MV-8000 Review: Part 1

Thats what i'm saying, the MV looks tight, but at that price why would anyone choose it over an MPC1000 let alone a 4000 when it cant keymap a sample across the board like a rack piece.

Because the MV does hundred things more than the MPC1000. You only have to read specs to know that much. A demo isn't required.

If the future complex high tech sample CDs are so important, then everyone might as well throw their MPC60, MPC3000, MPC2000/XL, MPC1000 into the trash right now because they will never recognize future formats. Or they can just continue using them and enjoying them.

Don't write about what you don't know.

So it cant keymap or pick up loop points on wav samples then, i dont care about futuristic sample cds most of my stuff is from vinyl, it would just be cool to play a bassline on it from a controller keyboard.

No need to get all tesy mang. your always being a jerk for some reason.

As far as I know these features are not currently supported but they will be supported in the future. There are more important parts of the instrument that I am working with right now, such as trying to understand sound libraries and project management. The key mapping and loop points are very low priority.

My guess is that Roland feels most first wave customers want to play the pads and not care much about key mapping and detecting loop points. On the other hand, AKAI format will be supported in the future. Version 2.0 of the OS is definitely coming. It is likely these features will be supported in either the first or second quarter of 2004.

A couple things I can tell you are that samples may be assigned to equivalent piano keys, and Key Groups are supported. Roland doesn't use the term "Key Group" because it is AKAI specific terminology. Instead, they have a Make Keyboard checkbox in a sample assignment dialog box. The box has a rectangular icon of a keyboard to illustrate the assignment. Import options allow the MV to detect regions of silence and divide the sample into several samples. The gap time is selectable from 0.5 - 2.0 seconds.

Thanks for the heads up, Im selling my MPC3000 soon (I already got a 60 & s950 for "that" sound and completed a 24 track beat comp on the 3000...done with it) and was looking into some modern equipment, and was SERIOUSLY considering the MV and or the Motif, just casue Ive been all Akai for the last year and a half.

My only concerns was the lack of true sample support (not just phrase sampling - but i saw the brochure and saw some sort of piano roll screen) and the difficulty factor, I've toyed with the SP808 (owned one for a month) and a VS880 and find them difficult to use coming over from Akai's toys.

Oh and whats up with the equivalent of Ak.Sys for the MV, do they have some sort of drag and drop feature with computers, the brochure was kinda vague on how the USB works?

Instead of the reviews I had planned, I might focus instead on the features the community here has expressed interest in as well as others they have not heard about yet.

A piano roll screen offers step recording. There is also a sample editing screen with features like waveform display, setting the start point, beginning loop point, loop mode, normalizing, time stretch, etc. Every area of functionality has a screen, dialog box, or popup menu to communicate with the user through a GUI. All the screens and their functions are printed in the second half of the Owner's Manual for reference.

A large view of the machine: http://www.samedaymusic.com/media/MV-80 ... 6d6023.jpg

It takes a while to learn the MV-8000. If you would feel uncomfortable learning the MPC4000, then the MV-8000 is going to be equally challenging. An inexpensive way to learn more is to call Roland support and tell them you bought a display model without a manual. The usual charge is $10 - $20 for a manual with shipping cost included.

A computer can access the MV-8000 hard drive via USB. It cannot access the direct memory of the MV, as in the case of the MPC4000 and ak.Sys. The USB connection is activated and deactivated from the DISK/USB button above the dial followed by making a choice in a window. Then a drive icon appears in the My Computer window of the host PC. This allows you to drag and drop files from and to the MV hard drive. Within the next year an editor might be released. If it does become available it would allow offline modification of items such as samples, patches, and projects.

here was my main problem with the 4000, always annoyed me. i really need to be able to automate the q link and slider controls to one track or at all. changing the tuning and filter from an outboard sequencer (in my case, logic from a powerbook) it seems that the sliders on the 2000xl and 4000 do not receive these midi commands. can the mv receive this sort of automation???

cory

The MV doesn't have Q-Link. Its sliders are general purpose controllers used to change sound parameters depending on the editing screen being displayed. I doubt the sliders can do what you are asking about, but you never know. Call Roland for a better answer. This topic is a bit advanced. You might end up not getting no answer.

coco wrote:here was my main problem with the 4000, always annoyed me. i really need to be able to automate the q link and slider controls to one track or at all. changing the tuning and filter from an outboard sequencer (in my case, logic from a powerbook) it seems that the sliders on the 2000xl and 4000 do not receive these midi commands. can the mv receive this sort of automation???

cory

Coco, if i understand your problem correctly, why don't you just send sysEx or NRPNs from your sequencer to the MPC? Or better yet: why don't you just use the sequencer in the 4000?

JPW

MPC_Producer: Regarding the loop points issue:
I have a Fantom-s61 and noone (Roland included) knew that it actually CAN read both root key and loop points. All you have to do is save the file as an AIFF (not WAV) and it should work fine. Haven't tried it myself yet since I just read bout it on the fantom-s forum.

Funny even Roland didn't know eyyy?

The MPC has both a loop start and a loop end point in a sequence. There is a slight difference in the MV/Fantom-S by just using the beginning loop point and the same loop end point as the end of the sample. But the thing is when was the last time you heard of anyone specifying the loop end point? Practically never, because everyone uses either the full sample for a loop, or they have a short lead in and then loop to the end of the sample.

Roland knew that, so they made their code faster running by eliminating the configurable end loop point. They also went farther in another way. When you optimize an MV project any unused memory gets collected and put back into the free area for allocation. This includes the areas at the beginning and end of a sample if the start/end points have been moved from their original, longer location.

They also figured out a way to make linear sequencing more efficient than pattern sequencing. I couldn't believe it until I spent a lot of time with the manual and the MV and figured out how they did it. I was amazed, yet it was so logical. The story doesn't end there, too. They inadvertently left several clues in the owner's manual that they are working on pattern sequencing for the MV. I bet they still don't know they accidentally left that in the manual. I have to be the first one who discovered those clues. It's almost a sure thing that Roland will announce OS Version 2.0 at NAMM because the owner’s manual states OS Version 2.0 will support the forthcoming VGA/mouse port card.

omg mpc_producer you must STOP SMOKING CRACK!!

Its not good for you.

Kalei

These childish one-liners that a few people have been posting lately in response to technical posts don't serve any purpose at all except to disrupt the forum.

Actually, it was just a comment on how crazy your post was.

Its abit too much guessing on your part and you make it sound like its facts. For example, how do you know that Roland didnt include end loop points so it would make their code run faster? Thats laughable. Unless you were directly involved in the coding of the Roland OS you dont know shit about it and if you were, well, then you wouldnt be seen as an independant "voice" anymore.

And about the memory handling, with freeing up memory... All I gotta say, thats pretty much the way memory is freed up in OS's like unix or even windows xp etc. Why would this be such a "fantastic" MV-8000 feature?

And to round this up, dude, the "clues" in the MV manual that you are the only one in the world that found out suggests that you either are a narcissist that actually believes that you are the only one that comprehend these "clues" or that you see stuff that no one else does (which is where the crack comment came from).

What you gotta understand is that you look pretty damn stupid in the way you're so trying to "mystify" the powers of the MV-8000 and the fantastic future it faces just because you dont present any facts what so ever, you're reviews are about ram and other stuff that no one in here cares about etc.

If you really wanna try to sell us this machine then show us how good the timestretch function is.

Kalei

Look, this is NOT guessing. Most of it is right from the owner's manual. The fact that you have no MV or a manual is just guessing on YOUR part when you post baseless counter examples.

The freeing of memory is explained in the owner's manual regardless of your disbelief. That's how uninformed and crazy your post is. Since you have such a short memory yourself, let me remind you that the MPC4000 has the capability to remove only unused samples and programs, not portions of them as can be done with the MV.

And considering that I am the ONLY MV owner anywhere posting detailed information, there isn't any narcissism involved. If others knew about issues like a reference to possible future pattern sequencing from reading their manual, then they would write about their discoveries. Open your eyes and explore the web instead of making ignorant posts as you have done.

It's obvious that I am the only one originating posts about the MV anywhere on the web. You look pretty damn stupid making comparisons to crack cocaine and UNIX when you don't own an MV yourself.