MPC FLY REVEALED

Sooty_G wrote:yeah, like others have said, just use a low profile slider. the groove the slider moved in could be recessed into the case, so that the top of the slider itself would still be flush with the surface. asr-10s have a slider kind of like this.

But the ASR-10 also has much deeper guts to fit the actual potentiometer mechanism, and still accommodate the recess. And the removable cap idea just sounds like a bad idea! You KNOW that shit is gettin lost!

Remember, this thing is probably barely 1/2"-3/4" thick. I don't know man!

tapedeck wrote:or like i said the knobs like on the studio?

This is probably the best idea. However, if you notice, the pads on the Fly are already slightly recessed into the case. And on the Studio, the pads are not recessed and are a bit higher than the Fly pads. The knobs seem to sit either level with, or slightly higher than the pads. Not sure this would work!

DJ Hellfire wrote:

tapedeck wrote:

man... looking at those pictures just makes me think of how much akai blew their opportunity to make some seriously cool sh*t.

the FLY actually has the potential to be far more usable for composing and performing that the Ren. don't believe me? look at that iPad screen and imagine that instead of the representation of the pads and the slider, the whole screen was just dedicated to the OS 'screen'. you would have so much room to display information and it would all be touchable! so no need to move a cursor over to the parameter you want to tweak... just touch it and go. if it had a physical slider on the case you could be touching parameters with one hand and then change them with the slider with the other hand. super fast and intuitive.

the slider could be a touchstrip recessed into the case, but with a slider cap over it that had a small plastic nub that was always making contact with the touchstrip. so as far as you were concerned, it would feel like you were using a slider, but the guts underneath would be a touchstrip so that it could fit in the case. you would have the flatness of a touchstrip with the accuracy of a slider. not hard to do.

plus, the ipad 2 processor is no joke. plenty of cpu power for sequencing, voices, fx, sample mangling, realtime display of info, waveforms, etc...

but of course akai will gimp the software because they don't want it to be too powerful. they want you to step up and buy their more expensive hardware instead. that's how businesses work.


now look at the mpc studio pic below it. imagine if it had 2 sliders instead of those knobs, a tilt screen, and it was STANDALONE instead of just a controller. that would be sharp! i would buy something like that in a second.

Lampdog wrote:

Sooty_G wrote:now look at the mpc studio pic below it. imagine if it had 2 sliders instead of those knobs, a tilt screen, and it was STANDALONE instead of just a controller. that would be sharp! i would buy something like that in a second.

I'm gonna end up with a studio regardless, I actually like the slick rotating wheels on it. They probably went that route because it is small and will most likely be thrown into a backpack or bag many many times hence nothing sticking up or protruding anywhere.

exactly. the low profile of it is what attracts me. If it was the same size but had portruding knobs i'd seriously be considering the ren, because at that point you loose portability (to a small degree) and then have to worry about your knobs getting bent

I bet on the fly they went with the route of using the screen to represent the look of the mpc for the feeling - to better capture the mpc feeling. plus if the app is released independantly of the controller, it needs to be able to act independantly - hence the look of the mpc.

this is similar approach of most apps like this, the look of the app is directly corellatted to the feel of the app. so it makes sense to create a "virtual" studio (reason comes to mind)

even though its a new surface with some new things, if they didnt make it feel like an mpc, youd have peeps complaining they didnt capture the mpc feel! and youd have the same if it didnt have the colors of the mpc either. The easiest way is to straight up make it look and feel like an mpc is to actually make it look like the mpc, thats half the battle.

Also notice there is no jog wheel on the controller itself. It probablky make sense it is on the touch screen (for size).

Really it all boils down to workflow. it appears they really took the time to design this (controller and software in tandem) so im sure once we get our hands on it these design choices will make sense - its one thing to say "i wish they had knobs" and another to realize it does or does not while actually using the software. plus think about it, the best feature of an ipad is the touch screen so not taking advantage of it is just silly.

Sooty_G wrote:now look at the mpc studio pic below it. imagine if it had 2 sliders instead of those knobs, a tilt screen, and it was STANDALONE instead of just a controller. that would be sharp! i would buy something like that in a second.

yeah, if that was the new "standalone" peeps would be going crazy. I'd make it look like that (although i would prefer the knobs not sliders), then add a few host usb ports so you could plug portable usb drives into it - no need for internal HD. then you'd have to of course have in/outs so youd have a heafty break out cable, but that'd be okay as long as the connector was solid.

a slider you can throw the whole range 0-100 in one quick motion. great for filter sweeps or eq changes, especially during live performance. plus you've got good precision over the whole range for more specific adjustments.

a dial you have to rotate around and around multiple times quickly to do the same thing, then back up and rotate the other way to decrease the values. now take a look at all those little knobs on the Studio. look at how close together they are. imagine you're trying to do a filter sweep or something where you have to move quickly. there is a really good chance that the palm of your hand or another finger is going to rub up against one of the other dials or slip right off and screw up your settings. especially if you are on stage and reacting quicky, hands getting sweaty, etc...

that's why the 1000/2500 layout with the 2 sliders is good. there is no chance you are going to bump 1 slider while using the other one. especially if it is a low profile slider.


with the fly: what i'm saying is if you are using the ipad by itself, the software looks like it does in that pic with the pads and everything. but once you plug the ipad into the hardware, the pads in the software disappear and the whole screen becomes the mpc 'window', which can now display much more information at once. you don't need to see the pads twice (once on the ipad screen and then again below it in the hardware).