So... it's 1.5 already. are you happy with ren?

Aside from computer hardware configuration, I think overall stability mainly comes down to VST's. Some VST's are very dirty and just cause problems, especially when they are out of date. I used my Ren for nearly 8 hours straight yesterday without a single crash on OSX 10.8.5. I had about 5 or 6 instances of battery and about 3 instances of Reaktor, some efx plugins and some drums. Not a single glitch in the audio, at buffer 64.

Clippyclipp wrote:I barely receive any crashes at all really my ren runs stable for what I do

Same here and I'm using Windows7 with i5 quad with 16gb ram. I run several vst's and kontakt instruments with no crashing. I do believe that bad vst's do cause issues in a lot of cases so users beware and avoid using cracks if at all possible.

It doesn't crash nearly as much as it used to which is a really good thing! However, that annoying sampling problem (I made a thread about this a while back) still exists, where when you go to record directly from the MPC program, you'll get this ringmod sound with digital pops and clicks, and it's just nasty. If they can sort out that problem and more of the little things like the alt/cntrl click feature to gather all the samples from your area of used samples, then it'd be solid.

I'm curious, for those that experience a lot of crashes, are you using a lot of 3rd party plugins?

I'm looking at getting a Ren, but plan on using it like my MPC4000, with hardware synths, stock AKAI effects, and mainly working in the box. I don't care much for 3rd party plug ins untill I'm ready to track and mix down my project in Logic X or Pro Tools.

Should I still anticipate crashes and problems? Should I stick to my MPC 4000?

Stick to your mpc 4000.!

peace

SoNice wrote:I'm curious, for those that experience a lot of crashes, are you using a lot of 3rd party plugins?

I'm looking at getting a Ren, but plan on using it like my MPC4000, with hardware synths, stock AKAI effects, and mainly working in the box. I don't care much for 3rd party plug ins untill I'm ready to track and mix down my project in Logic X or Pro Tools.

Should I still anticipate crashes and problems? Should I stick to my MPC 4000?

You should not experience many crashes, if any. I use few plugins and have not had but a couple crashes since 1.5, where I had to restart the software.

No crashes in the last couple of months. I think it was something within my system cause I did factory restore in early November (vendor specific but normally EZ) and reinstalled my komplete, mpc software, Sonar, and other music apps, without all the other games and other apps and that's from the point where I have not experienced a crash. So this laptop is only for things related to music, and surfing these and a few other forums and sites, NI, microsoft, akai, roland, etc... I guess I have been lucky or do not try to do as much as most others with my mpc studio/mpc software

I say check out Ren or Studio as it sounds like you 'keep it simple' and should be fine... but either way, hang on to you 4k cause it's solid and you're familiar with it. As well it's nice sometimes just to plug some headphones into the hardware and go

mcroepster wrote:Stick to your mpc 4000.!

peace

Right now, I second.

Make sure to compare the sampler capabilities with the 4000. Depending on what you use you may find "many" things missing and that it's just a very very limited sampler. No pitch envelopes, no aux envelopes, one filter (with many filter types), no legato modes in the keygroup programs, only a few pre-defined destinations for the existing single lfo and filter envelope. As long as you don't need more than a very basic sampler you'd probably be set.

Airyck wrote:Make sure to compare the sampler capabilities with the 4000. Depending on what you use you may find "many" things missing and that it's just a very very limited sampler. No pitch envelopes, no aux envelopes, one filter (with many filter types), no legato modes in the keygroup programs, only a few pre-defined destinations for the existing single lfo and filter envelope. As long as you don't need more than a very basic sampler you'd probably be set.

This is why I use Kontakt within the Ren but we need the Ren to become a fully fledged sampler so I can ditch (or minimize the use of) third party vsti samplers.

This is Akai afterall (the hardware sampler kings for most of the 90's) and it shouldn't present much of a problem for them.

Nubian Mindz wrote:

Airyck wrote:Make sure to compare the sampler capabilities with the 4000. Depending on what you use you may find "many" things missing and that it's just a very very limited sampler. No pitch envelopes, no aux envelopes, one filter (with many filter types), no legato modes in the keygroup programs, only a few pre-defined destinations for the existing single lfo and filter envelope. As long as you don't need more than a very basic sampler you'd probably be set.

This is why I use Kontakt within the Ren but we need the Ren to become a fully fledged sampler so I can ditch (or minimize the use of) third party vsti samplers.

This is Akai afterall (the hardware sampler kings for most of the 90's) and it shouldn't present much of a problem for them.

I agree... using 3rd party samplers, while very effective, really kills the workflow of the MPC. This is partially why mine is shelved for the moment but I'm hoping to see some improvements in 1.6 that peak my interest and get me back into using it again. I really hope they think about some improvements to the sampler. I remember when we had the filter stepping issue and I whined and moaned as loud as possible until that was improved but it took a few versions before they did it.

As far as I know that's the only improvement to the sampler that I can remember besides improvements to the chopping side of things.

Airyck wrote:As far as I know that's the only improvement to the sampler that I can remember besides improvements to the chopping side of things.

AD envelopes.

SimonInAustralia wrote:

Airyck wrote:As far as I know that's the only improvement to the sampler that I can remember besides improvements to the chopping side of things.

AD envelopes.

Word! Forgot about that one

Without sounding like I'm griping, the minimal looping options needs improving immediately. When you look at something like Kontakt and it's numerous looping options then try to loop something within the Ren...you quickly give up and return back to Kontakt (or whatever soft sampler you're using)

Looping options (like Akai samplers of old)
Flexible mixer routing
More reliable q link's when using the fx and prog options

Please check the above Akai and make it happen soon

I don't think outdated plugins are the problem. Whenever I use IK multimedia's Sampletank or SonicSynth they work flawlessy, usually see hiccups in my newer Vsts compared to older ones, but then again there's a million vst/plugins out there, who knows which ones everyone is using.