Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

Bug reports & end-user support for Akai's MPC Software 'controllers' including the new MPC Studio 2, the MPC Touch, MPC Renaissance & original MPC Studio and MPC StudioB lack.
 Reply Share on Facebook

Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By TXDelta1010 Sat Jan 21, 2017 1:33 am
First of all, I'm very impressed in the last 2-3 years with the designs and hardware akai has presented to the world. The advance series is crushing it, the ren, studio, live, live standalone/mpc x, I never would've imagined akai would excel my expectations the way it has with the hardware designs.

BUT... when it comes to software...

This is where I (and I'm sure many others) are frustrated. While it runs okay right now, I feel like long term customers and swearby'ers (like myself )of the mpc feel we are being neglected. I've seen the live and mpc x, but where is the 2.0 software?

If you are still working the final touches, I can understand, but we feel out of the loop, and there are always issues with the software that makes many people run it with protools, cubase, ableton, logic.

1.) Multitimbral - Maschine has it, akai should have a feature to turn on/off for its users who want to use it as a vst.

2.) Better export features - try running a limiter on your master track, then bounce your stems...you can't.

3.) Better way to chop samples - Well I'm proud of the 1.8-1.9 new updates, imo, it seems more complicated chopping samples in the latest updates. I.6 seemed very straight forward like the 1000, 2500, etc. Just KISS it akai (keep it simple).

4.) Make it friendly with earlier projects! - I understand 2.0 is a totally new environment, but please don't make the mistakes you've all made with compatibility issues between a earlier project (e.g. 1.6 project) and opening it up in 1.9.2. Does that mean when I get 2.0 and you all release a 2.3, I'll have compatibility issues like I'm having in 1.9.2?

5.) Less crashing, smooth performance - Yes, its crashing less, but can you all work on that? I would love the day where I can hit the undo button 1 million times, and not have to worry, or save frequently because "mpc stopped working" error. I get it, no software is perfect, but can you all just strive to do better on this end?


Thats all I can think of. Not really trying to rant, but I hope akai is listening and hearing from the customer. We love the hardware of the mpc, but we work in the software! Having a machine that can run on batteries, yet has many bugs means nothing to us. I dont care if the pads light up purple, how many ways you can freak a Rihanna remix, or how I can make a beat in my car (you all really have that down great!), I care about how the OS works now.

Sell us benefits, not features!


That's all I have to say, hope you all can continue to innovate and make more great products.
User avatar

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By Fanu Sat Jan 21, 2017 12:07 pm
TXDelta1010 wrote:2.) Better export features - try running a limiter on your master track, then bounce your stems...you can't.


Thanks for bringing this up.
Every time I've exported stems, I've thought of this: there should be a "use master processing when exporting stems" option or such.

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By head034 Sat Jan 21, 2017 10:59 pm
TXDelta1010 wrote:3.) Better way to chop samples - Well I'm proud of the 1.8-1.9 new updates, imo, it seems more complicated chopping samples in the latest updates. I.6 seemed very straight forward like the 1000, 2500, etc. Just KISS it akai (keep it simple).


I was just thinking about this... Love having options, but damn it starts getting confusing. One solution i think would be cool, is in the preferences being able to set a your own default chopping method that the user would use 99% of the time. Or better yet, i would love to be able to customize the unit and software to my personal work flow. So if there a functions that i dont really use, it can be hidden/put to the side. At this point its all about WORKFLOW. Thats one of those situation where older hardware was very nice. Functions/Task are to the point.
User avatar

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By pspsounds Sun Jan 22, 2017 12:44 am
It seems like the MPCX and Live have many new features but keeps a lot of the known functions. From what I've seen the workflow still looks familiar with sampling and sequencing. I'm not concerned about having VST support in standalone mode but I hope it comes with some descent effects.

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By Caustic Yoda Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:27 am
Exporting stems with a limiter or any kind of master fx is not sensible mix practice, those fx work on the whole mix but arent going to add up to or make sense when stems are exported separately, it will ruin your mix in fact.

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By TXDelta1010 Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:26 am
MPC-Tutor wrote:Great post :)


Thanks @MPC-Tutor!

Fanu wrote:
TXDelta1010 wrote:2.) Better export features - try running a limiter on your master track, then bounce your stems...you can't.


Thanks for bringing this up.
Every time I've exported stems, I've thought of this: there should be a "use master processing when exporting stems" option or such.


Exactly. Hope Akai hears us on this.

head034 wrote:
TXDelta1010 wrote:3.) Better way to chop samples - Well I'm proud of the 1.8-1.9 new updates, imo, it seems more complicated chopping samples in the latest updates. I.6 seemed very straight forward like the 1000, 2500, etc. Just KISS it akai (keep it simple).


I was just thinking about this... Love having options, but damn it starts getting confusing. One solution i think would be cool, is in the preferences being able to set a your own default chopping method that the user would use 99% of the time. Or better yet, i would love to be able to customize the unit and software to my personal work flow. So if there a functions that i dont really use, it can be hidden/put to the side. At this point its all about WORKFLOW. Thats one of those situation where older hardware was very nice. Functions/Task are to the point.


That's what I'm saying. When I was working on 1.5-1.6 I really didnt use anything but the mpc software, but with the latest updates, I've been using recycle along it because its too much imo! I could literally chop a sample like cake without looking at the screen in the 1000/2500, cause it was so intuitive, but now, its so many options (and don't get me wrong, I love having 4 ways to timestretch), but I just prefer to have it work easy.

It seems like the older mpc's forced you to use your ears, whereas the new generation is trying make you use a screen. If it aint broke.... :?

pspsounds wrote:It seems like the MPCX and Live have many new features but keeps a lot of the known functions. From what I've seen the workflow still looks familiar with sampling and sequencing. I'm not concerned about having VST support in standalone mode but I hope it comes with some descent effects.


That's cool, but alot of us use other workstations with them. I have a i7 tricked out pc dedicated for audio, and the plugin runs decent sometimes, sometimes it doesnt. Some effects like tapestop in protools, or cubase/ableton effects are only native to their respective workstations, so it would be nice to have some type of vst ability like Maschine, Virus Modules, etc.

Caustic Yoda wrote:Exporting stems with a limiter or any kind of master fx is not sensible mix practice, those fx work on the whole mix but arent going to add up to or make sense when stems are exported separately, it will ruin your mix in fact.


I understand what you are saying (e.g. adding a limiter, then doing again when you bounce = distortion and no more headroom), but sometimes I like to add a warmth plugin that just shapes the sound without compression, or eq a track right before bouncing, and we just can't do that right now. What if I wanted to add a vintage mode plugin on the master? I'd have to bounce them one by one then.

Regardless, I think it should be implemented. Cubase, FLStudio, and many other DAWS have it. Just would make the workflow 2x better imo.

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By greavous420 Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:45 pm
TXDelta1010 wrote:
I understand what you are saying (e.g. adding a limiter, then doing again when you bounce = distortion and no more headroom), but sometimes I like to add a warmth plugin that just shapes the sound without compression, or eq a track right before bouncing, and we just can't do that right now. What if I wanted to add a vintage mode plugin on the master? I'd have to bounce them one by one then.

Regardless, I think it should be implemented. Cubase, FLStudio, and many other DAWS have it. Just would make the workflow 2x better imo.


Why not just have that plugin on the master in the DAW you are importing the stems into for mixing?

If its just adding an MPC vintage mode plugin then copying a plugin across all your tracks in the software while a minor inconvenience is pretty easy to do. Hold CMD or probably ctrl on windows then click and drag.

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By chino Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:10 pm
[quote"
5.) Less crashing, smooth performance - Yes, its crashing less, but can you all work on that? I would love the day where I can hit the undo button 1 million times, and not have to worry, or save frequently because "mpc stopped working" error. I get it, no software is perfect, but can you all just strive to do better on this end?
[/quote]

^^^ That is my #1 concern. This time around I NEED the MPC 2.0 software to be stable!!

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By tonemelle Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:59 pm
Great post! I agree with ALL of these concerns. I especially agree with dumping with Master effects added SHOULD be an option when bouncing stems. Some beats just don't need to be bounced into a third party DAW if it can be completed in the Akai software. The last few years the Akai software has been more workaround heavy than workflow friendly. Hopefully that changes with this update.

Stability has always been an issue, though it has improved over the years. I've gotten beats placed that I had to make 5-7x because of earlier Akai software instability issues. And quite a few of those crashes happened simply by saving the project.

It looks like we're atleast seeing what 2.0 is capable of though these new standalone units.

Re: Akai, Do You Hear Us? [Professional Rant]

By TXDelta1010 Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:11 am
@greavous420 sure we could do that, but thats such a inconvenience + cpu processing power. What if I want to add eq as well? Then a eq plugin across each one too? Bouncing with master fx seems like a good logical solution.

tonemelle wrote:Great post! I agree with ALL of these concerns. I especially agree with dumping with Master effects added SHOULD be an option when bouncing stems. Some beats just don't need to be bounced into a third party DAW if it can be completed in the Akai software. The last few years the Akai software has been more workaround heavy than workflow friendly. Hopefully that changes with this update.

Stability has always been an issue, though it has improved over the years. I've gotten beats placed that I had to make 5-7x because of earlier Akai software instability issues. And quite a few of those crashes happened simply by saving the project.

It looks like we're atleast seeing what 2.0 is capable of though these new standalone units.


I completely agree with you. Hopefully Akai or one of it's beta testers will bring this thread to their prior to releasing the software. It definitely would improve the workflow.

I wouldn't mind beta testing for akai. I always try to think in interest for us (the producers and users) of the product, whether than how many features it has.
 Reply
Return to MPC Studio, MPC Touch & MPC Renaissance