Is it a girl or a boy? .... It's an ACVA2

Can’t compare the two and say the MPC X cost as much as a M1 MacBook Pro. It’s like saying some designer dress cost as much as a car or a chain around a superstar cost as much as a house. The MPC X is a piece of musical equipment. There are other pieces of musical equipment that cost twice one e times as much as an MPC X and they don’t even do half the stuff the MPCs can do. Let that sink in.

And MPCs are also most affordable and most feature rich as they ever were in history (that includes the X) - that is also often overlooked.

hansjbs wrote:Can’t compare the two and say the MPC X cost as much as a M1 MacBook Pro. It’s like saying some designer dress cost as much as a car or a chain around a superstar cost as much as a house. The MPC X is a piece of musical equipment. There are other pieces of musical equipment that cost twice one e times as much as an MPC X and they don’t even do half the stuff the MPCs can do. Let that sink in.

Sure its a standalone piece of musical equipment. And anyone with that same MacBook (for the same price) can run the MPC software and have the exact same 'musical' experience with their laptop that can also do everything else they need it to do, without crapping out on them or worrying about whether their audio interface is going to work or not. You miss out on all the knobs and buttons, but its arguably a better choice at that price point..

Monotremata wrote:

hansjbs wrote:Can’t compare the two and say the MPC X cost as much as a M1 MacBook Pro. It’s like saying some designer dress cost as much as a car or a chain around a superstar cost as much as a house. The MPC X is a piece of musical equipment. There are other pieces of musical equipment that cost twice one e times as much as an MPC X and they don’t even do half the stuff the MPCs can do. Let that sink in.

Sure its a standalone piece of musical equipment. And anyone with that same MacBook (for the same price) can run the MPC software and have the exact same 'musical' experience with their laptop that can also do everything else they need it to do, without crapping out on them or worrying about whether their audio interface is going to work or not. You miss out on all the knobs and buttons, but its arguably a better choice at that price point..

With all due respect, I beg to differ. The Standalone workflow itself is worth the premium, IMO, but you are probably one of those guys that runs their MPC in controller mode 24/7, so I won't try to convince you.

Monotremata wrote:Sure its a standalone piece of musical equipment. And anyone with that same MacBook (for the same price) can run the MPC software and have the exact same 'musical' experience with their laptop that can also do everything else they need it to do, without crapping out on them or worrying about whether their audio interface is going to work or not. You miss out on all the knobs and buttons, but its arguably a better choice at that price point..

I am pretty sure there is no "better choice at that price point"-thing when it comes to any art form. They just want to make you believe that. It's about what makes you passionate. If a mouse and keyboard make you passionate, then that's fine. For me and probably others there's nothing less musical than that making it the worst choice at that price point.

Monotremata wrote:anyone with that same MacBook (for the same price) can run the MPC software and have the exact same 'musical' experience with their laptop ...You miss out on all the knobs and buttons, but its arguably a better choice at that price point..

Yeah ummm...

Monotremata wrote:

hansjbs wrote:Can’t compare the two and say the MPC X cost as much as a M1 MacBook Pro. It’s like saying some designer dress cost as much as a car or a chain around a superstar cost as much as a house. The MPC X is a piece of musical equipment. There are other pieces of musical equipment that cost twice one e times as much as an MPC X and they don’t even do half the stuff the MPCs can do. Let that sink in.

Sure its a standalone piece of musical equipment. And anyone with that same MacBook (for the same price) can run the MPC software and have the exact same 'musical' experience with their laptop that can also do everything else they need it to do, without crapping out on them or worrying about whether their audio interface is going to work or not. You miss out on all the knobs and buttons, but its arguably a better choice at that price point..

Finally someone with reading comprehension. Exactly my point. And im a standalone head (still rock the asr and sp1200)

You can operate the mpc in controller mode as you would in standalone mode. Same exact workflow.

With a dedicated controller like the touch/studio you can get very close. Give or take a small task or 2. Same shit otherwise.

You brand loyalist make me laugh lol standalone used to mean something...each piece had a unique sound. if you ask me the live 2 redefined the term with a battery and speakers, "true standalone" but let me not open that can of worms lol

Anyway, that mpc mk2 seems like its gonna be a half-assed upgrade... 4gigs and a touch strip? Too small for a tilt screen, dont need it.What could they possibly add? Its got the best button lay out, my only gripe is the lack of q links, shits perfect otherwise. Key61 was a flop and unnecessary imo but im biased since i cut my teeth with the asr, and theres no comparing those 2. Ever.

MPC one was so popular sales whise so I understand why they are focusing on that form factor; the one has given them access to a much larger audience then all previous models.

I hope they update the styling to make it less boxy; and add the hard drive and the lithium ion battery and a tilt screen, if so I will upgrade my live 1.

Many manufacturers need to have different versions of their product to allow for market diversification. The people who are buying an MPC One may not be in the same market as people buying the MPC LIVE or the MPC X. While these market segments overlap to some extent, each has a distinct price point, use case, and audience.

The sub $1000 market is absolutely saturated with gear, so the MPC One is not just a device by itself but it is also competing with the used hardware market, DAWs, SPs, Electron gear, drum machines, software, and a host of other things competing for consumer dollars. While the same can be said about the Live and X, given their price point, it's going to be a different consideration set for somebody who's in the market for a sampler at $1300 or $2600 (or whatever the X goes for these days).

Similarly, sure, the MPC software absolutely competes with the MPC hardware, but again, it's almost definitely a different market segment for people who have a laptop and want the MPC experience in their computer, versus the people who probably have a laptop, but want the MPC experience on dedicated hardware.

All of this is a long way to say that sure, your personal viewpoint and perspective are completely fine, but companies rarely target a specific user. They tend to pick market segments and personas. They are not marketing directly to you, but instead marketing to a group of people who roughly want a product or service that they are provide. If some product or feature isn't something you want, and the marketing doesn't resonate with you, well what the company is offering probably wasn't really meant for you.

Tbh laptop only argument works fine for Ableton, etc but I would not choose Akais software for that task. It's designed with hardware in mind. With a dedicated controller you end up with 2 pieces of hardware that stops being as portable a solution. And so on.

The MPCs being standalone plus software option is what put Akai back on the map. It was such an ambitious idea when it launched the Live and everyone had high expectations from day 1 for the concept but it's taken years to really mature it. I think Akai have overall come a long way. They still have a reputation for releasing new features over fixing bugs, introducing costly plugins ppl didn't ask for, and designing some questionable UI and workflows intermentations, BUT they have really really advanced this platform in the process. I think the incremental hardware updates make sense. Every other penny should go into the software evolution to make this concept continue to meet modern producing standards. This makes them both a serious competitor to DAWs and a companion tool to DAWs, it's a simple, obvious and ambitious concept.

NearTao wrote:Many manufacturers need to have different versions of their product to allow for market diversification. The people who are buying an MPC One may not be in the same market as people buying the MPC LIVE or the MPC X.

I totally agree with this. The One opened up a huge amount of 'hobbyists' like myself who don't make music for money, just fun. Spending twice the amount wouldn't make it financially justifiable for me and I suspect many others. I would just go back to playing my bass guitar or Fruity Loops mobile (which when paired with a monitor/keyboard/mouse running off Samsung Dex is actually pretty good).

The fact that the One is so feature packed and is indeed capable of creating a song through to full broadcast quality is a bonus but in short it's such an amazing bit of kit for the money I'm not surprised they have sold gazillions of them. I do wish it had an internal battery but I also appreciate that it would have put the cost up more than we think. The only moan I have is that I would have preferred it in a tilted case which I don't think would have added much cost at all. Yes a tilting screen would be even better but I do again see the cost implications of that.

kidkeitel wrote:Finally someone with reading comprehension....

Yeah, about that...

kidkeitel wrote:You can operate the mpc in controller mode as you would in standalone mode. Same exact workflow.

Except Monotroma wasn't suggesting that. What was being suggested is that WITHOUT an MPC and just using the MPC Software and a MacBook, they could have exact same 'musical' experience, which... I'd wager is not entirely true. Not at all. Having a specialized controller literally changes the workflow.

anyone with that same MacBook (for the same price) can run the MPC software and have the exact same 'musical' experience with their laptop that can also do everything else they need it to do, without crapping out on them or worrying about whether their audio interface is going to work or not. You miss out on all the knobs and buttons, but its arguably a better choice at that price point..

It may be the MPC Live is gonna be end of line; as in there may not be an mpc live 3; cos the MPC XL may be phasing out the live models, especially if the MPC XL has a battery that would probably mean the end of any future live models.

theyre not putting a battery in the X. that makes no sense at all for any reason

jaymack wrote:theyre not putting a battery in the X. that makes no sense at all for any reason

never said that talking about the mpc one XL which seems like it will be a more feature rich version of the mpc one, we all know that the it would make perfect sense to put the batter in the mpc one as its already so small and portable