Official: 'Akai MPC Touch' - The New MPC

MPC-Tutor wrote:If we do ever get a standalone, people will still complain, no doubt the same complaints they had about the previous standalones (poor computer integration, high cost, limited features compared to software solutions, doesn't sound as good as the 3000, doesn't have the same 'swing', etc).

true even if they do make a new standalone people will say the quality is not as solid has the 2000xl, the 60 and the 3K; and they will day outputs dont sound as good; they will say NuAkai cannot build hardware like roger linn.

So why bother try and appease the dudes complaining; have any of the dudes complaining purchased the tempest? prolly not.

and yet they say Akai is nothing without roger linn and that akai is not the same without him; but on the flip side roger is not the same without akai.

Personally I'll guess we'll never see another standalone unit again. The tech is moving at such a fast rate and we're using computers for everything; the only way to make a unit that doesnt get old is to make one that updates with your computer. It probably doesn't make sense to make a unit that won't allow peeps to use their favorite VSTs in it, and if you do make one, it'll be one that's super old tech in a few years tops.

jpeg wrote:

Eyalc wrote:
+1...

I just don't understand why folks are talking about standalone isn't necessary, or it's antiquated, or people need to get modern. It's a preference people. Arguing against standalone is annoying. If they release a standalone, there are going to be way more people invest in this thing, which is going to generate more revenue, which is going to have a positive effect on the continuity of this thing. Just take a look at their facebook page... people are ready to pay for a standalone. Because of that, I can't understand why people wouldn't want a standalone version to be released, even if they themselves want to stick with the controller. It's arguing for the sake of arguing, and senseless posturing that because they want a controller they are more modern than someone else , because in the end, the economics of a standalone is going to benefit them as well.

think peeps say the cost is prohibitive and that without the power of the PC it would not have the same level of vst capability.

but if they can maintain the ren feature-set in standalone (and not have it be 2G's) then peeps will be up for it.

but those saying that the mpc500 is better than the ren or the studio is silly because the 500 cannot do many of the things that the studio or the ren can do.

the fact that the 500 is standalone does not trump all of those features; also most users will be using the mpc in a studio as opposed to at the beach or in a park, so the stand alone gripes are immaterial whining for no reason.

the distinction of a controller ala mpc ren vs a so called real mpc ala 2500 is a false distinction; caused by an old skool mentality, and an inability to change with the times with regards to music tech.

but no one is against standalone but its is not the be all end all, also the point about updating the the ren software of course they are cos the ren is only 3 years old.

while the 4000 is about 10 years old so why would they continue to update that? like Microsoft dont still support win xp or vista; so its logical to not expect the 5k not to be update after a period of time.

I don't know how to explain this any clearer but you are getting 'stand alone' confused with 'portable' . thats why this comment "the fact that the 500 is standalone does not trump all of those features; also most users will be using the mpc in a studio as opposed to at the beach or in a park, so the stand alone gripes are immaterial whining for no reason" doesn't make a whole lotta sense.
the argument for a stand alone mpc has nothing to do with whether you can go to a park and play it, actually in a situation like that it would be better to use a laptop and controller or something tiny like an mpc 500. all i can say is that 'stand alone' does not equate to 'portable' , no one is talking about portability, we are talking about instrumentality.

MPC-Tutor wrote:If we do ever get a standalone, people will still complain, no doubt the same complaints they had about the previous standalones (poor computer integration, high cost, limited features compared to software solutions, doesn't sound as good as the 3000, doesn't have the same 'swing', etc).

There's clearly 'a' market there for standalone MPCs, but as jpeg says, it's very niche (a niche within an already small niche!), and I do wonder how many of those people will simply prefer to stick with their legacy MPCs regardless of what Akai may or may not put out.

I've seen many post on social media saying "Is it standalone?"

I wouldn't take much notice of that, complainers are more likely to complain. And out of those 30 facebook commenters asking for a standalone, you can bet only 3 or less of them will actually buy it if it ever did come out (trust me, I know this from making products based on forum requests, MPC Stuff will tell you the same).

Akai will have done the numbers, they won't base product development on social media requests. There might only be 500 people out there who would consider buying a new standalone MPC. You do have to wonder how many people even notice or care about the MPC market (in the general scheme of things) - it's certainly nowhere near as popular as it was 10 years ago.

but if you really think akai will have done the numbers then why do you think it was them that put it out there in the first place that they were making a stand alone mpc based on new tech? according to what you're saying they wouldn't have done so if the numbers didn't compel them?

it's a possibility that they might have decided to go with different software for the touch and ren because they've seen for quite a few years now that the same software for all of the diff hardware models has not been working out well for native instruments. Maschines software development has been terrible to say the least, many stringent problems and this is after the total rewrite of the software from the ground up so that everything could be better. It is not better and they are expecting an update this month. I don't know if the update is going to come through but I do know that the maschine user base is on it's last leg and if native instruments does not come with a substantial update that allows the most basic of feature request allot of people are going to jump ship. They are already losing many people to ableton live because you need to have ableton live or some other daw to have the basic experience that you can get on the Ren with out another daw. So many people tell the story they got maschine and loved it, thought it was so quick to make a loop, then they wanted to do other things they were sure it could do but couldn't, so they start using it with ableton, then they end up saying that they might as well just use ableton it's got a drum sampler anyway and they have to use it for more than half of their work anyway after they've made some loops with maschine.

this is not everybodys experience but I have seen it often. if native does not get maschines next major update right the bottom is going to fall out.

MPC-Tutor wrote:If we do ever get a standalone, people will still complain, no doubt the same complaints they had about the previous standalones (poor computer integration, high cost, limited features compared to software solutions, doesn't sound as good as the 3000, doesn't have the same 'swing', etc).

There's clearly 'a' market there for standalone MPCs, but as jpeg says, it's very niche (a niche within an already small niche!), and I do wonder how many of those people will simply prefer to stick with their legacy MPCs regardless of what Akai may or may not put out.

I've seen many post on social media saying "Is it standalone?"

I wouldn't take much notice of that, complainers are more likely to complain. And out of those 30 facebook commenters asking for a standalone, you can bet only 3 or less of them will actually buy it if it ever did come out (trust me, I know this from making products based on forum requests, MPC Stuff will tell you the same).

Akai will have done the numbers, they won't base product development on social media requests. There might only be 500 people out there who would consider buying a new standalone MPC. You do have to wonder how many people even notice or care about the MPC market (in the general scheme of things) - it's certainly nowhere near as popular as it was 10 years ago.

I don't believe that would be an accurate comparison. Akai are designing MPCs while you're writing tutorials. While they're related, it's still 2 different markets. Not everyone who buys a new MPC would be in the market for a tutorial, especially for experienced users. I'm not sure where mpc-stuff would be relevant either since they're one of many retailers. Most people would either buy from brick and morter retailers after a demo, or do some online price matching, especially in this day and age. I honestly believe that Akai haven't done their market research properly and because of that rather not take any financial risks. But their lack of thorough market research and the use of cheap components is having a negative impact on their reputation. I'm sure they're meeting their sales quotas. But after reading that the Touch will use different software than the Ren leads me to believe they're still on the path to planned obsolecence ala Apple. Same shit, different year.

I think Akai actually have a fairly decent roadmap of where they're going with the MPC for once, but as usual they're leaving everyone in the dark and all roads lead to negativity with Akai.

The standalone Vs controller debate is (still) a completely pointless discussion. In 3 to 5 years time when the majority of Ren's and Studio's are nothing but landfill, those old standalone units will still work fine, be more trustworthy on stage and also have some resale value. The challenge for Akai is to make a hybrid MPC that can be used either standalone or as a controller. Killing two birds with one stone.

Coz wrote:I think Akai actually have a fairly decent roadmap of where they're going with the MPC for once, but as usual they're leaving everyone in the dark and all roads lead to negativity with Akai.

The standalone Vs controller debate is (still) a completely pointless discussion. In 3 to 5 years time when the majority of Ren's and Studio's are nothing but landfill, those old standalone units will still work fine, be more trustworthy on stage and also have some resale value. The challenge for Akai is to make a hybrid MPC that can be used either standalone or as a controller. Killing two birds with one stone.

A hybrid unit is what ive been wanting for the longest time! That would be a game changer. Have all the basic standalone MPC features that AKAI is best known for with some new standalone features and some decent effects and than plug-in to your computer to finish or track out your beats with your vsts, soft synths and advanced features that only your computer can handle. Thats something i would buy and hopefully at a decent size! Maybe a lil bigger than the 1000 (which i still use) Who else agrees???

optik415 wrote:

Coz wrote:I think Akai actually have a fairly decent roadmap of where they're going with the MPC for once, but as usual they're leaving everyone in the dark and all roads lead to negativity with Akai.

The standalone Vs controller debate is (still) a completely pointless discussion. In 3 to 5 years time when the majority of Ren's and Studio's are nothing but landfill, those old standalone units will still work fine, be more trustworthy on stage and also have some resale value. The challenge for Akai is to make a hybrid MPC that can be used either standalone or as a controller. Killing two birds with one stone.

A hybrid unit is what ive been wanting for the longest time! That would be a game changer. Have all the basic standalone MPC features that AKAI is best known for with some new standalone features and some decent effects and than plug-in to your computer to finish or track out your beats with your vsts, soft synths and advanced features that only your computer can handle. Thats something i would buy and hopefully at a decent size! Maybe a lil bigger than the 1000 (which i still use) Who else agrees???

+1 on the hybrid. It would meet most of our demands.

completely agree on the hybrid, not only that but really it's the only truly logical step. If they come out with a stand alone unit, they will definitely give it the ability to control software on your computer, there is no upside to not doing so and it's the next logical evolutionary step both financially and developmentally.

and i agree with tutor people will still complain about something but that's irrelevant to the issue.

+1 Hybrid would satisfy both sides.

distortedtekno wrote:[
I don't believe that would be an accurate comparison. Akai are designing MPCs while you're writing tutorials. While they're related, it's still 2 different markets. Not everyone who buys a new MPC would be in the market for a tutorial, especially for experienced users. I'm not sure where mpc-stuff would be relevant either since they're one of many retailers.

MPC Stuff is relevant as he has previously developed products based on forum/social media requests and unfortunately they just didn't sell at all. I too have developed products based on forum requests and they didn't sell (not even to the people who specifically requested them).

It's not the type of product that is of relevance to my point. The point was that if a few people on Facebook post that they would buy a standalone MPC, that's not really enough data to draw the conclusion that a viable market of people would actually buy a standalone MPC if Akai developed one. It doesn't matter if my market is different to Akai's, the issue is still the same, people like to talk the talk about this and that but it doesn't really mean you can scale that up to make assumptions about the other 99.9% of the market.

I'm not saying that a viable standalone market doesn't exist, just that it's easy to assume far too much from a few forum/social media comments.

stale bread wrote:but if you really think akai will have done the numbers then why do you think it was them that put it out there in the first place that they were making a stand alone mpc based on new tech? according to what you're saying they wouldn't have done so if the numbers didn't compel them?

I'm not saying that there's not a standalone market, I'm saying that Akai will have done proper market research to gauge the potential. If they move forward with a standalone then obviously they think it's viable. I personally don't believe it's a particularly large market, certainly not as big as some members here seem to think.

I think a 'hybrid' will certainly have more potential because it will still appeal to the people who want the benefits of a tight computer integration, so hopefully best of both worlds, but I honestly would be surprised if Akai went for a standalone-only model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

same hardware guy breaks down the controller vs real mpc aspect