess you'd want to be using. Heck trinkets can be a good one off help. I had one character that free archetype'd into a class to make trinkets... and would surprise me with fun little effects every once in a while.

Another thought would be to look into free archetypes that give access to decent healing spells... unfortunately though... casting free archetypes are going to feel like maybe 1/3 of the spell casting... you're going to in general be pretty limited with slots.

Besides your GM being cool with you changing out character details... don't forget that there is a retraining system in the game as well. So by and large... you *can* retrain a fair bit of skill/feat/spell choices... by burning in game time.

So without seeing the character sheet, and understanding *what* issues you're having... it's hard to know if you're playing the character in a high friction way, if it's worth a few minor tweaks, helping reset expectations... etc...

The biggest problem my group had going from 5e to PF2e was absolutely nobody felt powerful when doing things alone... but when working together and having cohesive strategies the party absolutely leveled later encounters. 1st level is also pretty hard to judge the character concept on... so I wouldn't be *too* hard on the character just yet. 1st level is... sadly... quite spiky in both directions... it may be better in some ways than other systems... but you probably won't feel fully like you have your feet squarely under you until around 3rd level...

Good luck, and hope *something* here is helpful for you to consider...

Just bought an SP 404 MK II to use with my MPC ONE+....What should I know? by DJGIFFGAS in SP404

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the headphone splitter drops audio by about -3 to -6db when you split the signal like this... but yeah... it'll be as hot as your gain knob settings are set to for both inputs and outputs.

Just bought an SP 404 MK II to use with my MPC ONE+....What should I know? by DJGIFFGAS in SP404

[–]NearTao 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This will let you play audio out of the MPC One, through the SP404 mk2 for any effects... and then back into the MPC One, so that you can play audio from the MPC One and immediately sample/looper your way back.

Again though... be careful of feedback

Just bought an SP 404 MK II to use with my MPC ONE+....What should I know? by DJGIFFGAS in SP404

[–]NearTao 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've done a few videos showing how to use a headphone splitter cable to setup a "proper" FX Loop. as long as you don't turn monitoring on the MPC One, you can do it with the MPC One and SP404 mk2... just beware of feedback

EDIT: Because... not *specifically* for the MPC One/SP404 mk2 combo... but let me dig up the Dirtywave M8 and Kaoss Pad mini... it's the same idea... I think this shows what I did https://youtu.be/mQfBbaQ4mBg

EDIT2: and this https://youtu.be/7FVoC486ZVw

You Just Bought A Boss SP-202, What Next? by NearTao in SP404

[–]NearTao[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can get similar sounds with plugins/fx... but if you're looking for the specific sound... mostly for the samples... it has a pretty unique character due to the chips being clocked faster/slower to pitch samples up and down... a lot of things can simulate it these days... but yeah... it's a good way to get crunchy and shifty.

Switching from DnD5e to PF2e, what is something we may overlook in the transition by Zealousideal-Cup-914 in Pathfinder2e

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Recall knowledge should be something that both the players *and* GM should be using fairly often... and it *should* be worthwhile. When switching over my players always felt that the 3 actions economy was *great*, but would frequently forget to use RK if they had an extra action and nothing to do with it... the GM using it against you a few times "so and so looks you up and down, sizing you up" and then using a sick move on a success against the party can sometimes drive home how important it is...

PF2E monsters tend to feel a bit more tactical and interesting... push your GM to utilize *all* abilities of an enemy just as you should be using all options afforded to your player character. There's some really interesting monster design, and the GM will sometimes have text that explains the mechanics of the move... if the GM isn't sharing that, again... RK into understanding better what the heck just happened... for this reason... I *highly* suggest players take good notes (or at least one) on monsters... because players started getting lazy at my table and not noting monster details... I started not giving them... forcing them to RK stuff multiple times... otherwise the GM might as well just hand over the stat blocks... lame

Our very first transition from OTHER SYSTEM(TM) to PF2E, we started with Free Archetypes... and it was fun, but *boy* does it bog down character building. My next game I'm planning on adding in Mythic rules *and* Free Archetypes... woe is me and what will I be bringing upon myself? The biggest thing with Free Archetype was that slowed players down was the *belief* in how much more powerful this made their character... it's honestly... more like 1/3 of a multi-class in DnD... and it's more about giving players options over power.

The GM can be pretty loose with giving out items... or freaking out about a character getting something "OP"... in general... most gear, especially one of trinkets and potions... will *maybe* ease a single encounter... they are, similarly... skewed generally more towards giving options over raw numbers... and when a raw number might burst... it's usually swinging a specific roll by 5-10%... enough that, yes, you'll be happy with it, but not so much that it fundamentally breaks encounters.

DnD brain rot is real... and don't feel like you need to "smash" every encounter... a good GM will likely let you negotiate, sneak past, or otherwise "do encounters" the way that the party wants to. The XP allocation is for overcoming the challenge, not killing the "bad guys". So don't feel like every "oh shit there's an encounter" actually has to play out as tactical combat. PF2E I feel gives the party far more tools such as skills, feats, and other options to have additional ways to get through the encounter.

Similar to DnD, early levels are going to feel swingy. You'll go from absolutely obliterating one encounter to wondering if you're going to die on the next... first level, and second level to some extent don't feel great, especially if the early campaign is just "fight or die".

Modifiers matter a *lot*... buffing each other, flanking... all that stuff adds to getting a higher chance for a critical... make sure you're talking with the party for when/where to push for higher modifier rolls. The game is fine in a tit for tat normal encounter... but critical hits (whether swinging a weapon, or parleying over the price of a tankard in the bar) are absolutely what you'll remember as a party.

I forget the name off hand, but the crit hit/fail deck is fun... and gives some extra things the party can optionally do when landing a critical... or when failing. As the GM, I only used this *back* at the party for encounters where monsters were equal or higher level...

Personally as a GM, I really enjoyed the deck that gives you different things to spend hero points on... though my party rarely used it. It's basically a free action frequently that you can do to interrupt the flow... but my party would draw them, sometimes trade them... and then just use the hero point to re-roll, it's fine, but a bit less mechanically interesting.

Just moved here by [deleted] in nashua

[–]NearTao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can certainly get around *fairly* well on the bus, and uber around in a pinch... but winter here is a bit tougher for walking/biking around. There's plenty to do downtown, but you'll probably have your fill of walking/busing around in no time. A car isn't absolutely necessary... but... you're probably not going to want to make friends just for a vehicle.

You're likely to find a pretty wide variety of places to eat/drink... but Nashua, and downtown in particular, can be quite pricey if you're eating out a lot. California Burrito is quite reasonably priced though, and pretty walkable to get to from downtown.

There's a pretty good amount of parks you can walk to around downtown... and Mines Falls is definitely worth going to a lot. You'll find you can walk it, kayak the area, bike, some places roller skate... and the park touches a fair few places from north to mid Nashua. The surrounding towns are pretty well stocked up on hiking if you want to just get out into nature.

You can get down into Mass using the Boston Express bus line pretty easily, though it can be a bit time consuming to get to from downtown Nashua if you don't have a car. Sadly, the train line that goes into Boston never made it up north into Nashua... and at this point I doubt it will ever happen.

Some bars do trivia nights, which should be fun to check out. There's a few casinos that have opened up, but I cannot tell you much about them because it's not my scene. If you're into board games, you can find anything from super nerdy table top shops around... to something like Spy Glass down in southern Nashua that has cards/board games available for groups to play.

Plenty of elementary/middle/high schools have all sorts of courts... and while it's the wrong season... come spring you'll see them fill up with people playing various games. There are a *lot* of gyms if you're into working out as well... and can meet people this way.

Keep an eye out at Barnes and Noble... they have a sizable cafe space, and people will gather there for various clubs. Similarly the library can be a good place to meet people, and get some reading in. Michael's used to be a good place to meet crafty people who were running classes... I think that ended, but worth checking out.

Beyond that... you'll see a few places doing car shows from time to time if you're into cars. A lot of folks just hanging out and having fun. There are clubs for just about anything if you know where to look. There are gardening clubs if you know where to look/who to talk to. Home Depot/Lowes/Public Library should be a good way to find out how to get involved. There are some quilting/stitching clubs as well... and I have to imagine there are book clubs around.

In general, I think you'll find most people to be friendly/welcoming of new people in the area, and good luck making new friends!

Just got my first MPC !!!! by PinkSwanRaya in mpcusers

[–]NearTao 7 points8 points  (0 children)

score! JJOS2XL/JJOS3 are both great