By mikolo
Thu Jul 04, 2013 12:11 pm
What's up everybody? I've not been around much recently...nor have I had much time for music since March. I have a few weeks set aside over summer to finish some projects , but first step was just to power up the MPC again and have some fun. With some excitement I loaded up OS3 last week and have been using it for a few days. I had glanced at the OS comparison sheet, so I knew the basic trade offs. Here's my initial impressions.
Likes:
1. Pad cycle is seperate from mute and simult
2. Copy Bank (..an old request of mine
)
3. Pad Pattern set up is now per program rather than a global setting.
4. Transpose. Pad repeat.Pad pressure. - All seem like useful and creative additions.
5. Track edit. Looks really useful but not put it through its paces yet.
6. MIDI wait - sample metronome now works as I would expect it. (JJ changed it in 2XL after I reported a bug, unfortunately for me became worse for the way I use it and not better!)
Dislikes/Things I miss
1. CC control of FX, Filter,Resonance,Volume and Pan
2. Effect Files - Formerly you could switch between 20 different FX set-ups. They can still be loaded and FX changes inserted into step edit- but it doesn't really work right (you don't have a way of copying,saving and recalling)
3. F1 key Loop on/off and Bars adjust
4. Main key and Numeric Short cuts
5.Q link control of Input Thru Filter
6. Swing/Shift timing in Grid. There is now no way of changing these settings during playback.
The things I miss are all critical to the way I have my live material set up -they are essential for complex transitions etc I can see possible workarounds for 3. but not the others. On the other hand I do have workarounds in OS2XL for pad cycle and simult (I route the MIDI back into the MPC and trigger layers from another track). Despite the downsides of global pad patterns, I had overcome this by dedicating bank D solely to pad patterns, and I had created a crazy macro to copy banks. The OS3 creative additions are nice but they don't feel as essential to my approach as the missing features.
Now, I know that JJ's business is not to design an OS perfect for my needs but for the time being I will return to OS2XL - the first time I have not stepped forward with each new OS
Hopefully, JJ will continue to add some missing features, as he has done already with the 'all' functionality of the Q-links. If 1,2 & 4 came back I'd probably make the switch to OS3 permanently.
Likes:
1. Pad cycle is seperate from mute and simult
2. Copy Bank (..an old request of mine
)3. Pad Pattern set up is now per program rather than a global setting.
4. Transpose. Pad repeat.Pad pressure. - All seem like useful and creative additions.
5. Track edit. Looks really useful but not put it through its paces yet.
6. MIDI wait - sample metronome now works as I would expect it. (JJ changed it in 2XL after I reported a bug, unfortunately for me became worse for the way I use it and not better!)
Dislikes/Things I miss
1. CC control of FX, Filter,Resonance,Volume and Pan
2. Effect Files - Formerly you could switch between 20 different FX set-ups. They can still be loaded and FX changes inserted into step edit- but it doesn't really work right (you don't have a way of copying,saving and recalling)
3. F1 key Loop on/off and Bars adjust
4. Main key and Numeric Short cuts
5.Q link control of Input Thru Filter
6. Swing/Shift timing in Grid. There is now no way of changing these settings during playback.
The things I miss are all critical to the way I have my live material set up -they are essential for complex transitions etc I can see possible workarounds for 3. but not the others. On the other hand I do have workarounds in OS2XL for pad cycle and simult (I route the MIDI back into the MPC and trigger layers from another track). Despite the downsides of global pad patterns, I had overcome this by dedicating bank D solely to pad patterns, and I had created a crazy macro to copy banks. The OS3 creative additions are nice but they don't feel as essential to my approach as the missing features.
Now, I know that JJ's business is not to design an OS perfect for my needs but for the time being I will return to OS2XL - the first time I have not stepped forward with each new OS
Hopefully, JJ will continue to add some missing features, as he has done already with the 'all' functionality of the Q-links. If 1,2 & 4 came back I'd probably make the switch to OS3 permanently.
