MPC Touch: most reliable computer, OS, MPC version combo

I am currently using a Touch with a 2012 MacBook Pro running OS X 10.11.3 with MPC software version 2.4. For other reasons I must use the MPC software as a VST plugin within Plogue Bidule. I purchased this at the beginning of 2018 and have had a lot of problems with this product since I purchased it, but with persistence have gotten it to work reliably with one exception; it crashes unexpectedly several time a day. Looking at the crash report, it appears that it is an Akai software bug. So, I believe I have to move to a newer version of MPC software which probably means a macOS update, as well.

So, if anyone out there has a robust system using an MPC Touch (especially as a plugin), please let me know the details of your system.

Thanks,
Tom

I don't use it as a plugin, but MPC Touch working here on a 2019 iMac running Mojave, MPC 2.8.1, also worked fine with 2.7.2 if you want to avoid some of the new 2.8 bugs.

MPC Software always has been pretty buggy though, there's no escaping that; it WILL crash sometimes and this not related to the Touch, I experience the same crashes with the MPC Live attached and also with no MPC hardware attached. I would say that the software is the buggiest it's ever been, but I think 2.9 will fix many of those issues.

Thanks for the quick reply, MPC-Tutor.

So, are you saying that the Mojave / 2.7.2 combo was pretty robust? Did it crash on you?

Also, what makes you confident that 2.9 will be better? The Akai system has been a total s*** show for me since I bought it in 2018.

All MPC Software versions have been crash prone, 2.7.2 crashed almost as much as 2.8.1, the only new one for me in 2.8.1 is a 'bounce track to sample' crash which I was getting last night (had to use Export > Mixdown instead). Can't comment on the Windows version, but I suspect a lot of the instability is likely cross platform.

'Clear and obvious bugs' do tend to be fixed eventually (e.g. where certain features are just not working as expected). But these random crashes seem to linger across releases.

"All MPC Software versions have been crash prone"

Wow! Really? Why do users put up with it? I only use it for MIDI sequencing, and although I've had to "build" a lot of things in Bidule to get around its limitations, have used v2.2.1 for a long time with no problems (except that the displayed Bar number were always wrong; very annoying). I recently moved to v2.4.0 because it still worked with OS X 10.11.3 and fixed the incorrect Bar number problem. BUT, it now randomly crashes.

I've looked into moving to another DAW, but can't find anything that can run as a plugin, has a product specific control surface with transport controls, and a locate function that uses Bars and Beats. It too bad that Akai just doesn't seem to be able to write robust software.

I wrote some papers for my MBA on the subject of buggy software... suffice it to say that if you really think about it... as we teach computers to do tasks... so to does software teach us to work around bugs/issues without really realizing it.

An old article... but buggy and error prone software is endemic of the very nature of software https://www.fastcompany.com/40505226/the-year-that-software-bugs-ate-the-world.

Is buggy software acceptable? No. Have we come to accept buggy software? Certainly yes.

Honestly, this isn't a question of what is right or wrong in the moral sense, it is a question of economic viability. For every user that wants properly running software, there is at least one user who wants new features and is willing to pay for them. As a user, you've inherently bought into the ecosystem, and are unlikely to buy in again unless there are new features. This is why you see enterprise software companies, because there are segments that cannot have buggy, insecure software. A more interesting question might be, what is the equivalent of enterprise in the music space? Which companies make solid releases, that respect backwards compatibility, and focus more on stability, consistent process, and pretty much change at a glacial space?

This also leads into why old music gear such as samplers tend to be so much more rock solid, they were so much simpler! It was feasible that one, or a handful of engineers could keep the code and functionality of the Akai S950 in their head, but today with an Akai MPC X, it's countless engineers all working on their own sub system, and it is in some ways a miracle that they can all come together into a coherent system at all.

Maybe I've been in the software industry for too long, but honestly, I am amazed that anything works at all these days given how cosmically complicated it all is... and we've all been trained to think that technology these days is normal.

I agree with most of what you said. It is complicated and is a miracle it all works as well as it does. However, as with most things, judgements are comparative. So, it certainly appears to me that Akai's code is buggier than most; certainly more than anything else I've had experience with.

But, there's another aspect to all of this; there will always be problems with products, but what's important is how the company handles it. Having lived through the Touch/DisplyLink/High Sierra problem, Akai gets a F. Although it was a problem caused by Apple, there were things Akai could have done to make it easier on their customers but didn't. Simple things like make previous versions of the MPC software available for download so that users could roll back (they still don't do this). They through their hands up, blamed it on Apple, and left their customers high and dry. Inexcusable!

Oh I don't disagree with you there at all... the market is completely different from how a company handles it.

I did a lot of research on big tech companies, and one thing is clear... the more control a company has on their end to end... the better the customer experience. Where Akai has a clear disadvantage is with Apple... who is more than happy to break things every major new release of software. Akai clearly does not care to stay competitive in the Apple ecosystem for whatever reason... which leads me to believe (opinion) that they probably shouldn't be in this space. It's the worst of both worlds... a company that they depend on doesn't care about them... and customers depend on Akai to solve this problem and they do not, or take far too long to address it.

For me... this is why standalone is so important in the new Akai line... and it just shows that at the end of the day, Akai is not mature enough to compete in the controller/software space in anything but the present. The fact that they are willing to let their devices become abandoned relics is fine for me as long as they still can do what is "on the tin" as it were, but they cannot expect users to keep a graveyard of old software and computers to use these "ancient" technology.

Yep, I'm with you 100%, and especially concerning Apple. I'm pretty much done with them. Their yearly OS releases are just too disruptive. They don't really care about the music production market; it's small potatoes to them. Microsoft is better in this regard, but they've had their moments as well. I believe that what the music production world needs is its own OS (probably Linux based). But, you'd have to get all the major players on board . . . sort of like the introduction of MIDI back in the 80s, but WAY harder.

The sad thing is, although there are some features that I wish Akai would add to the MPC software, I really like the "feel" of it AND the Touch.

In case it helps anybody, I just wanted to let you know that MPC 2.4 running on macOS Sierra 10.12.6 seems to be pretty robust. As I am using MPC as a VST plugin, I also found that I had to update Bidule (my host) to 0.9760.

For some reason, the one thing that can still occasionally cause a crash is to hit Play Start when the sequence had been stopped pretty far into a sequence. I found that using Locate to set the stopped location to the very beginning first and then hit Play Start, prevented a crash. When the sequence is playing, I can jump around like crazy with Locate (even to the beginning) and it doesn't crash. I don't understand why jumping to to the beginning from stop with Play Start is a problem, but it is for me. Good luck.