Ableton Forum

jonny72 wrote:

john doe by choice wrote:For those who don't know (I'm betting a bunch of you do already), Akai Pro is now under the Numark umbrella, same as Alesis (another company that went in the shitter once sold) - if you don't care for Akai's present R&D/customer service, try reading reviews on Numark gear and service...eerily similar.

I sold Numark DJ equipment for a number of years in my shop, never had any problems with the quality or service - completely the opposite. I haven't had any dealings with them for a number of years now though, so things could have changed.

Numark owning Akai and Alesis isn't a new thing either, they've owned them for years though they seem to run Akai at an arms length.

I sold a bit of Numark when I worked retail, and I'd say that about 70% of my numark sales were returned...so many returns that I refused to sell their gear, regardless of profit margin - I just didn't want their stuff to come back, so I didn't sell it. Most of the stuff we stocked were their DJ equipment - mixers, turntables, cd players. The mixers were cheap enough that when they fell apart after taking a beating for a year, nobody cared, but not so with the cd players - they always came back, always had problems. I remember seeing CDXs getting returned every time we sold one, so we would sell them for dead cost under the stipulation that they didn't come back - it was the only way to get rid of that junk. I don't know what shop you worked in, but I worked at a popular Guitar Center, and we sold tons of equipment, so we probably saw more returns than many retail shops.

The Numark/Akai merger happened while I was still in retail, but I quit that monstrosity over two years ago, so yeah, it's not new, but some people still don't know - I just mention it when I hear bad stuff about Akai, because the merger happened around the same time their quality started to take a dive.

EDIT: For the record, the worst customer service I ever received from a company as a sales associate was a tie between Cerwin Vega and Stanton.

chris_in_london wrote:just got this message from Akai support:

"Good news! I was able to confirm that there is an update in the works and
will be released soon. Keep an eye on the website as things can change
quickly."

haha wicked, the power of the consumer! woo
(although maybe they're just trying to shrug off a few emails?)

Meef Chaloin wrote:

chris_in_london wrote:just got this message from Akai support:

"Good news! I was able to confirm that there is an update in the works and
will be released soon. Keep an eye on the website as things can change
quickly."

haha wicked, the power of the consumer! woo
(although maybe they're just trying to shrug off a few emails?)

early april fools day joke?! thanks for everyone who have bugged akai about this

yeah that's a pretty big about-face to go from "shut up, we're not gonna fix it ever" to "omg fingers crossed it's coming soon!!!"

makes me hesitant about the APC as well

deejaybags wrote:

Meef Chaloin wrote:

chris_in_london wrote:just got this message from Akai support:

"Good news! I was able to confirm that there is an update in the works and
will be released soon. Keep an eye on the website as things can change
quickly."

haha wicked, the power of the consumer! woo
(although maybe they're just trying to shrug off a few emails?)

early april fools day joke?! thanks for everyone who have bugged akai about this

maybe we could hire some of these japanese MPC hackers that hacked the firmware of old MPCs to bahve like new ones.. might be a decent solution for MPD owners like us.

tktnk wrote:

deejaybags wrote:maybe we could hire some of these japanese MPC hackers that hacked the firmware of old MPCs to bahve like new ones.. might be a decent solution for MPD owners like us.

i've thought about this. there is a lot that could be done with the MPD32. hard takeover on the faders for a start, display bpm at all times, add program/control change messages to the bank buttons...


mmmm!

They sent me a 'shut-up, we're working on it' message too. That was about 8 Live-betas ago.

You telling me Ableton can re-write a full DAW over 14 times in a few weeks, and Akai can't get out 1 re-write in a year. I remember when Novation did this to us for a year and 2 months till they got taken over. Looks like Akai doesn't care either.

Don't tell me you gonna fix it... Just fuckin fix it already!!!

chris_in_london wrote:

tktnk wrote:

deejaybags wrote:maybe we could hire some of these japanese MPC hackers that hacked the firmware of old MPCs to bahve like new ones.. might be a decent solution for MPD owners like us.

i've thought about this. there is a lot that could be done with the MPD32. hard takeover on the faders for a start, display bpm at all times, add program/control change messages to the bank buttons...


mmmm!

i just thought about contacting these JJ OS guys in order to make'em fix our machine.
apparently, their site http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~mpc1000/ provides no email address. shiat. any idea how we could make things roll?

amazing things could be possible with that device, even a reDrum-style step sequencer.

Ah yes, Poly Aftertouch settings in the global MIDI settings are not saved with the project either in the mpc4000. I guess akai just can't figure out how to save friggin settings

1. Forget page 9, 'Globals Save setup'. Grr Akai

2. Hit Preset

3. Press the right ARROW (not dial) once. It should say, 'Save to 01', Push to enter.

sixstringsoul wrote:1. Forget page 9, 'Globals Save setup'. Grr Akai

2. Hit Preset

3. Press the right ARROW (not dial) once. It should say, 'Save to 01', Push to enter.

do did this work?