Feature Suggestions: MPC Renaissance

I can't believe there is no reverse loop in Ren
Just got it and TBH I'm a bit shocked by this.

Danny wrote:auto preview loops to bpm on hardware

simple but helpful

here here, this is essential and inline with abletons capabilities....
much needed in the modern day.

akai please do this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm_8nozru8g

It'd be cool if the Renaissance could do something like this.

My list of improvements:

1) Reverse loop for samples (this is a must for all break-chopping heads).
This has been on almost all other Akai samplers so far and it would eliminate having to use an audio editor outside Ren to copy+paste+reverse the sample.
Let's keep it all inside the Ren as much as possible.

2) Pads to preview samples while browsing on HD.
Instead of having "play" in function keys, why not use the pads to preview the sample from HD. Way handier.

3) Folders should be listed first while browsing.
Plain and simple. No use having folders show among your samples: they should be listed first.

4) Delete sample from hardware. Would be nice if you didnt have to do it on software. Being able to do it on the hardware = smoother workflow.

5) Rename sample from hardware. Being able to do it on the hardware = smoother workflow.

6) Rename program from hardware. Being able to do it on the hardware = smoother workflow.

7) Mute groups. This is a must. Having samples in the same mute group means they all cut each other out. Classic example: open hihat + closed hihat in the same mute group.

8. Mono play. I was pretty surprised to see you can't play samples in mono in the Ren. This can be done, of course, by having a plugin on a channel to mono the output, but I would've expected some kind of simple plugin for that from Akai at least.

9) Give sample a new name upon slicing. Sometimes you realize you have a long sample name and it'll look messy when you're going to have lots of them after chopping to new slices. Would be nice to be able to give the new, resulting samples a new name upon slicing.
Of course you can rename a sample before doing the chop job, but for me it's often that I don't realize until when I'm about to create the new slices that the name of the sample is "Break105_EQ_mono_comp_" or something and seeing a long name like that with the number additions is heavy to read when you have 40+ slices in your sample list.

10) Simultaneous play should trigger both/all samples in the software mixer view. Let's say you've set pad A01 to simult. play A02, too. When you hit A01, you're only seeing the volume of A01 register on the track mixer, not A02. This can be a bit confusing; you should definitely see both tracks light up.



BUG:
Illogical numbering with simultaneous play.
Currently, if you assign a pad to simultaneously play another pad, the simultaneous pad number isn't the same on software / hardware. Software shows it correctly, and hardware adds +1 on it (if I recall this correctly).

BUG + SUGGESTION:
There's loads of crashes; I'm on Mac OS X 10.6.8.
I'd suggest that there's some kind of backup memory (maybe this could be optional / you could switch it off in prefs).
In the two days I've had the Ren, I must say, without willing to sound nasty, that I've experienced an absolute motherload of crashes compared to any other software I've ever used, and that is saying a lot.
They've been caused by various tasks: deleting a sample, changing time correct values, etc.
I just sampled a big batch of samples, going thru vinyl, and I happened to delete a sample from memory...and I got a crash. I don't get upset too easily, but now, I'm feeling frustrated as now I gotta do it all again.
If rebooting the software had some kind of "recover from crash" option, I'd be a happy man.

Also, having samples in memory in alphabetical order is the only way to go.
It's annoying to have them in memory in the order of loading/creating etc when you have around 60 samples, you've been chopping, slicing, copying, re-assigning, re-naming etc.
At that point the only comfortable option is to have them in alphabetical order as because you remember the name of the sample, you can quickly dial it up for a pad etc.
You may not remember where in the sample list it got placed (which is how it is with the current method).
A simple "sort" feature would do, too.

I'd also suggest being able to switch FX on and off from the hardware.

Actually, I guess you can't switch just one off from software either?
I know how to turn off all insert effects of a channel, for example, but not how to turn only one off.

Another: remember browser position (when browsing samples from HD).

For example, I load up a sample called "string 9".
I see how it fits for a while, try to work with it, and decide it's no good and want to go back to browsing my sample list for strings.
With how it is currently, I have to scroll back to the strings from the top of the list.
Would be handy to be able to continue browsing my samples where I left off.

It'd be handy if right-clicking on a sample in the software had a "show in Finder / Explorer" option if you wanted to do some editing to a sample: it'd locate it for you, you could edit it and bring it back into Ren.

InspectahEX wrote:Also can WE PLEASE get programs to default on Master - Poly, Pad Play - Poly, and Mute Group - Off

Everytime I create a program it defaults as mute group 1 being activated and everything is in mono mode, that been annoying me lately, especially when I'm creating a bunch of programs and have to switch every one to poly, poly, mute group off, poly, poly, mute group off, poly, poly, mute group off, etc etc

Has this been addressed in 1.3 or is there a work around? Chopping a drum loop takes way too long having to unassign all the pads from mute group 1 & changing from mono to poly ... thanks.

D

soundfonts please. thats simple update. to be able to play sound fonts without pulling up a vst sampler. easy.

AUDIO TRACKS LIKE THE 5000

I don't know if this is a legitimate feature, but AKAI needs to incorporate live updates streaming into their installation packages (like realplayer...etc). This way they can make incremental changes to their software without having someone download the whole package again. Bug fixes will come in a lot more frequent due to fixing it on the fly and when needed. Customers will not have to wait 2 or 3 months for fixes. This would be awesome for the little fixes which can be done on the fly before a major version increment.

Will the MPC Software Be Able to Export the Audio From A External Soundcard (I/O) when exporting audio tracks/song?


The Level meter does not REPRESENT EXTERNAL AUDIO DEVICES, it should REPRESENT THE AUDIO LEVEL CHOSSEN INSIDE MPC > Preferences > Audio > Output/Input

Which is the Audio Interface. ( NOT THE INTERNAL)


this will allow to assign Inst:Midi/ with Audio Output For Exporting The Playback for the full song! a ready for FULL MIXDOWN ( which includes the I/Os) of the Audio Interface.

Turning FX off.
E.g., you set an EQ on a channel and want to A/B the mix with the EQ on and off.
Currently you can't, afaik, and that should be fixed in my opinion.
I know you can turn all the FX off but that's not what you always want.

this may have been said before, but the ability to read the samples tempo would be DOPE, even the 2000xl can do this.