MPC X, MPC Live, MPC One & MPC Key 61 Forum: Support and discussion for the MPC X, MPC Live, MPC Live II, MPC One & MPC Key 61; Akai's current generation of standalone MPCs.
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By Monotremata Sat Jan 07, 2023 2:44 am
That's not really what List Edit was meant for. It's not meant to view the entire timeline, it's just a LIST of events already on the track for editing. Sure you can add to it, but Grid Edit is for filling up the empty spaces. List Edit is just that, a list of what's already there. It's got just about everything you would want in a tracker interface already, you need to switch around the screens between Notes/Controllers/Aftertouch/etc..

I think this is part of the reason Akai is having so much trouble deciding what the MPC should be. It's already got its own lineage and way of doing things that MPC users have been perfectly fine with for what, 35 or so years now? Nowadays all the noobs are buying it based on marketing hype hoping Akai will magically transform it into their favorite DAW without bothering to learn how it's SUPPOSED to work and either moving on and getting rid of it, or joining the MPC club.

Akai has enough trouble making it be a working functional MPC and now you want them to transform it into Renoise too? Don't get me wrong I love jungle, been listening to it since the start of the 90s, but the MPC doesn't need to become a tracker, its already a MIDI sequencer and they need to fix that before doing anything else to it.
Last edited by Monotremata on Sat Jan 07, 2023 2:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
By Lancerben Sat Jan 07, 2023 2:45 am
As a new user to mpc and learning the "MPC" workflow... Aka contorsionist act... My god this is Not user friendly or intuitive at all. I understand how it works I figured out most features by now by hunting down tutorials and spendings days on it, searching forums and searching the manual... But it's so convoluted.

Just an example that is so mind boggling...the undo button... Why didnt they make it so not every little click of the turn of a knob record as an event and fill up your undo section so fast. Maybe make the undo into section... Keyboard input... Knob input... So you could still go back into history if you messed with a knob and decided to change something... I constantly have to save... It's a major slow down the "workflow"

This keyboard is the perfect example of love hate relationship... Love the capabilities... Hate the convoluted system and countless bugs. I just started using it I found at least 20 major bugs... Without counting the ones I read about I didn't get yet.

The locate function any way to use to set markers to navigate quicker?
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By HanHuman Sat Jan 07, 2023 11:02 pm
The UI is objectively mediocre at best and as Lancerben said, so convoluted. These machines are very capable and in many aspects great, but the sheer amount of frustration they can generate sometimes is just as great. And that can't always be blamed on users being noobs or not understanding the MPC workflow. Rogers Linn's MPCs were very well designed with a lot though put into button placement, UI (though limited) and overall user experience. Newer ones have that heritage so they are still good, but the well though out design coherence in these machine is long gone. As I said in some other post, the newer ones feel like an engineer list of features oddly putted together resulting in a mediocre design with no vision. Like a bad blend between engineering and marketing.

Regarding the tracker idea, there would be very little more to do. Basically a grid toggle option for notes in parameters, everything else is already there. And since they did that step sequencer page that very little people use, it seems like a grid option in LIST EDIT to emulate trackers wouldn't be that bad of an idea. But of course, bug fixing is and should always be priority number one.
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By Lampdog Sun Jan 08, 2023 3:32 am
LIST EDIT is a list, nothing more. It's doing the same job it's been doing in legacy mpc's but now even easier. It's fine. Look at 4k's, 2kxl's versions of it. it's a very familiar feel that works.

It's also not a tracker. Looks and makes move similar but is not. Again, LIST EDIT does it's job so far. Leave it be.
By Lancerben Sun Jan 08, 2023 6:02 am
Hey AKAI... can you make your midi Inputs receive more than 2 identical notes please... it's 2023. This is one of the most basic functions a Keyboard can have, Almost any keyboard can do this but not my brand new MPC..VERY VERY frustrating. I can't work with this keyboard and make anything without running a myriad of problems... Considered abandoning it tonight just returning it. Something I have never done for any keyboard or sound module in the past. I Adore the sounds, the power of the Sound effect engine, the flexibility of of the sound manipulation and architecture but the fact it can barely do anything outside of it's own environment without a ton of bugs (work with other plug ins, other keyboards without bugs through the midi interface, that is a deal breaker to me. I will wait a bit for an update but it seems this is a long standing problem. Like I said what saves this keyboard is the freshness of the sounds, effects and overall prowess, but you guys got to this Beta version ready for a release... oups it's already released... it shouldn't have been. It's NOT even close to being a finished product. At least if I was told I was a beta tester I would have known what to expect.

Every brand have their problems, not one set up is perfect but... this.. Audio clicks and artifacts (often), audio interface incompatibilites, Crashes often, all kinds of weird midi bugs that are totally unacceptable (can't play two identical notes via midi ???), playback bugs, interface bugs (menus and more).

This keyboard has huge potential. I will wait a bit and see if you guys stabilize it. But for what I use it for, it just can't do it without a ton of frustrating work around, reloads and compromises.
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By Lampdog Sun Jan 08, 2023 6:09 am
Lancerben wrote:Hey AKAI... can you make your midi Inputs receive more than 2 identical notes please... it's 2023.


Some members here say multi-timbrality has been fixed in 2.11.7. Is that the firmware your using on your mpc Keys61.
By Lancerben Sun Jan 08, 2023 6:47 am
Lampdog wrote:
Lancerben wrote:Hey AKAI... can you make your midi Inputs receive more than 2 identical notes please... it's 2023.


Some members here say multi-timbrality has been fixed in 2.11.7. Is that the firmware your using on your mpc Keys61.

I use 2.11.6 now... I rolled back because the Problem is 2.11.7 deletes my user preset menu which I constantly use. I use very few sounds that are original. #1 thing I like to do is customize my sounds before I do work. Get my tools in order then get into creative mode... I can still load my presets via Browser and my favorites are still saved so it's not too bad I guess now tha I've built a good collection. But I still constantly adjust my sounds to fit a style or a song.

There are other issues with midi the note issue is one thing... There are other very odd artifacts... Even when playing back what u already did in standalone mode. Lots of audio artifacts I have to reload projects, I get crashes now and then. Is that improved in 2.11.7?
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By HanHuman Sun Jan 08, 2023 11:50 am
Lampdog wrote:LIST EDIT is a list, nothing more. It's doing the same job it's been doing in legacy mpc's but now even easier. It's fine. Look at 4k's, 2kxl's versions of it. it's a very familiar feel that works.

It's also not a tracker. Looks and makes move similar but is not. Again, LIST EDIT does it's job so far. Leave it be.

Just a feature suggestion in a feature suggestion thread. It wouldn't change a thing for someone not toggling on the option. But that idea comes from a statement that there is no step recording in the newer MPCs except in the LIST EDIT view, as an option in preferences. If they bring step recording in GRID mode so that OVER DUB lets you input notes one by one according to TC setting, I'll forget all about ever wanting a "tracker 'ish" option. Literally a single option that already exists in LIST EDIT view and older MPCs, I mean come on AKAI are the engineers behind GRID and LIST EDIT two different teams living in two separate islands without phone… :Sigh:
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By Monotremata Sun Jan 08, 2023 4:45 pm
HanHuman wrote:Just a feature suggestion in a feature suggestion thread. It wouldn't change a thing for someone not toggling on the option.


An on/off I could get behind.. The thing with List Edit is, it's supposed to be a list of all the events already on the track for quick editing and whatnot. Have you ever tried scrolling through List Edit in a 16 bar sequence to look for like a specific hi hat or anything? Its painfully slow if you've got a lot of events on the track (even if you just switch the screen to "Notes") and getting to something all the way in bar 15/16 is a pain in the ass without any sort of page up/page down/home/end buttons. If List Edit showed every step in the grid by default, I doubt anyone would bother using it, it make it so slow all the time no matter how much you did on the track already.

Although I can see tracker folks spending all their time there (I use Renoise too, its the only way to make 'proper' old school Jungle), but 'regular' MPC users at that point would probably shun it because it would make it so tedious to use it in the "MPC idiom". A big part of the problem is Akai doesn't know what it wants the MPC to be anymore. Is it our old sampler/sequencer or is it a DAW in a box? And at that point WHICH DAW? Everybody wants everything from their favorite flavor of sequencer in there, and Akai has no clue which way to head with it from the looks of it.
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By HanHuman Sun Jan 08, 2023 5:47 pm
Monotremata wrote:A big part of the problem is Akai doesn't know what it wants the MPC to be anymore. Is it our old sampler/sequencer or is it a DAW in a box? And at that point WHICH DAW?

Yea I very much agree, seems there's no main designer with a vision to blend it all like Roger Linn used to be for AKAI. It is indeed already all over the place, like for instance "audio tracks" being an almost completely separated thing on the side with its own set of tracks. Gotta have a twisted mind to come up with that.

But regarding the 'tracker' idea, maybe just visual cues like events in one bar having a light grey background and events in the next bar having a darker grey. Similarly to what piano roll does, but instead of a per not color change it would be a per bar or per beat maybe. Just to get a better sense of structure in all that dump of events but without adding empty space.

But the most important thing is that step record should also be available from any pages, just by pressing OVER DUB it should register played notes by TC setting increments. I'll never get over this one, this feature NEEDS to happen, it is a big big miss imo.
By Lancerben Thu Jan 12, 2023 3:47 am
Can you make portamento usable... Right now setting 1 is a lot of portamento and way too much for the instrument I'm trying to sample...wished the scaling was a lot More progressive or allow fractions... But i would think scaling it would be easier to do.
By Lancerben Fri Jan 13, 2023 3:15 am
In sample edit mode. When. Zooming in and out I wish the position would stay centered... This is extremely annoying and counter productive. When using qlink zoom it always goes back to the start... I was working with a large sample and extracting bits here and there. It was a pain... This doesn't seem that hard to achieve software wise.

An auto loop function would be fantastic where it Would detect peaks and valleys of closest volume to loop. That is a bigger ask but would be amazing for workflow improvement.