Akai's new standalone MPC looks awesome

alecsbuga

Oh... forgot about the Circuit... too much of a toy for my kind of music.

jbvdb

@alecsbuga said:
I had them all: MPC 1000, Maschine when they first released, then MK2, Push 1, Push 2, MPC Touch, REN, Studio, Electribe 1 & 2, OP-1.
Bought & sold 'cuz I don't afford all LOL. I loved them all but each had their quirks.
Honestly the Electribe 2 was awesome because it ran on batteries and had a synth, a sampler, a sequencer... it was awesome but It was limited.

I really loved the workflow of the MPC Touch and I was asking myself "Why the heck didn't they make this standalone?

Looks like they did it. And the battery is icing on the cake.

As much as I love my iPad it's a bit annoying (I know, spoiled rat)... switch apps... not all have the latest Audiobus / Audiocopy, etc... I really see myself sitting in the middle of the room on the floor with the MPC, the headphones and my guitar doing tracks.

Don't discount the iPad, it will really shine as sample fodder for these new MPCs, that's what is in store for mine! Sequence Animoog and sample into the MPC add some guitar drones! That is the best case right there. Love the touch screen, hate iOS, love synth apps, hate all iOS sequencers/daws. Boom, the pairing would be so perfect for me at least! I might even be able to ditch ableton live as well! In reality all I want my laptop for at this point is mixing and what I try and pass off as mastering.

Telstar5

Yeah, I'm looking forward to a good review also. That said, as was said that iOS's strength lies in the myriad synth apps that's available to us. Who knows, if BM3 ever DOES come out, that could change.. The Alai comes w 10 gigabytes of sounds but that cannot replace Thor, Gadget, Sampletank, etc (especially when fully loaded. It seems to excel in areas that iOS doesn't , mainly sampling and pattern sequencing as opposed to step (modstep) sequencing. I'd like to have both but could live to regret it if a new sampling app comes out , which is IMO inevitable within the next two years after which the new Akais will be supplanted anyway.

MichaelLawrence

@jbvdb @Telstar5

All good points. I would never think of dropping IOS. I've already invested too much money and time. I like the idea of using the sounds I make on my iPad and sampling into Akai Live. The combination sounds awesome.

alecsbuga

@jbvdb said:
Don't discount the iPad, it will really shine as sample fodder for these new MPCs, that's what is in store for mine! Sequence Animoog and sample into the MPC add some guitar drones! That is the best case right there. Love the touch screen, hate iOS, love synth apps, hate all iOS sequencers/daws. Boom, the pairing would be so perfect for me at least! I might even be able to ditch ableton live as well! In reality all I want my laptop for at this point is mixing and what I try and pass off as mastering.

Who said anything about ditching the iPad? It's cumbersome sometimes but it's very nice.

I had a setup with my MPC 1000 and JJOS2XL (It was a custom firmware made by a Japanese which added TONS of features). So I was making beats on the MPC, while sampling live recordings from Animoog, or sampling notes from Sunrizer and creating instruments based on those notes.

It was nice because you could layer samples just like in Beatmaker and make evolving pads.

What's nice about the new MPC is that time stretching applies to these samples also. So you samlpe a note and when you play chords the higher notes won't end up sooner or you don't have to create loop points. Push 2 does that.

jbvdb

@alecsbuga said:

@jbvdb said:
Don't discount the iPad, it will really shine as sample fodder for these new MPCs, that's what is in store for mine! Sequence Animoog and sample into the MPC add some guitar drones! That is the best case right there. Love the touch screen, hate iOS, love synth apps, hate all iOS sequencers/daws. Boom, the pairing would be so perfect for me at least! I might even be able to ditch ableton live as well! In reality all I want my laptop for at this point is mixing and what I try and pass off as mastering.

Who said anything about ditching the iPad? It's cumbersome sometimes but it's very nice.

I had a setup with my MPC 1000 and JJOS2XL (It was a custom firmware made by a Japanese which added TONS of features). So I was making beats on the MPC, while sampling live recordings from Animoog, or sampling notes from Sunrizer and creating instruments based on those notes.

It was nice because you could layer samples just like in Beatmaker and make evolving pads.

That's also how I am using my 1000!
I've also sampled lots from the Ruismaker/ ruismaker fm combo running in AUM, usually sequenced from patterning

Telstar5

Don't forget how long we've all been requesting a sampling instrument for Gadget. Who's to say they wouldn't release one w time stretching and audio warping? After all, it not like they'd be having to reinvent the wheel or anything using these already existing techonolgies .

Thomas

Yeah, I am only interested in the X, so I won't be buying for several months at best. A lot could develop in the iOS world, like the MPC killer we've all been asking for for years. That said, a new iPad, controller, audio interface & app software will go a long way towards offsetting the cost of the mpcX. Then, I won't have to worry about anything going outdated the following year and having to develop a new workflow.

Thomas

All that said, I'd still integrate my iPad.

Telstar5

@Thomas.. Oh yeah that's def the way to go.. How would you do it though ? An USB bus? Also, why the X? Don't you wanna take it around? To me despite less inputs and a smaller screen the "live " makes so much more sense

mireko_2

Yeah the iPad for me is what makes these new mpc exciting
Mpc live hooked up to my iPad (running focusrite interface). Sample from Ipad into mpc to build instruments and drum kits, send aux outputs through iPad fx to resample into mpc. So much potential

Ivan_Dj

^^^Sounds cool

sonicreef

@kobamoto said:

@5pinlink said:

@kobamoto said:

@supadom said:
I understand the standalone angle except that this has a massive screen which kinda puts it in the computer category.

I'd rather get 2 Ipads with their dedicated controllers, link them and have same or more with less money. Yes, there is the stability of the dedicated software but still that's shed loads of cash for a screen, few buttons and ehm... Software ;

depends on the software, there isn't any on iOS that can do what this software can do in an integrated manner.

That would be the whole point of IAA and audiobus and so on, the iPad from a software point of view is way more advanced.

the iPad has no audio warping clip launcher integrated into any app in this way, not even remotely.
launchpad, remixlive, hook,blocs wav, the impc, beat hawk, bm2, etc... not the same thing.

Looptunes does time stretched clip launching.

sonicreef

@kobamoto said:
yes and those other apps i mentioned have time stretching, but it's not implemented in the same way, with recordable clip launching and realtime audio looping

yea, Looptunes does all that

kobamoto

@sonicreef said:

@kobamoto said:
yes and those other apps i mentioned have time stretching, but it's not implemented in the same way, with recordable clip launching and realtime audio looping

yea, Looptunes does all that

sooooo right was just thanking you for that the other day, and forgot SF keep up the great work man!!!

mireko_2

@sonicreef said:

@kobamoto said:
yes and those other apps i mentioned have time stretching, but it's not implemented in the same way, with recordable clip launching and realtime audio looping

yea, Looptunes does all that

wait so you can chop up a sample and trigger different slices from a pattern sequence, and apply time-stretching to each slice with per slice individual settings like pan, cutoff, semitone offset, tuning, etc and mute groups

Then adjust global pitch for this program and have every individual slice adjust its pitch setting in relation to program pitch and time-stretch settings.

kobamoto

it's not midi based like we're discussing with akai, but it does do some of that stuff, it's a different animal though
no slicing/midi/ etc..

mireko_2

@Ivan_Dj said:
^^^Sounds cool

what would be really cool is if the outputs can be set up as a active AUX FX bus, so the iPad running audiobus could be used as a live FX rack for the MPC.
I'm sure the MPC X will be able to do this but maybe not the MPC Live.
Will have to wait for the manuals to be released

sonicreef

@mireko_2 said:

@sonicreef said:

@kobamoto said:
yes and those other apps i mentioned have time stretching, but it's not implemented in the same way, with recordable clip launching and realtime audio looping

yea, Looptunes does all that

wait so you can chop up a sample and trigger different slices from a pattern sequence, and apply time-stretching to each slice with per slice individual settings like pan, cutoff, semitone offset, tuning, etc and mute groups

Then adjust global pitch for this program and have every individual slice adjust its pitch setting in relation to program pitch and time-stretch settings.

it can’t do that....that’s where the MPC excels. I meant the time stretched clip launching, changing transpose on the fly, which I find Looptunes more intuitive than the MPC.

mireko_2

@sonicreef said:

@mireko_2 said:

@sonicreef said:

@kobamoto said:
yes and those other apps i mentioned have time stretching, but it's not implemented in the same way, with recordable clip launching and realtime audio looping

yea, Looptunes does all that

wait so you can chop up a sample and trigger different slices from a pattern sequence, and apply time-stretching to each slice with per slice individual settings like pan, cutoff, semitone offset, tuning, etc and mute groups

Then adjust global pitch for this program and have every individual slice adjust its pitch setting in relation to program pitch and time-stretch settings.

it can’t do that....that’s where the MPC excels. I meant the time stretched clip launching, changing transpose on the fly, which I find Looptunes more intuitive than the MPC.

Aha ok got it, I guess the great thing about the new mpc is it can do all these things in a single self contained box. So you can have your sliced programs adjusting their bpm, pitch, and time stretch in Sync with audio track loops and all this synced to an iPad with Ableton link. Pretty powerful stuff

sonicreef

@mireko_2 said:

@sonicreef said:

@mireko_2 said:

@sonicreef said:

@kobamoto said:
yes and those other apps i mentioned have time stretching, but it's not implemented in the same way, with recordable clip launching and realtime audio looping

yea, Looptunes does all that

wait so you can chop up a sample and trigger different slices from a pattern sequence, and apply time-stretching to each slice with per slice individual settings like pan, cutoff, semitone offset, tuning, etc and mute groups

Then adjust global pitch for this program and have every individual slice adjust its pitch setting in relation to program pitch and time-stretch settings.

it can’t do that....that’s where the MPC excels. I meant the time stretched clip launching, changing transpose on the fly, which I find Looptunes more intuitive than the MPC.

Aha ok got it, I guess the great thing about the new mpc is it can do all these things in a single self contained box. So you can have your sliced programs adjusting their bpm, pitch, and time stretch in Sync with audio track loops and all this synced to an iPad with Ableton link. Pretty powerful stuff

hence the price difference between $7 and $2000

mireko_2

Btw mpc live is $30 cheaper than iPad Pro 128gb wifi with pencil and Smart Cover in Australia. Interesting..

sonicreef

but can you play candy crush on the MPC?
(end of troll comment)

mireko_2

@sonicreef said:
but can you play candy crush on the MPC?
(end of troll comment)

( ••)
( ••)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Will

@sonicreef said:
but can you play candy crush on the MPC?
(end of troll comment)

Someone will hack it before summer (presuming it actually comes out soonish). Might not be candy crush but I have a feeling we'll all sorts of interesting stuff running on it eventually.

kobamoto

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kobamoto

there's allot of butt hurt over the new mpcs but in my opinion thats a good thing, even though I'm platform agnostic I recognize that if it's stable it could be a great studio hub, there isn't anything else out there with this kind of hardware connectivity, what laptop do you know of that has a bunch of cv outs?..... the rest of the hardware i/o and storage options are impressive and useful.... the software is just too much to go into, the slicer can do things no other sample slicer can do, the sample editing is factually unparalleled in a groovebox, the midi sequencer section of any old legacy mpc is a great read, and the workflow...... as always is subjective.

Dham

@AndyPlankton said:
I have just read this thread with great interest......I cannot afford either of the Akai units, so am firmly entrenched in the iOS world, but its promised capabilities do look impressive, and to have all of that in one place with no need for any messing about....Yes Please.....
If you are making money from your music then this thing would pay for itself in no time just in setup time saving alone.....and that is where its value would come from, you would be saving time each time you used it.
I guess only time will tell if it fully delivers on its promises....

iOS still wins from the "throw it in your pocket and use it anywhere" point of view though

If money were no object then I'd have both my iPad and an Akai and use both at different times....Variety is the Spice and all that

Alternatively, the MPC Touch will have 90% of the capabilities of the new MPCs since the 2.0 update will be given to Touch users at no charge. With the recent price drop to $599 for a new MPC Touch and the official announcement of the shiney new models the "old" MPC Touch can be bought on Ebay for less than $500.

Dham

@Thomas said:
So... how may iPad pros will I go thru during the lifespan of the mpcX? How many audio interfaces will I invest in and f^(I< around with instead of making music during that time? Yeah, I'm beginning to think I can justify it.

Just to play Devil's Advocate, lifespan of recent MPC products has not been their strong suit. Akai has been notoriously bad at maintaining even their flagship products. MPC 5000 users are still waiting for bug fixes that Akai promised over 3 years ago.

sonicreef

@Dham said:

@Thomas said:
So... how may iPad pros will I go thru during the lifespan of the mpcX? How many audio interfaces will I invest in and f^(I< around with instead of making music during that time? Yeah, I'm beginning to think I can justify it.

Just to play Devil's Advocate, lifespan of recent MPC products has not been their strong suit. Akai has been notoriously bad at maintaining even their flagship products. MPC 5000 users are still waiting for bug fixes that Akai promised over 3 years ago.

Akai has focused all their efforts on the software line, and has continuously updated the software.
The new hardware MPCs are based off the software, so they'll be updated for years to come.