A letter of improvements to Akai

ShoRoc wrote:Honestly, if you guys had to make your investment in the Live all over again, would you?

No!

ShoRoc wrote:Wow!! even with 8 pages of possible improvements requests, I'm still very excited in anticipation for the pre-ordered X.
Honestly, if you guys had to make your investment in the Live all over again, would you?

I was initially going to wait this out 6 months to year mostly due to the price. But I got an unexpected bonus from work and talked GC down 20% so I pulled the trigger last week. I kind of feel like I got it for free due to the extra cash that fell in my lap but after using it these past few days I wouldn't hesitate to buy again

I'm on the road for work mon-fri so I wanted something I could take with me. The battery power is dope and size is good to carry around. I just worry about transporting it all the time with the touch screen. I've had it in my back pack but will need to get a hard shell to protect it. I'm heading to Alaska next week so I'll see how it does on the plane

It's fun to jam on and I'm surprised by how much I enjoy using the touch screen. The OS takes a while to get use to and it def feels bloated with all the features/menus etc. I've been on MPCs for over 15 years and it still feels like I'm learning a completely different instrument.

Also. just updated my macbook with 2.0 last night and as of this morning, i hate it. It's completed different and feels even more bloated. I know I'll get use to it but I wouldn't update if you love your current process and don't want to re learn. Again, just my opinion and I know I'll get use to it.

ShoRoc wrote:Wow!! even with 8 pages of possible improvements requests, I'm still very excited in anticipation for the pre-ordered X.
Honestly, if you guys had to make your investment in the Live all over again, would you?

I would. I love my Live. There are things about it that REALLY bother me, like the fact that the only midi I can send it is either keyboard type information or main transport (no midi control over parameters via cc's? No assignable midi for controlling the looper via a midi foot pedal? wtf?) and the file system is kinda annoying: there's no way to delete the gigs of shitty EDM content, for example, without literally deleting files one-by-one. It is also impossible to start a beat on the MPC and then edit it using 2.0 UNLESS you save everything to an SD card, USB stick or installed SATA drive. Which is another completely silly fact of the new MPCs given their marketing about a seamless move between hardware and software.

All that being said, yes. I'd buy it again. It's light years ahead of the old standalone MPCs, the pads feel great, editing and chopping on a touch screen is a joy, it has plenty of audio outs for my needs, and with an installed SSD SATA drive, it's an absolute monster for going through my old sample collection and repurposing stuff.

Yeah, it sure is a fun piece. Besides looking around for certain features, I never felt frustrated or lost. Just pure fun.

ShoRoc wrote:Wow!! even with 8 pages of possible improvements requests, I'm still very excited in anticipation for the pre-ordered X.
Honestly, if you guys had to make your investment in the Live all over again, would you?

Yes, its exactly what I wanted, its a different workflow (Ableton/Reason), its super portable - especially the battery - that is the real icing on the cake), etc. My issues with it are tied to my own personal ignorance to the MPC workflow (there has to be a quicker way to turn on/off the metronome), and supplied audio, which isn't a big deal, just most of my work the past two weeks has felt more exploratory and practice, than actually productive.

Now as someone coming from an Ableton/Reason environment there are things that I wish were different just for speed purposes (there are buttons I'd swap out or add), and the lack of document support is immeasurably troublesome, its not a complex system, but again, there are BASIC things that I have to ask around for to figure out, that would be in any mildly developed manual. However the system itself is A1. If I was to take a stab at improvement though, I'd (1) FLIP the damn pads to the right (I finger drum primarily with my right) and (2) Redo the QLinks, as a non-MPC user they feel useless - for the amount of effort it takes to get the field you want and adjust with the Q-Link - I can just as quickly tap it with my finger and rotate the big knob. This could be different in a non-stand-alone mode, so my word aint the Bible, but I'd much rather they adjusted the size of the Q-Links to get all 16 on there like a minaturized version of the MPC X, or reduce their size further as their use for standalone is so small.
- Unreall

there's no way to delete the gigs of **** EDM content, for example, without literally deleting files one-by-one.

You can delete by folders. I was able to delete all the pre-installed samples within a few minutes. That being said, I think my biggest complaint is that you cannot access the built-in memory through USB.

The second biggest would be no program warping inside the box. Hopefully, both of these will be corrected in the future.

Heh heh one by one, are you kidding me?!

It may not have been an issue before, but now that MPC's are Hybrids and the software is on board. Akia should offer freeware for tracking out via usb for times away from your studio.

OR

If its built into the new 2.0 software to allow MPC software authorization for Live and X users. That allow software usage on any computer with your Live or X hardware (no more registering software for computers because the registration is built into the hardware). You can now track out via USB or Analog from any computer.