The thing is you already have 2 standalones, X And Live. Akai can spend less money improvung and updating. Like the new Air effects and background design, it looks dope and they sound pro. We need to get to 3.0 and glitch free. Akai can add things on without wasting time on a new design, time and resoures.
How do you go from machines that still have problems to a new machine? The new machine most definitely have have big problems.
Unreallystic, hypothetical, if Akai majes a new machime it will most likely sit between the X and Live price wise. Are you wiling to buy a new MPC? Say, $1,799?
If it gets BEAST MODE treatment like Charlesrandolph said do you think it will be cheap?
Look how Akai jump to make the Fire and Force. They are looking at other avenues. At this time the market to selling a new machine looks bleek. What happens uf they don't sell enough units which is another problem.
Guess what then dydes will be talking about another new machine after that one
Glitches will be in affect mos def! I wouldn't chance it being my MPC live works.
Akau has a better chance improving these machines and improving their software to be a bonified DAW. Keeping the option of controller mode open.
Unreallystic wrote:...Akai will release another stand alone piece of hardware in the future..it will be better. Each iteration has been an improvement over the last in some major way.
What I don't get, and this is reaching beyond just the tool described in this thread, is "what do people consider innovation"? The term gets thrown around a lot, but almost nothing that is innovative, truly seems innovative, just popularized by the masses *iphones cough cough*. People keep looking to the next iteration to be innovative, but all they are typically are spec bumps with one or two throw away features.
So I check these forums and the facebook group(s) and there are constantly folks complaining about wanting certain features or it not being innovative enough, and I'm just like, what else can they do, beyond essentially a spec dump?
I own both sample based Pocket Operators. I own the Digitakt, I use Ableton, I have Reason, I have FL Studio, I used to use Sonar, I got the Force, I got the Live, I use the iPad Pro, I have the Kaossilator Pro and KP3+...and NONE of them are perfect, but they all excel at something.
The Digitakt is great for freestyle beat making, terrible when I already have an idea in my head.
The Pocket Operators are as portable as possible, but use batteries, and doing anything more than "playing around" requires more gear.
Ableton is my main work horse, it can do anything, but to use it at work requires a laptop purchase, and dragging around my Push 2 as well.
Reason, I hate the controller options/setup *personally*, and while its recent popularity has made it more accessible, I struggled with it for years, because I had no mentor and finding videos on Youtube or taking classes on it were so hard to even FIND. It also would require a laptop for portable use, along with some kind of controller.
FL Studio will require a laptop purchase, I have (2) Fires and they are super portable, so that is a plus. I like certain things about how FL Studio is setup, I hate other things about how its setup - I would not want to use it as my primary DAW, but its great for quick & simple pieces.
iPad is light weight, requires a controller (I run the XKey), but I'm simply not fond of any of the software I've used, for various reasons, my favorite being iMPC 2 - but it crashes too much to be reliable.
Kaossilator/KP3 combo is great for freestyling or building up or adding to something that is existing, but being stuck with only (4) channels is super rough. It doesn't play well with DAWs, etc. It feels like a toy from a productivity stand-point, like a more serious "Pocket Operator". But they can still sample.
Then there are the currently discussed Live (and for me Force). They are truly stand alone, no need for any controller unlike say the iPad. They can do way more than the Pocket Operators & Kaossilator/KP3+, though not as immediate. While the Digitakt is great for programming in stuff, the clicky feel of the buttons is also how the music feels. Its not exclusive to "EDM", but that's where it shines. The MPC however, if I have an idea, I can put it down. If I hear a quote on YT that I want to do some damage with, I can easily record it in, chop it up, and build up whatever is floating in my head. I don't have to take out a laptop and a controller. I can be on the bus and do it. The level of polish doesn't reach the true DAWs like Ableton, but it way more immediate. It's easy to use the touch screen and manipulate note data, compared to the Digitakt.
Is it perfect no, again things have been great for me *crossing fingers*, I can't dismiss the bad luck people have had with quality control. I'm sure people here are pushing it/them harder than I have - I don't do vocal work on the MPC, but have never needed to go beyond 5-6 tracks, and if the need arises, there are real EASY ways to navigate around 8 tracks.
So the MPC isn't dead for me, and I'm not going to complain, it has a specific set of skills and I enjoy those. If you need a portable workhorse, then a laptop is your best bet bar none, even if they crammed a laptop into an MPC for the next iteration so it could handle VSTs, there would still be issues when comparing it against Ableton/Reason. So #Shrug
- Unreall
