MPC XL - CODE NAME ACV5S - A NEW MPC X FOR SOON ?

There is a cool cat!!

But yes, those is exactly what I predicted.. not to toot me horn.. toot toot..
Mpc is an investment in yourself and your music, not a shiny new generation of iphone.

TLDR......
3.0 will be in the XL and it will merge features of Force and MPC in a way.

My (HOT) take
I'm the dummy that has bought and sold every new MPC product since the release of MPC Live.

I had a MPC live. I liked it so much that I bought an MPC X. When force was announced, I was the early adopter that sold my X for a loss to overpay for a half baked force. I've had an mpc One, and mpc one Retro, and now I have my "temporary" MPC Live 2 retro while waiting for the XL.

Dan from Akai used to frequent gearspace until the trolls and feature creeps ran him off.
He mentioned things that were coming down the pipeline years ago and every one of them actually happened to the best of my knowledge.

IMO, Force started as a beta testing ground for 3.0. If you look at the firmwares, they started at 3.
I think that not only will MPCs get the better mixer and GUI of the Force, but Force will also have the ability to run in controller mode once the XL is official. These work flows will some how merge in a way. Remember me when I'm right. Please forget I said all of this if I'm wrong.

I'm looking forward to buying the XL as soon as I'm able. Fool my once, fool me twice, fool me three times, I'm a fool, etc.

All this talk of an 'OS3'? There was just that random placeholder on the Akai shop for MPC Software 3, but there has been nothing leaked relating to Akai working on a 3.0 'firmware'. I did see someone mention on the Force Users facebook group that their Force was randomly saving project files with an mpc3 extension. If I had to guess, MPC Software 3 is going to officially support the Force and MPC with the project formats combined into a single multi-platform file. But this could happen as an 'mpc software-only' path.

dunno why they dont have grey knobs

I hope they put some different A/D circuits in that new mpc xl to set it appart; if they can put the mpc 3000 outputs on there that would make it something special; and maybe an analog filter in there

I think it may just be time for me. The classic look of the XL is great. If they get an arranger mode in it, it may sway me over to MPC. I’m still rockin on my two MV8800’s but was considering the Force to take over as Master controller/sequencer/sampler. I’d really like to stick with 16 pad layout. From the last time I was on the forums (awhile ago for sure), Akai has done amazing updates on MPC and Force products. Since my brain of a controller in the MV8800, the XL could easily slide right into where the MV currently sits. About the same size as my MV, and the bigger touch screen would be a nice change up from current 19” monitor I have hooked up to my MV8800.

Will keep,an eye out on when these actually come out and final price. I don’t want to buy another sequencer for awhile if I upgrade to an MPC XL. I’ve got my years of use out of the two MV8800’s that I bought used. One was $500 and the other was a NOS unit and got it for $1000. It’s still in pristine condition. They are both maxed out with memory, fat pads, tons of patches from S700 discs.

Hard to choose between the Force and a big new MPC, but that tilted touch screen is the right angle for me plus 16 pads.

jpeg wrote:I hope they put some different A/D circuits in that new mpc xl to set it appart; if they can put the mpc 3000 outputs on there that would make it something special; and maybe an analog filter in there

i think we will never see that. for a special sound, you will have go to a sampler like the s2400 or something like that.

Certified Beatz wrote:

Lampdog wrote:

Where tha black folks at in this picture

We're in the background with warm beers

jpeg wrote:dunno why they dont have grey knobs

First thing I always think whenever I see a retro version. The Live II Retro would look so much better with grey knobs.

As for this XL, it's a shame they couldn't have increased the screen size to 12" by getting rid of that black space and had it with just that thin beige frame

I'm still on the fence with this leaked image. I don't see why there is a difference in shade between the top and bottom parts. Maybe those top sections are plastic like on the X and that's why they look lighter?

I don't believe they left that empty space inbetween the USB and Ethernet port. They could have fitted an HDMI socket there

Strange how the numeric keypad has changed colour from white to blue in the newer pic.
They really should also have increased the screen size to 12" and removed the black bezel so there is just a slim beige border around the screen, would've looked cool.

What I am most interested in is:

• whether the touchscreen got any better and deleting a note is not a bash-fest of my finger or a stylus on the screen anymore
• if this alleged 3.0 will be available for the X
• what it can/can't do depending on the amount of ram in the X vs XL
• if 3.0 manages to map more functionality to the hardware buttons (about time!)
• if we finally get macros and/or a mod matrix for midi and audio alike.