User Guide

Pad section
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Pad section
Pads 1–16
The top panel contains sixteen velocity-sensitive pads. These pads are a user interface that corresponds to
the keyboard of a synthesizer. However, the pads differ from a MIDI keyboard in that you can freely assign
a note number to each pad.
If you have selected a drum program, you can assign a different drum/percussion sound to each pad and play
them. If you have selected a key group program, you can assign the necessary pitches to the pads to play a
melody.
Pad banks
A set of note numbers assigned to pads 1–16 is called a “pad bank.” The MPC4000 provides six pad banks,
A–F. By switching pad banks you can use the sixteen pads to play 96 different sounds (or different pitches).
About the memory of the MPC4000
The programs, samples, multis, sequences, and songs we have discussed so far are all held in the internal
memory of the MPC4000. However, internal memory is volatile, and will be lost when you turn off the
power.
This means that if you want to keep your data, you must save it on an external or internal storage device
(e.g., hard disk).
You can store data to (or load data from) a storage device in units of programs, samples, multis, sequences,
and songs.
You also have the option of loading/saving the sequences/songs of the sequencer section and the pro-
grams/samples/multis of the sampler section as a single collection of data.
Basic operation on the MPC4000
Here’s how to perform the basic operations that are common to each screen of the MPC4000.
Switching modes
In order to perform an operation on the MPC4000, you must first use the keys of the mode section (→p.3)
to access the desired mode.
The screen will switch according to the mode you selected. The following illustration shows the Main mode
screen that you will see when you turn on the power. Operations for the Sequencer section are mainly per-
formed in this screen. If a different screen is shown, you can press the [MAIN] key of the mode section to
access this screen.