no feature request

what up yo!
ez nah

I thought I should drop in some words for akai here.
I have been lurking the forum and doing some sort of research because i want to buy one of the new mpc controllers.

I have been very close to music production on computers for many years, I still remember when Absynth wasn’t Native Instruments and was mac only.
I have seen great companies close and I have ended up losing track of great visionary developers with great talent, I have seen 1 person companies starting from nothing and nowadays they sell hardware and have also seen great companies totally losing the plot and they still in business.

I have a degree on audio engineering, I have my fair experience on computer music software programming and also am musically trained.

Never owned a mpc.

After this introduction I can finally get into what led me to start a thread here.

I can understand the frustration and anxiety of some users wanting to see their problems fixed and their requests implemented, some people surely went through some sort of “sacrifice” to be able to buy their mpc, but I still think there’s a lot of praise due to Akai here.
Akai have been in the business for ages now, and before this, as far as I know, it has no background in music software.
What Akai is doing is immense, it’s epic almost.
There’s a lot to be taken in consideration before thinking their lazying around their headquarters just making beats.
Say you want to implement a new feature on your software, one could assume you just grab the program manual, find a keyboard shortcut, hit apply, compile and release… it really ain’t just like that, it would be awesome if it was, it would be so much simpler for everyone.
Implementing something new may implicate rewriting the whole application from scratch. Even if it doesn’t need to be rewritten from scratch it may eventually mess up what was already working so fine, so now it’s that issue that needs to be addressed, then again once this one is fixed a new one may arise again.
The same applies fixing just problems with already available features.

An then we’re talking about not one but two applications, the MPC Ren and Studio software and the Essentials. I can imagine the pressure on the people behind all this. Hats off and bows.

Anyway I don’t want to extend this much longer, I got beats to work on.

Just one last note for Akai to eventually think about.
Like I said, I’m on to buy one of the new MPC controllers but then it seems something is already wrapped for release, maybe soon(?).
Like I wasn’t already sure about which MPC to get
What I really would like to see, would be Akai nailing the software and turn out the best daw in the market, then do what MPCstuff is doing in a legit way(assuming what they’re doing isn’t officially endorsed by Akai), give the possibility to the users to mod they’re equipment(just make clear the warranty voids if a mod is done or something like that), this way new Akai equipment, like the Ren, Studio and Element, will still sell and will turn timeless machines and keep the word “legendary” associated to their name for the next 20 years.

i'm over and out

peas

and here's a song to sk8 to

There won't be a new mpc for a while, probably mid way next year. The rumors were started from a prop during a Microsoft conference, they had a ren with a different colour way that triggered like one sample, not an akai event, just a Microsoft pr thing to show there are some windows oem products in development. Akai will probably show off something at trade shows next year, they're going to be pushing apcs, mpks and rhythm wolf this year.

Probably is a standalone mpc coming (I'd guess it would come with 2.0 software) so you should think about whether you want a standalone sampler sequencer with tablet computer power or an interface/controller that works with a computer. Personally I'm happy with the controller, I'm skeptical that a standalone ren would have power to match even my 2 years old i5 laptop, maybe oem windows would be hella quick with the mpc software but I don't envision terrific vst handling on it.

I get less than 5 ms latency, the ability to master in a seperate daw, flexibility to use audacity for sample edits and batch editing so I'm happy with the ren.

fdodds wrote:There won't be a new mpc for a while, probably mid way next year. The rumors were started from a prop during a Microsoft conference, they had a ren with a different colour way that triggered like one sample, not an akai event, just a Microsoft pr thing to show there are some windows oem products in development. Akai will probably show off something at trade shows next year, they're going to be pushing apcs, mpks and rhythm wolf this year.

There have apparently been other recent rumors of a new MPC for the end of the year, insider info mentioned on a Sonic State video, or something like that.

I would guess, if it happens, then it might be shown at NAMM early next year, with availability mid-late next year.

fdodds wrote:Probably is a standalone mpc coming (I'd guess it would come with 2.0 software) so you should think about whether you want a standalone sampler sequencer with tablet computer power or an interface/controller that works with a computer. Personally I'm happy with the controller, I'm skeptical that a standalone ren would have power to match even my 2 years old i5 laptop, maybe oem windows would be hella quick with the mpc software but I don't envision terrific vst handling on it.

The prototype standalone Renaissance apparently had an Intel i5 NUC mainboard inside it, so a little better than tablet performance, and probably would match your 2 year old laptop for performance, especially with a streamlined embedded Windows OS, and improved Intel NUC specs by the time it is released, if they go that way.

SimonInAustralia wrote:There have apparently been other recent rumours of a new MPC for the end of the year, insider info mentioned on a Sonic State video, or something like that.

I don't know if the "insider" is PSR from B Boy Tech.

This post is just to make a correction on my previous, Akai does have a background releasing music software, there's a few discontinued vst fx that can be found in the Legacy section of AkaiPro website.
I guess those don't count anyway eheh

SimonInAustralia wrote:The prototype standalone Renaissance apparently had an Intel i5 NUC mainboard inside it, so a little better than tablet performance, and probably would match your 2 year old laptop for performance, especially with a streamlined embedded Windows OS, and improved Intel NUC specs by the time it is released, if they go that way.

I'm real skeptical about any details on that 'prototype'. The gear is completely unverifiable, and saying it's got an i5 in i reckon means it would ideally have an i5 according to the recommendations of the dev team or something, who knows what it would actually ship with.

They pressed literally one pad on it, I think they took a renaissance dev unit, slapped a coat of paint on it and used it to represent the idea of a windows oem mpc that akai are probably developing. The standalone had an Ethernet port, that could easily be for the devs to quickly load and test new firmwares, I dunno. Maybe that is the prototype but I think they would differentiate it from the ren design wise, beyond making it red and slapping a galaxy note screen to it.

According to Pete at Akai, it was a proof of concept.

I would expect that it is not any sort of production prototype at all, and it would end up being completely different to that.

But using an off-the-shelf Intel NUC motherboard as the basis for the computer component would make sense, and would make it a lot easier for them to bring to market, compared to having to make custom PC parts themselves.

I just looked up what NUC is. Looks neat, like a Mac mini.

Yes, Intel's version of the Mac Mini, the motherboards are available by themselves, and measure 4" x 4" x 1.5".

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-d53427rke.html






Quite a bit smaller than a Mac Mini...

These pics remind me something i did sometime ago.
It's an arduinoboy for sequencing or synchronizing a gameboy to any daw.
The button changes programs, the leds light according to which program is loaded and the usb ports are actually midi ports

but don't mind me, do go on

Wow that's ill, to work with lrdj? I used to run with some dudes on irc who did chip tune stuff, seemed too fiddly for me (I **** hate mousing so the idea of sequencing on a gb is a real boner killer) but an arduino boy might make it workable. Could it receive midi? I dunno I guess if I really want chip sounds these days I'd just get a vst for it I spose... Gotta stop the gear lust

I used to be somewhat serious about gameboy music even had a band page in the days of myspace.
I was doing night shifts in my job so had plenty of time and the gameboy was the only way to work on music in those dead hours at work.
The little Arduinoboy works flawlessly but to be honest the fingers in one hand would probably be enough to count the number of times i've used it... these days I just grab a vst and be done with it, I totally get you eheh
It works with LSDJ, Nanoloop and mGB
more info here
http://code.google.com/p/arduinoboy/

just realised the case is a stack of 3 1/2" floppies ah damn! too dope

yes, i have cutoff an area below the metal bit of the floppies that make the body and glued them all together, so if you flip it upside down you're left with a little box, then the whole circuit boards(they're 3, the arduino nano, a smaller one just for the button and resistor and another for the leds) fit all in half the space, so in the area left i fitted a 2x aaa battery holder, so it's portable.
Then added the usb ports as midi connectors and assembled exclusive cables for it.
The bottom floppy has a smaller whole with a wobbly sliding door that allows to exchange batteries if needed, the rest of the area holds the circuits in