AKAI MPC Beats (Free version of AKAI MPC Software)

[antic604]

EDIT: Well, it seems like Akai might not like Yahoo email addresses.

Well, it's been 12+ hours for me and I used gmail address, so maybe I should try again. Also maybe the type of music matters, too?

EDIT: I've resent the request & got the link within 5 minutes. So it's not about the gmail or my music style

[electricthing]

I sent 2 requests (with Firefox) yesterday, nothing. Will try Chrome now for a third attempt.

edit; Yep, Chrome works in stead of Firefox (in my case).
I only have Chrome installed for using Yamaha Soundmondo for the Reface DX presets.

[EnGee]

I must be from the lucky guys then Just few minutes and I had the email in my gmail account.

Well, the main reason that I was interested is because I already have 8 expansions that I got them from the Charity two years ago and I like the samples because they are different from Maschine and Live kits. Anyway, I don't know if I will use it inside Ableton Live or not as there is not an ideal integration Push 2. The lights are off, so I can't see the labels! In the end I don't think it will add something essential for me. Still, it might be handy sometimes if I don't want to use the Live/Push combo in the beat making.

However, I must say it is a great strategy from Akai It brings the attention to the MPC hardware which in my opinion is the best choice for the Hip Hop (and related genres) producers. It just screams Hip Hop (in a good way), so maybe if I want such a beat, I would use it

[antic604]

Anyway, I don't know if I will use it inside Ableton Live or not as there is not an ideal integration Push 2. The lights are off, so I can't see the labels! In the end I don't think it will add something essential for me. Still, it might be handy sometimes if I don't want to use the Live/Push combo in the beat making.

Apparently it can be also used as a VST inside your main DAW, like Maschine.

However, I must say it is a great strategy from Akai It brings the attention to the MPC hardware which in my opinion is the best choice for the Hip Hop (and related genres) producers. It just screams Hip Hop (in a good way), so maybe if I want such a beat, I would use it

Yes, indeed! My interest in MPC One / Live Mk2 / Force hardware increased again and I'm looking for good deal on one of them. I still can't make my mind which one, though

[EnGee]

Anyway, I don't know if I will use it inside Ableton Live or not as there is not an ideal integration Push 2. The lights are off, so I can't see the labels! In the end I don't think it will add something essential for me. Still, it might be handy sometimes if I don't want to use the Live/Push combo in the beat making.

Apparently it can be also used as a VST inside your main DAW, like Maschine.

Yes I did tested it with Live. It is good but I can also just drag and drop the samples I want into a drum rack and make some kits and keep using Live. There are many flexible ways

However, I must say it is a great strategy from Akai It brings the attention to the MPC hardware which in my opinion is the best choice for the Hip Hop (and related genres) producers. It just screams Hip Hop (in a good way), so maybe if I want such a beat, I would use it

Yes, indeed! My interest in MPC One / Live Mk2 / Force hardware increased again and I'm looking for good deal on one of them. I still can't make my mind which one, though

Before I upgraded to Live Suite and buying Push 2, I was searching the same as you. From the several videos I watched though, it was between MPC Live and One but mostly I would go for MPC One because I don't need the extra in MPC Live. Anyway, in one review, the reviewer said the pads feels a little bit stiffer on One! They are smaller as well! So, I don't know really. Maybe go visit a dealer and test them by yourself. I have small hands, so even with Push 2, I feel comfortable

Ah! Found it here (if you haven't already watched it!):

[dplduffy]

has anyone been able to get midi learn working with this? I have a DJTT Midi Fighter Twister that would be great to use with the qlinks but I can't seem to get anything to map. I tried a couple other controllers as well, no dice.

[EnGee]

has anyone been able to get midi learn working with this? I have a DJTT Midi Fighter Twister that would be great to use with the qlinks but I can't seem to get anything to map. I tried a couple other controllers as well, no dice.

Have you tried enabling "control" button in the Preferences/Midi ... ?

[antic604]

Before I upgraded to Live Suite and buying Push 2, I was searching the same as you. From the several videos I watched though, it was between MPC Live and One but mostly I would go for MPC One because I don't need the extra in MPC Live. Anyway, in one review, the reviewer said the pads feels a little bit stiffer on One! They are smaller as well! So, I don't know really. Maybe go visit a dealer and test them by yourself. I have small hands, so even with Push 2, I feel comfortable

I just SOLD Suite 10 + Push2 three weeks ago, so I'm not going back that route. After Bitwig, Ableton just doesn't work for me anymore and needing to have laptop to use Push2 was a bummer, even though I really enjoyed it

I'd go with MPC One, but I can't shake the feeling it's tailored more for finger drumming, slicing & "flipping" samples, sampling vinyl and similar hip-hop type stuff. And I'm not doing that kind of music. I do techno, (psy)trance, etc. That's why I'm eager to try MPC Beats, to see what's what.

Force on the other hand looks like Live + Push2 without a computer and despite obviously not being as deep, it - seems to - cover most of what I need: good synths, pads for playing melodies and chords, freely assignable encoders to control parameters, clip launcher, lots of FX. However, my problem is that it's huge and that it seems abandoned by Akai - at NAMM2020 they showed arranger, new synths, etc. and they're still nowhere to be seen, whereas in that same period they've released One, Live Mk2 and MPC 2.8...

[SoundPorn]

This is a great move for Akai because the MPC Software, which is the same exact software in the hardware, can be very quick and easy to use to get your ideas out fast, however, if you are not use to the MPC language and labelling of things than you are going to be massively confused at first. It will take some getting use to. And not only that it's the best software to do drums on period so if anything you're basically getting the premiere, classic and standard electronic drumming software for free.

[dplduffy]

has anyone been able to get midi learn working with this? I have a DJTT Midi Fighter Twister that would be great to use with the qlinks but I can't seem to get anything to map. I tried a couple other controllers as well, no dice.

Have you tried enabling "control" button in the Preferences/Midi ... ?

Yeah that was it. Thanks!

[apoclypse]

Before I upgraded to Live Suite and buying Push 2, I was searching the same as you. From the several videos I watched though, it was between MPC Live and One but mostly I would go for MPC One because I don't need the extra in MPC Live. Anyway, in one review, the reviewer said the pads feels a little bit stiffer on One! They are smaller as well! So, I don't know really. Maybe go visit a dealer and test them by yourself. I have small hands, so even with Push 2, I feel comfortable

I just SOLD Suite 10 + Push2 three weeks ago, so I'm not going back that route. After Bitwig, Ableton just doesn't work for me anymore and needing to have laptop to use Push2 was a bummer, even though I really enjoyed it

I'd go with MPC One, but I can't shake the feeling it's tailored more for finger drumming, slicing & "flipping" samples, sampling vinyl and similar hip-hop type stuff. And I'm not doing that kind of music. I do techno, (psy)trance, etc. That's why I'm eager to try MPC Beats, to see what's what.

Force on the other hand looks like Live + Push2 without a computer and despite obviously not being as deep, it - seems to - cover most of what I need: good synths, pads for playing melodies and chords, freely assignable encoders to control parameters, clip launcher, lots of FX. However, my problem is that it's huge and that it seems abandoned by Akai - at NAMM2020 they showed arranger, new synths, etc. and they're still nowhere to be seen, whereas in that same period they've released One, Live Mk2 and MPC 2.8...

The MPC has a weird "old school" workflow. The MPC Beats software is not imo a good representation of how standalone works. On the hardware, the UI relies heavily on the touch screen, the MPC One kind of mitigates that a bit with the buttons but it's still the screen is still the main way to interact with the device. It takes getting used to if you are coming from something like an older MPC or something like Push or Maschine.

The MPC is a sampler so that's it's focus for the most part but you can do techno, trance etc just fine on it.

As an owner of both the Force and MPC Live. The Force has so much potential but Akai doesn't seem to want to tap into that. It's not abandoned as supposedly there is a new beta that should address a lot of the issue with the device but Akai has really dropped the ball in-terms of updates while the MPC pretty much gets updated every quarter like clock work. The MPC is definitely the more complete product.

[antic604]

As an owner of both the Force and MPC Live. The Force has so much potential but Akai doesn't seem to want to tap into that. It's not abandoned as supposedly there is a new beta that should address a lot of the issue with the device but Akai has really dropped the ball in-terms of updates while the MPC pretty much gets updated every quarter like clock work. The MPC is definitely the more complete product.

Thanks! Have there been any rumours about Force hardware refresh? It wouldn't be a big deal if it was similar to Live Mk2 e.g. a speaker, few more buttons and outputs (i.e. things I don't personally need), but if it was e.g. a new CPU, then I'd be really unhappy with it. BTW, how's Forces plugin performance in your experience? Have you run out of CPU performance?

[Teksonik]

Thanks to Akai for the generosity.

But the plugin version just crashed Cakewalk by Bandlab while trying to load a demo project.

Has anyone been able to figure out how to assign the Pads to custom Midi Note Numbers ? The default mapping is somewhat odd.

This would mesh perfectly with my Akai MPK261 if I could just reassign the pads. Yes I could change the pads on the MPK but I've already got them set to a custom mapping.

I used to have the MPC software installed (the version escapes me) but one of the things that stopped me from using it over other plugins was the inability to custom map the Pads.

Guess I'll have to RTFM......

[apoclypse]

As an owner of both the Force and MPC Live. The Force has so much potential but Akai doesn't seem to want to tap into that. It's not abandoned as supposedly there is a new beta that should address a lot of the issue with the device but Akai has really dropped the ball in-terms of updates while the MPC pretty much gets updated every quarter like clock work. The MPC is definitely the more complete product.

Thanks! Have there been any rumours about Force hardware refresh? It wouldn't be a big deal if it was similar to Live Mk2 e.g. a speaker, few more buttons and outputs (i.e. things I don't personally need), but if it was e.g. a new CPU, then I'd be really unhappy with it. BTW, how's Forces plugin performance in your experience? Have you run out of CPU performance?

Not that I'm aware of though there have been rumors of a Force keyboard. Not sure if they are true or not. Either way I don't think the Force sold very well which could explain why Akai is doubling down on the MPC instead. As for specs I don't expect a spec change for a while, for one inMusic pretty much uses the same SOC for all of their products (HeadRush, their DJ stuff etc) and those haven't been updated in a while either.

For the plugins they perform well across all of their products (MPC and Force). No hiccups etc but Akai (smartly) limits how many you can use. I think you can only use 8 tracks of plugin synths, the same with Audio 8 tracks in total, though you can haven multiple audio clips in one track on Force. You are going to run out of RAM before you even hit the CPU limit. I've never run into CPU issues on the MPC or Force. You would have a Drum Group with every pad having multiple effects on them imo before you hit a wall. I was able to fill all 8 -tracks with synths going in-order Hype, Tubesynth, Bassline, Electric. Barely cracked 30% with chords on each track with fairly complex (presets that had reverb, delay, distortion etc.).

The bigger issue at least for me is that the synths are just okay. They sound just okay nothing to write home about. The Force exclusive one Hype, is actually pretty good but it's a blackbox, In other words it doesn't give you a lot controls to create your own sounds and also no patch saving.

I would rather they had a grain synth, wavetable synth etc. I think they showed something like that in NAMM2020, but it's not out yet. MPC Beats seems like a gateway to sell you those synths as add-ons.

[apoclypse]

Thanks to Akai for the generosity.

But the plugin version just crashed Cakewalk by Bandlab while trying to load a demo project.

Has anyone been able to figure out how to assign the Pads to custom Midi Note Numbers ? The default mapping is somewhat odd.

This would mesh perfectly with my Akai MPK261 if I could just reassign the pads. Yes I could change the pads on the MPK but I've already got them set to a custom mapping.

I used to have the MPC software installed (the version escapes me) but one of the things that stopped me from using it over other plugins was the inability to custom map the Pads.

Guess I'll have to RTFM......

I don't know if the MPC Beats software has this but in the MPC 2.x software you go to Edit > Program > Note Mapping. You have options like Chromatic C1, Chromatic C-2, or Classic MPC (the default mapping).