Official: 'Akai MPC Touch' - The New MPC

Yeah, it's anyones guess if they have a flagship coming up next. I doubt it'll be a standalone or a hybrid considering everything we all discussed. I'm sure it's just gonna be like a Ren mk2 with a touchscreen. The Touch really does look like more fun than Maschine. But I still wouldn't replace my setup with any of those software/controller combos. I'm happy with tracking out my MPC2000 into Reason 7 and finishing off the project with a rack full of synths and effects. Since the Ren software is not ReWire compatible, it's one more reason to pass up on the Touch.

Yea you're probably right but I WONT STOP DREAMING!

Dvon wrote:Yea you're probably right but I WONT STOP DREAMING!

I dream of winning the Powerball and buying Akai Pro. I'd bring back Roger Linn and pay him to design the mother of all MPCs. But I think I'd take a much needed vacation before doing anything.

taken from http://blog.zzounds.com/2015/10/07/interview-inside-the-akai-mpc-touch/...

Dan wrote:The thing for me is — and I see this with a lot of users I’ve talked to — the moment that you’re sitting at a computer, putting your hand on the mouse, it’s almost a left brain vs. right brain thing. When somebody’s actually sitting at a musical keyboard, they’re very much in a creative mindset.

that is absolutely true. BUT... if this is what he believes then why has akai not come up with a mpc workstation so far? instead inmusic flooded the market with tons of midi/usb masterkeyboards (from akai, alesis and m-audio). why do they not want to compete against yamaha, korg, roland and kurzweil re workstations? these boards are popular items. i´d purchase a “mpc keys” in a second. yes, they srewed up badly with the fusion (alesis) but that was over a decade ago. they should try it again imo.

zZounds wrote:Our customers are fans of the “Vintage Mode” on the MPC Renaissance. Tell me about Vintage Mode, and how it works.

Dan wrote:It’s a plug-in that is designed to emulate the converters and “magic behind the scenes” of the MPC60, MPC3000, and E-mu SP1200.

Pete wrote:We reconstructed a code path that, as faithfully as we could, reproduced that in the digital world.

wow, in a roundabout way they finally admit that they shamelessly lied to the public. pathetic.

Yeah, they probably hope we'd all forget and the noobs will never know.... but not around these parts.

distortedtekno wrote:I'd bring back Roger Linn and pay him to design the mother of all MPCs.

and then its the the mpc linnstrument instead of touch

Interesting step. I see benefits, mainly speed and portability but I am disappointed to find out that 1.9 is just the Ren allowing for this to be incorporated into the mix.
Oh and the ability to have different track lengths.

yeesh, just saw that this is like $800.
My reference for utility/fun vs. cost will always be my OP-1... for ~$800, I'd never consider getting a Touch over another OP... (That reasoning works nicely as a general GAS-antidote... )

pspsounds wrote:Record gain knob shouldn't be on the back.

Exactly! Neither should not repeat and erase be above the pads IMHO. And regardless of 'touch', I'd like to see a cursor pad. Hopefully the flagship machine will have a more traditional layout and standalone functionality. Overall though, I think its a nice Studio replacement.

markski wrote:

pspsounds wrote:Record gain knob shouldn't be on the back.

Exactly! Neither should not repeat and erase be above the pads IMHO. And regardless of 'touch', I'd like to see a cursor pad. Hopefully the flagship machine will have a more traditional layout and standalone functionality. Overall though, I think its a nice Studio replacement.

I would'nt replace my studio with that personally. I hate touch screens for music, it's just a gadget to me. I want precision when i tweak stuff and no way i can achieve it with a 7inch screen. The transport controls look horrible also. The "flat" aspect of the studio was very useful to take it in backpack or computer case too. Too much of the unit price goes into the screen, no way i'm paying for that. The price of the studio is very competitive for the quality of the hardware. A new version with a tilt screen and audio inputs would have made it for me.

i wish the studio had the same knobs as the mpc touch...really man i like the studio, BUT if they put some decent knobs on it it would be completely on another level of usability.
Hopefully we can buy the mpc touch parts from mpc stuff/tutor and swap the knobs

GNRFAMZT wrote:taken from http://blog.zzounds.com/2015/10/07/interview-inside-the-akai-mpc-touch/...

Dan wrote:The thing for me is — and I see this with a lot of users I’ve talked to — the moment that you’re sitting at a computer, putting your hand on the mouse, it’s almost a left brain vs. right brain thing. When somebody’s actually sitting at a musical keyboard, they’re very much in a creative mindset.

that is absolutely true. BUT... if this is what he believes then why has akai not come up with a mpc workstation so far? instead inmusic flooded the market with tons of midi/usb masterkeyboards (from akai, alesis and m-audio). why do they not want to compete against yamaha, korg, roland and kurzweil re workstations? these boards are popular items. i´d purchase a “mpc keys” in a second. yes, they srewed up badly with the fusion (alesis) but that was over a decade ago. they should try it again imo.

zZounds wrote:Our customers are fans of the “Vintage Mode” on the MPC Renaissance. Tell me about Vintage Mode, and how it works.

Dan wrote:It’s a plug-in that is designed to emulate the converters and “magic behind the scenes” of the MPC60, MPC3000, and E-mu SP1200.

Pete wrote:We reconstructed a code path that, as faithfully as we could, reproduced that in the digital world.

wow, in a roundabout way they finally admit that they shamelessly lied to the public. pathetic.

The reason they finally made it available as a plug in is because these forums called them on the lie a couple of years backl so this is actually old news.

On another forum, someone mentioned that you should be able to hook up an external HD, and use it as standalone.
I'm assuming by loading/registering the MPC software from the touch screen....?
This would be assuming the Touch also has some processing power?

I think it's interesting, however I'll stick with my Studio until we see what direction this is taking.

Aside from early adopters having a frustrating time with audio stuff, I'm also a bit skeptical of the touch screen as the 'main' interface/UI you would use. The touch interface would need to be precision perfect for a start, and tiltable. And I wonder what part of the workflow will be quicker than just using the mouse on the MPC DAW for much of the time.

IF they develop this so there is an element of standalone-ness, even if not quite fully feautured, I'd suddenly be much more interested. I'm not going to sit on a beach using it, but there would be occasions where I'd like to continue making beats on the kitchen table, or relaxing on the sofa etc

Those 'kool' promo videos from Akai are incredibly annoying. Who gives a toss about some random producer sitting on a sofa mumbling about how dope the screen is? People want to see this thing properly in action. All those fast cuts just make me wonder if that touchscreen is actually working properly yet.

None of these producers in Akai videos ever doing anything other than talk the talk and press a couple of buttons while looking a bit lost. How about seeing them perform? Finger drumming? Live chopping? Writing something from scratch? If this was a new Fender guitar you can bet Fender's first promo vid would have Zak Wild, Vai or Satriani shredding away on the thing.

Anyway, where's our nice geeky video from Pete and Geoff?