Here you will find Tips & Tricks on how you can get creative with the Midi Melodies Progressions:
About the 16 pads:
'Midi Melodies' are Akai Pro MPC formatted and Midi formatted 16 Pad Chord Progressions. These are 16 Chords which are laid out in a musical progression. Each pad is a single chord and forms part of a harmonious musical piece. Essentially, it's a song with just the chords, giving you the chance to craft your own music easily from a solid starting point, enabling you to focus on rhythm, groove, and vibes rather than worrying about theory and making chords yourself. These progressions are mostly complex and interesting chords with character and emotion, rather than just basic triads.
All of the 'Midi Melodies' are Akai Pro MPC formatted, downloadable immediately ready to use, based on chord combos which dial into a rich style, and genre specific, 16 Pads per Progression.. each unlocks a potential hit making vibe from the get go!
Production Tips & Tricks:
Velocities: When using the chords, be aware that full velocities will sound sonically very different from half velocities. So a high velocity, hitting the pads hard, will often sound more aggressive, louder and brighter, whereas a lower velocity, hitting the pads softly, can create a less bright and warmer and quieter sound. Many hardware and software synths have velocity sensitive features that enable you to create expression and a more human feel of playing an instrument. 'Midi Melodies' are velocity sensitive so you can create the feel you want in whichever synth you want. There are also expressive features in synthesizers such as: filters, envelopes, shapers and so on, the options are endless. Get exploring!
Monophonic: Using a monophonic synth sound such as a lead or bass means that only one note out of the chord will play, this means you can jam out Leads, Basslines, Melodies and Riffs as well as Chords. We have also put the key in each name of the 'Midi Melodies' Progressions, so you can use the Notes function on the MPC software and hardware to keep anything you playing in key with the chord progression, so you can focus on the musical story your telling, rather than having to search for the right notes.
Mother Ducker Input: You can use this AKAI plug in on your beats, this will give your drums the space to be punchy and not distort your music, whilst allowing your musical progressions, bass-line, vocals and other elements to sit comfortably. At higher thresholds, this can give you a pumping, side chain effect that can sound awesome.
Kordbot: Add the notes from the PDF into your Kordbot for extra musical options, when you are in creative mode.
MPC Arp Mode: The MPC has a very awesome Arpeggiator, which has many special menus with cool features, presets and edit-ability. As soon as you have loaded up your Midi Melodies progression, you can enable arp mode. Press the Note Repeat button, click arp in the bottom right of the screen, which will put it into the Arp mode menu, then enable it, happy days. Then you can also easily cycle through all the Arp Actions from the classic Arps, to Note Repeat, Rhythm and Pattern for endless possibilities.