iMPC Sampling

i'm thinking of getting this app mainly for sampling stuff on the go (internally but also to use it as a record player to feed into my hardware samplers), i like the turntable emulation with pitch... do you guys find sampling & editing pretty flexible? what resolution does the app sample in and what export formats can you get with it? can you only sample mp3s or also wav, flac etc?

The thing is so limited it's almost confusing. Not so much like "oh where is this or that" more like "it's not even here". Having BM2 and Nanostudio it's just very constricting.

The manual is functional but vague. No listing of sample rates or formats. I'll have to just get some more files in the iPad and check. 16/44 WAV is as you can guess supported. I haven't recorded a sample. I just tried some AudioPaste stuff from Figure and some other apps.

I would think AIFF as it's on iOS, but I have to check. FLAC seems unlikely but I'll try to give it a shot.

With the sampler as far as I can tell you have to do one chop at a time and keep reloading the same WAV. No zooming. I sure hope it's actually destructively trimming the sample or that could get real wasteful on disk space. No file sizes are listed so I have to find a way to see the saved slices file sizes.

The turntable part is kinda cool. But the whole thing just feels crippled. No pad panning, no pad cutoff, just one shot and hold.

On the plus side the GUI is decent, in built sounds are better than I thought, but I may just not have heard these Akai sounds in years, I think a lot are culled from old Akai CD libraries. You want to run it in Tabletop if you need to MIDI map it. And JazzyDrewProductions realized that when you save in the Tabletop hosted one those saves aren't present in the standalone version. (The thought was use 4-8 iMPC's in Tabletop to make more PGM's faster.)

viewtopic.php?f=43&t=161682

That's the thread where we were trying hammer out some of the vague stuff. JazzyDrew is using the app a lot and can probably help more than I can, but what I have mentioned is pretty much the whole app. Extremely basic.

The idea of using the record as a quick front end for getting something in your hardware sampler is cool though.

yea i got a feeling it's crazy limited but i don't really have high expectations either.. i wouldn't mind paying more for a more feature complete version though..

daftmunk wrote:yea i got a feeling it's crazy limited but i don't really have high expectations either.. i wouldn't mind paying more for a more feature complete version though..

Agreed I would glady pay $10-$20 if it even just duplicated the 1000 Akai OS. (That's the basis of the code and how the Ren export is able to work.)

$7 bucks is no great loss, but as it is now it feels more like a .99 cent to $4 app.

JazzyDrew said he submitted a detailed feature request list to Akai, but realized he really had to send the list to Retronyms being they're the coders. He got a reply but they essentially said yeah we want to make some improvements but we are hired guns, so it's only what Akai asks us to do as far as updates/feature adds.

I chop in Recycle so I was particularly disappointed that the app does not even support folders. Just a list that could end up being literally 10-20 ft of scrolling to find your sounds.

Maybe it could have just loaded the PGM format, is that too crazy an idea? If you would buy the app it's stands to reason you may already have a lot of PGM's.

Still I bet you try to go glass half full like I did and still buy it and hope for updates. It's not horrible just severely limited. A chop lab type addition and panning per pad along with some zooming in sample mode would actually be all I really need them to add to be a lot more satisfied.

i bought it last night.. the sampling is definitely my favorite part although some kind of zone or chop functionality would be dope. workflow is a little weird, need to erase all those 808 preset patterns.. but overall it's kinda fun and does capture the MPC essence despite the crazy limitations. i don't really care about lack of midi etc.. i really see it as a sketchpad not a serious production tool. not a bad $7 spent, however i would be extremely heated if i'd dropped $300 for MPCFly only to discover the software was this lol.. i think akai need to improve it if not only for Fly users..

Metatron72 wrote:
JazzyDrew said he submitted a detailed feature request list to Akai, but realized he really had to send the list to Retronyms being they're the coders. He got a reply but they essentially said yeah we want to make some improvements but we are hired guns, so it's only what Akai asks us to do as far as updates/feature adds.

Let's hope Retronyms' has a couple of ideas for their Gridlock (the sampler) then.

Yeah Gridlock already can load chops and a MIDI file from a folder, like people have exported from Recycle for years often for MPC usage.

i just downloaded tabletop... wow that really opens up possibilities! actually i'd say even the free version of tabletop without the locked devices is probably way more powerful then iMPC itself.. gridlock has bigger pad surface.. you even get a better version of the turntable.. wish i'd started with that app in the first place, seeing i have zero interest in the iMPC sound library.. still really cool they integrate like that.. very reason like..

daftmunk wrote:i just downloaded tabletop... wow that really opens up possibilities! actually i'd say even the free version of tabletop without the locked devices is probably way more powerful then iMPC itself.. gridlock has bigger pad surface.. you even get a better version of the turntable.. wish i'd started with that app in the first place, seeing i have zero interest in the iMPC sound library.. still really cool they integrate like that.. very reason like..

Yeah I already had the free one but it was limited without all the in app purchase devices. Once I had iMPC in there I decided to take advantage of a sale they were having and bought everything. It was like $30 I think. Expensive for an app but I pay $500 for some VST's so I figured why not give it a shot. I'm really growing to like it, and it is reminiscent of Reason. Actually they heavily borrowed form a Flash online program called Audiotool.

http://www.audiotool.com/

The sample editing facilities on the iMPC do seem to be very limited, I like to have fade in and out and normalise functions available in my sampler. I wonder if that kind of thing will be made available in an update?