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.
By Eschatone Fri Dec 13, 2019 8:03 am
I just got my first MPC (Live) a few days ago and the machine crashed within minutes of the very first time I booted it up. Since then it’s crashed at least 2-3 times every day I use it; The only time I’ve ever had hardware this unstable is when I built a PC with bad ram, so I’m guessing it might be the same issue in my MPC; One of the errors was “Your MPC recovered from an internal error” - and a time or two if was a different error message I can’t recall exactly.

The retailer is rushing a replacement unit that I’ll have by tomorrow, just hoping it’s uncommon to get a lemon like this. When it works, it’s the most fun and amazing hardware I’ve ever used, so I’m just hoping it’s not a problem with Akai’s latest batch of units. It came with 2.6 installed, so it’s definitely among their most recent builds.
By morph860 Mon Dec 16, 2019 3:21 pm
My first Live crashed occasionally and gave me that same message when it rebooted. It also had a bad headphone jack. Not sure if any of the other outputs worked because I didn't have any equipment to test at the time. Akai sent me a replacement. No issues since getting the new one up and running.
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By Monotremata Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:26 pm
Only had it about a week and a half or so but no trouble here.. Haven't tried recording yet but been playing/working on a few tracks pretty much all of my free time, have all six outputs hooked up and in use. Nothing but good times here.

Im guessing they just used a flaky SOC? Ive seen folks flat out have to have the whole board replaced, and others that have had them since launch still working great. I mean we're running an Android basically, I don't exactly expect an Intel style motherboard in there..
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By Bezo Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:17 pm
I had my 1st and only crash a couple of weeks ago, and got the same error message. I got worried and hope mine hasn't gone bad.

I'm a month or so into Studio One and have been spending a lot of time setting up templates and learning my way around, so I haven't done much on the Live other than not being able to help bang on pads whenever I load a drum VI.
By Komatos Records Tue Dec 17, 2019 3:32 pm
First post here. I've been a lurker of the forums since I purchased the MPC X back in April 2019. I also lurked way back when (around 2011), when I used to own a MPC1000 for about a year or so. Anyway, I digress. I've got the MPC X/MPC Live bible (thanks MPC Tutor), which is so much more easy to understand than the manual. Slowly working my way through that trying to learn all the ins and outs of the MPC X.

I haven't really had the chance to put my MPC X through a full workout yet since I got it in April. Lots of stuff going on in my life the last couple of years, which I won't bore the group with the details. Needless/sad to say, so far I've only played around with the MPC X by loading and playing the built-in demo songs/programs, and starting a new program and doing the first couple of tutorials in the Bible. For the most part it's been stable, but on several occasions (3-5 times in 8 months of very intermittent working on the MPC X), I've had a couple of stability issues. No actual error messages like some of you guys have.

What I've had happen to me is this:
1) After loading several of the demo songs/patterns and playing them by pressing Play on the transport controls, suddenly the next demo song/pattern loaded will not play. No sound, no timeline movement, nada. A reboot usually fixes this and the problem won't show up for awhile (i.e. I even load up the rest of the demo songs/patterns without the problem repeating itself). It's not like the memory usage meter is showing anything above 10-20% either.
2) Sometimes, after loading a demo song/pattern and playing it, afterwards hitting the pads to see what sounds are loaded onto them produces no sound. Even though there are definitely samples assigned to those pads. Rebooting fixes this problem also.
3) Sometimes, while browsing through the built-in samples or samples I've loaded into my internally installed SSD (Samsung EVO 860 250GB), the audition/preview feature stops working. Once again,a reboot fixes this.
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By EnochLight Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:46 am
Bought my first MPC Live around 10 months ago - after I bought a Touch and decided I wanted a standalone option. My Live has never crashed on me once. Ever. I also added a 1 TB SSD.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
By firelight Wed Dec 18, 2019 6:12 am
So this one time... I mashed the sequence double length button like mad and I ended up with 999 bars on all my tracks. I would not recommend, lol.

That scene never fully recovered. I thought it was crashing when I pressed undo, but nope! Just needed to wait 2 minutes for the undo to kick in. Was also working off a USB drive while waiting for my new SATA to arrive XD
By Komatos Records Wed Dec 18, 2019 7:58 am
Latest update: tonight I updated to 2.7 via USB flash drive with 2.7 image update file copied onto it. Previous updates since I bought it in April 2019 were via USB from my Mac Mini using the updater app. I originally started at 2.3 or 2.4 and did the next 2-3 updates that way. I figured I’d try the direct update to rule out any communication issues between Mac and MPC X.

Anyway, after the update completed and it rebooted, I went into the system settings to see what was added and changed a couple of minor settings. Then loaded one of the demo songs and pressed Play. No sound, no sequence advancing. Rebooted MPC X.

Loaded up a few (2-4) more demo songs. Pushed Play. The first 2-3 played without incident. The last one made it about 23-24 bars out of 32 bars through the song before the audio and transport stopped playing. The volume LEDs in the upper right were stuck in the yellow zone even though nothing was playing. Rebooted again.

Loaded up another 5-6 songs, all played without issues. Called it a night.

I’m wondering if I purchased an almost brand new refurbished unit from Guitar Center back in April. I say this it looks/looked like brand new with all the plastic overlays and no visible scratches, etc. but because the internal storage drive has some patterns saved on it that date from late 2018 - early 2019. Like a previous owner saved some work in progress beats and returned it. I’m wondering if I email Akai Tech Support and ask for the internal drive complete restore file and try installing that whether it’ll fix my stability issues. I’m afraid to bother working on my own music seriously if it’s having this issue with just the demo songs. FFS, my former hardware Beat Thang wasn’t as unstable as this $2000 unit is.
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By Monotremata Wed Dec 18, 2019 4:24 pm
Sweet got my first bunch of 'MPC has recovered from an internal error' messages after a few hours with 2.7 last night. The first time I saw it, all I was doing was opening a new blank project from the project menu. Did the last time when I was shutting it down for the night. It crashed and rebooted while it was shutting down. I reflashed it at like 2am from a USB stick hoping it was just a wonky flash. Wont have time to really play with it til after work though..
By Komatos Records Fri Dec 27, 2019 4:10 pm
Latest update (sorry to resurrect a week old post):
Put a support ticket into Akai/InMusic right after my previous post (above) on December 18. Still haven't heard back from them with an actual support reply (9 days later). Yesterday I did get an email survey from Akai/InMusic asking how their support reply was LOL. :roll: Is Akai/InMusic support really this bad or is it just the holidays? The first time I put in a support ticket back when I first bought it in April 2019 I got a reply within 48-72 hours. Simpler question that time though.

Anyways, after a few days of no reply from the company I took matters into my own hands and found the link to download the full Internal Memory reinstall ZIPfile (9 GB zipped, 11 GB unzipped) that another forum member posted in another post on this site. Downloaded and copied to my 32GB SDCard and booted up my MPC X. It started the update/copy files process, which only took a few minutes. Funnily enough that was displayed upside down on the touchscreen while it was updating. After it was finished updating I still had issues.

Next I tried deleting all the internal memory content/folders. Including the 3 expansions installed (Vault 2, Essential Instruments 2, Clips). Then restarting the reinstall process with the SDCard. This time it took 15-20 minutes before being done. I thought it was fully installed but no, only about 1/3-1/2 of the Vault 2 content was copied from the SDCard to the internal memory (none of the Essential Instruments 2 or Clips content got copied). Still had playback issues with the demo songs.

Finally, I figured what the hell, I'll delete everything AGAIN off the internal memory that's visible (i.e. any content that got reinstalled). I then used the MPC software to copy/export over the 3 expansion packs (Vault 2, Essential Instruments 2, MPC Clips) to my installed 250GB Samsung EVO 860 SSD drive, along with the 13 demo songs/styles. I then proceeded to play through all 13 demos (loaded from the SSD, not the internal memory), without once getting a hiccup or other error.

Long story short: at least in my case, I think my MPC X's 16GB internal storage is partially defective. The OS/firmware is obviously still on there and seems to be running more stable than it was before I deleted all the add-on content and put it on the SSD. I know several other posts here have mentioned that it's not a good idea to delete the factory installed content because it might cause errors. But in my case it seems as that as long as it is visible somewhere (i.e. internal SSD or HD, USB, SDCard) that it will be recognized and indexed and hopefully not cause stability issues.

The true proof will be when I retest this again this weekend, playing all 13 demos and some demos from the other downloadable content we get from Akai's website for purchasing the MPC X/Live. If it's still behaving stable I'll consider my problem resolved and I can start confidently working on my own music tracks.