How are yall feeling the MPC Renaissance?

dccarson wrote:These days people want a "one maschine to rule them all" which is unrealistic.

It already does.

I think people are happy to continue making music in a modular fashion, whether it's chaining plugins together, producing out of the box or combining the best of both worlds.

What music making needs to be is inspiring and fun. When you're relaxed ideas just tend to flow. I think this is the reason why people are throwing in iPads, cheap analogue synths like the Volca's, and the quirky digital mayhem of the OP-1 into the mix along with their regular gear. Fun gear to use without excessive baggage or headaches. Stitch it all together in your sequencer/DAW of choice. Job done.

mo'features mo'problems lol... .the 60/3000/2000 were pretty damn reliable from the start.. updates were less frequent but more solid.. today things get rushed out and the beta tester ends up being the end user.. also Ren is far from being the cheapest MPC if you factor in the necessary computer systems that you'll need to invest in throughout it's life to keep it running..

MPC-Tutor wrote:
Er, yes, but I'm not sure I get your point in relation to the post you are quoting, Jah? I agree that people have complained about the same thing in all MPCs.

That is it right there. I was just pointing out that the same thing was said about all MPCs (as well as products from competing companies) when they were released to include models costing 2x or 3x as much as the Ren. Yet we are still using them in spite of the flaws.

I believe the complaints about 'issues' are over-hyped.

I agree with you Jah. There will always be haters no doubt. I got the MV8000 when it cameout and people were calling it garbage. It was no MPC and thats okay. it was and still is a great piece of gear. We all love what we love.

But my question is why does it seem people are so focused on the Ren? many people already have an interface (audio and midi out) so other than the knobs, whats the issue? And Im still trying to figure out why almost kill your line of MPD controllers when you could have sold those with a free copy of Elements. The mid level should the the current studio for $499 and the Ren controller (with no interface and limited midi I/O) for $699. The Ren3000 (what I would have called it) could have come with all the bells and whistles (to include working with software or a standalone mode).

Why wont they just sell the software along with templates for classic MPCs to be used as controllers?

MPC-Tutor wrote:Plus there's a number of bugs and annoyances with the way the edit point focus acts when zooming in and previewing. Basically this current implementation feels rushed and make-shift. I personally feel chopping is fundamental to the MPC workflow, so it's a part of the software they should have nailed perfectly by now.

peace

dccarson wrote:I agree with you Jah. There will always be haters no doubt. I got the MV8000 when it cameout and people were calling it garbage. It was no MPC and thats okay. it was and still is a great piece of gear. We all love what we love.

But my question is why does it seem people are so focused on the Ren? many people already have an interface (audio and midi out) so other than the knobs, whats the issue? And Im still trying to figure out why almost kill your line of MPD controllers when you could have sold those with a free copy of Elements. The mid level should the the current studio for $499 and the Ren controller (with no interface and limited midi I/O) for $699. The Ren3000 (what I would have called it) could have come with all the bells and whistles (to include working with software or a standalone mode).

Why wont they just sell the software along with templates for classic MPCs to be used as controllers?

Everybody wants what they want. Is there any music production product in the same category that people are satisfied with?

Edit - Just seen a major development regarding the Ren/Studio. Looks like folks will have to find new comedic material as the old jokes won't work anymore. Stay tuned. (hype, hype, hype...)

the only thing i need to make my studio the best thing since sliced bread, and universal mixer across all seq's. and maybe audio tracks but the mixer is the most important. other than that i'm all set cant live without it my setup is mobile (macbook proi7/studio)

Jah, jus nood if 1.5 brings some type of this... lol

I can say a group of folks will be happy as hell.....a group of folks will be slightly disappointed...and a group of folks that will still be hating but running out of material to talk sh!t about......

4dahaterz wrote:Im a MPC 5000, 3000, and 2000XL user... until i recently sold the 5000 and 3000... thinking about buying the Renaissance, how do you peeps like it?

OP - do you feel your question has been answered?

Love it. It sequences and samples my hardware synths and acid boxes (TT-303 / Bass Station / Rocket / Mohpo X4 / dozens of fx pedals). I use it to jam and arrange acid tracks - don't know why the Ren isn't talked about more in electronica circles as it is an amazing tool for capturing jams to refine to tracks. Had a Maschine and sold it... the Ren is the first controller that felt like a standalone instrument.

My only gripe is that it can't send MIDI clock out on four channels. Drives me nuts as the old MPCs could do this. For folks like me that are all hardware (I went from hardware to software and back), the MIDI outs are a big selling point... hopefully they will get the clock situation sorted.

JAH wrote:I can say a group of folks will be happy as hell.....a group of folks will be slightly disappointed...and a group of folks that will still be hating but running out of material to talk sh!t about......

Exactly...

I love my Ren. I have plenty of history with hardware and software the majority have had issues out the box and eventually are fixed. So all the talk about issues people are having isn't new to just about any product. They just love the soap box opportunity even I do from time to time but in all honesty I very happy to be back with the MPC workflow, I've waited for AKAI to do this for a very long time.

Jive Talking Robot wrote:Love it. It sequences and samples my hardware synths and acid boxes (TT-303 / Bass Station / Rocket / Mohpo X4 / dozens of fx pedals). I use it to jam and arrange acid tracks - don't know why the Ren isn't talked about more in electronica circles as it is an amazing tool for capturing jams to refine to tracks. Had a Maschine and sold it... the Ren is the first controller that felt like a standalone instrument.

My only gripe is that it can't send MIDI clock out on four channels. Drives me nuts as the old MPCs could do this. For folks like me that are all hardware (I went from hardware to software and back), the MIDI outs are a big selling point... hopefully they will get the clock situation sorted.

yes this is of particular concern to EDM artists (myself included) that use MPCs as Midi Production Centers.. my biggest gripe being the 16 channel limit across all 4 outs (vs 64 on legacy MPCs) MIDI clock on all 4 outs would definitely be killer as well.. unfortunately we seem to be a minority here as i've never seen those requests mentioned in polls/feature lists etc..

Akai are clearly marketing Ren to the hip-hop market when they could be tapping into the very prolific EDM scene, which NI seem to have on lock.. it's annoying because i much prefer MPCs but NI clearly did they're homework by consulting top EDM artists which also reflects in their soundbank (being based in Berlin surely doesn't hurt them either )

i've talked to pete about this in the past and he seemed interested in developing this angle but no follow up for the moment..

How are you going to mention lack of certain MIDI capabilities in the MPC Software than follow up with talk about Maschine? Maschine doesn't really have any MIDI capabilities. It is one of the top complaints over at the NI Forum.

Curious to know what specifc features does Maschine has that caters to EDM artists? Because like the Ren, all of its functions are not accessible from the controller and you have to do alot of [SHIFT] + functions or tabbing around numerous pages to do simple things.

I wasn't referring to midi capabilities when saying Maschine catered more to EDM artists, it was just a general observation (just like MPC is clearly marketed towards hip-hop producers) but if you must know the way Scenes are handled in Maschine is pretty useful and derivative from Live (a program also developed by & for EDM producers) also realtime swing and the better step sequencer are EDM centric enhancements..

The soundbank & FX in Maschine in are also very EDM oriented with some top producers from that scene contributing to it.. but anyways I'm not trying to get into another MPC vs Maschine debate.. the feature differences are pretty well documented.. NI have a strong connection with EDM from the start, their other programs like Reaktor, Massive & FM8 are clear examples.. I just wish Nukai would wake up to this, there is a pretty big untapped market for them there..