Force's new Arranger is here - MPC user thoughts?

Neurone wrote:I want arrange mode.
Song mode reminds me of pattern chain on 30 year old kit.
Plus, if I want to record a vocal on a song and the sample will cross the boundary between clips, you have to start appending things together. A workaround.
In 2021 I don't expect to have to resort to workarounds on Akai professional equipment.

The way Arranger mode works right now (at least on the Force) is that you have to literally record your performance in real-time, just like a linear tape from 1949. Does working in a manner from 71 years ago sound appealing to you over the current method of building a song?

MPC needs the arranger mode badly!

Right now it is literally a 20th century way of working. Song mode feels like a painstaking reverse engineering task.

Arranger mode where everything is laid out in a linear time line is infinitely more conducive to creativity and is a streamlined common sense way of working, letting you apply automation easily and gel an entire track together... instead of have a bunch of lame loops sitting on your device on really being used for anything.

Please bring it to MPC Akai!

Acidizer wrote:Arranger mode where everything is laid out is infinitely more conducive to creativity and is a streamlined common sense way of working, letting you apply automation easily and gel an entire track together... instead of have a bunch of lame loops sitting there.

While I'd like to see Arranger mode as well... I think "common sense" is subjective/personal and not a terribly good indicator of the correct approach.

Arranger Mode is cool...But i think it would take up too much Real Estate in the Current MPC Firmware. RIght now, Akai is NOT good implementing new features WITHOUT F*ckin Up other Basic Features.

I dont see the MPC as a Full DAW. I see it as a Powerful Instrument for Sculpting the Basic Structure of Song.

Just my opinion.

NearTao wrote:

Acidizer wrote:Arranger mode where everything is laid out is infinitely more conducive to creativity and is a streamlined common sense way of working, letting you apply automation easily and gel an entire track together... instead of have a bunch of lame loops sitting there.

While I'd like to see Arranger mode as well... I think "common sense" is subjective/personal and not a terribly good indicator of the correct approach.

Yes people have their preferences, but if arranger mode was available way back when no one would be using song mode today.

Song mode is basically working blind, from memory. Arranger mode you can see everything laid out and visualize where to go next, which helps creativity.

So I'd say being able to see the whole picture versus being blinkered is more common sense.

If you had to paint a picture you wouldn't find it helpful to paint it on many small separate pieces of paper then attach them all together at the end, would you?

People just get stuck in their ways.

Acidizer wrote:People just get stuck in their ways.

Sure, and this goes both ways.

I've used Ableton Live since 1.0 and am fluent in an arranger mode as implemented here and other software... I haven't tried arranger mode on the Force... it looks interesting... but I'm not convinced that it is going to make the MPC a more productive device for me. But that's just my opinion.

Still willing to give it a chance though.

Then I guess you aren't making songs with your MPC, as song mode is slower AND less capable.

I've spent December and January doing a track a day on the MPC Live without bringing anything into software... Personally I have come to find Song Mode continues to be a perfectly fine way to put together songs. I did come from the 1k and 500... so was already familiar with song mode. But what is on offer between the 1k/500 and the options on the X/Live/One are night and day.

Sure, you can argue that had I brought the projects from the MPC into Ableton Live that they would have been more polished, done faster, or whatever... Is what I have done on the MPC better or worse than what I might have otherwise done in Ableton? I don't know, but it is different.

Acidizer wrote:Then I guess you aren't making songs with your MPC, as song mode is slower AND less capable.

To play devil's advocate, Arranger Mode on Force works by making you record your performance in real-time, just like a linear tape from 1949. So if I have a 6 minute song I'd like to build from a selection of sequences, it currently takes me less than 2 minutes using MPC's current Song Mode. On Force, it would take me 6 minutes to record the performance in Arranger.

Maybe this is something that can be addressed if Arranger does make an appearance on MPC, as I do agree the Arranger Mode - at the end of the day - is more flexible.

Difference is....Us Old Schoolers Make Music with Our Ears. Youngn's Make Music with their Eyes

40Beatz wrote:Difference is....Us Old Schoolers Make Music with Our Ears. Youngn's Make Music with their Eyes

Well now. let's not be ageist. Folks who see value in a properly utilized Arranger Mode aren't wrong. Let's not sound like old school rockers from the 70's and 80's who looked at the burgeoning electronic music scene as "cheating" that doesn't require any skill. We all see how that went!

Song mode is fine IMO, needs some tweaks, as do most things on the MPC, but maybe it's because I'm originally a legacy MPC user, I find chaining together sequences quite a natural way of working, but it would be good if you could then jump into an arrangement style mode from song mode. So, 'convert song to arrangement', similar in a sense to 'convert to seq'.

The biggest issue I see is not really song mode, it's that Sequences are siloed and can't share patterns between them. I have to copy patterns across sequences to put another bassline or drums over that pattern. If I want to change that pattern across 4 sequences, well then I'm screwed. It needs to work like Maschine, FL Studio, Ableton does

Being able to add automation onto your SONG and not loops is something invaluable for being creative and part and parcel of music production.... the M and P from MPC!

Arranger mode would make it a true "MPC", instead of the groovebox that it is now.