MPC Live + MPC X: new standalone touchscreen MPCs?

You guys are a tough crowd man! Some times I think this forum is just for complaining

You guys are begging for a new standalone flagship and here it is! Completely stand alone with a giant touch screen and everything! Wait for the thing to come out before you start hating on it!

Peeps is hating cos dis new unit may mess up da pecking order, as far as what are considered the best mpcs.

Right now people tend to lean towards the 4000 being the best, so peeps don't want this new unit to out do the 4k, purely so they can maintain they're petty bragging rights.

It's very pathetic but people are attached to the idea of their faviorite unit that they use being the best out

That´s bullsh!t....

HAHA.

To those who are not happy with what we're seeing right now (the X), what would you improve about it?

This was a fair question, and people started to answer that question and now all of a sudden they're just bragging??

Saying Akai is in a "design rut" w the MPC is like saying Steinway's in a rut with the pianos... Sales are still strong, though!

Look at Moog, they started cramming in feature after feature, but in the end, it's the release of the original model, the Minimoog, that created the biggest stir. Why? Because it had just the RIGHT amount of controls; not one too many, not one too few. That's the hard part in instrument design.

The Linn 60/3000 were great, but they're pretty unusable from a connectivity standpoint these days (SCSI, Zip Drives, retrofit CF cards nonwithstanding).

To me, the company got sidetracked after the Z4 - Z8; had they kept developing the Aksys software, people would have bought those, I think, because musicians have shown they don't have a preference for putting EVERYTHING on one main machine, i.e. a studio computer.

If this new MPC has 8 ins AND can run the software as good as the Ren in the studio, I'll sell my mixing desk and Ren and whatever else I need to cop to get it.

This will be the most powerful piece, at just the right size, in a long, long while. Especially now that Yamaha and Roland have all but left the workstation market, there's only this, and the Kronos, and we KNOW the MPC sequencer will wipe out the Kronos one.... (between the crashes!)

Honestly, I dont think the MPC needs that much changed. If they got the software right (audio tracks, PDC, a few more plugin slots maybe, less crashing etc.), the X might just be the best thing (provided that it works both standalone with decent proprietary plugins as well as with 3rd party stuff when connected to a computer).
There's a reason that MPCs have been selling well: it's a great design that just works well. Ren and 1.0 was a drop in quality but I'd see that they're getting back where they should be now, and hopefully the new unit will cater to all crowds, putting together the good old design with the modern touchscreen functions.
Me, I couldn't ask for much more. I'm not after a ton of new tricks.

jpeg wrote:Peeps is hating cos dis new unit may mess up da pecking order, as far as what are considered the best mpcs.

Right now people tend to lean towards the 4000 being the best, so peeps don't want this new unit to out do the 4k, purely so they can maintain they're petty bragging rights.

It's very pathetic but people are attached to the idea of their faviorite unit that they use being the best out

So you're saying the haters have an inferiority complex.

Fanu wrote:There's a reason that MPCs have been selling well

Hype being the primary reason nowadays.

MPC-Tutor wrote:The Ren wasn't exactly 'exciting' as a piece of hardware, a flagship coming out in 2012 with a tiny 'dot matrix' LCD screen and a ridiculous number of buttons, no slider (or more modern equivalent, e.g. touch strip), USB 2, etc etc. Yes it's solid and appeals to traditionalists, but yawn. Over hyped and discontinued without an immediate replacement.

So fast forward 5 years and from a design POV we have the exact same chassis with a black paint job and a 9" touch screen bolted on. I still think Akai are ultimately stuck in a design rut.

ABSOLUTELY!
I'm giving Akai the benefit of the doubt and I'm going to wait for the release of their new flagship before I finalize my judgement but honestly to me the future of Akai is not looking good to me right now.

soultrane28 wrote:Look at Moog, they started cramming in feature after feature, but in the end, it's the release of the original model, the Minimoog, that created the biggest stir. Why? Because it had just the RIGHT amount of controls; not one too many, not one too few. That's the hard part in instrument design.

That's why I'm more positive about the Touch/Live, I think that the Ren/X design is/has always been OTT, too many buttons and dials, keep it more simple but try to look at some areas and rethink how you've approached them.

I don't think it's a bad thing that people look to critique what Akai are doing with the MPC, what use are a bunch of sycophantic butt kissers like all those endorsed producers they wheel out to just say 'nice' but ultimately meaningless things. Progress is made from constructive criticism.

soultrane28 wrote:Saying Akai is in a "design rut" w the MPC is like saying Steinway's in a rut with the pianos... Sales are still strong, though!

Look at Moog, they started cramming in feature after feature, but in the end, it's the release of the original model, the Minimoog, that created the biggest stir. Why? Because it had just the RIGHT amount of controls; not one too many, not one too few. That's the hard part in instrument design.

The Linn 60/3000 were great, but they're pretty unusable from a connectivity standpoint these days (SCSI, Zip Drives, retrofit CF cards nonwithstanding).

To me, the company got sidetracked after the Z4 - Z8; had they kept developing the Aksys software, people would have bought those, I think, because musicians have shown they don't have a preference for putting EVERYTHING on one main machine, i.e. a studio computer.

If this new MPC has 8 ins AND can run the software as good as the Ren in the studio, I'll sell my mixing desk and Ren and whatever else I need to cop to get it.

This will be the most powerful piece, at just the right size, in a long, long while. Especially now that Yamaha and Roland have all but left the workstation market, there's only this, and the Kronos, and we KNOW the MPC sequencer will wipe out the Kronos one.... (between the crashes!)

I see the point that you're trying to make but what makes a Steinway a Steinway is that is adheres to it's tradition of art case pianos which are a works of visual art that at the same time are high quality sounding instruments. Steinway makes traditional grands and uprights which they are more commonly known for but they are actually known for their highly acclaimed design innovation in what is referred to as their special design pianos. Also, a Steinway's relevance is determined by its brand, craftsmanship and aesthetics as an art piece instrument.
MPCs on the other hand are music production controllers/instruments and the nature of the type of technology that they fall under makes it so that it needs to change with the times by being innovative in both design and functionality in order to keep up with constantly evolving landscape of music production and recording which they are geared towards. Being that design in many respects is related to functionality in the production of electronic technology, it would be to Akai's benefit to explore new and innovative design along with new and innovative features and functionality in order for them to compete in a a market where they have lost a great deal of momentum and the the consumer market for not doing so while other companies have.

MPC-Tutor wrote:

soultrane28 wrote:Look at Moog, they started cramming in feature after feature, but in the end, it's the release of the original model, the Minimoog, that created the biggest stir. Why? Because it had just the RIGHT amount of controls; not one too many, not one too few. That's the hard part in instrument design.

That's why I'm more positive about the Touch/Live, I think that the Ren/X design is/has always been OTT, too many buttons and dials, keep it more simple but try to look at some areas and rethink how you've approached them.

I don't think it's a bad thing that people look to critique what Akai are doing with the MPC, what use are a bunch of sycophantic butt kissers like all those endorsed producers they wheel out to just say 'nice' but ultimately meaningless things. Progress is made from constructive criticism.

I agree. I do like the direction they took with the Live. Unfortunately I feel that it wasn't enough to make them a dominant player in the game. They needed some more development of both the controller and the software. Hopefully they will go further in the direction they have started going and do something amazing in 2017.

As far as the Minimoog. It created the stir that it did within the context of the time that it came out. If a new Moog was coming out with basically the same form factor, similar functionality and just some mediocre innovation or innovation to just catch up with competition, I don't think it would be making much of a stir right now. If Akai drops this MPCX and it turns out to be just a pimped out Ren it's going to be a fail. It will get hype at first of course but eventually it will just be looked as a overpriced (if the $2000 rumors are true) special edition Ren. Akai needs to put out new dope ish not mediocre reiterations of their old ish.

MPC-Tutor wrote:Progress is made from constructive criticism.

Yup. That's why they should hook up some serious heavy producers with the units and collect feedback.
I don't mean you gotta be in some major league and earn big bucks, but Akai should send units to people from all fields who make a ton of music and put the units thru their paces (regardless of how much money they make*), rooting out the annoyances that pop up when you use a product heavily.
Me, I've sent tons of criticism to Ableton and been brutal about the products and even blogged about the shortcomings, and in the end I've received a lot of thanks from the company for being so dead honest and established a good relationship with the company and I now know many of the guys personally. And I'll keep being brutally honest.
I've offered my help to Akai, too, but they haven't been interested. I make that music every damn day and would be willing to be a part of the Akai "feedback team" too.
(*we all remember Pete Rock, Preemo and Alchemist from early promo of Ren/Touch...big names, and nobody seemed to be using the products...basically just thumbs up from the guys if that)

I know I've pointed this out a thousand times on this forum already, but for example the Locate buttons....no way they would've been omitted if some serious beatmakers had been using the device for a while.
Honestly, that would've been the first thing I would've said. "No way."
Sure, if you hook some newskoolers with a unit that's missing the buttons, they wouldn't make a point about it; they wouldn't know they once were a part of that "iconic workflow".

To answer the question about what I would like to see from Akai...
I would like to see something like the Live with a nice keyboard also incorporated into it. Maybe this is not a great idea but I guess I would like this because of the nostalgia that I have for the ASR 10. Also, add some nice synth functionality while you're at it.

historically the innovation ended with the 4000 in my opinion.

when the 4000 was current gen, I think it might have had better specs than my computer if memory serves me correct. Since then (with the change of ownership of akai pro) the product line was taken into a different direction. It became about cutting costs, mass production... and a huge percentage of the budget spend on marketing instead of quality or support or rnd.. or anything that would have contributed to a better product.

that is partially why you have people like dre, premier, and many producers still using the old models... the new models didn't bring anything valuable to the table for them to move on.