My MPC Renaissance Initial Impressions

My MPC arrived early Friday morning but had to be put aside as I had other studio duties to complete which had been delayed for weeks so the deadline was tight.

Anyway, late afternoon I got to take it out, plug it in and install the software plus sound banks. I was hesitant at first thinking that something had to go awry with the software installation but I was proved wrong. From the initial software installation to the 1.4 upgrade and all that followed the process was smooth and hazard free.

Great start.

Then I took a look at the software and straight away threw some drum sounds on some pads and jammed away. It's my first MPC and I've been watching videos on this thing for the past 12 months so you can't blame me for getting stuck straight in
Just like the initial setup this was smooth as could be, sounds loaded fast, pads are super responsive and an absolute joy to use and the program/software wasn't complete rocket science so I was able to 'beginner' navigate around a bit and mess around. I actually put a beat together in a couple minutes and had a whole idea for a track soon after. I now fully understand the appeal of MPC's and how they completely transform the way you work or approach making music. Beats and sequences just flow.

Like I mentioned earlier I'm new to MPC's so what stopped me in my tracks was things like songs and sequencing further, copying sequences and editing them in different parts throughout the song plus track mute and, to a lesser extent, automation. Looking on line at the Akai videos and various others I don't see this being too much of a problem to learn and come to terms with though.

So to recap so far, hardware is sleek and very well made (pads are just beautiful to touch and play), software is easy to install and reasonably intuitive to use at a basic level. Overall a quality product that can spark a new level of creativity for many years to come.

Now the criticisms, or faults I've come across:

A few crashes in random places.

The first crash came from closing the software down, this happened quite early on but actually hasn't re-occurred so I'm hoping this is a one-off.

Second crash happened when I had a beat playing from The 809 instrument and started scrolling through the various banks. Haven't tried to recreate this yet so not sure if it's a one-off.

Third crash happened with the 32bit version (I mainly use the 64 bit but wanted to see how the 32 bit version fared) When I scanned the vst folders after 45 secs or so it crashed. I've recreated this 3 times and it's happened every time. Now I only have a small portion of my 32 bit plug ins available when in the 32 bit version. I'm sure there's probably one particular vst that causes the issue and if I had plans to continue on the 32bit I would try to troubleshoot but I'm more inclined to use the 64bit version which hasn't given me any issue when scanning available plug ins.

Fourth crash happened about 10 minutes ago as I was building a basic beat with two programs and a couple fx plug ins however, this was whilst I was testing out the 32 bit version so it's no big thing.

64 Bit version has proved to be quite stable for me in standalone mode and I've already got into the habit of saving very regularly to avoid heartache.

So, I'm very happy with the purchase and look forward to learning more about the MPC way of handling songs and sequences then putting the thing to work!!! I plan on using it live as well as my main production machine so there's much to learn but I sense it is more than capable of handling everything I hope to do plus with those Akai updates the future looks very bright indeed.

It's always fun to get a new toy! Nice write up and keep us posted.

Also, those vintage modes are much better than I had anticipated, I just saw them as a gimmick but I was, once again, proved wrong.

The MPC60 mode is just ridiculous on drums, absolutely ridiculous! My kick drums just thump so much harder & snares get that 'thwack' from old hip hop that I love so, so much.

Can't wait to hear what new vintage modes Akai have up their sleeve...2000xl would be nice?

Great post
I am also looking to purchase a Ren.. watched allot of videos as well, and it just seems like the rite workflow for me. from drag and drop to pads, to chopping, it reminds me of N.I Battery, Geist, fl sudio and Recycle.. perfect for my beat making needs

I just feel that allot of these software's that are out are great for non sample producers. Sure you can chop in some DAWS.. but I haven't come across anything that chops samples like Adobe Audition and Recycle.. Ren seems to have that covered

@ M Chop- I've used recycle & battery for as long as they've existed and love what they do (Battery in particular) but in the short space of time I've had the MPC Ren I know it will replace those bits of software.

I understand Akai's way of chopping samples as it's the only hardware samplers I've used for the past 20 years of making music and I'm delighted to see that same method has been retained here and, dare I say, improved?

Couple that in with the ease of having a good quality soundcard and midi interface built in and a very capable sequencer alongside midi controllers (q-links) it's one serious solution for making music in an (almost) one stop shop.

It's not perfect, and Akai still have much work to do to iron out those bugs that still exist plus develop the software even further but that doesn't take away from what is an excellent product that will produce a generation of hits upon hits upon hits..

Sounds good for you dude. Is this your first MPC, or have you being rock'n them for 20 years as you said?

It's my first MPC. I've been using the Akai samplers (s1000/s3000xl/s6000) from the beginning of my career but never went over to the MPC side until now.

I know these are designed with Hip Hop in mind but they are perfect for House & Techno productions, especially considering how easy they are to program good drum sequences in and also get a good sound from.

There are limitations, especially when I'm looking to record and mixdown vocal tracks and live instruments but for that you have your full on DAW's and it will be a while before the MPC Ren can look to take those out of the equation.

Welcome on board, mr Nubian!
Seems we have a legend joining our ranks

Great Post ! Welcome !

I received my REN this week and I have to admit that I am thoroughly satisfied. I've owned the MPC2000, then the 2000XL then the 4000 then the 2500 and finally the REN. I actually bought the 2500 during the REN bashing period and thought that it was gonna be the ultimate MPC for me but I just couldn't get into it for some reason. Decided to go for the REN cause I was interested in getting into the software aspect of music production but still wanted to use the MPC hardware workflow. This thing is exactly what I wanted and so far it has lived up to what I was looking for and I haven't really scratched the surface of what it can do.

One of the biggest things that made me really make up my mind to purchase the REN was the ability to loaded legacy files, especially MPC2000 .aps & .all and the MPC4000 files. My legacy files loaded up almost to the "T". Some of files were changed but ultimately the songs and sequences were intact.

Thanks AKAI for finally looking out for those of us who were loyal to the MPC brand especially the vast array of Hip-Hop producers. It really seemed at one point that all these music equipment companies only thought about dance, house, trance and techno producers.

I look forward to the updates that I'm sure will make this MPC into one of, if not the greatest MPC ever.

Nubian Mindz wrote:It's not perfect, and Akai still have much work to do to iron out those bugs that still exist plus develop the software even further but that doesn't take away from what is an excellent product that will produce a generation of hits upon hits upon hits..

The developers are hard at work improving the software, among other things, as I type this. I encourage you to promptly report any bugs you find in the dedicated bug report thread. I created a dedicated thread for plugin issues that you add comments in. The Ren/Studio product development team members frequent this site.

A few bugs that have stung me are:

Deleting unused samples gets rid of everything that isn't in a 'drum' program

FX are not automatable when on a pad insert

And a weird song bug that glitched on the 15th step of a song and even after deleting it and re-inserting a new sequence in that 15th section the glitch remained. The glitch was a small but noticeable jump in the song when going from the 14th song event to the 15th rendering the song useless at that point so I had to delete that 15th section and make the song out of 14 events..

It worked but quite annoying all the same

Nubian Mindz wrote:A few bugs that have stung me are:

Deleting unused samples gets rid of everything that isn't in a 'drum' program

FX are not automatable when on a pad insert

And a weird song bug that glitched on the 15th step of a song and even after deleting it and re-inserting a new sequence in that 15th section the glitch remained. The glitch was a small but noticeable jump in the song when going from the 14th song event to the 15th rendering the song useless at that point so I had to delete that 15th section and make the song out of 14 events..

It worked but quite annoying all the same

- Deleting unused samples should delete any sample that isn't assigned to a drum or keygroup program. Unless you mean something else, this is working as designed.

- FX automation has not been implemented yet.

Jah- deleting unused samples deletes any samples that are not assigned to a drum group. I had some keygroups set up and it deleted the samples from those as well as the unused sounds.

Nubian Mindz wrote:Jah- deleting unused samples deletes any samples that are not assigned to a drum group. I had some keygroups set up and it deleted the samples from those as well as the unused sounds.

Confirmed bug. I sent a report to Akai.