Open Labs DBEAT PRO PRODUCTION STATION vs MPC X/Live

I have one and love it. I see that hansjs is upgrading. I updated mine to Windows 7 SSd but don't have the original software CD. Been using ableton reaper reason and sonar on it. Looking to try s1. I would like to get kArsyn for it again or MOS. even though it is a little quirky midi wise I still love the thing. The power supply went out on it so I had to modify it and use another PSU. I added more ram. Wish the screen was bigger and multi touch for mixing. So I had started to make something like the Raven; 9 years ago. I showed the CEO of openlabs my design and prototype, he loved it but didn't want to pursue it at the time. Just to think I could have saved that company from going belly up, and revolutionized the industry. I got other plans though.

I definitely remember this. As I recall, a great many of us hated the iPod dock. It was taking us a little while to except that vinyl wasn't the staple it been for djing anymore with CD-DJs and now iPod djing. Now it seems that vinyl is making a resurgence back in setups again. Which is great but now I seem to do most of my sampling off of YouTube.
So much for purity.

Yeah, there was a time I looked down at sampling off youtube. That has changed many moons ago, I realized sampling is an artform and where one gets their sounds shouldn't be a concern to anybody. Like who reveals their sample source

Ill-Green wrote:Yeah, there was a time I looked down at sampling off youtube. That has changed many moons ago, I realized sampling is an artform and where one gets their sounds shouldn't be a concern to anybody. Like who reveals their sample source

Amen to that. Hell where my gear is located at in the bedroom, I can still plug a mic into the front of my MOTU and sample stuff off the the TV that way old school style all the time haha. I gotta get that dirt somehow since its all sparkly clean digital ADC now!

yeah but sampling from youtube was often bad quality years ago when everyone looked down on it... but these days the quality can be pretty respectable. Videos never used to be encoded with higher bitrate MP3s or even wavs... and no matter what the uploader did, youtube would **** the quality up even more after you uploaded it.

Unpopular opinion...

Hell no. That's simply too much for the MPC Live footprint. At that point just grab a laptop (which would have better specs) aand a MPD226 or 232. Cramming EVERYTHING into a singular box, doesn't create a better machine. Would it be prefered for the MPC in standaline to handle VSTs, yes, but those are a moving targets as they evolve over time, people are complaining in the Native Instrument group because their computers can't handle Massive X.

Even for the MPC X, with the struggle Akai has had meeting expectations of the CURRENT product, do you really think something that massive and open would be handled well?
- Unreall

Yeah, allowing VSTs in a machine would mean that machine would get old QUICK.
In no time would ppl be saying it can't run this or that. That machine would age faster than anything else.

Fanu wrote:Yeah, allowing VSTs in a machine would mean that machine would get old QUICK.
In no time would ppl be saying it can't run this or that. That machine would age faster than anything else.

If Akai Pro allowed JS Plugins like in Reaper, it would extend and enhance the MPC X or Live in standalone.
Plus the user can create their own and share them. https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

Fanu wrote:Yeah, allowing VSTs in a machine would mean that machine would get old QUICK.
In no time would ppl be saying it can't run this or that. That machine would age faster than anything else.

Like the Muse Receptor. It was a hit for a little while and advertised all over KVR website a few years back, but now pretty old tech and zero updates for it to run new vst versions.

Powerful for its time. Any hardware/software combined product will have the same typical lifespan. You can freeze the PC version at a certain point, but just like the old MV or MPC, it is what it is and if you aren’t happy with the frozen in time version, it becomes obsolete.

There is still value in machines like the Receptor when running software that uses key generated licenses that you install once and they never have to communicate to the internet to work. No dongle, ilok, or messy authentication issues. Muse Receptor also ran plenty of freeware vst’s and at the time, synthedit was still popular for making free vst machines. The free version tended to get builds that all sounded a little similar but some independent developers made “for pay” modules that actually competed with Reaktor.

The Receptor supported most 32bit vst plug-ins very well.

I bet you could get one loaded up for a dime on eBay or Reverb.com now.

i hate having to be connected to the net for verification or re-verification of licensing its a pain. and the subscription based stuff is crazy for the lack of a nicer term. for studios and performers the receptor was a God send. ever lose a dongle? i have and it sucks. now you just have to remember passwords to all the different websites or having to use keepsafe or google or firefox to keep track of the passwords. I think this is one reason why allot of people are starting to get back to hardware. maybe something like the Dbeat that will allow you to use what ever software and evolve. the only real need is for manufactures to support backward compatibility to the fullest usb and driver support continues. Another point would be the open source community always has someone helping solve issues with compatability. so is MS and Apple in control?

I hear you.
Going back to hardware is not for me. Reasons:
1. Space! I love being ITB and getting better mixes etc. Don't want to deal with space dealing with it.
2. Heat factor.
3. Prices are higher than software.
4. Hardware can't do the the things software does.

But l like the DBeat.

DJ CYBORG wrote:i hate having to be connected to the net for verification or re-verification of licensing its a pain. and the subscription based stuff is crazy for the lack of a nicer term. for studios and performers the receptor was a God send. ever lose a dongle? i have and it sucks. now you just have to remember passwords to all the different websites or having to use keepsafe or google or firefox to keep track of the passwords. I think this is one reason why allot of people are starting to get back to hardware. maybe something like the Dbeat that will allow you to use what ever software and evolve. the only real need is for manufactures to support backward compatibility to the fullest usb and driver support continues. Another point would be the open source community always has someone helping solve issues with compatability. so is MS and Apple in control?

Essentially items like Receptor or the Creamware card used to be a means to offload VST resource needs to something besides the main CPU and RAM of the primary DAW system. Today’s computers are powerful enough to handle all that with multi-core CPU’s and 64 bit architecture not limiting the RAM of the system and dedicated graphics cards not having to share resource use also. That was a real issue with older 32bit computers.

Not so today. For standalone units though with smaller ARM processors and limited RAM, having a few multitimbral hardware synths is a good choice. Allows more complex fx setups on sends or individual tracks while offloading sound generation or playback resource needs to external units.

Thanks for that reply

Danoc wrote:l would of sucked up the weight and bought this!

I read some months ago that Propellerhead was trying to make hardware versions of their Reason Rack extension.
According to the article, someone is developing a universal coding to put any computer plugin into hardware with zero latency and complete features.
That sounded very promising.
Anyone has news about Propellerhead hardware and this universal coding?