New Akai MPC

[macmurphy]

too bad starving student already got the beat thang..

lol I only had it for a few days

come on mate, even a few days is shameful

[thelike5]

too bad starving student already got the beat thang..

lol I only had it for a few days

come on mate, even a few days is shameful

Did that "thang" actually ever come out??

[contakt321]

too bad starving student already got the beat thang..

lol I only had it for a few days

come on mate, even a few days is shameful

I can't believe you got one

shame shame we know your name!

Can you post a short review for us?

[JuanSOLO]

The new Livid CNTRL:R looks SO MUCH BETTER!

http://lividinstruments.com/hardware_cntrlr.php

[Komodovaran]

The new Livid CNTRL:R looks SO MUCH BETTER!

http://lividinstruments.com/hardware_cntrlr.php

I just drool'd.

[starving student]

quote="contakt321"]

too bad starving student already got the beat thang..[/quote

lol I only had it for a few days

come on mate, even a few days is shameful

I can't believe you got one

shame shame we know your name!

Can you post a short review for us?

haha I had to take one for the team, no one else round here was gonna see if that thing was for real or not
twas my civic duty, I gave it a thrice over and posted the findings on the forum just search for beat thang

[starving student]

it might not be stand alone but they were smart to make it compatible with every mpc ever made which means you can bang on any mpc downstairs in front of the tube and take it upstairs into the studio and you'll have synergy

[djadonis206]

MPC - Music Production Controller

[mholloway]

the software looks fugly, what a shame.

eh? no accounting for taste..... I think it looks a lot nicer than the Maschine software, which IMO is a clunky, over-dark, high-contrast eyesore with so many damn page tabs they ran out of places to put them.

-M

[Ryanmf]

Reposted from elsewhere. TL;DR—I'm hopeful that these new MPCs will expand upon what NI did with Maschine in developing a future MPC with a computer brain, but remain skeptical that they'll be anything but overpriced bullshit engineered to fleece the ignorant masses who will buy anything with an "AKAI PRO" sticker on it.

Last year I bailed on my annoying ass MPD32 and bought a Maschine.

Initially I was smitten, after several months of ownership I still like but don't love Maschine.

I'll definitely consider this, but I also definitely have some reservations.

• I don't trust Akai to get the software right. They're claiming 64-track sequencing either as a standalone app/plug-in host, or as a plug-in (presumably retaining that host functionality when running within a host). I already have issues with Machine devouring CPU cycles in Live (although that's really a 32bit/Live issue) and I'll be surprised if Akai manages to best NI in performance.

• Re: Jake "On the hardware end Akai are golden"…Clearly you haven't used an MPD, then. Or attempted to deal with Akai support since they became part of the Jack O'Donnell empire. This isn't the company that made the 2000XL anymore, they're busy making refrigerators. The Akai that just announced this product is the company responsible for the Worst. Pads. Ever. in the MPD and MPK lines, and a great many broken LPD/Ks. This also happens to be their first attempt at backlit pads. I hope they're great, but they could also be miserable, or anything in between.

• What the fuck is that data knob doing there? This is arguably the most technologically advanced device Akai will have produced to date, and they're shipping it with a fucking data knob. What data? There's no hard drive, the data is on the computer. The best possible navigation implementation they could conceive is the exact thing they started using a quarter of a century ago? Of course not. There's no pragmatic explanation from a UI/UX perspective. So the explanation is rather obvious. The marketing guys insisted that the subset of customers who use MPCs and hadn't yet switched to an MPD/TriggerFinger/PadKontrol+DAW or Maschine had been waiting for something more MPC-like. Nevermind that the MPC became THE MPC not because of the data knob but because it was and has been the best product of it's kind for over 20 years, carefully designed and gradually evolved to meet the needs of users. The MPC wasn't a bunch of ideas built around a data knob; that one feature is incidental. Akai is working in reverse; rather than leveraging their experience to make the best possible pad controller for the 201Xs, they appear to be ready to release a product that meets the minimum conditions to participate in this segment, plus a bunch of design decisions that accomplish little more than signaling to a potential buyer: "Hey! This one looks the most like that thing you used to like! You should buy this one!" Whenever marketing decisions trump product design decisions for the purposes of reeling in idiots who don't know how to make an informed purchase, my bullshit senses start tingling.

• It does have a built-in audio interface, so maybe they're doing something interesting with hardware, but if those MPC3000/60/etc modes are software emulations I could give a shit less about them. That feature exists in Maschine too, and I never use it because it sounds like shit. I'd much prefer comparable software effects from a developer who actually cares about what they're producing because they need it to make money as a standalone product to an afterthought/additional box ticked on the marketing checklist. On a related note, with a 4 channel interface, if their software can't handle external audio effects I'm going to be incredibly disappointed.

• As a business decision, I totally get the introduction of a range of products (The Renaissance, plus the not-yet-revealed "Studio" (slimline version, likely sans-audio interface) and "Fly" ("iPad 2"—their distinction, not mine—version). It could even be the best decision for their customers. Akai will offer particular customers the features they need without requiring them to spend money on the features they don't care about, if they get it right. I don't think they'll get it right. Rather than making the best "future MPC" for the stage, the studio, and the road, with featuresets that may overlap in some areas and completely diverge in others, I suspect they'll go with a standard good/better/best model, regardless of how that serves the needs of users. For instance, I suspect the iPad version will be the smallest. That's sensible. If the iPad version is also the only one that can communicate with iPad apps, that's inexcusable. If I buy the Renaissance ("best") and it has a USB hub and an audio interface, that's awesome! I'd love to plug it into my iPad. There's no technical limitation there, and my iPad doesn't have a suitable audio interface. Win, right? Unless Akai decides to implement arbitrary restrictions that prevent me from using any controller but the "Fly" with an iPad, which would be both predictable and disappointing, and would more likely result in me buying neither than both.

Anyway, now that I'm done bitching about one product that nobody's used and two more that we know nothing about, I should say that I'm very interested in giving them a try. I'm not so much actively looking to replace my Maschine so much as I'm waiting for something better because I know it can be done. I'm obviously skeptical, but maybe one of these MPCs will be that "something better" and Akai will reign as King of the Pads for another decade.

[starving student]

all I want to know is why Ean Golden doesn't just use an mpc-1000, the answer to that question is the answer to why maschine and the new mpcs will co-exist happily .

[contakt321]

haha I had to take one for the team, no one else round here was gonna see if that thing was for real or not
twas my civic duty, I gave it a thrice over and posted the findings on the forum just search for beat thang

HAHAHA I can't wait.

[DPMachine]

Initially I was smitten, after several months of ownership I still like but don't love Maschine.

What do you not like about it? Is it the CPU/32-bit Live related issues you mentioned?

[2be]

Software looks pretty ugly and while I do like the mixer section, I highly doubt that the software will be a good product. NI has loads of experience developing software, and while Maschine is lacking in some parts, it has become a very powerful tool.
But whatever, competition can only be good for us. Maybe NI will answer with some nice feature updates to Maschine. Or even a Maschine 2, who knows

[condra]

I think it is too stuck in AKAI legacy to be truly innovative. Then again, I much rather dedicated controllers to generic controllers, regardless of the software. I reckon there will be a lot of happy hip-hoppers out there, considering how much of that particular market Maschine has been eating up.

FWIW I like the direction AKAI are going with the SynthStation iPad thing. Over the next few years, iPads and Android Tablets are going to get more and more capable of becomming studio stalwarts. That shit is much more exciting to me than anything involving a laptop.