Andy Mac open to discussions

DJ Hellfire wrote:

Yeah, I know, but I'm assuming the people requesting this feature would want Akai to come up with a way to avoid this. I personally don't care for the feature! I just want Ren to read my old ****!

And this is what's to be expected.
I think their purpose will still be as in the past to help you bring your past work or library forward with minimal loss.

I have heard the Renaissance Software referred to as a DAW. However there is a guy on this forum that keeps saying that the Software does not record Audio. Can one of the Akai reps tell me what the real deal is? And why the software is being labeled a DAW.

The only thing i am coming up with is that everything is midi (baring samples) until it gets bounced down to an .mp3 or a .wav file export?

Elohimfetus wrote:I have heard the Renaissance Software referred to as a DAW. However there is a guy on this forum that keeps saying that the Software does not record Audio. Can one of the Akai reps tell me what the real deal is? And why the software is being labeled a DAW.

The only thing i am coming up with is that everything is midi (baring samples) until it gets bounced down to an .mp3 or a .wav file export?

Well, anything that works with digital audio is technically a DAW. Doesn't necessarily have to mean in the sense of recording full out songs and audio tracks. However, to answer your question, there will be no audio tracks. Just beat making!

the official akai guys did say though that the audio tracks would be coming in a future update... so basically.. it's TBA.

@DJ Hellfire & mr_debauch

Thanks Guys! That's exactly what I was looking for.

Ok so my brain has been moving on this...

Say I want to pull my REN song into Logic and I used like 5 AUs. Since I can not open REN as a pluginin Logic and then open those AUs in my REN AU instance, i only have two options.


1. When I create my song in REN Stand alone mode. I need to export the Song, with all of its AU splendor, as separate wave file tracks to open up in Logic. From there (in Logic) I can do what ever I want to to those wave tracks.

2. When I create my song in REN Stand alone mode. I need to sample all of my VST instrument sounds like I would have on the older model MPCs. To be clear, I mean that I would midi sequence the music the way I want it and then sample the sounds produced and trigger the sample on my finished product intead of the midi notes. Doing this, I could just open REN inside of Logic as an AU and have access to all of my sounds to then record, directly from REN into Logic (no export). I could open up other AU effects in Logic at that point and apply them to the Song as needed.

Is my thinking wrong on either of these points?

I think #2 is a good way to go if the direct recording into logic has a better sound quality than the export?

When I use BPM that way I see a loss in quality, but that could be due to BPM exporting all channels to one stereo .wav, not 16 (or whatever number) individual tracks or .wav files.

Elohimfetus: Why wouldn't you just open MPC Ren as a vst/au in Logic? Personally what I do with Maschine(and what I will do with the Ren) is export everything(including plugins) so all sounds are seperated and I click on the Loop option so when I open up Ableton and dial in the correct bpm and load up all my sounds in the clip mode seperately and I launch all of them ,they are all in sync and I can properly mix/master everything correctly from there and put my stuff into proper sequences in arrangement view once everything sounds correct to me. That is my workflow and it works great for me, I am hoping it may help you as well in some way.

Elohimfetus wrote:Ok so my brain has been moving on this...

Say I want to pull my REN song into Logic and I used like 5 AUs. Since I can not open REN as a pluginin Logic and then open those AUs in my REN AU instance, i only have two options.


1. When I create my song in REN Stand alone mode. I need to export the Song, with all of its AU splendor, as separate wave file tracks to open up in Logic. From there (in Logic) I can do what ever I want to to those wave tracks.

2. When I create my song in REN Stand alone mode. I need to sample all of my VST instrument sounds like I would have on the older model MPCs. To be clear, I mean that I would midi sequence the music the way I want it and then sample the sounds produced and trigger the sample on my finished product intead of the midi notes. Doing this, I could just open REN inside of Logic as an AU and have access to all of my sounds to then record, directly from REN into Logic (no export). I could open up other AU effects in Logic at that point and apply them to the Song as needed.

Is my thinking wrong on either of these points?

I think #2 is a good way to go if the direct recording into logic has a better sound quality than the export?

When I use BPM that way I see a loss in quality, but that could be due to BPM exporting all channels to one stereo .wav, not 16 (or whatever number) individual tracks or .wav files.

But you can use Ren as an AU!

Basically, you create a beat in the MPC software in standalone mode. Then close the MPC software, open logic, make a new session and set it to your beat tempo, make your tracks, insert the MPC software on an aux or instrument track, and set the out puts of your sounds in the MPC software to correspond to the tracks inside Logic. Then track!

Hey Andy (or any officially recognized beta tester))

Aside from the lights underneath, how are the Ren/Studio pads different from those that are on the LPD-58? They seem to use the same compound and have the same thickness and behavior.





* Edited to add pic

DJ Hellfire wrote:

ceasi wrote:What I don't understand is why people want to be able to make a beat on the Ren and then take it backwards to an older MPC. I do understand people that want to make a beat on lets say, a 2kxl and transfer that to the ren, and work from there, but why do some wanna make a beat on the Ren, then take it to an older MPC, WHYYYYYYY. I mean it makes sense to wanna be able to use whatever you already have then move it to the Ren, but backwards makes no sense, whats the point, really.

For sending because to another producer who doesn't have a Ren. For example, if me an my homie wanna collab on a beat, but he only has an XL, it still be cool to be able to boomerang the beat back and forth between the Ren and the XL.

I see Akai adding the MPC 5000 and 2500/1000 program export as they still produce these models. I see very little benefit adding the same type of support for other legacy MPCs.

It would be impossible to really collab on a beat effectively when one has a Ren and another has an XL. The Ren uses higher bit depth/sample rates and can load Gigs of samples. To export it in a format that an XL can read would lose too much as the XL only has 32 MB of memory and doesn't support higher bit depth/sample rates.

Your homie will need to get the MPC Studio IMHO.

DJ Hellfire wrote: But you can use Ren as an AU!

Basically, you create a beat in the MPC software in standalone mode. Then close the MPC software, open logic, make a new session and set it to your beat tempo, make your tracks, insert the MPC software on an aux or instrument track, and set the out puts of your sounds in the MPC software to correspond to the tracks inside Logic. Then track!

Yes sir, I realize it is an AU. I guess I was trying to point out that using the process you described above, if I had used 5 AUs inside of REN stand alone mode to make a beat and just sequenced the midi notes. Then closed REN. Then opened Logic. Then opened REN in AU plugin Mode within Logic, I could only open up the AUs used to make the beat via Logic not via REN in pulgin mode. I thought that fact would prevent me from using the AUs effectively with this type of process. That being said, I may just be lacking the experience of using one AU (REN) to sequence the sound from another AU(MACH5) with Logic as the host for both. That is the only way the process above would work with AUs. Which may be absolutely possible and common place for allot of people. I just didn't think about it as I haven't worked that way before. So it's all good. Thanks for the resposne! I will try something like this tonight.

tomc3084 wrote: Elohimfetus: Why wouldn't you just open MPC Ren as a vst/au in Logic? Personally what I do with Maschine(and what I will do with the Ren) is export everything(including plugins) so all sounds are seperated and I click on the Loop option so when I open up Ableton and dial in the correct bpm and load up all my sounds in the clip mode seperately and I launch all of them ,they are all in sync and I can properly mix/master everything correctly from there and put my stuff into proper sequences in arrangement view once everything sounds correct to me. That is my workflow and it works great for me, I am hoping it may help you as well in some way.

Sounds like you are using option #1 from my initial post.

Elohimfetus wrote: 1. When I create my song in REN Stand alone mode. I need to export the Song, with all of its AU splendor, as separate wave file tracks to open up in Logic. From there (in Logic) I can do what ever I want to to those wave tracks.

Yes, export is a nice feature and a good way to work. It's quicker than Option #2. REN and , based on your post, Maschine have an advantage over applications like BPM in this department as BPM only exports the song as one stereo .wav file. Not separate .wav files for each channel. In your experience with Maschine, does the export yield the same audio quality as recording from the plugin mode directly to Logic/Pt/Abelton tracks?


Thanks for the response!

JAH wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:

ceasi wrote:What I don't understand is why people want to be able to make a beat on the Ren and then take it backwards to an older MPC. I do understand people that want to make a beat on lets say, a 2kxl and transfer that to the ren, and work from there, but why do some wanna make a beat on the Ren, then take it to an older MPC, WHYYYYYYY. I mean it makes sense to wanna be able to use whatever you already have then move it to the Ren, but backwards makes no sense, whats the point, really.

For sending because to another producer who doesn't have a Ren. For example, if me an my homie wanna collab on a beat, but he only has an XL, it still be cool to be able to boomerang the beat back and forth between the Ren and the XL.

I see Akai adding the MPC 5000 and 2500/1000 program export as they still produce these models. I see very little benefit adding the same type of support for other legacy MPCs.

It would be impossible to really collab on a beat effectively when one has a Ren and another has an XL. The Ren uses higher bit depth/sample rates and can load Gigs of samples. To export it in a format that an XL can read would lose too much as the XL only has 32 MB of memory and doesn't support higher bit depth/sample rates.

Your homie will need to get the MPC Studio IMHO.

Backwards file exporting compatibility would work great for performances. It would be alot easier to piece it all together in the software and then just export the complete thing for my 4000 to read. i dont want to bring my laptop with me on stage if i dont have to.

By the way, I asked Simon Bangs (on of the akai guys) this question on twitter:

"In one of the NAMM videos there's an option to export as a 2500 or 5000 file in the software. Any chance for a 4000 option?"

His response?

"SB^ This will come."

codyv wrote:

Backwards file exporting compatibility would work great for performances. It would be alot easier to piece it all together in the software and then just export the complete thing for my 4000 to read. i dont want to bring my laptop with me on stage if i dont have to.

By the way, I asked Simon Bangs (on of the akai guys) this question on twitter:

"In one of the NAMM videos there's an option to export as a 2500 or 5000 file in the software. Any chance for a 4000 option?"

His response?

"SB^ This will come."

And that could be a real possibility, but.....what will be exported exactly? And how will it sound? How would Akai take a 1GB MPC Ren project and make it backwards compatible so it can load into an MPC 1000, 2500, 4000, or 5000? These samplers cam only hold 128 to 512 MB of memory.

JAH wrote:

codyv wrote:

Backwards file exporting compatibility would work great for performances. It would be alot easier to piece it all together in the software and then just export the complete thing for my 4000 to read. i dont want to bring my laptop with me on stage if i dont have to.

By the way, I asked Simon Bangs (on of the akai guys) this question on twitter:

"In one of the NAMM videos there's an option to export as a 2500 or 5000 file in the software. Any chance for a 4000 option?"

His response?

"SB^ This will come."

And that could be a real possibility, but.....what will be exported exactly? And how will it sound? How would Akai take a 1GB MPC Ren project and make it backwards compatible so it can load into an MPC 1000, 2500, 4000, or 5000? These samplers cam only hold 128 to 512 MB of memory.

The MPC really only needs to be able to load the samples into a program, and then read the sequences and songs. there's not much else to it. I also seriously doubt any ren project will come close to 1gb. You're using 1 shot samples mostly, with an occasional longer sample thats what? 10 seconds at most? Even with 3 minutes worth of STEREO sample time, youre only hovering around 32mb of space. VST Instruments will need to be creatively changed so that you can transfer some part of it to your mpc. You could just bounce the whole performance as an audio file, or if it's repetitive, just bounce one instance of it. Obviously it will have limitations based on the mpc type & ram but this is one of the most enticing features for me. If i take it from my mpc to edit, i want to be able to bring it back with all of those edits. If not I'll have to remake it in the MPC which will take extra and unnecessary time.

JAH wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:

ceasi wrote:What I don't understand is why people want to be able to make a beat on the Ren and then take it backwards to an older MPC. I do understand people that want to make a beat on lets say, a 2kxl and transfer that to the ren, and work from there, but why do some wanna make a beat on the Ren, then take it to an older MPC, WHYYYYYYY. I mean it makes sense to wanna be able to use whatever you already have then move it to the Ren, but backwards makes no sense, whats the point, really.

For sending because to another producer who doesn't have a Ren. For example, if me an my homie wanna collab on a beat, but he only has an XL, it still be cool to be able to boomerang the beat back and forth between the Ren and the XL.

I see Akai adding the MPC 5000 and 2500/1000 program export as they still produce these models. I see very little benefit adding the same type of support for other legacy MPCs.

It would be impossible to really collab on a beat effectively when one has a Ren and another has an XL. The Ren uses higher bit depth/sample rates and can load Gigs of samples. To export it in a format that an XL can read would lose too much as the XL only has 32 MB of memory and doesn't support higher bit depth/sample rates.

Your homie will need to get the MPC Studio IMHO.

I'm sure the Ren can be run at 16/44. And obviously you'd make sure not to use more sample space than the XL can handle. I was speaking more for 1000/2500/5000 though since computers don't read older MPC formats. So in order for your homie to actually get his XL beat on the computer to send to you, he has to go through MPC Editor or MPC Maid to make the file. Could be a pain in the ass, because then once you get the XL file, you have to go through MPC editor just to get the XL beat onto a CF card and into the Ren. And then do the same process to send it back. Only takes a couple seconds to do a single beat, but still...