Ren Vintage Mode - Im impressed - What do you think?

This is not about MPC60 Vs Ren

The emulation is at the end of the mix buss. This may partly explain why it wasn't included as a plug in. If they do add a plug in it may not be the same as the current emulation because the effect may be designed around the internal sound card?


A couple of things I noticed.
1. The effect is cumulative. The more stuff that's thrown at it the more pronounced the effect is.

2. Driving the main buss harder accents the effect. It can sound V good. Easy way to test this is by adding a plugin on the master and increase plugins out put level until sound starts breaking up. You can hear it, but you cant render it internally. You need another sound card to record the Rens buss sound.

3. Double vintage mode. Re-sample the output with vintage mode on. Playing back again with vintage mode on you can clearly hear this thing working - in a good way

Im pi**ed off though. I was hoping it was just a gimmick because its implementation means I have to run the MPC Ren as a dedicated hardware machine - if I want that sound - which I do. This opens up a whole new can of worms in how to track out stuff. Sync being an issue (obviously close to my heart that one ). The need to use two interfaces which in a PC cannot be done like you can with OSX. I use a Mac as well, but the workhorse is a PC. I can work around these things but it puts me and probably others who like the emulation in a position where we would want/need to be able to do entire tunes within the Ren and just record the master out to a stereo file. I can do that, but it requires a few sneaky moves and work arounds ,and the software isnt quite there as a total all in one solution.

Any thoughts or opinions? Do you have an MPC 60 - how does it sound in comparison.


Edited - (to shorten)

You can get Vintage Mode in plugin mode as well, which proves that it's all software based emulation. You can also get it on export. And it all sounds great. I love the way it sounds.

The problems I have with it, which are pretty major for me:
1. It only works on outputs 1 and 2 (standalone or plugin mode). Does not apply to virtual outputs 3-16.
2. Does not apply to exported stems. Only applies to export when exporting as stereo.
3. Because it's on the master bus, being that there is no master volume automation, the vintage mode effect is still heard when you draw in fade outs at the end of each track. The tracks fade, but the vintage mode does not.

^ so it's like you're 60 doesn't have 8 outs.. hahaha..


I wonder why they coded it that way... maybe they didn't expect anyone to find out it was entirely software based or something.

DJ Hellfire wrote:You can get Vintage Mode in plugin mode as well, which proves that it's all software based emulation. You can also get it on export. And it all sounds great. I love the way it sounds.

Have you tried tracking out the Ren's stereo outs with Vintage Mode and compare it with the Stereo Export of Vintage Mode? I think this is the only way to provide proof.

Dan said it multiple times and even at this year's Namm that the outputs of the Ren contribute to the Vintage sound. He said the Vintage Mode is both software and hardware.

JAH wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:You can get Vintage Mode in plugin mode as well, which proves that it's all software based emulation. You can also get it on export. And it all sounds great. I love the way it sounds.

Have you tried tracking out the Ren's stereo outs with Vintage Mode and compare it with the Stereo Export of Vintage Mode? I think this is the only way to provide proof.

Dan said it multiple times and even at this year's Namm that the outputs of the Ren contribute to the Vintage sound. He said the Vintage Mode is both software and hardware.

Yup. Both me and IMAKEMADBEATS have confirmed this. Any export or tracking of channels 1&2 has vm, as of 1.3.

I notice no difference between virtual 1&2 vm vs analog 1&2 vm. Sounds exactly the same to me.

DJ Hellfire wrote:Yup. Both me and IMAKEMADBEATS have confirmed this. Any export or channel 1&2 has vm, as of 1.3.

I notice no difference between virtual 1&2 vm vs analog 1&2 vm. Sounds exactly the same to me.

I co-sign this statement.

DJ Hellfire wrote:You can get Vintage Mode in plugin mode as well, which proves that it's all software based emulation. You can also get it on export. And it all sounds great. I love the way it sounds.

The problems I have with it, which are pretty major for me:
1. It only works on outputs 1 and 2 (standalone or plugin mode). Does not apply to virtual outputs 3-16.
2. Does not apply to exported stems. Only applies to export when exporting as stereo.
3. Because it's on the master bus, being that there is no master volume automation, the vintage mode effect is still heard when you draw in fade outs at the end of each track. The tracks fade, but the vintage mode does not.

Ah yes, I just tried rendering and the emulation does work through software. I dont know why I got it in to my head the effect would only work through the main out puts. I haven't read in the manual it was possible via rendering digitally? At least this means I can forget about the need to treat the Ren as a stand alone. (for the most part).
Your right about all those restrictions Why are Nukai doing this, what's the point...Why not allow vintage mode to be used freely - especially on the Ren (yeah why not, we paid more for it) Btw I could swear I read in the manual that vintage mode was also duplicated on the assignable out puts 3+4 - but its not! .


I dont mind at all that its software based, but I do mind the vagueness and hint of cynical propaganda around the whole thing. I personally wouldnt have cared at all if the Ren had a sound card or not, I would have bought it any way. For me it was always the Rens look, and the feeling of sitting behind a centre piece for the studio. Im very happy in this regard. The studio was never going to cut it for me.

Anyway, I like the emulation sound and being able to get that rendering internally, or using it as a software plug is cool. Nukai should explain why its restricted!

@Jah, you seemingly have a hotline to Akai
Isnt there some way you can get them to state exactly what its going on?
And why the restriction? For now, I can only see this as a company playing
school yard games with its customers, and at the worst attempting to perpetrate another mpc myth. Is the plugin so heavily CPU dependent that
it can only be used as one instance?...

JAH wrote:Dan said it multiple times and even at this year's Namm that the outputs of the Ren contribute to the Vintage sound. He said the Vintage Mode is both software and hardware.

No he did not say that, but that's what he wanted us to hear. He've been asked if it was software emulation, and he 'answered' by saying that the 'mpc 3000' outputs helps to give punch to the sound. It's like if you're asking a cars saleman if the car runs on diesel or gasoline and he answer that the gas consumtion is low. He really did NOT answer the question.

IMAKEMADBEATS wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:Yup. Both me and IMAKEMADBEATS have confirmed this. Any export or channel 1&2 has vm, as of 1.3.

I notice no difference between virtual 1&2 vm vs analog 1&2 vm. Sounds exactly the same to me.

I co-sign this statement.

yup, there is absolutely no noticeable difference

toxicc wrote:

JAH wrote:Dan said it multiple times and even at this year's Namm that the outputs of the Ren contribute to the Vintage sound. He said the Vintage Mode is both software and hardware.

No he did not say that, but that's what he wanted us to hear. He've been asked if it was software emulation, and he 'answered' by saying that the 'mpc 3000' outputs helps to give punch to the sound. It's like if you're asking a cars saleman if the car runs on diesel or gasoline and he answer that the gas consumtion is low. He really did NOT answer the question.

i don't know if the outputs have anything to do with vintage mode but they do contribute to the vintage sound imo. the ren's outputs sound better than my soundcard.

i don't know if the outputs have anything to do with vintage mode but they do contribute to the vintage sound imo. the ren's outputs sound better than my soundcard.

Can I ask what your other sound card is?

toxicc wrote:

JAH wrote:Dan said it multiple times and even at this year's Namm that the outputs of the Ren contribute to the Vintage sound. He said the Vintage Mode is both software and hardware.

No he did not say that, but that's what he wanted us to hear. He've been asked if it was software emulation, and he 'answered' by saying that the 'mpc 3000' outputs helps to give punch to the sound. It's like if you're asking a cars saleman if the car runs on diesel or gasoline and he answer that the gas consumtion is low. He really did NOT answer the question.

He actually did. There is a video where he discusses it and even refers to a thread in this forum where a member was making certain claims about the Ren and pointing to a legacy MPC technical reference manual of some sort.

labcoats wrote:@Jah, you seemingly have a hotline to Akai
Isnt there some way you can get them to state exactly what its going on?
And why the restriction? For now, I can only see this as a company playing
school yard games with its customers, and at the worst attempting to perpetrate another mpc myth. Is the plugin so heavily CPU dependent that
it can only be used as one instance?...

Both Pete and Dan frequent the forum. You can send them a PM and point to this thread.

IMAKEMADBEATS wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:Yup. Both me and IMAKEMADBEATS have confirmed this. Any export or channel 1&2 has vm, as of 1.3.

I notice no difference between virtual 1&2 vm vs analog 1&2 vm. Sounds exactly the same to me.

I co-sign this statement.

So does the virtual output 1&2 sound like the virtual output 3&4 when Vintage Mode is turned on?

toxicc wrote:

JAH wrote:Dan said it multiple times and even at this year's Namm that the outputs of the Ren contribute to the Vintage sound. He said the Vintage Mode is both software and hardware.

No he did not say that, but that's what he wanted us to hear. He've been asked if it was software emulation, and he 'answered' by saying that the 'mpc 3000' outputs helps to give punch to the sound. It's like if you're asking a cars saleman if the car runs on diesel or gasoline and he answer that the gas consumtion is low. He really did NOT answer the question.

I believe that the Ren's output definitely contributes to the sound of the emulations, check out the YouTube video comparison I did

.

One thing that everyone always talked about was the extra punch that the MPC 60/3000/2000 would give you compared to other samplers, Dan said the output gain staging was identical to the MPC 3000, now that combined with the emulation (which is software) will give you the full emulation sound. I can tell a difference.

JAH wrote:

toxicc wrote:

JAH wrote:Dan said it multiple times and even at this year's Namm that the outputs of the Ren contribute to the Vintage sound. He said the Vintage Mode is both software and hardware.

No he did not say that, but that's what he wanted us to hear. He've been asked if it was software emulation, and he 'answered' by saying that the 'mpc 3000' outputs helps to give punch to the sound. It's like if you're asking a cars saleman if the car runs on diesel or gasoline and he answer that the gas consumtion is low. He really did NOT answer the question.

He actually did. There is a video where he discusses it and even refers to a thread in this forum where a member was making certain claims about the Ren and pointing to a legacy MPC technical reference manual of some sort.

labcoats wrote:@Jah, you seemingly have a hotline to Akai
Isnt there some way you can get them to state exactly what its going on?
And why the restriction? For now, I can only see this as a company playing
school yard games with its customers, and at the worst attempting to perpetrate another mpc myth. Is the plugin so heavily CPU dependent that
it can only be used as one instance?...

Both Pete and Dan frequent the forum. You can send them a PM and point to this thread.

IMAKEMADBEATS wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:Yup. Both me and IMAKEMADBEATS have confirmed this. Any export or channel 1&2 has vm, as of 1.3.

I notice no difference between virtual 1&2 vm vs analog 1&2 vm. Sounds exactly the same to me.

I co-sign this statement.

So does the virtual output 1&2 sound like the virtual output 3&4 when Vintage Mode is turned on?

Hi Jah, the virtual output of 1&2 are different to the others as this is the only output that outputs in vintage mode even using the usb to output into the daw. shame!!!