Ableton Forum

OK! I've got Logic for writing, Live for jamming & performing, and Battery/Reaktor for sounds. All this, and I still want an Akai MPC...

As an MPC n00b, which do I buy for simple dicking around? I don't want a 'complete music production' suite, just something for making beats and jamming along wi mi drumses!

The portability of the MPC500 appeals - is it as easy to use as it looks? Can you do all of the sample choppery (mapping to pads etc) that you can do on the 1000 etc etc (just for splitting down drum loops) or is this best done on a laptop and flashcard'd over?

Thoughts?

Ta.

Personally, I like to use Live with an MPD.

I work with the 2000XL and 4000. I don't think either of those are for sale outside of ebay these days. The 2500 looks NICE, but for a beginner you should look into the 1000.

The 2500 just dropped in price big time since the 5000 was released. I would take that over a 1000 personally.




Live 7 and a MPD 32 is all you need.

Live + MPD + Trigger finger + Any midi control surface will never give you 0 latency like an MPC will. That's why I bought one.

Bought the 1000 and flashed the JJ OS on it, now it's like I got a 2000

I have a q6600 overclocked to 3 ghz, so I run Live with a latency of exactly 1 millisecond which is nothing at all.

kb420 wrote:The 2500 just dropped in price big time since the 5000 was released.

They are US$1699 so how much did they drop ?

thats twice the price of a 1000

They were about $2500 weren't they?

kb420 wrote:I have a q6600 overclocked to 3 ghz, so I run Live with a latency of exactly 1 millisecond which is nothing at all.

Not after loading a few 3rd party VST/AU's you don't.

1. you don't know what it does but you need it to make music.

yeah...

learn what you have, the mpc is a whole 'nother skill set and mentality to learn. nice idea with the mpd32. the look and feel of an Akai but you can use Live to do nearly the same stuff.

timothyallan wrote:

kb420 wrote:I have a q6600 overclocked to 3 ghz, so I run Live with a latency of exactly 1 millisecond which is nothing at all.

Not after loading a few 3rd party VST/AU's you don't.

My old pc has an AMD 64 3200+ processor. I can run songs that would bring my old computer to a screeching halt on my new pc, and yes, all ran at 1 millisecond latency with no problems whatsoever!

kb420 wrote:

timothyallan wrote:

kb420 wrote:I have a q6600 overclocked to 3 ghz, so I run Live with a latency of exactly 1 millisecond which is nothing at all.

Not after loading a few 3rd party VST/AU's you don't.

My old pc has an AMD 64 3200+ processor. I can run songs that would bring my old computer to a screeching halt on my new pc, and yes, all ran at 1 millisecond latency with no problems whatsoever!

Yes, it will report 1ms latency, my motu usually hovers around 6ms. However, throw a few vintagewarmers, compressors, sonalksis eq's on and hit a key. I can guarantee that you'll notice the latency. If I throw some of my Sonnox plugs on the master buss, I can hit a key, release it, and then hear the note. It's unavoidable.

Well, I don't start adding all of those plugs while I'm still composing. I don't do that until I start mixing. Maybe that's why I don't have those problems.

You may have 0 latency with a MPC, but you aren't adding 99 instances of Vintage Warmer and whatnot with an MPC either.

Yes, that is why you don't have those problems. If you don't use softsynths or VST's, you're fine.

How is the MPC zero latency anyways? I mean it's some form of computer in there, right? It's not like it's registering your hits on a tape loop or something, there must be some level of processing involved.

The reason I say this is that I was strictly an MPC user for years before I got live. I actually feel like when I record into live with my MPD with quantize off it reproduces what I play with a greater degree of accuracy than the MPC ever did. I assume that this has to do with the resolution of the MPC vs ableton. The 1000, which I had, is like 96 parts per quarter note, so if you have the quarter note at 120, each quarter is half a second, so the resolution is like 1/192 of a second, or a bit over 5 milliseconds. so if your hit falls in between, it gets moved over. It's not even like Live, where if there's 5 milliseconds of latency it's always exactly 5 milliseconds off either, it shifts them back and forth. When I first got it I was tracking drums at like 70 bpm (so closer to 10 millisecond resolution), and it was really, really bad at reproducing what I was playing. I figured out the double the tempo trick and that helped, but I found myself using quantize a lot. With Live and the MPD, I have never once needed quantize. It's much more accurate for me.

I haven't taken my MPC out of the case since I got the MPD, I hold onto it for some reason, but I am not even tempted to go back.