By elogical4now
Fri Nov 20, 2015 8:06 am
The Hardware:
The first thing I noticed was the quality of the hardware. Its very well put together and heavier than I expected.
The Front - Feels like plastic with some sort of matte covering. It has a textured feel to it. Don’t know what it is, but it’s nice.
The Back - The back is metal. I appreciate equipment made with metal it just feels more substantive than plastic.
The Pads - The pads are are very thick…nice! You don’t have to hit them as hard as the MPC Rens pads. They feel great.
The Buttons - All of the main buttons have a certain textured grip to them. They click when depressed. I prefer the MPC Ren buttons, but these may grow on me.
Q-Links - The Q-links are touch sensitive encoders. I think they are plastic. They turn smooth and feel nice. The only problem I have with them is either their depth or spacing. I find myself accidentally always hitting an adjacent one. It could just be me.
Data Dial - The Data Dial turns in increments or can be pushed (to select). It feels looser than the MPC Rens Data Dial. I’m guessing this is by design since it has dual functions. It also feels like its plastic.
Audio IN/OUT - I haven’t used the audio in/out yet. I typically don’t use the MPC sound card very often.
The Stand -The included stand slides on securely on the back and helps with the viewing angle of the touch screen. Its solid and doesn’t wiggle.
Touch Screen:
I don’t know the tech specs, resolution, etc. but the screen looks really good. I use an Apple Thunderbolt Display with a Retina Macbook Pro and the MPC Touch screen looks good to me. With that said, you have to turn off mirroring if you have multiple displays or the MPC’s Touch screen will not operate properly. This really sucks. Hopefully, this can be sorted out in the very near future.
XYFX - There is a little lag visually, but it doesn’t seem to be audible. If so, I haven’t noticed it.
Sample Edit - There might be a slight delay, but not very bad at all. I wouldn’t use my finger to edit a waveform anyway. I prefer the knobs.
Selecting Modes, Parameters, Fields, etc - No Lag. This is the strong point of the touch screen. Whatever you select is immediately displayed.
My interest in the MPC Touch was the ability to see more information on the hardware and to be able to manipulate that information quickly. I’m not a fan of using my finger to edit parameters. I’ve tried it with iPad apps, other touch OS's and I much rather prefer knobs. The beauty of the MPC Touch is you can use the q-links, data dial, or the plus/minus buttons to do the tasks that you don’t want to do with fingers. So, essentially the MPC Touch makes it easy to concentrate on the MPC hardware/touch screen and not the computer. The whole process is much more intuitive, like using a stand alone MPC.
Program Edit on the MPC Touch is worth the purchase price alone. Logically laid out and all parameters easily adjustable with q-links, data dial and plus/minus buttons. I always struggled trying to use the q-links to edit programs on the MPC Ren. It was just to hard to remember which q-link controlled which parameter..and using a mouse was exhausting.
Pad Perform, Looper and naming from the hardware work excellent too.
Needed Improvements:
There are several things that could be improved. I’m guessing they will show up on the MPC Touch Pro? I’ll mention a few of them...this post longer than I anticipated.
More dedicated buttons. I don’t want to have to menu dive for functions that I often use like like Program edit, Channel Mixer, Pad Mixer, Sample Edit etc.
Where are the transport locate buttons? Bring those back asap!
There needs to be 16 Q-links. No fun paging through four banks and trying to decipher which q-link does what. Also, Q-links should already be mapped like the Akai VIP software and Q-links need to be editable. (There is a q-link edit and midi edit “Coming Soon” page in the Main Menu).
Summary:
When the MPC Touch was first released I thought it looked like a toy, gimmick or just something I couldn’t utilize. If a product doesn’t enhance or increase my workflow then I won’t buy it.
No doubt, The MPC Touch is not for everyone. However, If your on the fence give it a try.
I sold my MPC Ren and haven’t looked back.
The first thing I noticed was the quality of the hardware. Its very well put together and heavier than I expected.
The Front - Feels like plastic with some sort of matte covering. It has a textured feel to it. Don’t know what it is, but it’s nice.
The Back - The back is metal. I appreciate equipment made with metal it just feels more substantive than plastic.
The Pads - The pads are are very thick…nice! You don’t have to hit them as hard as the MPC Rens pads. They feel great.
The Buttons - All of the main buttons have a certain textured grip to them. They click when depressed. I prefer the MPC Ren buttons, but these may grow on me.
Q-Links - The Q-links are touch sensitive encoders. I think they are plastic. They turn smooth and feel nice. The only problem I have with them is either their depth or spacing. I find myself accidentally always hitting an adjacent one. It could just be me.
Data Dial - The Data Dial turns in increments or can be pushed (to select). It feels looser than the MPC Rens Data Dial. I’m guessing this is by design since it has dual functions. It also feels like its plastic.
Audio IN/OUT - I haven’t used the audio in/out yet. I typically don’t use the MPC sound card very often.
The Stand -The included stand slides on securely on the back and helps with the viewing angle of the touch screen. Its solid and doesn’t wiggle.
Touch Screen:
I don’t know the tech specs, resolution, etc. but the screen looks really good. I use an Apple Thunderbolt Display with a Retina Macbook Pro and the MPC Touch screen looks good to me. With that said, you have to turn off mirroring if you have multiple displays or the MPC’s Touch screen will not operate properly. This really sucks. Hopefully, this can be sorted out in the very near future.
XYFX - There is a little lag visually, but it doesn’t seem to be audible. If so, I haven’t noticed it.
Sample Edit - There might be a slight delay, but not very bad at all. I wouldn’t use my finger to edit a waveform anyway. I prefer the knobs.
Selecting Modes, Parameters, Fields, etc - No Lag. This is the strong point of the touch screen. Whatever you select is immediately displayed.
My interest in the MPC Touch was the ability to see more information on the hardware and to be able to manipulate that information quickly. I’m not a fan of using my finger to edit parameters. I’ve tried it with iPad apps, other touch OS's and I much rather prefer knobs. The beauty of the MPC Touch is you can use the q-links, data dial, or the plus/minus buttons to do the tasks that you don’t want to do with fingers. So, essentially the MPC Touch makes it easy to concentrate on the MPC hardware/touch screen and not the computer. The whole process is much more intuitive, like using a stand alone MPC.
Program Edit on the MPC Touch is worth the purchase price alone. Logically laid out and all parameters easily adjustable with q-links, data dial and plus/minus buttons. I always struggled trying to use the q-links to edit programs on the MPC Ren. It was just to hard to remember which q-link controlled which parameter..and using a mouse was exhausting.
Pad Perform, Looper and naming from the hardware work excellent too.
Needed Improvements:
There are several things that could be improved. I’m guessing they will show up on the MPC Touch Pro? I’ll mention a few of them...this post longer than I anticipated.
More dedicated buttons. I don’t want to have to menu dive for functions that I often use like like Program edit, Channel Mixer, Pad Mixer, Sample Edit etc.
Where are the transport locate buttons? Bring those back asap!
There needs to be 16 Q-links. No fun paging through four banks and trying to decipher which q-link does what. Also, Q-links should already be mapped like the Akai VIP software and Q-links need to be editable. (There is a q-link edit and midi edit “Coming Soon” page in the Main Menu).
Summary:
When the MPC Touch was first released I thought it looked like a toy, gimmick or just something I couldn’t utilize. If a product doesn’t enhance or increase my workflow then I won’t buy it.
No doubt, The MPC Touch is not for everyone. However, If your on the fence give it a try.
I sold my MPC Ren and haven’t looked back.
Last edited by elogical4now on Fri Nov 20, 2015 3:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
