Who needs controllers?

absolutely, studio would be far better suited...and using these new controllers would be far better than using software alone....however there are a lot of cats who make beats on the move....and having ability to be able to use software on its own...albeit limited, might be useful....especially when youve most of the beat done...and wanna touch it up

I personally don't know any MPC user that makes beatz on an airplane. So in that sense, owning one of these newer MPCs doesn't change anything.

JAH wrote:Sending private messages have been therapeutic for me personally

well send them to yourself then.

Jeremy the pm tough guy... **** hilarious!

gertie wrote:absolutely, studio would be far better suited...and using these new controllers would be far better than using software alone....however there are a lot of cats who make beats on the move....and having ability to be able to use software on its own...albeit limited, might be useful....especially when youve most of the beat done...and wanna touch it up

JAH wrote:I personally don't know any MPC user that makes beatz on an airplane. So in that sense, owning one of these newer MPCs doesn't change anything.

Gotta say, this is one instance I agree with Dirt McGert! As I mentioned before, with Maschine, you can do little shit with the mouse if the controller's not connected, like some lite mixing, tweaking, and even drawing in or moving notes around. The other benefit is that say I have about 8 new beats that are completely done and just need to be tracked. I can just grab my laptop and headphones, jump on a plane, open up Maschine in Pro Tools and track the whole flight away without connecting a clunky controller. 13" notebook don't take up much space. I even use this method at home from time to time. However, without the controller connected, you can't REALLY get busy with the software. So there really is no benefit in cracking or pirating it and I doubt anyone is doing that.

Another benefit is say I wanna share a project to a friend for a collab, but I'm not home and all I have is my laptop. I might wanna do some last minute checking over the session like removing unnecessary sounds or tracks, or just some general cleanup before sending it. It be nice not to be forced to wait to get home to be able to do this.

So while I don't agree that Akai needs to sell the software separately, I think the software should be able to open and playback a project without the controller connected if you need. IMO IMO!

DJ Hellfire wrote:So while I don't agree that Akai needs to sell the software separately, I think the software should be able to open and playback a project without the controller connected if you need. IMO IMO!

I am all for more feature requests.

DJ Hellfire wrote:

gertie wrote:absolutely, studio would be far better suited...and using these new controllers would be far better than using software alone....however there are a lot of cats who make beats on the move....and having ability to be able to use software on its own...albeit limited, might be useful....especially when youve most of the beat done...and wanna touch it up

JAH wrote:I personally don't know any MPC user that makes beatz on an airplane. So in that sense, owning one of these newer MPCs doesn't change anything.

Gotta say, this is one instance I agree with Dirt McGert! As I mentioned before, with Maschine, you can do little **** with the mouse if the controller's not connected, like some lite mixing, tweaking, and even drawing in or moving notes around. The other benefit is that say I have about 8 new beats that are completely done and just need to be tracked. I can just grab my laptop and headphones, jump on a plane, open up Maschine in Pro Tools and track the whole flight away without connecting a clunky controller. 13" notebook don't take up much space. I even use this method at home from time to time. However, without the controller connected, you can't REALLY get busy with the software. So there really is no benefit in cracking or pirating it and I doubt anyone is doing that.

Another benefit is say I wanna share a project to a friend for a collab, but I'm not home and all I have is my laptop. I might wanna do some last minute checking over the session like removing unnecessary sounds or tracks, or just some general cleanup before sending it. It be nice not to be forced to wait to get home to be able to do this.

So while I don't agree that Akai needs to sell the software separately, I think the software should be able to open and playback a project without the controller connected if you need. IMO IMO!

Having it said like this, i tend to agree. However, i still don't think it should be sold alone. I think it should come with a dongle. when you're home, in front of the controller, use that. when you're on the move in the examples above, then plug the dongle in (to authorize the software) that way, you still can open/share beats when you're not home. THAT would be killer. it would be a win/win. still no piracy and we get to use the software without the hardware

the software will be pirated anyway...just like maschine software has....it will be used by kids who wont use (or cannot afford) the controller.....why penalise the people who buy it?

it would be cool if you could install it in dropbox and just bring the controller to any network connected device with a usb port.

gertie wrote:the software will be pirated anyway...just like maschine software has....it will be used by kids who wont use (or cannot afford) the controller.....why penalise the people who buy it?

Agreed! But I think they feel they have to have some pirate protection in place. Waves actually just ditched iLok and went to a cloud-base auth service. Only problem is that their version 9 software was cracked within 24 hours of release. But it's dope because the auths rest right on your computer or a flash drive and can be transferred between computers easily. And I read that they cover 1 license lost per year.

sparq wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:

gertie wrote:absolutely, studio would be far better suited...and using these new controllers would be far better than using software alone....however there are a lot of cats who make beats on the move....and having ability to be able to use software on its own...albeit limited, might be useful....especially when youve most of the beat done...and wanna touch it up

JAH wrote:I personally don't know any MPC user that makes beatz on an airplane. So in that sense, owning one of these newer MPCs doesn't change anything.

Gotta say, this is one instance I agree with Dirt McGert! As I mentioned before, with Maschine, you can do little **** with the mouse if the controller's not connected, like some lite mixing, tweaking, and even drawing in or moving notes around. The other benefit is that say I have about 8 new beats that are completely done and just need to be tracked. I can just grab my laptop and headphones, jump on a plane, open up Maschine in Pro Tools and track the whole flight away without connecting a clunky controller. 13" notebook don't take up much space. I even use this method at home from time to time. However, without the controller connected, you can't REALLY get busy with the software. So there really is no benefit in cracking or pirating it and I doubt anyone is doing that.

Another benefit is say I wanna share a project to a friend for a collab, but I'm not home and all I have is my laptop. I might wanna do some last minute checking over the session like removing unnecessary sounds or tracks, or just some general cleanup before sending it. It be nice not to be forced to wait to get home to be able to do this.

So while I don't agree that Akai needs to sell the software separately, I think the software should be able to open and playback a project without the controller connected if you need. IMO IMO!

Having it said like this, i tend to agree. However, i still don't think it should be sold alone. I think it should come with a dongle. when you're home, in front of the controller, use that. when you're on the move in the examples above, then plug the dongle in (to authorize the software) that way, you still can open/share beats when you're not home. THAT would be killer. it would be a winwin. still no piracy and we get to use the software without the hardware

Co sign I used a mpd24 before with ableton and reason but it wasn't the same experience I have with a dedicated controllers like maschine and the apc40. As far a security and software that is always going to be and issue even with major daws on the market. However, the more important issue it workflow and how intergrated the controller, software, and sequencer works together seamlessly. I rather have a dedicated controller as a dongle that actually works like an true mpc than another mpd 64 revamped that is not as integrated. It is easy to transport audio stems in a daw when making beats we been do it for years and it is less taxing on your computer.

I agree with Gertie. Piracy is going to happen no matter what systems you put in place, so ultimately all forms of DRM simply inconvenience the legitimate users. Trust me, I've had to deal with 'elicense Control' issues before, and it's frustrating and time consuming.

I completely see why people would want to run the software standalone, so I think it should definitely be able to run as a standalone app - not sold as that, simply available for Ren/Studio owners 'on the go' who can't lug around a controller as well.

The whole problem with the piracy control issue is that it assumes that people running the software illegitimately are somehow lost sales. We all know that's not the case as most of the buggers are downloading it because it's just 'there', it's not an either-or situation.

Also, it doesn't take into account the number of lost legitimate sales, from people unimpressed that after dropping $1300 on the system, they would be unable to choose to use the software standalone.

Finally, it also doesn't take into account the positive benefits of unlicensed distribution, such as introducing 'poor' students to the product who then develop brand loyalty when they become pros (and then buy the product). I would also imagine many people who download the cracked copy would soon realise they need the hardware for the full experience, so again, it simply acts as a great promotional tool.

Ultimately however, you have the best natural anti-piracy method available - a product that is pretty much pointless in the majority of situations without the attached hardware. So it seems unnecessary to stop the standalone use of the software for the legitimate owners who can find the occasional use for it that way.

Totally agree with the ability to use the software partly alone outside the controller like maschine does in a limited version. However selling software separately from the hardware would made the whole point of the new gear moot. Maschine solid separately from the software would not have been as successful. When you have Geist, Bpm and other that can do the same thing with older nonintergrated controllers. My point being that dedicated controllers makes software more intuitive like natural hardware.

Blue Haze wrote:Totally agree with the ability to use the software partly alone outside the controller like maschine does in a limited version. However selling software separately from the hardware would made the whole point of the new gear moot. Maschine solid separately from the software would not have been as successful. When you have Geist, Bpm and other that can do the same thing with older nonintergrated controllers. My point being that dedicated controllers makes software more intuitive like natural hardware.

Yep, I completely agree that the software shouldn't be sold standalone, the main point of the product is that it's a perfect marriage of hardware and software. However, the software should be able to be used standalone if desired, there should definitely be no requirement to hook up a Ren/Studio/Dongle in order for it to work standalone without any limitations.

And really, there's no point limiting this as it will get cracked and that leaves legitimate, paid up users wondering why they are the only ones not able to take advantage of the standalone software features. But this is nothing new -

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

Yup we are on the same page; however, I believe that Gertle states that he wants to buy the software separate from the controllers.