If you are unhappy with Akai write a letter to InMusic

its really not that big of deal, u can leave it here, I don't want to seem like Im trying to start a riot so forget it.

Snapped back into rant mode?

InspectahEX wrote:Trust me, they read those emails, and I got tons of reaction from just one email almost within a day of writing it, (to Inmusic, not akai, they won't answer) I was hearing from all kinds of Akai people that very next day, you need to go to the source to get heard, just letting y'all know, if this this shit keeps up, write to them, u do know its almost 6 months now and no official maverick driver!

What responses did you get from Akai to your email?

Isn't the beta Renaissance driver 'offical'?

Is the beta driver not working?

First post on forum.. Thought I would find a thread like this here and feel its best I ask some questions and address my concerns here first.

Let me first give you an introduction. I'm a 34year old dude from Australia. Been making some form of electronic music since 1998... My DAW of choice was Sonar for a good 6 years, before I had a few years break, sold a heap of gear and concentrated on other things.... Back now with a slim setup - a MBP, MicroKey and Reason 7...

I've always wanted a sampler and since the Maschine and Renaissance were introduced, I've been lusting over both.. The MPC though I felt always had that something that the Maschine didn't.

One of the things that push me away from buying an MPC Ren is all this Akai b!tching and hate. For every great review or YouTube video I find, there are a million others that rag on the Renaissance.

I'm confused though.. While the majority of people I see hate on Akai and the Renaissance, they have nothing to back it up.. From what I see the Renaissance is a solid piece if kit - in my research the only missing thing is the broken Audio Drivers in Mavericks, that I understand are fixed in the current Beta.

So what's your beef? Seems to me it's a bit of a mob mentality.. A bunch of sheep, jumping on the hate wagon.

There's a tonne of companies out there pushing out some good product.. But it takes time to better/develop product... Look at Propellerheads. They took something like 15 years to implement MIDI in Reason.

Welcome to the forums!

Plainfaced wrote:One of the things that push me away from buying an MPC Ren is all this Akai b!tching and hate. For every great review or YouTube video I find, there are a million others that rag on the Renaissance.

I'm confused though.. While the majority of people I see hate on Akai and the Renaissance, they have nothing to back it up.. From what I see the Renaissance is a solid piece if kit - in my research the only missing thing is the broken Audio Drivers in Mavericks, that I understand are fixed in the current Beta.

I'd say, people being content with the Ren wouldn't have a reason (pun intended) to blow steam off; they mostly rather make beats and consult the webs mostly to get some help on features and stuff. I am happy with it (it sounds great and anted up my beat production by 100%), although the Mavericks problem prevented me from updating my iMac to Mav, but that just concerns audio playback. You could still use the built-in output of your MBP or any other interface, but Mav prevents you from using the Ren's outputs (and hence from using the Vintage Modes, too, if you don't "hack them" to your master FX). Problems have been reported with the beta driver, too. MPC Software still crashes occasionally, but in general it's a good product. Update intervals could be shorter at times, but it works for me so far - only the unified mixer in 1.7 is a feature I definately need ASAP.

Plainfaced wrote:Look at Propellerheads. They took something like 15 years to implement MIDI in Reason.

MIDI outputs, that is. MIDI in & audio out were implemented right from the start. But even audio in only came with Reason 5 (with the sampling input) or Reason 6 (when Record & Reason were combined).


Another hint: I don't like Maschines's pads. I've heard people complaining about the weird workflow at times, but that's just a personal thing. I'd suggest you try your regular music store and ask them whether you can compare these two products for a while, maybe try making some beat in the store and you should see quickly, which workflow suits your style.

Have fun!

Plainfaced wrote:So what's your beef? Seems to me it's a bit of a mob mentality.. A bunch of sheep, jumping on the hate wagon.

Welcome to the forum, but you might want to go back to the start of this Ren sub forum and spend a couple of hours reading through the history of it before making such sweeping statements.

Suffice to say 'solid' bit of kit is not a word historically associated with the Ren (well, specially the MPC Software). Would also be worth reading up some topics about vintage mode marketing

MPC-Tutor wrote:
Suffice to say 'solid' bit of kit is not a word historically associated with the Ren (well, specially the MPC Software). Would also be worth reading up some topics about vintage mode marketing

Most of what I've seen in my search on this forum re MPC software is feature requests... Like with most DAWs.

I would still use Reason as my main DAW. I have no expectation of the MPC software to do anything more that allow me to use the MPC Renassaince for what it was designed to do.

It has been slowly creeping forward with each update, has not been particularly stable until recent releases, and has been out for 2 years now. Some users have struggled with incomplete and buggy software at/since the beginning.

Users coming from hardware MPCs miss some basic MPC features and workflow, while new MPC users might not notice the same shortcomings.

For me, not being able to record any audio in sync with an existing sequence in standalone mode, not being able to use more than a single MIDI output at a time in plugin mode, and not having a global/universal track mixer, are the main issues, which I think should have been sorted out by now.

Every user has different requirements, a different workflow, and different expectations, so you will find many different problems/shortcomings mentioned regarding MPC Software, from many different users.

But it is perfectly usable, just not where it could/should be at this stage.

SimonInAustralia wrote:But it is perfectly usable, just not where it could/should be at this stage.

+1

SimonInAustralia wrote:But it is perfectly usable, just not where it could/should be at this stage.

Nice thanks.

Now a question probably more on topic. Are users scared that the Renaissance will be abandoned? What are the chances that it will? The fact that the functionality basically lie with the MPC software, am I wrong in saying that Akai just need to support/Develop the software?

I've been stung before in a similar situation. I purchased a Tascam US2400 (motorised 24channel controller) new back in the day. Tascam dumped support and users were stuck using it on Windows XP...

Some users are worried that development will be dropped, as Akai have a bad track record in the past with hardware MPCs of dropping development before things are sorted in the OS.

Though with the controller/software model of these new MPCs, hopefully development of MPC Software can continue with new controllers, while still supporting the current controllers.

Though these sort of comments from Akai on their Facebook page probably do not fill MPC Software users with confidence...

In response to an iMPC Pro teaser photo:

Christopher Stout
Wow this looks cool. Where's 1.7?

Akai Professional
Hi Christopher Stout- thanks for the note. We will have even more screenshots and features next week. If ever a new version of MPC Software is available we will announce it here, and on the website.

The MPC Software developers have assured us that they are working hard on the latest/next version, 1.7, and have said that development will be ongoing past 1.7.

SimonInAustralia wrote:Though these sort of comments from Akai on their Facebook page probably do not fill MPC Software users with confidence...

In response to an iMPC Pro teaser photo:

Christopher Stout
Wow this looks cool. Where's 1.7?

Akai Professional
Hi Christopher Stout- thanks for the note. We will have even more screenshots and features next week. If ever a new version of MPC Software is available we will announce it here, and on the website.

The MPC Software developers have assured us that they are working hard on the latest/next version, 1.7, and have said that development will be ongoing past 1.7.

So what do you think of this teaser? It's on top of the Ren, what does this indicate?




Competition is healthy, and in the benefited of the costumers.

Chillin wrote:So what do you think of this teaser? It's on top of the Ren, what does this indicate?

It indicates that they are associating iMPC Pro with the MPC Renaissance for marketing purposes.

Chillin wrote:Competition is healthy, and in the benefited of the costumers.

It helps when you want to make an MPC costume?

SimonInAustralia wrote:

Chillin wrote:So what do you think of this teaser? It's on top of the Ren, what does this indicate?

It indicates that they are associating iMPC Pro with the MPC Renaissance for marketing purposes.

Chillin wrote:Competition is healthy, and in the benefited of the costumers.

It helps when you want to make an MPC costume?

Of course I meant customer. It was a typo, typed from the iPad.


Anyway, the way that picture was taken it makes it appear as if the Ren and iMPC Pro work coherently.

Chillin wrote:Anyway, the way that picture was taken it makes it appear as if the Ren and iMPC Pro work coherently.

I think you are reading too much into it.