Congratulations on your MPC, and your great experience with it! Anyone who has followed this thread for the past year will know I’m a big fan of my MPC. Just thought I’d say that in light of my recent comments about their weird release processes. Like someone else said, the MPC is the heart of my most loved hobby and I’ve never been more productive.
At the same time, like @hausland, I could come up with a list of at least a hundred workflow improvements. It’s less about bugs for me, and more about workflow. Riffing off of his list, why can’t I see all effects in a chain side by side on the touch screen (Program, Submix, Master)? Imagine one Fx button that gave you access to that, compared to scrolling between the various mix screens and tracing a Program to its corresponding Submix. And then the ability to bind that new Fx screen to the Minus (-) hardware button which I never have and never will use. That would literally save me from hours of menu diving. And that’s just one idea.
My wife is my best friend, I love her looks, her depth, her heart and her soul. She makes me laugh and she makes me feel loved. But her way of organizing the cutlery in the dishwasher absolutely drives me nuts.
So yeah, perhaps an oddball analogy, but I think you can love a product and at the same time hate parts of it.
Yes I agree, it needs work that had a good chance of never happening… sad face… I hate when people dismiss it because of the touch screen but likely have never used one… yet love things like gotherman as the coolest despite it having a touch screen as well…
Or people hating saying the screen won’t last because it is a touch screen, when it is a high quality lcd screen that will last many decades while most elektron had a oled screen with a much shorter lifespan… hypocrisy!! Stuff like that I can’t stand… I agree about these comments lately… about all of them… not that any of you care what I think, but still.
I had the force for a while and the One briefly. It’s probably a dumb way to explain myself but here goes: They felt a bit like an older Windows vs the more Apple feel i get when using Ableton, the Maschine or even Elektron.
Like mentioned above, there’s a bunch of inconsistencies and some things take more work than you think they should. Like loading the Duck duck compressor. Getting 2 seperate instances loaded to sidechain instead of just letting the compressor know which track to use as input is already twice the work it is on Maschine.
I feel like some people are just too sensitive for these bumps in workflow or too used to other workflows where it’s different (and often easier :D)
Anyways i liked the force, but having Ableton I felt like I was better of with Push 2. The Mpc One came after the Maschine and was an instant return, but admittedly I had never worked with the ‘MPC workflow’ and didn’t care to learn. Got it more out of curiousity since it gets a lot of deserved love as a standalone groovebox / daw.
Also; curious to hear about the difference between the One and Live 2. Is there a difference in terms of workflow annoyances? I’ve read about the Program Change button but I’m curious if the workflow is more premium due to the emphasis on the touch screen.
One, Live, Live mkii, Studio, Touch and X all have the exact same workflow with annoyances that change with every update.
The only differences are in hardware (buttons being the main focus), which extends to having to install another driver on your computer if you switch to another one. Loopop has a more elaborate video.
I switched from the One to the Live 2 and the only thing I miss is the Program Edit button. That said, I’ve now learned how to hit Main+pad4 so I don’t think about it anymore. It took me a month to move on.
To me, the convenience of the built-in battery more than compensated for this loss since I now make music almost daily.
This evening i’d planned to unbox my Mpc X. It’d been boxed for the last 3 weeks as my intention had been to sell it, but then i went away.
But Instead i hooked up my new Syntakt to the OT and spent about 3 hours on them.
About 2 hours ago i decided i’d get the X out & see how it all felt in combination. But pretty much as soon as i’d turned it on and loaded some sounds & projects i felt my energy & enthusiasm disappear. It felt archaic and i knew i wouldn’t be able to go back to making tracks on it. Could i use it as a sound module/sample prep to feed the OT? Technically yes, but do i want to now. I really don’t think so. It’s both a shame & a revelation. I feel disappointed but also a sense of freedom & excitement. I wasn’t able to move forward & reinvent myself with the Mpc.
Ive just had the opposite experience.Ive recently got the Live 2 retro after having a couple of Xs and live 1 and a One.Was feeling a bit bored with the sound and the LFO status ectect.Been looking at elektrons and even another Maschine plus!!! Well i had a bout of imagined enthusiasm for the MPC again and started to load and sequence some bass samples and drums and freakin’ it with filters,delays,automation ect.Wow kinda really enjoying this atm……but ive always been upset about the LFOs and how there not free running….well i had another go on them and what you know???there freakin’ free running now!!! Its like a new machine.Come alive!!!sounds moving all over the place.The LFOs are a bit basic but i dont care.Cos now the samples dont sound static (always the problem with MPCs (apart from the 4K) Anyway its great now.Thanx Akai “ ]
How long they been like this?no one has mentioned it and ive def not noticed before!!!
I’ve been having a blast with the MPC Live 2. I’ve been practicing finger drumming a lot lately, and I recorded my first successful attempt at finger drumming a whole beat without using the sequencer
Love how you’re literally using the MPC as a live instrument. I can see why you’d be attracted to an SP-404 MKII given that this is how I imagine those enthusiasts use it, since its sequencer and track management is so barebones. To me, I find it awesome that the MPC can be this, but that it can also go from there to a fully completed production/song. Just hit record, turn off the metronome and you could record that entire performance into the sequencer and make any final tweaks before publishing the song (via stem export into final mixing in the DAW if you so choose).
The MPC is the most capable and versatile groovebox there is.
@Artsutanav So far the MPC workflow has been a bit hard to get used to. I think it’s a bit similar to the Octatrack in how much effort it to find stuff and get things right. I’m having similar challenges to when I used the Octatrack, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I haven’t wrapped my head around sampling yet. I love the sound of sampled and resampled and chopped drums and melodies, but the fact that a chord is baked into the sample and is impossible to change after the fact is a bit of a mental road block for me still. I think most of my challenges will go away with practice, though.
As for which system is more intuitive, the Elektron workflow really speaks to me (except the Octatrack, it was too immense). I think the Elektron boxes are better thought out. They’re easier to learn and I find it easier to edit a sequence, but they’re also waaaay less feature rich than the MPC so there’s simply less stuff to learn. I’m sure the MPC workflow will get nice and smooth once I’ve found my favorite tricks so I can compartmentalize and pay less attention to the stuff I don’t use.
Thanks a lot @djst! The guy that inspired me to try out finger drumming uses both live finger drumming and the sequencer. He starts off each track by finger drumming, and when he’s played a few bars, he hits play so the MPC plays an already sequenced version of that track, then plays the FX live on top of that. I want to try that too, it looks like a really nice way to get the best of both worlds.
@CCMP Thank you! I actually use that momentary thing on those two knobs. It took some getting used to, because they’ kept going back to 0 whenever I had to readjust my hand, but I found a way to turn both knobs without ever lifting my hand
