By prospect
Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:25 am
Ok, since I guess I'm one of the first to have had an encounter with this unit I'll do my best to recall my experience.
First off my quick credentials (sp), I've owned an MPC60, MPC2000, and the 2000XL and worked on occasions with an MPC3000. My MPC experience stems back probably about 8 years. I'm not an expert, but I do consider the MPCs to be an extension and a valuable instrument in my life.
enough of that
My first concern was the overall build-quality. I was fearing this unit might be put together with cheap components because of the price.
When I walked up to the Akai booth, my first concern was proved WRONG..well sorta. The MPC1000 appears to be built very well as it felt very solid. Although I wasn't too crazy about the knobs and the sliders. They felt cheap and they also felt like they could easily break. The first impression was also the size. Its about the size of a small laptop perhaps?.
The screen is puke green and the display does not tilt. This is a negative on my book as it makes it a little tough to work with. The good thing is that the display-contrast setting allows you to set the contrast and viewing angle (think of the Emu samplers/modules). So even though you can't tilt the screen, you can kind of set it to a comfortable level. Another thing I noticed was that Akai did not comprimise the screen size. The screen is nice and big (considering the rest of the unit). It almost seems as if the display area is actually bigger than the MPC2kXL.
Navigation through the OS was similar to what we're use to with the older MPCs with the exception of a couple of things that were different. (Like using shift - pads to access stuff).
My biggest concern.... the pads.
When I started hitting the pads I noticed an un-workable delay from the time I hit the pad to the time I heard the sounds. The sounds were the pre-loaded factory demo drum sounds (which stunk). When I tried keeping a beat the pads wouldn't keep up. This is incredibly frustrating. The responsiveness was absolutely terrible. Not only was it bad with the timing issue, but also in velocity. It was as if it only had 3 different velocity levels (how hard or soft you hit the pads) as opposed to the numerous velocity capabilites of the other MPCs.
The good news.....
After spending 20 minutes trying to get the proper feel for the pads I turned to the Akai rep and complained and whined about the pads. He reassured me that this was not a production model but a proto-type and that Akai is working on improving those pads as we were talking.
I sure hope he wasn't lying.
Thoughts?
- Well if they can fix this pad issue this can be a killer addition to anybody's studio, USB connectivity, flash card, built-in FX, very large memory capacity.. y'all know whats up already. As an MPC2kXL owner I won't be rushing to get into one of these.
I guess at this point, please feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to recall the experience.
First off my quick credentials (sp), I've owned an MPC60, MPC2000, and the 2000XL and worked on occasions with an MPC3000. My MPC experience stems back probably about 8 years. I'm not an expert, but I do consider the MPCs to be an extension and a valuable instrument in my life.
enough of that
My first concern was the overall build-quality. I was fearing this unit might be put together with cheap components because of the price.
When I walked up to the Akai booth, my first concern was proved WRONG..well sorta. The MPC1000 appears to be built very well as it felt very solid. Although I wasn't too crazy about the knobs and the sliders. They felt cheap and they also felt like they could easily break. The first impression was also the size. Its about the size of a small laptop perhaps?.
The screen is puke green and the display does not tilt. This is a negative on my book as it makes it a little tough to work with. The good thing is that the display-contrast setting allows you to set the contrast and viewing angle (think of the Emu samplers/modules). So even though you can't tilt the screen, you can kind of set it to a comfortable level. Another thing I noticed was that Akai did not comprimise the screen size. The screen is nice and big (considering the rest of the unit). It almost seems as if the display area is actually bigger than the MPC2kXL.
Navigation through the OS was similar to what we're use to with the older MPCs with the exception of a couple of things that were different. (Like using shift - pads to access stuff).
My biggest concern.... the pads.
When I started hitting the pads I noticed an un-workable delay from the time I hit the pad to the time I heard the sounds. The sounds were the pre-loaded factory demo drum sounds (which stunk). When I tried keeping a beat the pads wouldn't keep up. This is incredibly frustrating. The responsiveness was absolutely terrible. Not only was it bad with the timing issue, but also in velocity. It was as if it only had 3 different velocity levels (how hard or soft you hit the pads) as opposed to the numerous velocity capabilites of the other MPCs.
The good news.....
After spending 20 minutes trying to get the proper feel for the pads I turned to the Akai rep and complained and whined about the pads. He reassured me that this was not a production model but a proto-type and that Akai is working on improving those pads as we were talking.
I sure hope he wasn't lying.
Thoughts?
- Well if they can fix this pad issue this can be a killer addition to anybody's studio, USB connectivity, flash card, built-in FX, very large memory capacity.. y'all know whats up already. As an MPC2kXL owner I won't be rushing to get into one of these.
I guess at this point, please feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to recall the experience.
