I was in the Air Ambulance shop the other day, flicking through their vinyl bin while my daughter had a browse around. It was 99% donations from mum & dad’s loft - Bygraves, Joe Loss, K-Tel classics, sleeves coming unglued, etc. But with persistence I found a train sounds LP I hadn’t seen before with some interesting field recording notes, so I picked that up. No prices on the records or bin, and at the till I found out they were all £2.95. £2.95! I didn’t back out of a charity sale, but that big pile of Mantovani won’t be going anywhere in the near future.
The point for all new MPC owners is to factor in the cost of feeding them.
Anyone having problems with shutting down since updating? My MPC One hangs on the shutting down screen and I end up pulling the plug after a minute or so. I don’t get the warning that it was not shut down correctly on next power up, so presumably it is shutting down properly, but it is a bit annoying.
Hahaha exactly, I know it’s for a good cause but some people need to get off their high “bargain bin record” horses. My local Sue Ryder usually has all for £1 but the stock is quite low.
On a good day, once you pass the usual Jim Reeves, Hammond organ greatest hits, the Mantovani compilations and that Herp Albert and his Tijuana brass band thing you might get interesting stuff.
I got 5x insane 60s Walt Disney kiddie stuff LPs in perfect condition the other day. If only it was only instrumental it would have been the best £5 ever spent ever. But the story teller kept talking over these crazy punchy instrumentals. Oh well, better luck next time.
The latency you get using Bluetooth-MIDI would prohibit most using it in a live setting on stage anyway. Was just curious what you were trying to do that didn’t work for you. For me, I usually only run a Bluetooth-MIDI keyboard with my Live II to add pads and other layers that don’t require super tight timing. For iOS, I almost exclusively rely on Ableton Link - which is rock solid on virtually any and all apps I’ve tried.
I don’t know how much the screen represents the power drainage, so this may be a moot point, but here goes:
I find it weird that there’s actually a setting for screen brightness hidden in the preferences, but it’s called Night vs Day mode. Why didn’t they also add the option to dim the brightness more when on battery? Also, dim the screen even further (while keeping it readable) after 10 seconds of no touch? Even if this would just add another 15 minutes to the battery life, it’d be totally worth it. Also, add a slider thing so you could adjust brightness without diving into the preferences.
My screen on my Live MK1 starts to flicker constantly if I have it set on “Night” mode. I thought my screen was dying, turns out if I keep it set to day it doesn’t flicker. Shame since I’m not a fan of bright screens, but at least the flickering stopped I guess.
Man, in Seattle it’s the same. Insane quantities of “Sing Along With Mitch” and “Evie” records too for some reason… fucking Mitch is everywhere. I feel like 20 years ago it was Chuck Mangione, but apparently all his shit got bought up!
I don’t think it is since it literally never does it when set to “day” and it stops if I have it set to “night” but switch it back and forth and then leave it on night, usually anyway, sometimes I have to do it a couple times, so I’ve just decided to stick to “day”. It’s strange for sure, but as long as the screens not dying (which it would appear it isn’t thankfully), no huge deal really. I got it used off ebay a couple months ago, so either way, no warranty or anything.
It should never flicker. I’m pretty sure it’s a hardware problem that shows up when the current is low on the screen circuitry. May still work just fine at the Daytime mode for years though, so since you don’t have warranty, just keep it at that setting.
There is a veritable gold mine of free video tutorials all over YouTube. I’d start with Akai’s own “MPC Beats Academy” playlists, and check out the various features videos for most of the recent firmware updates (2.11, 2.10, 2.9, and 2.8 are great, but even 2.7 added some awesome stuff). And of course, RTFM when you get a few spare minutes. It’s a quick read!
Lycka till!
