By groovemonger
Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:26 am
AS I've said loads of times, all an MPC (or MPC-like tool), at its simplest, does is place bit of audio, or midi notes, on a sequencer. Sure you can chop, mix, add FX, etc. but you're just arranging bits of audio into a pattern at the end of the day.
So on the market today there are dozens and dozens of solutions to do this - plain DAW and built in sampler, Ableton Live, FXpansion Giest, MOTU BPM, hardware MPC, software MPC, NI Maschine, iPhone/iPad apps like Beatmaker 2, etc., etc.,
So what it all breaks down to is what YOU find comfortable and inspiring. I don't like making music solely with a DAW and a plasticky controller. I've never been so unproductive as when using a DAW for everything - too easy to stop being a music maker and more of an audio engineer or just a mouse-clicker. Pre-DAW, when you just had midi sequencers (hardware or software) an already-dated S1000 sampler, one or two synths, and some cheapie outboard FX I would just jam out tracks for fun in an afternoon.
I stare at a Mac screen in my main job for hours a day and music is supposed to be my escape - so I love my MPC 2500 and cheap hardware synths as the core of my music making before dumping it all into Logic for final mixing and to use great high quality plugins.
Now, sometimes I use Geist and and MPD32 - usually when I'm away from the rest of my stuff. For software it's really, really good - can't fault it really. I usually go to Spain for a few weeks a year and love Beatmaker 2 on the iPad, or even the iPhone - dump a bunch of sounds to Dropbox. Have fun. Scratch the music-making itch.
But given the chance I prefer hardware. It's more fun. More inspiring. More sound-based than screen-based. And, a lot of the time, I feel I like the stuff I make with it is better. I also like the fact my hardware stuff is all 90s and early 2000s vintage - absolves me of the need to worry about the new cool thing all the time and just use what I have.
I don't see why an iPad App can't be as full-blooded in terms of features as any MPC. But does that mean everyone should start wondering, or even worrying, if they should embrace iOS music as their primary platform? Nah.
So on the market today there are dozens and dozens of solutions to do this - plain DAW and built in sampler, Ableton Live, FXpansion Giest, MOTU BPM, hardware MPC, software MPC, NI Maschine, iPhone/iPad apps like Beatmaker 2, etc., etc.,
So what it all breaks down to is what YOU find comfortable and inspiring. I don't like making music solely with a DAW and a plasticky controller. I've never been so unproductive as when using a DAW for everything - too easy to stop being a music maker and more of an audio engineer or just a mouse-clicker. Pre-DAW, when you just had midi sequencers (hardware or software) an already-dated S1000 sampler, one or two synths, and some cheapie outboard FX I would just jam out tracks for fun in an afternoon.
I stare at a Mac screen in my main job for hours a day and music is supposed to be my escape - so I love my MPC 2500 and cheap hardware synths as the core of my music making before dumping it all into Logic for final mixing and to use great high quality plugins.
Now, sometimes I use Geist and and MPD32 - usually when I'm away from the rest of my stuff. For software it's really, really good - can't fault it really. I usually go to Spain for a few weeks a year and love Beatmaker 2 on the iPad, or even the iPhone - dump a bunch of sounds to Dropbox. Have fun. Scratch the music-making itch.
But given the chance I prefer hardware. It's more fun. More inspiring. More sound-based than screen-based. And, a lot of the time, I feel I like the stuff I make with it is better. I also like the fact my hardware stuff is all 90s and early 2000s vintage - absolves me of the need to worry about the new cool thing all the time and just use what I have.
I don't see why an iPad App can't be as full-blooded in terms of features as any MPC. But does that mean everyone should start wondering, or even worrying, if they should embrace iOS music as their primary platform? Nah.






