I am quite dissapointed with MPC Software.

Yep! I am. I bought it wothout knowing what I was really getting.

If you don't have an US keyboard, you're missing a few shortcuts. No way to change keyboard shortcuts either. Ridiculous behaviour of the space bar. Why play from the beginning and not the "univesal" play from cursor position?

Does this daw even do any type of sample delay compensation?

How about sidechaining?

How about tempo progressive changes?

How to re-arrange track order? Can't drag and drop? Move up or down?

Some plugins do not work properly. And it all points to akai, because they work fine in other daws I happen to have.

After six months or so of me trying to get used to it, I still find it very unintuitive and a bit weird. I cannot recommend buying or using this piece of software if these very basic issues are not addressed.

I have read quite a few complaints on this forum. These are my main complaints. Anybody feel free to add your list of complaints here, just in case akai wants to listen.

Thanks for reading.

Just curious, if you have other DAWs, what was it that you were hoping to get out of the MPC Software?

Personally I have found the MPC Software to be a bit awkward, and only have it because it came with the MPC Live I purchased. I also own Ableton Live and Reason, and don't think I'd have thought the MPC Software would be competitive with either of those for most uses/applications.

The MPC CORE has always been the hardware. I actually got a roland MV when I thought AKAI had abandoned us. The software is a compliment to the hardware. Ableton & maschine are way ahead of AKAI . . . . . . if you only use the software you are missing out

GUI is blurry imo
crashes everytime i am on a hot beat

all software is trash w/o a proper controller. At least cop a used MPC TOUCH or studio for $100-200 . . . . . .

if you are on a computer.... why the **** (pardon my french) would you be on the mpc desktop software? okay, i get it if you bought the one.. or the live or what ever and it came with it so you install it to mess around what ever. If you are a non-standalone mpc computer daw user, and you are actually sitting at your computer to make music... hands on the mouse and keyboard.. midi controller ready to go... use a real daw bro.. you got big famous names that stood decades of scrutiny.. cubase, reaper, reason, fl studio, ableton, logic, protools, you name it... there is actually no reason to use the mpc desktop software at all unless you have an mpc and it came for free.... it doesn't do a single thing better than actual established daws.. it doesn't matter what feature you want to nitpick about... it's like driving a reliant robin on the autobahn.

that being said, it sucks in my opinion having the MPController models because again, see above... the standalone models while running in standalone mode.. or the legacy models that were out years ago... those are even less powerful than the desktop software. However, you aren't on the computer... there is no standalone logic pro groove box. being away on a machine has it's benefits. you have the firmware you have... it puts a freeze snapshot type of thing on the device.. no updates needed... the next 20 years are going to be the same as they are now. you know where you stand... it just works. also, great for a hardware rig away from the computer area of the studio... sequence your hardware with hardware instead of with a daw.

Yes, you are all absolutely right.

Just to put you guys into my very own perspective, I started with voyetra on a 386 decades ago. I then moved on to micrologic, and played with fruity loops. At work we had protools, but eventually moved to nuendo (which then was superior, and still is today IMHO). I then got cubase at home. I also have used ardour, very well thought but still very buggy. I now have ableton standard at work, and ableton lite at home (I got free with a controller), I also got a licence for bitwig 8track, for testing purposes, and I got mpc beats, which was free, with another controller. After doing a quick test and checking the prices, I got mpc2 software for myself. I still own cubase, but for what I do, the upgrade price is not worth it. I could still use it if I wanted too, it's a good piece of software. But I paid for mpc2 so I have been determined to use it, just for fun really. But I just cannot understand why akai can't implement such basic functions as the ones I have previously mentioned. I find the workflow a bit awkward, but maybe it's just that I'm not used to it.

The shortcuts and the lack of custom shortcuts are really the biggest issue for me. Some functions are there, buried, but do not have shortcuts assigned. Clicking buttons and navigating menus with a mouse is a waste of time if you could use a keyboard shortcut instead. No usb controller on the market has as many buttons as keyboards do. After all, your on a computer. Usb controllers, IMHO, are there to make specific tasks easier. I do have a bunch of midi controllers, a couple from akai. But limiting a capable piece of software by not having quick access to functions that exist is very limiting. Time is money. Does akai really want to compete with the pros? Or is it just a toy I should give to my children?

The good thing is I am not using it professionally, thank God for that. At work we have a fair variety of professional software, mainly from AVID and Steinberg, but also ableton, as I mentioned earlier. Akai will never find it's self a way into a pro environment unless they make a few basic changes.

As a musician, who would want a sequencer that can't do tempo changes? MPC2 can only change each sequence's tempo, but can't do gradual changes within a sequence. 20+ years ago, voyetra had that issue, but micrologic fixed that for me. The other day I was writng a RnB pop type song that then "morphed" into a classic house style, and I needed to ramp the tempo up from 110 to 140bpm. Impossible with MPC2.

I could carry on with my rant, but I don't want to waste your time, nor mine. It's up to akai to implement those very basic funtions if they want to have a chance to compete with the rest.

Not all is bad though. Akai's synths sound very good. For my type of work, samples are redundant, but they also sound very good. And being able to have MPC2 behave like a vst is also a brilliant idea. But what's the point in doing a project from within mpc2 if other progams are better overall? Mmm...

Thank you.

Yes the lack of tempo change within a sequence is one I have 'feature requested' a few times now, baffling that they have actively removed this feature (it was available in legacy MPCs).

The software is fine for some stuff, it's certainly much quicker to build instruments and work on large expansions by utilizing a mixture of the software and hardware together, some of the tasks needed would take too long in standalone mode.

But it's still very unstable and ill-thought out in many places. For some mpc specific 'tasks' it's better to have it than not, but for general music production in a computer environment you would be clearly better off using a proper DAW. And I really think Akai should just give up the idea of flogging this (MPC Software/MPC Beats) to non-MPC users, I really don't think there's that much interest.

I haven't had too many stability issues, yet. The plugins I have that do not work with MPC2 do make it crash sooner or later, but it could be worse. Timewarp2600 causes many crashes and Vocalizer pro isn't supported.

One thing I have noticed with my setup is that when I run the software with the usb midi controller unplugged, I have to reconfigure it in preferences to make it work again when I do have it plugged in, in many cases requiring a PC restart.

Hopefully this post might help people knowing about the issues MPC2 has before buying.

I've not had any major issues with plugins, timewarp2600 works fine for me (Mac). Sometimes a plug-in refuses to scan or is completely ignored, but eventually it randomly appears and it's then fine. Lack of vst3 support seems like something they should address though.

eddie3000 wrote:The other day I was writng a RnB pop type song that then "morphed" into a classic house style, and I needed to ramp the tempo up from 110 to 140bpm. Impossible with MPC2.

No not impossible. You just don't want to go the hard way tame the horse, controlling the machine. Yes I know tik tok tik tok. Time is runnin.

No problem. You do it the way you want but don't say it's impossible.
peace

Ok, yeah! SORRY! It's not impossible, it's just a pain in the neck.

But if I may, I am going to go on with my complaining. I apologise befoehand for being a bit of an ass!

Because I can't assign keyboard shortcuts, I am mapping buttons to my external usb controllers to make mpc more usable. Why can't I map the autoscroll button at the top? Why does akai think that's unnecesary? When writing music "on the fly", correcting notes before they are played, without stopping the sequencer, the autoscroll logically stops. But in cubase, for example, one could quickly re-enable autoscroll with a keystroke. In MPC you have to move your mouse cursor all the way to the top screen corner to click that tiny little button every time you correct a note, or write a new note. This program really isn't meant for quick arrangements, is it?

Having to use an external controller to get all the functionality is very inconvenient for musicians that are on the move with a laptop.

I quite like the looks of the new akai dedicated controllers for mpc, but I am being put off buying any from frustration with the software. I know I may be exagerating a bit, but I seriously think the program can be improved a lot with a few very simple changes.

eddie3000 wrote:I quite like the looks of the new akai dedicated controllers for mpc, but I am being put off buying any from frustration with the software.

Do you mean the MPC Studio Mk 2? On a scale of 1 to 10 the integration level for this new controller is around 2, huge step backwards from the original MPC Studio where you could edit 99% of parameters direct from the hardware. IMO if you are an MPC Software user looking to enhance the hands-on capabilities of the software you would be better off getting an MPC One or if money is tight and your system supports the drivers, an original MPC Studio Black or MPC Touch.

But really, the MPC experience is all about the hardware, I just don't see the software ever cutting the mustard as an application in its own right.

Thank you for your opinion.

I have a couple of akai usb controllers, and a couple of novation ones. The latter ones are my favourite, and most flexible in terms of custom configuration, and these are the ones I am using currently. At the moment, I am getting around OK with my controllers, after six months of practice, and I am getting stuff done with MPC2 software. But it just reminds me of what I had to do 20+ years ago, I never thought I would have to do workarounds with this program when I got it.

At the moment, I am not buying any more controllers. I am not tight in budget, but I am not going to waste money just for fun. I have all the expensive toys at work!

And just to add another complaint, while I'm at it, bitwig supports many more controllers than MPC2 software does too. I have a bunch of buttons on my novation controller that do nothing with akai's program. Not that all other daws support all the functions on novation controllers, but just complaining. Once you start, it's hard to stop

I have been working with the MPC piano roll for more than a year, creating basic MP3 backing tracks to use at jam sessions.
I only use Valhalla, Lethality VST's and Audacity to do some basics like normalize, fade in and fade out etc. We plug our instruments dry into an interface and can produce a very satisfactory demo.

You guys are asking too much of the MPC software. I think AKAI have done a great job and appreciate that they have made it available to us free.