Help: Looking for HW version of Ableton Live - MPC, MV or ??

Hi All,

Hoping someone here can help me figure out my current dilemna. I play bass in a live band regularly and we're looking to add a few pre-recorded parts to some of our songs. For instance, we'd love to add some additional vocal harmonies, another guitar, keys, organ, etc, depending on the needs of the song. We're a country band. So we wouldn't typically use most of the electronica, hip hop, dance focused sounds/effects that are associated with MPC/MV's.

I have Live7 along with a Macbook (white) and FW410 sound card. I can accomplish all my needs with this setup, but in a live situation it seems quite cumbersome and prone to technical issues. I'm looking for a similar hardware based setup that I can rely on to just work everytime.

-I need to be able to have 4-5 audio samples playing for possibly the length of a typical 4 minute song (mono is fine)
-I need to either be able to load multiples songs at one time or hopefully have a very fast song load time on the hardware unit, so we're not twiddling our thumbs between sets.
-I prefer to be able to route each part to it's own output, but I can work around this if I need to
-I don't really need to trigger additional loops once the song has started. I may want to do this later down the line, but for now it would be fire off a song and let it play to the end.
-Ideally, I'd love to be able to assign each song to it's own pad, so I can just reach over and start the next song without too much trouble. So, I'd have to be able to assign a distinct tempo to each pad (kind of like we can do with scenes in Live).

I've looked at the MPC's and I really love the form factor of the MPC1000. Has enough outputs. But I'm concerned about the limited amount of RAM for loading songs. I don't have any experience with MPC's, so i'm not sure how long a typical song would take to load and this is critical for a live gig scenario.

I've also looked at the MV8800 and it seems awesome, but it's quite big for hauling around to gigs and lacks the audio outputs (although there is an expansion card...if you can find one). Also, it's very expensive compared to the MPC.

I'm also open to other ideas if anyone else has experience in this sort of live band situation. I'm not completely opposed to just using Live with my Macbook, but I am extremely concerned about complexity and reliability.

Thanks in advance for your help

Another option would be the Roland SP404 which plays directly from the CF card or maybe even the SP555, although it probably won't handle you're routing requirements. You'll need to check on that.

Unfortunately the obvious thing everyone is going to say is if Ableton is working and you have had no problems with it then stick with it. You could always buy a backup laptop.

I think MV is out of the question here. slow load time, as you mentioned lack of additional outputs, and long audio samples drifting out of sync.


I'd personaly stick it out with Live solid interface and a good midi controller, like APC40.

with mpc 1000 you have 24min 28sec [128MB/MONO]

there is no equivilent of Ableton Live in a hardware box.

use your macbook, lots of bands do this on stage with very little problems

Ableton Live was meant to be used in a "live" situation

Thanks so much for the replies. I have to admit I'm a little surprised by the open and fair minded approach from the members of this forum. I had pretty much expected everyone to just chime in and say "...buy a MPC1K with JJOS...", but instead I get replies from members who genuinely considered my needs. Ironically, I posted this same question on the Ableton forum and all the replies I recieved there told me to buy a Roland SP. The SP's look cool, but due to the routing restriction of only 2 outputs, I don't think that's quite the solution I'm looking for.

I've done a lot of research on the MPC's and MV's over the last few days. I absolutely LOVE the form factor, layout and ease of use of the MPC1K, but it doesn't quite seem to give me everything I'm looking for. The MV looks good on paper, but again the lack of outputs, enormous size and price are keeping me hesitant to pull the trigger.

I think I'll heed the advice given and look for a stable method of using my Macbook along with Live7. I'll be keeping my eyes open for the latest versions of MPC's and when I see one that meets all my needs, I won't hesitate to buy it

I would personally just buy a Pioneer CDJ if Live is a pain in the ass to take out with you. You could mix and master your backing elements in your studio and use this as a reference when you sound check. Instant load time etc...

If you need a click track then it's not so good obviously, but at least it would be a pain free solution.

you can pick up second hand mv8000 in the same price range of second hand 1k