Vocoder

Is there a vocoder in the mpcx?

No, but there is a mic preamp and some cool effects you could use. This would be a cool feature for them to implement.

As I understand, MPC Software's terrible routing limitations prevent the use of a traditional vocoder plugin. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think you need to route the mic to the vocoder plugin on your synth track (or vice versa, I can't remember). You can send stuff to busses but not plugins, which is booty.

I feel like a plugin company could make bank solving this problem. There's already a compressor out there (named Sidekick, if memory serves. F*ck I'm old) that sends from one instance to another set to send & receive respectively to trigger compression, kinda like Motherducker combined to one plugin. Compression is one of many uses for sidechaining that are imperative for modern audio mixing.

They could make two plugins to keep it simple, one to send and one to receive, with plugin hosting in the latter so you could route audio to the plethora of plugins that support sidechaining. In fact, Akai could do this themselves & save themselves the trouble of re-coding MPC's mixer. I suspect that's part of the hold-up on us getting anything resembling industry standard routing.

Time to submit a feature request.

Sorry I got sidetracked though. There are plugins that emulate vocoders & many other FX. iZotope Vocal Synth is a popular one.