Bug reports & end-user support for Akai's MPC Software 'controllers' including the new MPC Studio 2, the MPC Touch, MPC Renaissance & original MPC Studio and MPC StudioB lack.
By Toast Sun Dec 19, 2021 9:10 pm
Hey all, first post. I tried doing a quick search by I'm having a little trouble getting a specific answer. Sorry if this is something that is asked a lot (because it seems like it is).

I have a 2019 16 inch Macbook Pro (16,1) with an Intel i7 running Catalina 10.15.7 (by my knowledge the oldest version this computer will support). On this I have installed the MPC 1.9.7 software + drivers and as I see over and over, there is no audio output to the Ren.

I know the Ren is discontinued and support is not great, but Akai's site indicates that MPC 2.x is supported for this setup. My immediate goal is to sample from line or mic in, do work on the MPC with that and audio from a local disk, then maybe dump that into Ableton for finishing. Ultimately I'd like to do something like feed some mixer output that's working with Serato into the Ren for some live sampling and FX and so on.

To get what seems to be the low hanging fruit out of the way:
If I buy a license for MPC 2.x software will this resolve this issue?

Do the experts see any fundamental road-blocking issue with this kind of setup?

Note: If the solution is Bootcamp that's OK. This is a dedicated machine for this purpose so if it needs to just run Windows and everything works, that's fine. I'm primarily trying to gauge how obsolete the Ren is and how viable this Macbook is for my intended setup.

TIA for the help.
By Toast Mon Dec 20, 2021 2:53 pm
So I tried 2.9.1 and 2.9.0 and while I'm not getting any audio out from the Ren, I noticed that all the USB device stuff is working fine (pads, Q-link etc all work). When the MBP speakers are used as output playback is fine using an old project. Notably there is no "No audio" message when the Ren is selected for output, and playback even begins in software AND audio is clearly being processed as EQs are moving, but no sound from the monitors and time is clearly ticking very slowly. In other words, whatever is wrong here it seems to ONLY be the (core?) audio driver to use the Ren as an audio interface. :Sigh:

I recall reading there is an alternate ASIO-based driver for the mac but I can't recall what it's called. Is this something worth trying in this scenario?
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By MPC-Tutor Mon Dec 20, 2021 3:39 pm
According to this page, Ren audio driver fully supported on Catalina:

https://inmusicbrands.force.com/akaipro ... o#Catalina

So you shouldn't have any issues with the Ren's audio interface. Separately the MPC Software 2.10 works on Catalina, so that shouldn't be a problem either. In theory it should all be working for you, so it might be a different issue - for example, try a different USB cable, avoid USB hubs etc. Or possibly try a USB 2.0 hub, as I seem to remember the Ren struggled with USB 3 ports in some scenarios.

have a 2019 16 inch Macbook Pro (16,1) with an Intel i7 running Catalina 10.15.7 (by my knowledge the oldest version this computer will support).


BTW, this is incorrect, a 2019 Macbook pro will run the latest MacOS Monterey and most likely the next 2 or 3 major Macos releases.
By Toast Mon Dec 20, 2021 4:42 pm
MPC-Tutor wrote:https://inmusicbrands.force.com/akaipro ... o#Catalina

Yeah, that's what I was going with. I suppose as far as the selections in the UI go it's "working", but even if I try to play back regular system sounds, while I can select the Renaissance Core Audio driver there is no actual output. The fact that once playback starts in the MPC software it's clearly very slow in tempo (but no audible output) tells me there may be some driver config problem. :WTF:

Is there some known way to wipe the driver so it can be reinstalled? Akai's "driver remover" app doesn't run.

Note: I tried this setup on this computer with Windows using MPC 1.9.x and of course it works. :roll: This computer only has 4 USB-C ports and nothing else but it all works fine via the hub I have in Windows.

MPC-Tutor wrote:BTW, this is incorrect, a 2019 Macbook pro will run the latest MacOS Monterey and most likely the next 2 or 3 major Macos releases.

Oh, I meant the oldest version it will run as research suggests that MacOS versions older than Catalina don't have these issues.