iMPC Pro first thoughts

So far I am liking iMPC pro, i feels way more thought out than the last version

My main issues so far are :-

- Lack of midi sync stuff (a no brainier for iPad apps), i would
Guess that this will come in an update and make it way more
useful

- Lack of a manual. The vids are good but do skip things, the
inbuilt help is scant

- The "Tune" is way too fiddly, really difficult to build up a tuned
set of bass pads

But enjoying it loads

Yes on all you wrote.

The folder structure and management is terrible.

It has a serious memory leak issue.

It needs velocity layer sample pad switching.

The lack of simple things like an obvious file delete button is puzzling.

A step edit/nudge implantation is badly needed.

Up to 24/96 bit and sample rates should be added, this is 2014 tech, match a 2002 MPC 4000 in this respect.

Clearly needs a quick update to address the slow and often lagging sample preview. The aforementioned memory leak, and it would be good to get adjustable latency settings or at least match the response that the previous app had and BM2 has.

Probably a stream from disk option is a good idea as seen in BM2 toggle options.

The general design is decent. A little faster to navigate than BM2. And maybe they should shuffle a few button placements. They got a little too far from the hardware inspired skeuomorphic design ethos. Fine to follow the iOS7 design philosophy, the aping of hardware fascias is not needed, but button layout is pretty important as anyone in this forum knows from hardware MPCs.

It's got potential, it's a fairly decent start. But they have more work to do. First stability and optimization of the code base. Then move to proper MIDI compliance and the promised other things like timestretch. Clock sync is far more important to me, as this app would shine in a situation with Auria or Cubasis. But no one in 2014 needs to be trying to sync up their recordings by timing a finger press. Or having to trim the front ends of recordings when it should just take and send clock depending on the situation.

It's number 6 on the charts. Not just music but all apps. They got paid. So the dough is there, finish the job Retronyms. The fun is there, just add stability and standard functionality while adding the little things or switching them. Tap tempo on the main screen for example.

I'd like to think they are starting to realize they need to cater to reasonable user wants and not be as stubborn as they have been in the past with Table Top, where MIDi mapping for external control really had to be argued for hardcore by users.

And the poll for owners of the previous app is ridiculous. Let potential buyers have the same say. And really why should we be voting on full MIDI compliance, timestretch that was touted by them, and possibly 2 IAA FX slots. If they fix the RAM issue most devices can handle 2 FX apps.

Software buyers will pay and support, just make sure we get the reasonable functions that pay big for us and will make this app equally useful in standalone or in an IAA scenario.

Export = single wav

Ridiculous

RAM hungry = only the simplest of projects need apply

MIDI missing = this is really simple stuff

Reading some of the app reviews are hilarious, five stars yet they hadnt even downloaded it. Are these thirteen year olds?

Im tempted to get a refund but I guess Ill wait and see what the first couple of updates bring.

Thank god I didnt buy hardware to go with it. I was a ball hair away from buying Studio and an Element controller.

Once Tabletop gets the fix/update I believe you wont limited to a Fly or Element for control. I'd cop that $100 Arturia joint.

As for the five star reviews, I would expect that simply because there must be cats with iPads that never come within 1000 miles of this forum and don't really know what makes professional and tight app. So reviews without even using the app...I'm not surprised.

In effect saying, "YO JP's VIDS ARE ON HIT KNUCKA!!!!"

I think theyre going to address quite a few things with the first updates...I just hope they dont take the cash and run.

I have so many apps that nearly hit the mark then miss one basic thing that just annoys the f*ck out of you. As a sketchpad I love ipads, but they suck the $$ out of mugs like me

Kcearl wrote:Export = single wav

Ridiculous

RAM hungry = only the simplest of projects need apply

MIDI missing = this is really simple stuff

Reading some of the app reviews are hilarious, five stars yet they hadnt even downloaded it. Are these thirteen year olds?

Im tempted to get a refund but I guess Ill wait and see what the first couple of updates bring.

Thank god I didnt buy hardware to go with it. I was a ball hair away from buying Studio and an Element controller.

Man I almost bought an iPad just for this app and cubasis. That export option is garbage.

BM2 over this any day, they put all this fancy shit in there for videos BUT the app has no foundation

Akai fragmented the whole ecosystem, how can I not dump my Renaissance programs into the impc Pro and load them up? How can i not load up the song from impc pro to renaissance or studio.

How can i not have subfolders for my samples via itunes, there is no real file management to dump stuff over.

The Editing is real basic, the preview buttons are small and my fingers are too big to hit em, its stupid.

Get the damn basics right all this hype for nothing.

Akai **** up big time on this one!!!

kaydigi wrote:

Kcearl wrote:Export = single wav

Ridiculous

RAM hungry = only the simplest of projects need apply

MIDI missing = this is really simple stuff

Reading some of the app reviews are hilarious, five stars yet they hadnt even downloaded it. Are these thirteen year olds?

Im tempted to get a refund but I guess Ill wait and see what the first couple of updates bring.

Thank god I didnt buy hardware to go with it. I was a ball hair away from buying Studio and an Element controller.

Man I almost bought an iPad just for this app and cubasis. That export option is garbage.

Cubasis is excellent...if you only use its sounds as placeholders...but you can sequence an entire track in it easily then it exports the midi to dropbox. Best DAW app Ive tried (i think Ive tried nearly them all)

Sounds are shit though...and its missing a sample player...may come as an in app purchase later.

Agreed on all the missing things. I made note of velocity missing, there is no velocity sensitivity that I can see, maybe I'm missing it. Midi implementation is just missing altogether. Export to nothing else but wave. no cloud storage capabilities to easily load/save samples to/from. no global program selection options for tweaking program settings across multiple pads.

All that said. this is leagues better than iMPC. this is a good solid foundation that Akai can build from. I like the sampling and chopping capabilities... mad easy. sampling direct from mike I mad some dope beatmax drums and edited them into usable drums quick. i dig the performance controlls/effects. interapp options are dope. sampled a lot of other synth apps and used fx apps on the master like plugins. kills the cpu but I have a iPad2 so that was expected.

let us not forget that Beatmaker took a few iterations and as a matter of fact an entirely new redesign to Beatmaker2 before it became the powerhouse that it is. So its a very similar story to the impc vs impc pro. hopes are up that they go hard on updates for impc pro.

on that note I am off to write an actual review.

This app is crap compared to BM2…

On top of everything else, there's basically no difference in velocity between pads in 16 levels velocity.

Are the guys from Retronyms musicians no no wait wait I mean "Creative Musicians"
Ok first off ,Why does this App only do 32 measures???? Yep if nobody hasn't gotten that far um here to tell it THIRTY TWO MEASURES ONLY!dudes and dudet you guys really need to change that.Second the gimmicks need to be gone and replaced
By tools to help with better workflow wait wait what's that a new word a new phrase..BETTER WORK FLOW!,nothing less (we already had that......iMPC)
Look JP,Retronyms you guys had us all at "hello,there's new hope!"But as far as changing the iPad DAW game this app just ain't it,in fact um with everyone else on this one "Beat maker 2,an older much older app is still number one for that category.OK look
All this app needs IMHO is five things and it would be thee "it" number one........
1.Track Explosion or (Track procreation or Track Spread)
Why:Ok picture you doing whatever it is you do and inspiration hits you,you grab your ipad (the closest quickest thing next to you)and start banging the beat 4 measure loops start turning into 8 measure loops and so on and you keep adding and adding sounds and parts next thing you realize you got your beat down,but everything is on one track (DAMN!)but hold on Retronyms in there infinite wisdom has added a one button fix for this
You hit that button and Bang!,just like that every sound,every pad is instantly tracked out to it's own individual track,why,why,WHY can't we have that?
2.Track naming
Why?:to know exactly what sound or part is sitting under them 64 faders
3.Bring the overdub button back
Why?:Better workflow IMHO
4.TableTop integration
Why?:Because you said it would work,that's why!
5.MIDI
Why?:That's all I'm saying................
Retronyms ,JP,please give this a read or some thought we all want this app to succeed
Mainly because we are all tired of getting disappointed and frustrated because we're forced to use something we can't,but because we spent the money and the hope we try to use it anyway,peace....

Word. Akai being the overseers of Retronyms really need to make it mandatory they spend even 30 minutes here and just read our very straight forward posts. It would cost them nothing, and from what I can tell that 30 minutes would pay off more than all the people they had beta testing this thing. We as a group spotted every issue in I'd say 15-20 minutes of use maximum, really a lot of the things in 1-5 minutes of just cycling through the screens and having so many WTF? moments from jump.

I had been in Facebook group for iOS music that was really good. But it was mostly guitar playing folks and synth heads. Few there came from an MPC background. So what ended up happening was myself and another guy who had been doing MPC and sampler work for mad years had posted a lot addressing the shortcomings and calmly stated why the ball had been dropped in so many ways.

We would have been content to just leave at that. But there was a flood of posters getting upset with us. Foolish stuff like it's a sampler BM2 is a DAW, so iMPC is perfect. Just....pause...omg...type stuff. The rest was shut up and be happy with with whatever state it is...or I'm an Akai dude and this is MPC so it's just automatically it's better than BM2, you don't know MPCs, stop posting...

Somehow I refrained from even answering that one. Although I did post aside from the moniker of Program used in the app and having four banks, and a thing called song mode...it's really nothing like a real MPC. And BM2 even with that fiddly sequencer GUI is far more like an MPC style with all that you'd expect as standard.

And another poster was a beta tester. He made zero points other than to say we were wrong about all the issues and just spammed the promo video. The admin messaged the other guy who knows what's up and asked him to not post a single comment on iMPC Pro again. And to take it to Retronyms (non existent ) forum. Because she knows that Retronyms doesn't look at this page of 1000s of iOS music makers. He just removed himself from the group. Mentioned it all to me, I bounced too.

The only reason I tell this long winded tale is I'm thinking the type of uninformed yes men we saw in that thread is exactly why Retronyms thinks this app is acceptable and posts on their own Facebook page, "you guys need to give us a break...oh this was soooo hard to make"

So yeah as 64padzzx3 stated, just read this forum and get to work Retronyms. The discerning MPC vet is not the guys you want to avoid. We'll help you address the issues for free. And we support quality and will break bread when shown what we want.

The only thing those fellas know is marketing, same with Nukai. The target market should be anyone who values quality and not any old spotty youth who thinks its 'amazeballs' to have 16 pads shown on a piece of glass.

Guess,it's back to the drawing board for Retronyms.I'll be on my 1000 until they get it right (Hmmm and maybe I will get a 500 for on the go)