MPC Software & MPC Beats Forum: Bug reports, feature suggestions and discussion for the MPC Software and the free 'MPC Beats' application for Mac/PC. If you have hardware-specific questions, please post in the relevant MPC sub-forum.
User avatar
By Coz Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:13 am
InspectahEX wrote:Kontakt lol ???



It's not as far fetched as it appears. Kontakt obviously has a lot of extra bells and whistles, but it's also a pain to use in some respects.

The 4k is its equal in terms of dragging and dropping samples to pads or keys with AKsys. Sonically, Kontakt is no better than the 4K, and the sound soon goes to shit with all those pitch shifting/time stretching modes they still have.

For pure usability the 4K wins for me, which is why I use it 95% of the time over Kontakt. 8)
By MaZe Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:16 am
InspectahEX wrote:So Kontakt is exactly like a Z8 sampler???


Except for the fact that the Z8 actually samples, the premise is exactly the same. They are both keygroup samplers with the ability to open sample libraries. Again, if you are ITB, the Ren + Kontakt will get you very close to the 4000. If you are OTB, nothing will get you close to the 4000 in one box. The closest you can get there is a 3000 + a Z8.
By MaZe Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:20 am
SimonInAustralia wrote:
MaZe wrote:The MPC4000 was the original "DAW" in a box. It was basically an MPC with Kontakt a Z8 sampler


Thats actually what it was, I said basically.
User avatar
By le rat Sat Apr 12, 2014 11:18 pm
SimonInAustralia wrote:
MPC-Tutor wrote:I don't think anyone knows the exact goings on with this mysterious AMIC company, especially the guy who wrote about it in Wikipedia

It matches what I (vaguely) remember reading on various mailing lists at the time, as it was happening.


The japanese version of this wikipedia page quotes an article about AKAI Professional M.I. bankrupt that seems to be reliable.

Main facts are : procedure in early December 2005, 17 employees, debts of about 1 billion yen. Was bought from Akai Denki by an american group and created in December 1999. Had a turnover of approximately 3 billions yen in 2001. Dropped to about 1 billion yen in 2004.

Anyway, I agree, nobody will never know/ tell the truth and that's probably not so important. Personally I only hope that in this niche market there's still a small place for a new standalone MPC that will surpass the 4000.
By Chillin Sat Apr 19, 2014 5:38 pm
le rat wrote:
SimonInAustralia wrote:
MPC-Tutor wrote:I don't think anyone knows the exact goings on with this mysterious AMIC company, especially the guy who wrote about it in Wikipedia

It matches what I (vaguely) remember reading on various mailing lists at the time, as it was happening.


The japanese version of this wikipedia page quotes an article about AKAI Professional M.I. bankrupt that seems to be reliable.

Main facts are : procedure in early December 2005, 17 employees, debts of about 1 billion yen. Was bought from Akai Denki by an american group and created in December 1999. Had a turnover of approximately 3 billions yen in 2001. Dropped to about 1 billion yen in 2004.

Anyway, I agree, nobody will never know/ tell the truth and that's probably not so important. Personally I only hope that in this niche market there's still a small place for a new standalone MPC that will surpass the 4000.



Sad story to read!


Does anyone know if there is (or has been) any relation between Akai Pro and Akai as the brand, by Grande Holdings?


For more than eight decades, AKAI has proven itself to be one of the premier sources of vision and innovation for consumer electronics. Founded in 1929, Tokyo, Japan, AKAI has engaged in offering quality home entertainment products specializing in the audio and video arenas.


http://www.akai.com
By Chillin Sat Apr 19, 2014 5:48 pm
MPC-Tutor wrote:
InspectahEX wrote: I mean it's the same company, the blueprints are there. What am I not understanding?


Firstly, the Akai we have now is a completely different company. The Akai that developed the MPC4000 went bankrupt and laid off all its staff leaving the administrators with a bunch of intellectual property (IP) and a pile of debts to deal with. So the IP was sold off to the highest bidder and then resold until eventually it was bought by Jack O'Donnell who added it to all his other brands (Numark, Alesis, M-Audio, Sonivox etc) under the umbrella 'inMusic'. Apart from the right to use the name 'Akai' and 'MPC', the two companies have no connection whatsoever.

Secondly if you ignore the MPC4000, the OS architecture used by all MPCs from the 60 to the 5000 is fundamentally the same, i.e. each one was simply a progressive adaptation of the previous MPC model. The 4000 wasn't based on that same architecture, it was an adaptation of the Z series sampler which is clearly an entirely different beast. I would also assume the 4000 was developed by a completely different set of personnel to the MPC team.

So when it came to inMusic developing their own MPC, it looks like they decided to go back to the original MPC architecture. Not only would this be more suitable for the kind of MPC they wanted to make (the easy-to use MPC1000), I suspect it was simply easier to understand the architecture of the traditional MPC OS and ultimately cheaper for them in terms of the kind of programmers they needed to hire.

And so the progression continues - the 5000 was just the 1000/2500 OS with a few more tweaks.

And so on to the MPC Software, a mammoth task for a company with no history of developing this type of computer application, so it seems a given that they would cut themselves a bit of a break and choose to base the core features on their last developed MPC, the 5000.

I'm sure some 4000 style features will come eventually, but I think it's also worth remembering that the MPC Software isn't claiming to be an advanced and powerful 'sampler', we've got Kontakt for that. But it would be nice to see 4000 features incorporated that can add to the MPC workflow

BTW I moved this to 'Feature Suggestions & Feedback' as I'm trying to keep the main forum purely about tech support and bugs and ultimately, this is a 'Feature Suggestion/Feedback' topic.



Thanks for this info, now I understand why those 4000 features are requested in such demand.


I truly hope they will implement these features within the upcoming updates 1.7 and beyond.


Especially the real time swing and time signature.


Out of curiosity I looked at the Beat Thang, and was shocked to see this feature is supported by it :? :