New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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spagbol
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New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by spagbol » Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:42 am

Just interested to know what people think about the new Akai MPC's.
Are people gonna jump ship? Im hearing rumblings on the internet as well as in my stomach.......
...not having a mid-life crisis....just don't give a fuck about shit i don't give a fuck about anymore.....

eclipxe
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by eclipxe » Fri Jan 13, 2017 10:11 pm

Nothing super compelling IMHO. Need to see the new software and how flexible it is.

beats me
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by beats me » Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:48 pm

Looks like they would be good for those people who think they are writing better music because they aren't looking at a computer screen and at the same time aren't quite believing that bullshit.

acYm
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by acYm » Sat Jan 14, 2017 12:20 am

^ lol, well said.

I think Akai have started something potentially good with their Advance controllers, they should finish that first...

Pitch Black
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Pitch Black » Sat Jan 14, 2017 5:22 am

beats me wrote:Looks like they would be good for those people who think they are writing better music because they aren't looking at a computer screen and at the same time aren't quite believing that bullshit.
I... know this man.
MBP M1Max | MacOS 12.7.2 | Live 11.3.20 | Babyface Pro FS | Push 3 (tethered) | a whole other bunch of controllers
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willyraccoons
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by willyraccoons » Sun Nov 26, 2017 8:35 pm

Akai is once again leading the most important thing in music production: WORKFLOW.
Although the software is still immature, this thing makes Push a totally slow, narrow and obsolete thing.
I love Ableton and probably will keep using it, but since they are not even close of using touch technology... I'm out with Push.

Stromkraft
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Stromkraft » Sun Nov 26, 2017 8:53 pm

willyraccoons wrote:Akai is once again leading the most important thing in music production: WORKFLOW.
Although the software is still immature, this thing makes Push a totally slow, narrow and obsolete thing.
I love Ableton and probably will keep using it, but since they are not even close of using touch technology... I'm out with Push.
10 cents on you haven't used one. I've used the MPC Live and Push + Live walks right over. Touch technology… :mrgreen:

If you want a music OS that loves to crash — except for three extended periods, a few weeks to a few months once (bad interface), Live typically never crashes in session for me since 5+ years — and if you want an interface that is amazingly hard to edit in effectively, way harder to build a song in and is being built after having been sold, then go right ahead and get one.

Not that MPC Live isn't nice in some ways, but this is like being thrown into a bad nightmares of really bad 80s music technology. Intuitive? Not at all. Kinda works, until it doesn't. Up to date manual? Hahaha. :mrgreen:

On the upside, lots of exploration. Add some hefty frustration and I give you a music producer life. Also, it has a battery. Wait, my MBP has one as well.
But then it's one box, not two with a cable in between. Exactly. If one box is important to you and if you can take a world of hurt and pay the asking price, then why not? I'd rather get an iPad Pro as it's a way more mature music platform. Which is indeed surprising.

You think those pads can do what a Push do? That how I know you didn't use one for more than five minutes. Because these two products don't even compare in that department. Which doesn't mean the MPC can't be the hub of a machine park owning music producer.

Main point here is that workflow is so much better with Live + Push.

MPCX is probably a nice sampler. There's also Elektron.
Make some music!

willyraccoons
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by willyraccoons » Sun Nov 26, 2017 9:25 pm

Stromkraft wrote:
10 cents on you haven't used one. I've used the MPC Live and Push + Live walks right over. Touch technology… :mrgreen:
10 bucks I make a complete song in MPC-X (sampling, recording, mixing, editing, etc) in a fraction of the time it would take to you using JUST Push, without the mouse.
Push doesnt even apply to arrengement mode.

Push is an excelent controller for live performance but it doesn't add too much to music produtcion workflow. You always end up using the mouse/key because it is simply faster
Just try to browse the last sample/module in a folder... you get old. Even pressing those bottomless rubber buttons robs you time.
There are a lot of improvements in workflow they could do using the touchstrip / pads but they don't seem to care.

Stromkraft
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Stromkraft » Sun Nov 26, 2017 11:51 pm

willyraccoons wrote:
Stromkraft wrote:
10 cents on you haven't used one. I've used the MPC Live and Push + Live walks right over. Touch technology… :mrgreen:
I make a complete song in MPC-X
What did I say about MPC-X?
Make some music!

Stromkraft
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Stromkraft » Mon Nov 27, 2017 12:08 am

willyraccoons wrote:it would take to you using JUST Push, without the mouse.
Push doesnt even apply to arrengement mode.
Now you're just being silly. Obviously you have no idea how fast I make a song with anything. What you meant to say clearly was to compare these activities for yourself.

It's not about being fast at all. It's about what you can actually do. If you skip what you need to do, IMHO, then of course that's faster. But it's not better.

I maintain that MPC Live has nothing on Push + Live, also not when it comes to Arrangement. There's too much you simply cannot do yet, that you can do in Live. That is, if you do know Live and Push.

While I'd wish Push would cater to Arrangement mode better, the differences are possible to overcome to some extent, especially if you have some alternatives like I have with PXT Live or the MFL solutions out there.

It doesn't matter if I must use my track pad or even keyboard once in a while, because I've accepted this being part of the setup. So it's not in a single box. So? Is the TR-8 in the one box the Kurzweil is in? Nope. But my fingers are on my Push when I create. That's what's important.

I wish Ableton do not move towards the direction the MPC Live is on. People can buy an MPC Live when they want one instead. One of my best friends got one. My friend accepts the limitations and embraces the advantages. I don't. Simple as that.
Last edited by Stromkraft on Mon Nov 27, 2017 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Make some music!

Stace30
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Stace30 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:45 am

I've got an MPC Touch (I got it before the 'Live' and 'X' came out). I love it. Yes the workflow was a bit fiddly, but the software is getting better and better and I use it on stage and in production.
Live 10 Suite, M4L, MPC TOUCH - MPC software v2.7, Reason 4, Komplete 11, i7 Laptop, 12g Ram, Win 10, Adam A7's & Genelec 8010's - Joined Forum in 2006.

Machinesworking
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Machinesworking » Mon Jul 09, 2018 2:54 am

Bumping this. I'm thinking very hard and long about the MPC Live.
It's an audio card with 2 in 6 out,
drum machine, sampler, etc.

It basically can replace Maschine Studio, and Rig Kontrol for my needs.

Tarekith
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Tarekith » Mon Jul 09, 2018 3:11 am

Still curious about the live version myself. Each time I've used one the look of the software just puts me off for some reason though. Too used to Maschine I guess.
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Machinesworking
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Re: New Akai MPCX and MPC Live

Post by Machinesworking » Mon Jul 09, 2018 6:39 am

Tarekith wrote:Still curious about the live version myself. Each time I've used one the look of the software just puts me off for some reason though. Too used to Maschine I guess.
Maschine is a sad case to me, if they allowed multiple time signatures in stand alone operation, if they allowed you to jam out Scenes into a song live recording style, if they fixed the bugs that happen when you use it in a DAW with multiple time signatures, and it's MIDI triggering feature that only works if the song is in 4/4, if..................... :cry: I love the interface, once you get the hang of it you can fly around quickly, but in all the ways I want to work with it, it's a total PITA. I seem to be one of the few primarily electronic musicians who uses odd time signatures, and Maschine is still horribly limited that way.

Selling it, it's been years and no fix to the time signature issues in sight, life is too short, and I have other options for drum controllers, Push 2, Beatstep Pro, SparkLE, and the pads on the MPK88 here. Push 2 works fantastically as a drum machine with Live 10 in slave mode to Reaper, at least in initial tryouts. It causes CPU spikes in DP9, haven't tested it in Logic X yet. Spark software is working great, recent bug fix update, but it's end of the line hardware like Kore, Rig Kontrol etc. It's literally the third hardware controller for software I've bought that will eventually die with an OS update. Probably why a stand alone beat production studio like MPC Live is appealing to me now.

I have a friend at GC so I should be able to spend a couple hours messing with MPC Live, hopefully get an idea of whether it could replace Maschine for me. Push 2 already really does, I'm just curious.

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