New Stand-Alone MPC

nectarios · Post by **nectarios** » Sun Feb 03, 2019 2:48 pm

Everything (except the Virus) has its own sequencer.
MPC clocks the Rytm and Virus, Rytm clocks A4, A4 clocks the modular via a 16th Gate trigger on one of A4's CV/Gate channels.

The modular has two voices, the Erica Graphic VCO which does wavetable drones and noises and the Future Retro Transient + which does extra drum patterns and fills.

Just checked 2.4. No idea how good these fx are, but 90% of the samples in the MPC, have been processed already in the DAW. So yeah, nothing that makes me want to update the firmware. The only thing I would like fixed, is the random transient fades/smearing, which I don't know if v2.4 has addressed.

I should send AKAI support a message and find out.

ziggomatic · Post by **ziggomatic** » Wed Feb 06, 2019 2:33 pm

2.4 software just released, I must say an awesome update!!!

The Air FX are amazing, being able to use them on the standalone devices, and the sidechain tool is spectacular.

Thank you Akai!!

Flux302 · Post by **Flux302** » Tue Feb 12, 2019 9:46 pm

Been using my MPC live a ton, made some expansions on it (Keygroup stuff) My main gripes seem to be really getting taken care of with updates. They seem agressive about that stuff now.
I just REALLY wish they would fix the midi so that it was properly midi channel with external gear. Right now you can ONLY sequence the currently selected track, and ONLY play the currently selected track via midi. which is insane because it has 2 midi input ports on it. so if you are thinking "ah man I'm gonna do some wild sequencing of this drum program via my external sequencer, and I am gonna play this bass line of one of the internal synths at the same time via my midi controller, while the MPC is firing off samples and I am jumping in and out of mutting those samples" ..... nope.

If they fix that, it will likely be my favorite mpc. and thats saying a ton imho.

p.s. the Air FX alone make this thing worth the price just as a stand alone FX box.

GavRL · Post by **GavRL** » Wed Feb 13, 2019 6:42 am

Flux302 wrote:Been using my MPC live a ton, made some expansions on it (Keygroup stuff) My main gripes seem to be really getting taken care of with updates. They seem agressive about that stuff now.
I just REALLY wish they would fix the midi so that it was properly midi channel with external gear. Right now you can ONLY sequence the currently selected track, and ONLY play the currently selected track via midi. which is insane because it has 2 midi input ports on it. so if you are thinking "ah man I'm gonna do some wild sequencing of this drum program via my external sequencer, and I am gonna play this bass line of one of the internal synths at the same time via my midi controller, while the MPC is firing off samples and I am jumping in and out of mutting those samples" ..... nope.

If they fix that, it will likely be my favorite mpc. and thats saying a ton imho.

p.s. the Air FX alone make this thing worth the price just as a stand alone FX box.

that's pretty succinctly described what I'd want it to be able to do.
Ultimately, that's why I've just bought an Octatrack; still more or less the only thing that'll do this particular set of functions.

pizzatime · Post by **pizzatime** » Wed Feb 13, 2019 8:00 am

I will have to have a proper play with the Air-FX tonight.. a very welcome addition.

I agree about the midi - I was in shock the first time I realized how it worked - this needs sorting really badly now.. getting close to being a dream machine though.. pitch envelopes / midi routing / negative filter amount and I am personally happy. I dont know what automation is like now - think it is same where you can't edit it.. haven't really used that for a while.

CF3 · Post by **CF3** » Wed Feb 13, 2019 2:58 pm

Flux302 wrote:Been using my MPC live a ton, made some expansions on it (Keygroup stuff) My main gripes seem to be really getting taken care of with updates. They seem agressive about that stuff now.
I just REALLY wish they would fix the midi so that it was properly midi channel with external gear. Right now you can ONLY sequence the currently selected track, and ONLY play the currently selected track via midi. which is insane because it has 2 midi input ports on it. so if you are thinking "ah man I'm gonna do some wild sequencing of this drum program via my external sequencer, and I am gonna play this bass line of one of the internal synths at the same time via my midi controller, while the MPC is firing off samples and I am jumping in and out of mutting those samples" ..... nope.

If they fix that, it will likely be my favorite mpc. and thats saying a ton imho.

p.s. the Air FX alone make this thing worth the price just as a stand alone FX box.

Yeah, the MIDI

I should of had one of these machines a long time ago now. I love that they keep add effects and updating it. But damn, if they add some proper multitimbral MIDI.... I buy one tomorrow, literally. All the other issues I had with it seem to be sorted now for the most part. It's just not gonna work for me currently the way it is. The MPC X could easily replace all of my current samplers (except the super lofi ones like the Emax 1). I'm definitely their target market. I've owned pretty every MPC since the 60.

I'll just keep on watching and waiting *sigh*

wavejockey · Post by **wavejockey** » Thu Feb 14, 2019 3:00 am

i've one (X) for 1.5 week now and must say that i've not been inspired that much for a year
previously on MPC4000, which has not really glued with me
this has, esp. the Eurorack coupling is super interesting
i'm sampling all my (analogue) synth riffs (that i play first on the MPC) so to keep / store my riffs/settings and manipulate later - as you know, those eurorack/analogue bastards never sound the same the next day - unless you sample them

-please be carefull with sayings as "you can't sequence multiple MIDI synths" - of course you can, only not at the same time as a MIDI in
MIDI out is working perfectly and can sequence multiple synths at the same time on different MIDI channels

euromorcego · Post by **euromorcego** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 5:17 am

i just played with the MPC Live for a bit. it feels like a great machine, and kudos to AKAI for keeping up the development. All too often we see far too short product cycles with companies just going for the next product.

i have, however, two question with respect to workflow that bother me and i would like how other people think about these issues, in particular those who use the MPC live as their main sequencer.

[1] sample editing and all that feels great. But i think the step sequencing using grid edit feels weak in comparison. The erase tool has been mentioned already. xparis001 also mentioned that patents from Apple prevent implementing more sophisticated use of finger 'gestures'. I understand all that. But still, i think the step sequencing is not yet where it could be. Also entering note length seems clunky. And i think there might be some bugs still (e.g. if i zoom and then enter a note, the display jumps back to a different zoom level).

How do other people feel about grid edit? Am i mistaken?

[2] Arranging: i would like to have 2-3 variants of a bassline. To try some variation but keeping the old one. How can I do this? Right now I would have to use a different track, which quickly gets confusing and I have to handle the mute states manually. I know that this is the original MPC workflow, but still: wouldn't it be good to have 'phrases' independent of tracks, so that one could try a different 'variants' one in a track. Same for different sequences, is it possible to reuse the same bassline in several sequences (but such that if you change something in the original, the change is active in all sequences, so not simple using 'copy'). I read that an arranger mode is coming in a future update, so that might change thing. But right now putting sequences together also feels a bit clunky.

Otherwise, great machine. I just want to know what other users think about these issues. Step sequencing is important to me (much more so than other features, like the midi multi mode ... the MPC never had such a thing, so i am not really sure why people want to sequence it externally)

---

some small suggestions to improve these issues, subject to discussion:

on 1:
- there could be better use of the q-link knobs. For example also a y-zoom. I rarely use some of the knobs (e.g. sequence length).

- when use the 'grid-and-magnifying-glass' icon during note editing it should adjust the view to the lowest note, not some random place. Currently the icon is useless, it just jumps to a totally different view, often with no notes to be seen.

- when selecting a scale, is it possible to just show the scale notes in grod edit??? If not, it should be possible.

- i would not mind if I could set a track to 'monophonic', so that in grid edit only one note per time is allowed (plus ties). Would simplify editing.

- maybe AKAI can also think about implementing some pugins as note generators. For example a step sequencer for notes using the q-link knobs (in particular on the MPC X). Or you hold the pad and turn the big knob to enter a pitch/note ... like an oldschool analogue sequencer. One could even use the 4 q-link knobs plus the big one: Hold a pad and use the big one for pitch, the other knobs set velocity, length, etc (even ratcheting) ... while holding a pad.

- there could also be midi plugins that generate notes on the fly, i.e. a euclidean generator with a copy to track button to put the notes into the traditional grid mode.

- even a traditional sh-101-style note entry would be good. I know there is the list edit, with auto advance which come close. But I am not sure if for example 'rest' and 'tie' are possible in list edit.

on 2:
Here i'll first wait how the arranger mode will look like. But (to me) a good thing would be to have 'midi/grid phrases' that could be used in different sequences. Such that phrases could be assigned to a track, and the same phrase could also be assigned to a different track (in a different sequence). Like yamaha-style sequencing. In this way it would be much easier to build up several sequences that are variants of the primary sequence.

stylesforfree · Post by **stylesforfree** » Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:30 pm

I was wondering, can the MPC X be used to play chords on a multi voice modular synth?

Snetch · Post by **Snetch** » Thu Feb 28, 2019 10:13 pm

Bipolar pitch and filter envelopes and effect envelopes and for sample start time .

Aux mod destinations / sources .

Playhead in drum programs mode

Crossfade looping visualizations.

Basically anything to take it from a “sample player “ to a sampler with more creative features. Until then it is sitting on the sideline as my most expensive piece of gear currently, but I am thinking I’ll see my wishes come to fruition. Either that or creative artists get the sideline treatment and all those ppl using unadulterated sample pack sounds get what they need and they call it a day. I know a lot of people do great things with it arranging their own samples too, but it’s mostly a sample player as is. The LFO format and options are incredibly clunky and uninspiring. Etc . I do like these better effects too

Birth_Chord · Post by **Birth_Chord** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:12 pm

Was deciding between this and the Octatrack... I think I'm going to go Octatrack since I already have Studio One 4 Pro, plus...

Splice integration into a standalone piece of $1k+ music hardware is a slippery slope in my opinion, especially when it's subscription based. Yes, if I'm browsing on my PC with Windows 10 I might see an ad for Splice while browsing the internet, or ads for some VST, sample pack, piece of hardware, etc... But it's not an MPC Live whose sole purpose is to make music once you have already purchased the device and own it.

It's like the video game equivalent of a microtransaction.

Just my opinion.

thresholdpeople · Post by **thresholdpeople** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 5:55 pm

euromorcego wrote: [2] Arranging: i would like to have 2-3 variants of a bassline. To try some variation but keeping the old one. How can I do this? Right now I would have to use a different track, which quickly gets confusing and I have to handle the mute states manually. I know that this is the original MPC workflow, but still: wouldn't it be good to have 'phrases' independent of tracks, so that one could try a different 'variants' one in a track. Same for different sequences, is it possible to reuse the same bassline in several sequences (but such that if you change something in the original, the change is active in all sequences, so not simple using 'copy'). I read that an arranger mode is coming in a future update, so that might change thing. But right now putting sequences together also feels a bit clunky.

The Force does this. You can have various tracks, and many clips per track. Tracks can be MIDI or audio based, or CV, and you can mix and match clips. It's very similar to Ableton. From what I've read this feature may be added to the MPC Live - as I understand it they'll eventually be running the same/almost the same operating systems.

I agree with you about the step sequencer being clunky. I hope they continue to improve on it, it could use a lot of work, but it's mostly small things that it needs.

euromorcego · Post by **euromorcego** » Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:03 am

thresholdpeople wrote: The Force does this. You can have various tracks, and many clips per track. Tracks can be MIDI or audio based, or CV, and you can mix and match clips. It's very similar to Ableton. From what I've read this feature may be added to the MPC Live - as I understand it they'll eventually be running the same/almost the same operating systems.

indeed. But I do not have the Force, and switching because of that seems a bit too much (since the Force lacks some other features).

I certainly hope that the MPC Life gets similar features for arranging (but i am not sure how it can be integrated within the current workflow, it is a quite different approach to sequencing).

ziggomatic · Post by **ziggomatic** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:50 pm

For what it’s worth, I’ve been using the Live & Force together simultaneously (sync’d via Ableton link) and I’m absolutely loving the combo. Force focuses on mostly melodic sequencing while the MPC does drums and sfx layers.

The only real tricky part in this setup is getting pgm change data out of Force to switch sequences on the MPC. If anyone is interested in reading how I solved this.....

Sending pgm change messages on beat start points don’t trigger an immediate sequence change on the MPC, it must be getting the message just a tad bit after the downbeat, so what I do is set the midi clip with pgm message to “no sync start point” (unlike all my other clips which are set to 1 bar sync start), now what happens is when I trigger a scene, the midi pgm change message gets immediately sent when I press the scene button, and the rest of the scene won’t start until the next bar as per the 1 bar sync settings. As long as the MPC sequence is coming to an end it will then switch to whatever pgm I want. This is extremely helpful for arranging drum sequences for me and keeping it all in sync with the Force arrangements, since I love the scene triggering functionality of the Force (and Ableton for that matter).

The second tricky and quite annoying part of both the Force & MPC is not having multi-Timbral midi input. When I plug a midi cable from my force into my MPC, there is no way to utilize midi channels in order to separate all the sequences midi note data coming out of the force from the pgm change data I need to trigger on the MPC. Basically the MPC when connected to the Force has to receive every midi note and program message combined that the force sends out. So to solve this I had to get a Midi solutions event box and program it to only let the messages on a specific channel through. This does work wonders to solve the extremely unfortunate midi limitations on the MPC/Force, but is a stupid workaround in my opinion given that every other device in this day and age let’s you work on specific midi channels per device.

With that all working though I am extremely happy with using the MPC & Force together, also have the Cirklon sync’d to the MPC and the timing of everything is extremely tight. Ableton link has been really awesome to utilize.

blipson · Post by **blipson** » Tue May 28, 2019 6:26 am

I'm on the verge of getting an MPC X because I can envision doing a lot with it, what with all the CV outs and truly playable pads once I do the pad sensitivity mod. But none of the actual music I've heard produced on it (YouTube and SoundCloud, not commercial hits) grabs me, and a lot seems not so great even on its own terms. I assume it's the player, not the instrument, but I'd appreciate any recommended listening as a sanity check.

hawkfuzz · Post by **hawkfuzz** » Tue May 28, 2019 5:30 pm

Nope you're right. Hearing Taylor Swifts guitarist doesn't represent a Gibson Les Paul at all.

Nothing is restricted to genre or style, just user.

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Wed May 29, 2019 11:13 am

ziggomatic wrote:
The only real tricky part in this setup is getting pgm change data out of Force to switch sequences on the MPC. If anyone is interested in reading how I solved this.....

...

The second tricky and quite annoying part of both the Force & MPC is not having multi-Timbral midi input....

......
So to solve this I had to get a Midi solutions event box and program it to only let the messages on a specific channel through. This does work wonders to solve the extremely unfortunate midi limitations on the MPC/Force, but is a stupid workaround in my opinion given that every other device in this day and age let’s you work on specific midi channels per device.

These kind of issues, and especially the first one, are very much why I've been ranting against Elektron and MIDI gear in general. That manufacturers continue to ignore this in 2019 is a fucking disgrace- all they care about is selling boxes that can do instant EDM.

Sinamsis · Post by **Sinamsis** » Wed May 29, 2019 8:19 pm

Panason wrote:
ziggomatic wrote:
The only real tricky part in this setup is getting pgm change data out of Force to switch sequences on the MPC. If anyone is interested in reading how I solved this.....

...

The second tricky and quite annoying part of both the Force & MPC is not having multi-Timbral midi input....

......
So to solve this I had to get a Midi solutions event box and program it to only let the messages on a specific channel through. This does work wonders to solve the extremely unfortunate midi limitations on the MPC/Force, but is a stupid workaround in my opinion given that every other device in this day and age let’s you work on specific midi channels per device.
These kind of issues, and especially the first one, are very much why I've been ranting against Elektron and MIDI gear in general. That manufacturers continue to ignore this in 2019 is a fucking disgrace- all they care about is selling boxes that can do instant EDM.

Meh, it's a little dramatic. Multi-timbral MIDI would be nice. But I think you've forgotten what MPC stands for... Music Production CENTER. It was developed to be the central hub for production. So MIDI control over the device was secondary; it was meant to control other devices. I think people have expressed desire to have multi-timbral MIDI in, and I believe Akai is listening. They seem to have been pretty responsive so far. I'll be snagging an X when that happens.

Kja · Post by **Kja** » Wed May 29, 2019 8:58 pm

Before the 1000 it stood for midi production center . They changed it after the 2000xl.

CosmicFlight · Post by **CosmicFlight** » Thu May 30, 2019 4:00 pm

Been a faithful user of the 2000, 3000 and 4000 for years

And now sooo disappointed about my MPC X here

-No midi pads remapping (for easy sequencing external drum machines or whatever you want..)

Oh well.. Akai says you can indeed remap the pads.. but only for real time triggering.. not sequencing..

Is that thing is a sequencer ?

-No option to select one or few samples and save them without having to create a program, and save that program..

WTF the fuck are you doing guys at Akai ???

hawkfuzz · Post by **hawkfuzz** » Thu May 30, 2019 4:15 pm

Get the Novation Sl MK3

Moho · Post by **Moho** » Thu May 30, 2019 6:30 pm

CosmicFlight wrote: -No midi pads remapping (for easy sequencing external drum machines or whatever you want..)
Oh well.. Akai says you can indeed remap the pads.. but only for real time triggering.. not sequencing..
Is that thing is a sequencer ?

Remapping the pads is simple, ok so you have to use the software but once done just save the program and use it anytime you want in standalone.

You can trigger the notes and record them but you can't draw the notes in, they play back the original chromatic configuration almost like a reverse 16 level.
Weirder still when you real time record the notes, when playing back the original note pad will flash eg you change the C1 pad to E4 record it, it plays back fine but its the E4 pad that flashes

xparis001 · Post by **xparis001** » Thu May 30, 2019 10:53 pm

CosmicFlight wrote:Been a faithful user of the 2000, 3000 and 4000 for years

And now sooo disappointed about my MPC X here

-No midi pads remapping (for easy sequencing external drum machines or whatever you want..)
Oh well.. Akai says you can indeed remap the pads.. but only for real time triggering.. not sequencing..
Is that thing is a sequencer ?

-No option to select one or few samples and save them without having to create a program, and save that program..

WTF the fuck are you doing guys at Akai ???

well, right now, I'm reading muff wiggler in my bathrobe

good news, the next update will have pad remapping and a save button added to the pade when you're recording samples.

spoor · Post by **spoor** » Fri May 31, 2019 2:47 am

xparis001 wrote: well, right now, I'm reading muff wiggler in my bathrobe

LOL.
Good work on the updates - keep 'em coming

chorus7 · Post by **chorus7** » Fri May 31, 2019 5:35 am

xparis001 save button!

thank you! Hug the team for me please...

MUFF WIGGLER

MUFF WIGGLER

New Stand-Alone MPC