What is the future for the MPC Renaissance?

MPCWeapon1 wrote:If one finds significant faults in the Ren after 1.5 they're just a pure Akai-Hater.

What a load of cr ap.

If someone else finds faults in MPC Software/controllers, based on their own workflow, which might not affect your particular workflow, that does not mean they are just a pure Akai-hater.

Just because you think it is great, it does not mean that someone else's issues with it should be dismissed as hate.

MPCWeapon1 wrote:Yeah. Really, the people that complain about the Ren on this site is really minuscule compared to all the people that bought it. It pretty much has 5 star ratings across the board. It's good at what it does. If one finds significant faults in the Ren after 1.5 they're just a pure Akai-Hater.

It's a good concept and product. If this is just their beginning I'm excited about the future of The Ren.

LOL at this comment. It's a good concept, but I wouldn't call it a good product yet. If you do 2 bar loops of kick, snare, hi hat and a sample, I'm sure it shines. Anything more complex, and the implementation is marginal, especially when trying to use it in a DAW.

And an honest question, how many people bought the ren anyway? Didn't know the numbers were published.

CjSantana wrote:The MPC is an instrument & keep it's focus on creating music. Better sounds, loops, instruments, yes.

I don't think Akai need to provide the content themselves, their time is better spent improving functionality of the application instead.

Far from a troll instead of posting all day everyday I actually make music, maybe you try it sometime and yes the software has a sound, I don't like maschine software sound as far I'm concerned it sounds very bright to my ears like it's strong on the highs out of the box very different sound from 1.8 I even tested it with multiple audio interfaces, since 2.0 has a new sound engine from what native instruments advertise, the akai software for some reason to my ears sounds better but if you feel different that is your choice

Eyalc wrote:

MPCWeapon1 wrote:Yeah. Really, the people that complain about the Ren on this site is really minuscule compared to all the people that bought it. It pretty much has 5 star ratings across the board. It's good at what it does. If one finds significant faults in the Ren after 1.5 they're just a pure Akai-Hater.

It's a good concept and product. If this is just their beginning I'm excited about the future of The Ren.

LOL at this comment. It's a good concept, but I wouldn't call it a good product yet. If you do 2 bar loops of kick, snare, hi hat and a sample, I'm sure it shines. Anything more complex, and the implementation is marginal, especially when trying to use it in a DAW.

And an honest question, how many people bought the ren anyway? Didn't know the numbers were published.

Do mean when you try to use it beyond the scope of a sampling drum machine?

SimonInAustralia wrote:

MPCWeapon1 wrote:If one finds significant faults in the Ren after 1.5 they're just a pure Akai-Hater.

What a load of ****.

If someone else finds faults in MPC Software/controllers, based on their own workflow, which might not affect your particular workflow, that does not mean they are just a pure Akai-hater.

Just because you think it is great, it does not mean that someone else's issues with it should be dismissed as hate.

I wouldn't say it's "great". My MPC 4k is great, Logic Pro is great.....But I do think the Ren/studio is a good product with a lot of potential.

MPCWeapon1 wrote:
Do mean when you try to use it beyond the scope of a sampling drum machine?

No. I agree it would be out of scope if this was only marketed as a sampling drum machine. But it's not. It's marketed as much more. The sampling drum machine part, at the core, is what I think it does best. But many other things it's supposed to do well, per akai marketing, it's marginal.

Midi up my hardware synths - doesn't work the way it should. Play a sample across two sequences - it fades out unless you route it to a submix. Mix 30 tracks with a proper global mixer. And if using as a plugin, I only have 8 stereo virtual outs - again, if I'm doing two bar loops of kick, snare, hi hat and sample, I'm good. But what if I want to arrange a song with 30 tracks? Not a very useful plugin with only 8 stereo outs, and can only launch one instance in a DAW. A limitation that I still can't understand. There's a bunch more that others feel strongly about. These are only my gripes.

I get what you're saying man. And I respect your opinion, but for more complex arrangements, this thing is still crippled in my opinion. I think the current state of the software is good for certain types of production. For others, not so much. And it's not akai hate. Really it's not. Heck I go way back to the dr4d days in terms of buying akai gear.

What issues are you having with sequencing your hardware?

Sequencing external midi tracks. Have to export to DAW, and losing ability to change the performance of the composition. It's not a show stopper, but further limits what I can / will do with the software.

Eyalc wrote:Sequencing external midi tracks. Have to export to DAW, and losing ability to change the performance of the composition. It's not a show stopper, but further limits what I can / will do with the software.

Yes, no way to sample in sync in the standalone software, only a single MIDI output (into DAW) in plugin mode.

He knows this perfectly well.

Eyalc wrote:Sequencing external midi tracks. Have to export to DAW, and losing ability to change the performance of the composition. It's not a show stopper, but further limits what I can / will do with the software.

Is there something that a hardware MPC or another product (Maschine, Spark, etc) that can do in this regard that the MPC Ren/MPC Software can't?

There are some capabilities right under folks noses they haven't fully explored yet. I have You Tube Video(s) that show how to use the MPC Essentials plugin. If you master this plugin, it will solve the issue of needing more virtual outs and it will solve the issue of not having enough MIDI Outs.

JAH wrote:Is there something that a hardware MPC or another product (Maschine, Spark, etc) that can do in this regard that the MPC Ren/MPC Software can't?

There are some capabilities right under folks noses they haven't fully explored yet. I have You Tube Video(s) that show how to use the MPC Essentials plugin. If you master this plugin, it will solve the issue of needing more virtual outs and it will solve the issue of not having enough MIDI Outs.

Okay, I'll take a look, what's the user name / link? Always open to learn more.

Essentials? Maybe you can help me understand better. I made a post a short while ago with my gripes about Essentials when trying to use it to load / track a MPC software project - the need for multiple saves, having to select each track from each sequence in a song...

But other than that, I just can't get my head around why I would use it when composing from scratch in Logic to be honest. If I'm composing a track and I need a kick drum, why launch Essentials and deal with another sequencer, when I can just load up EXS24, program the kick drum right in the Logic Pro arrange window? There's nothing that Essentials does that I can't do (drums-wise) in EXS24. MPC swing is easily duplicated - it's just midi note timing. Copy the midi timing = MPC swing. Now chopping and sampling, I can see the advantage.

But all in all, Essentials doesn't "solve" the issue per se - because in the end the flagship software still doesn't handle these things, IMO, as it should. Although I agree that it's a plausible workaround. But I'm still not seeing the benefit of it like I said. So, definitely please send me the link to your videos, or your user name so I can search for them. Definitely open to learning more. Appreciate the offer to help.

While I submit as many feature requests as the next guy....you, me, we, etc will ultimately have to find a way to work within the way the MPC Software is designed. It will most likely never have all the features being discussed across these forums.

You can search You Tube for 'Jah Rome' and find videos that may or may not help you. But I can think of numerous work-arounds for many functions.

1. Treat your MPC Ren/Studio like a hardware MPC. The Ren/Studio on one computer and your DAW on another computer. Then use the exact same process hardware MPC owners use everyday to track their music.

2. Use MPC Software in standalone. Go as far as you can go with your project. Export as audio stems and complete your song in your DAW.

3. Compose with the MPC Essentials inside of your DAW. You have the option of using the MPC Essentials sequencer, your DAWs sequencer, or a combination of the two.

Definitely agree. And thanks for the videos. I search and found them. Will watch them later today.

And regarding the workarounds, we generally follow #2. When we use the 5000 to compose, we go 5000 -> MPC software -> export to DAW. Works faster for us than tracking directly from the 5000 to the DAW IMO.

JAH wrote:Is there something that a hardware MPC or another product (Maschine, Spark, etc) that can do in this regard that the MPC Ren/MPC Software can't?

It is nothing to do with any other MPC or other product, this isn't some competition that you have to make Akai win.

JAH wrote:There are some capabilities right under folks noses they haven't fully explored yet. I have You Tube Video(s) that show how to use the MPC Essentials plugin. If you master this plugin, it will solve the issue of needing more virtual outs and it will solve the issue of not having enough MIDI Outs.

The MPC Essentials plugin does not solve any issue of not having enough MIDI outs from the MPC Software plugin. It is another of your stupid workarounds that does not provide the same functionality as the missing features it is supposed to workaround.

Eyalc wrote:But all in all, Essentials doesn't "solve" the issue per se - because in the end the flagship software still doesn't handle these things, IMO, as it should. Although I agree that it's a plausible workaround. But I'm still not seeing the benefit of it like I said.

There is no benefit, it is one of his workaround smokescreens, trying to control discussion, trying to force others to accept his workarounds, so that other user feature requests do not affect the implementation of his own requests.

JAH wrote:While I submit as many feature requests as the next guy....

You submit your feature requests, and the next guys feature requests, and everyone else's requests, and they all seem to become your requests.

JAH wrote:you, me, we, etc will ultimately have to find a way to work within the way the MPC Software is designed. It will most likely never have all the features being discussed across these forums.

If there is never a way to record samples in sync in the standalone software, or more than a single MIDI port out of the plugin, then there really is no hope for the future of the product, and you have to wonder who the hell is making, and influencing, decisions there.

And no, everyone will have to find a way to work within the way MPC Software is developed, and we have to try and get our required features implemented before the development cycle finishes, so quit trying to shut down this sort of discussion with your pathetic workarounds.

JAH wrote:You can search You Tube for 'Jah Rome' and find videos that may or may not help you. But I can think of numerous work-arounds for many functions.

Your workarounds are just that, ways to work around broken/missing features, that really do not provide the required functionality.

JAH wrote:1. Treat your MPC Ren/Studio like a hardware MPC. The Ren/Studio on one computer and your DAW on another computer. Then use the exact same process hardware MPC owners use everyday to track their music.

Wow, the new MPC is so integrated into the computer, that you have to use 2 computers, and track from one to the other! Pathetic!

JAH wrote:2. Use MPC Software in standalone. Go as far as you can go with your project. Export as audio stems and complete your song in your DAW.

Great, have to lock in your composition as a single linear sequence and move it into a DAW when you want to record anything, can't continue working with chaining individual sequences, the way the MPC is designed to work! Pathetic!

JAH wrote:3. Compose with the MPC Essentials inside of your DAW. You have the option of using the MPC Essentials sequencer, your DAWs sequencer, or a combination of the two.

You can not take your MPC Software project, load it into multiple instances of the Essentials plugin, and keep working on the same project inside your DAW, with the same workflow as your project within MPC Software! Pathetic!