Akai MPC Live 2: coming soon!

[trusampler]

Get a real Sampler buy UVI's Falcon.
Seriously though, I could care less about Akai's newer Mpc's anymore, the last good one was the z-plane 4OOO. The reason being is that this company doesn't identify with anything forward thinking anymore.

They're basically rehashing the same idea over n over again,changing the hardware a bit,but in the meantime, leaving the OS / code in a pathetic state. JJ's OS is light years ahead of what the X,One,or new MPC LIVE part 2 can or will do.

Coming from the 90s machines where all we wanted to do was integrate with our cpus, to now see the masses wanting to dumb down the system back down to hardware limitations, leaves me feeling sick. I'll stick to where the technology's at.

[EnochLight]

Get a real Sampler buy UVI's Falcon.

On a serious note, the whole point of picking up the current generation of these standalone solutions is to get away from your computer, not be tethered via a plugin.

Coming from the 90s machines where all we wanted to do was integrate with our cpus, to now see the masses wanting to dumb down the system back down to hardware limitations, leaves me feeling sick. I'll stick to where the technology's at.

You've got it all wrong, though. The new generation of standalone samplers and grooveboxes are for a new generation of users who are sick of being tethered to a computer. For many, that alone destroys productivity, as sometimes having anything you want kills all sense of creativity.

Sure, these machines are limited in what they can do compared to a even a basic set of VST and even an entry level license to (say for instance) Ableton Live, but that's not the point. In music production, it's been shown time and time again that some limitations invite creativity.

Use what works for you! Obviously Falcon and being in front of a computer does it for you. It's all good. I still use my computer, and you'll have to pull Reason from my cold, dead hands. But there's really nothing like turning on a standalone workstation from anywhere and knowing that the only thing you can do on it is make music, and not jump on social networking sites or watch Netflix.

[SLiC]

But there's really nothing like turning on a standalone workstation from anywhere and knowing that the only thing you can do on it is make music, and not jump on social networking sites or watch Netflix.

This is the entire point- I have an OP-Z + Deluge as they essentially have no screen so work great outdoors in the bright light (not that we have much in the UK) unlike the iPad etc. My acoustic guitars also see a lot more use in the summer, making music outdoors just makes me feel

If I am in the studio I have a wealth of toys and big screens, all great....but there is a lot of room in my life for the times I am not in the studio or just fed up of being tethered to a computer screen, keyboard and mouse where it can start to feel like a 'job'!

[trusampler]

I see, I thought the whole thing was about using tools to help us in music production. There's a cpu somewhere in that scenario, whether it's in the little box or the larger box. I'd personally rather have the processing power to make these tools work better for me. Besides, we were untethered to the cpu, long before the newer MPC's came out.
That's Akai's problem, they think in a one man's opinion situation. I've been an Akai mpc user since the 90s,clearly they do not share my experience or vision. As well as many others.
These newer MPC's cant even layer programs with midi in real time. They are selling a $2100 mpc x with that limitation. That's a joke.

[trusampler]

Here's an example of what Akai has done by dumbing down the OS, I posted @ Akai Pro forums.. >> https://getsatisfaction.com/akai_profes ... mode?rfm=1

an example of it in use >> a popular Swiss beats interview, he explained how he uses his 4k to send midi out of his drum programs, to then trigger other midi equipment, synths, drum modules for layering for stabs,hits,etc. REALTIME~

try doing that with your newer Mpc's.. you can't!

That's why..Not possible, because Akai has stripped down the Mpc / dumbed it down. I personally can't see how the masses accept a feature like this being robbed from them. Or maybe it's that they simply don't know that those sort of features ever existed. Akai is stripping down the creativity, because they can't code a once very popular used feature? Not sure why either..

[EnochLight]

And yet - I've never had to worry about that. It's just not something I do, nor do I need to do. So you can argue that the current generation of MPC's has been "dumbed down" all you want, but clearly there's a massive market for what they're doing and how they're doing it - otherwise we wouldn't be seeing an MPC Live 2 or the recent MPC One that just came out. Akai literally makes their money by selling hardware - that's their business model.

Like I said, clearly being tethered to a computer works for you. No shame in that. And there's certainly no shame in preferring what Akai currently has on offer for true standalone solutions. Right now at this very moment, one could argue that the standalone MPC's offer some of the best sampling solutions in a standalone module currently on offer.

[bmanic]

Dumbed down and massive market usually go hand in hand. Unfortunately.

Yes it's a decent machine but it could be a lot better if it had even a tiny bit of actual thought put into it and the workflow. It's no wonder that most of the major youtube channels who once reviewed the MPC Live, never got back to actually using or featuring it on their channels. The only exception being the typical "lets just trigger a few samples and create a beat".. something you can do with even the simplest of groove box.

.. but yeah, whatever. We'll see how the incoming 3.0 update will change things.

[EnochLight]

I really hope the 3.0 update brings a lot of welcome changes, but the things I'm really holding out for aren't really changes to how it fundamentally works. I just want more plugins in standalone (Hype Synth featured on the Force being one; the new Drum Synth teased at NAMM recently is the other), and true disc streaming. That's... pretty much it.

Whether they deliver on that stuff, and deliver before the end of 2020 is anyone's guess. I'm betting 2021 at the earliest, because Akai are notoriously slow.

[DrGonzo]

I wonder why it is taking them this long time. Maybe they have to rewrite the whole damn thing?

/C

[bungle]

I wonder why it is taking them this long time. Maybe they have to rewrite the whole damn thing?

/C

What long time ?
They release it when the bulk of the MK1s are gone from the stores, why sell it before.

[EnochLight]

What long time ?
They release it when the bulk of the MK1s are gone from the stores, why sell it before.

Huh? I think they mean software/firmware updates, which generally have been coming every 3 months. They haven't made that deadline in some time now, which indicates they're running behind. 2.6 came out in July 2019... 2.7 didn't come out until January 2020, almost 6 months later. Their releases seem to be taking a lot more time in between point updates...

Judging from what's going on in the world these past couple of months, we shouldn't be surprised though.

[DrGonzo]

I wonder why it is taking them this long time. Maybe they have to rewrite the whole damn thing?

/C

What long time ?
They release it when the bulk of the MK1s are gone from the stores, why sell it before.

Yeah, sorry. I meant the OS updates. That's what I meant by "rewrite the whole damn thing".

/C

[EnochLight]

Yeah, sorry. I meant the OS updates. That's what I meant by "rewrite the whole damn thing".

/C

Don't apologize. It's taking a helluva long time at this point.

[bungle]

I wonder why it is taking them this long time. Maybe they have to rewrite the whole damn thing?

/C

What long time ?
They release it when the bulk of the MK1s are gone from the stores, why sell it before.

Yeah, sorry. I meant the OS updates. That's what I meant by "rewrite the whole damn thing".

/C

My mistake, I thought you meant the MK2.
Akai in general leak staff like water, the guy who originally created the MPC Studio software left to make his own company and made a looper for iOS before abandoning that and moving to Apple to work on Logic, he was non too impressed about Akais internal policies towards the MPC software development.

[bmanic]

It's good to remember that Akai is "akai" in name only since quite a few years. It's run as any by-the-numbers boring company (inMusic). Ever wondered why Alesis and M-Audio went so quickly down the drain and completely stopped innovating? Yeah.. inMusic.