MPC/ MPC Forum veterans, what are your X/ Live verdicts?

What up fam, it's been a long, very very long time since I've been here. And of course a lot of things have changed in the MPC world and in my personal life. I kind of missed the whole MPC X/ Live release, since I was quite content with my MPC2500/ Studio combo, plus I didn't had that much time to make beats and reading up on music gear. I know, it sometimes is a lame excuse, 'not having that much time'. Or actually in my case it's a bit of hassle since I'm most of the time at my girlfriends' place. Sometimes I jam some on the Studio with my Macbook, but I never fully loved working in this setup when composing. Still I prefer the 2500 as a sketchpad for chopping and sequencing. The Studio really shines in my setup for doing tweaks, adding FX and postproduction or making the conversion easier from MPC2500 to computer to do postproduction in Logic.

Couple of years ago when I used to hang around here daily the MPC2500 with JJOS was one of the best options MPC wise, and among the daily MPC forums visitors this one was the most used MPC at that time (think it was 2010-2014?) This still is one of my favourite things to work on, mainly because of it's workflow and for it being a standalone. But in my case it's impossible to drag that thing around with me, so it basically sits at home hooked up to my DJ mixer and audio interface. Again, most of the time I'm at my girl's place where I have not a real setup and I'm forced to do whole beats with the laptop and Studio while missing the 2500. In my opinion some of the menus and options are hidden away too deeply to enter easily by controller, although transport buttons and pads are irreplaceable, making me swap between controller and mouse back and forth and having my eyes being confused where to focus on. But when I'm in the mixer menus applying effects and doing basic mixing tasks, using the mouse works ok, but doing those tasks still offers me so many more options then the 2500 which I really like.

I do love the MPC software for above mentioned reasons but missing that all in one box feel and workflow, so getting a MPC Live sounds like an interesting solution to me. But what I really would like to know is if the workflow still feels as intuitive as the older MPC models, and if the MPC Live really is that hybrid best of both worlds machine in reality and regular use as Akai claims it to be. I can watch hundreds of Youtbube reviews, but I'm really interested in opinions from trustworthy sources like you guys. So let me know, pros and cons after using it for a couple of months, things that are a real improvement and things you are really missing.

PZ

EDIT: Does anyone really miss the transport control buttons they left out on the Live?

The MPC Live is a portable sample player. Could've been more but it isn't. If you feel the need to make beats on the road it's cool, if not don't waste your money. The 2500 will do the same, which is triggering samples.

To me the live is the same work flow as other mpcs ive owned, 4000, 2000. I love it because it really gave some new life to my older gear.

True it’s missing some features other mpcs have and isn’t as powerful in some areas but for my work flow I couldn’t ask for more. Glad I dumped the 4000 for it.

You’re going to get a lot of opinions here and people playing down the newer models but if you’re used to the software, it’s pretty much the same in standalone too.

I will say this. I would’ve never dumped my 4000 for a 2500, and I would make the same choice getting a live 100 times over.

To me it feels like an update on the 2500/1000/5000 generation of mpcs.

Is it an all in one daw. No. Not meant to be.

Cockdiesel wrote:True it’s missing some features other mpcs have and isn’t as powerful in some areas but for my work flow I couldn’t ask for more.

Could you give me a few examples?

Cross fade looping, multi timbral support, possibly other sampling features. The list is small but people really like to nit pick.

The give and take is that you can track out synths and other gear into it. Don’t have to track things out you can export the stems into a daw, a lot of usefull effects(debatable), portability.

It really shines for me as a writing tool. I take the live and an iPad on my back porch and have a smoke and drink, then just vibe out.

The build in eq effects are really horrible to use.

The Q-link is kinda Pointless

It's heavy and big. I took it on board the airplane but hardly used it.

I don't regret buying it, but a laptop and NI Mikro MK2 is way more bang for the bucks.

... Probably more handy and lighter.

Menco wrote:What up fam, it's been a long, very very long time since I've been here. And of course a lot of things have changed in the MPC world and in my personal life. I kind of missed the whole MPC X/ Live release, since I was quite content with my MPC2500/ Studio combo, plus I didn't had that much time to make beats and reading up on music gear. I know, it sometimes is a lame excuse, 'not having that much time'. Or actually in my case it's a bit of hassle since I'm most of the time at my girlfriends' place. Sometimes I jam some on the Studio with my Macbook, but I never fully loved working in this setup when composing. Still I prefer the 2500 as a sketchpad for chopping and sequencing. The Studio really shines in my setup for doing tweaks, adding FX and postproduction or making the conversion easier from MPC2500 to computer to do postproduction in Logic.

Couple of years ago when I used to hang around here daily the MPC2500 with JJOS was one of the best options MPC wise, and among the daily MPC forums visitors this one was the most used MPC at that time (think it was 2010-2014?) This still is one of my favourite things to work on, mainly because of it's workflow and for it being a standalone. But in my case it's impossible to drag that thing around with me, so it basically sits at home hooked up to my DJ mixer and audio interface. Again, most of the time I'm at my girl's place where I have not a real setup and I'm forced to do whole beats with the laptop and Studio while missing the 2500. In my opinion some of the menus and options are hidden away too deeply to enter easily by controller, although transport buttons and pads are irreplaceable, making me swap between controller and mouse back and forth and having my eyes being confused where to focus on. But when I'm in the mixer menus applying effects and doing basic mixing tasks, using the mouse works ok, but doing those tasks still offers me so many more options then the 2500 which I really like.

I do love the MPC software for above mentioned reasons but missing that all in one box feel and workflow, so getting a MPC Live sounds like an interesting solution to me. But what I really would like to know is if the workflow still feels as intuitive as the older MPC models, and if the MPC Live really is that hybrid best of both worlds machine in reality and regular use as Akai claims it to be. I can watch hundreds of Youtbube reviews, but I'm really interested in opinions from trustworthy sources like you guys. So let me know, pros and cons after using it for a couple of months, things that are a real improvement and things you are really missing.

PZ

EDIT: Does anyone really miss the transport control buttons they left out on the Live?

The biggest improvement of the MPC LIVE/X over all the other MPC's are.

1. Full integration with the Software
2. Use it as Audio Interface
3. Ability to explode tracks and export wav file stems.
4. Updated USB driver so the MPC LIve/X can work with the current OS.
5. Midi Mapping most of the functions with an external MIDI Controller/Surface.

Other than that, most of the things can be done using older MPC's. I've personally timed myself creating and At the start: I saved about 10 minutes of time due to not having to track out the audio, to mix in software DAW. However I lost time because, I still had to eq, add effects, place compression while mixing.

When tracking out in real time. (I track 16 out using 2 mpc 4000 sync together), the mix and texture of the sounds was 95% there. Just needed slight adjustments when recording vocals. This meant less time going back and forth. I also lost the sound texture of whatever board I was tracking on. So if I wanted that, I had to route the audio back into the board and back to the Software DAW.

EDIT: I've never been a fan of work faster, that is why I do music and not fast food. The only things I want to be faster are saving the project and loading a project. Basically that means. No MO Disc, No Floppy Disc, No Zip Disk, No IDE HARD drives, NO SCSI WHAT SO EVER.

Oh yeah, the software is horrendous. I've worked extensively with Logic, Cubase, Reason, Ableton, Studio One and Maschine software and MPC is the worst daw I've ever experienced.

bredal187 wrote:Oh yeah, the software is horrendous. I've worked extensively with Logic, Cubase, Reason, Ableton, Studio One and Maschine software and MPC is the worst daw I've ever experienced.

It's going to take time for Akai Software to get there, however if they keep working on, it will approve. Hardware/Software integration is not easy with all the different computer builds and OS updates there are. If they created the hardware/software and stated that this Motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM, OS, and audio interface is the only configuration we support, then there would be less bugs.

However, when trying to make it work for the general user...there is going to be huge learning curve because they don't know what other hardware/software is installed on the system causing conflicts and bugs.

Cockdiesel wrote:Cross fade looping, multi timbral support, possibly other sampling features. The list is small but people really like to nit pick.

The give and take is that you can track out synths and other gear into it. Don’t have to track things out you can export the stems into a daw, a lot of usefull effects(debatable), portability.

It really shines for me as a writing tool. I take the live and an iPad on my back porch and have a smoke and drink, then just vibe out.

Those are features I definately can live without with.

Not having to track out is really a bliss! Got me into the MPC Studio in the first place.

bredal187 wrote:The build in eq effects are really horrible to use.

The Q-link is kinda Pointless

It's heavy and big. I took it on board the airplane but hardly used it.

I don't regret buying it, but a laptop and NI Mikro MK2 is way more bang for the bucks.

I’ve always used the Q-links on the 2500 for automation purposes. Can imagine it can be pointless for somebody else, but quite usefull to me. Especially if they can be used to adjust parameters in some menus.

Also, in my case I’m also looking for a laptop free way to compose and save the computerwork for later phase in the process.

Menco wrote:

bredal187 wrote:The build in eq effects are really horrible to use.

The Q-link is kinda Pointless

It's heavy and big. I took it on board the airplane but hardly used it.

I don't regret buying it, but a laptop and NI Mikro MK2 is way more bang for the bucks.

I’ve always used the Q-links on the 2500 for automation purposes. Can imagine it can be pointless for somebody else, but quite usefull to me. Especially if they can be used to adjust parameters in some menus.

Also, in my case I’m also looking for a laptop free way to compose and save the computerwork for later phase in the process.

The lack of a FADER Qlink is something that had me scratching my head, since the MPC Touch.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

Menco wrote:What up fam, it's been a long, very very long time since I've been here. And of course a lot of things have changed in the MPC world and in my personal life. I kind of missed the whole MPC X/ Live release, since I was quite content with my MPC2500/ Studio combo, plus I didn't had that much time to make beats and reading up on music gear. I know, it sometimes is a lame excuse, 'not having that much time'. Or actually in my case it's a bit of hassle since I'm most of the time at my girlfriends' place. Sometimes I jam some on the Studio with my Macbook, but I never fully loved working in this setup when composing. Still I prefer the 2500 as a sketchpad for chopping and sequencing. The Studio really shines in my setup for doing tweaks, adding FX and postproduction or making the conversion easier from MPC2500 to computer to do postproduction in Logic.

Couple of years ago when I used to hang around here daily the MPC2500 with JJOS was one of the best options MPC wise, and among the daily MPC forums visitors this one was the most used MPC at that time (think it was 2010-2014?) This still is one of my favourite things to work on, mainly because of it's workflow and for it being a standalone. But in my case it's impossible to drag that thing around with me, so it basically sits at home hooked up to my DJ mixer and audio interface. Again, most of the time I'm at my girl's place where I have not a real setup and I'm forced to do whole beats with the laptop and Studio while missing the 2500. In my opinion some of the menus and options are hidden away too deeply to enter easily by controller, although transport buttons and pads are irreplaceable, making me swap between controller and mouse back and forth and having my eyes being confused where to focus on. But when I'm in the mixer menus applying effects and doing basic mixing tasks, using the mouse works ok, but doing those tasks still offers me so many more options then the 2500 which I really like.

I do love the MPC software for above mentioned reasons but missing that all in one box feel and workflow, so getting a MPC Live sounds like an interesting solution to me. But what I really would like to know is if the workflow still feels as intuitive as the older MPC models, and if the MPC Live really is that hybrid best of both worlds machine in reality and regular use as Akai claims it to be. I can watch hundreds of Youtbube reviews, but I'm really interested in opinions from trustworthy sources like you guys. So let me know, pros and cons after using it for a couple of months, things that are a real improvement and things you are really missing.

PZ

EDIT: Does anyone really miss the transport control buttons they left out on the Live?

The biggest improvement of the MPC LIVE/X over all the other MPC's are.

1. Full integration with the Software
2. Use it as Audio Interface
3. Ability to explode tracks and export wav file stems.
4. Updated USB driver so the MPC LIve/X can work with the current OS.
5. Midi Mapping most of the functions with an external MIDI Controller/Surface.

Other than that, most of the things can be done using older MPC's. I've personally timed myself creating and At the start: I saved about 10 minutes of time due to not having to track out the audio, to mix in software DAW. However I lost time because, I still had to eq, add effects, place compression while mixing.

When tracking out in real time. (I track 16 out using 2 mpc 4000 sync together), the mix and texture of the sounds was 95% there. Just needed slight adjustments when recording vocals. This meant less time going back and forth. I also lost the sound texture of whatever board I was tracking on. So if I wanted that, I had to route the audio back into the board and back to the Software DAW.

EDIT: I've never been a fan of work faster, that is why I do music and not fast food. The only things I want to be faster are saving the project and loading a project. Basically that means. No MO Disc, No Floppy Disc, No Zip Disk, No IDE HARD drives, NO SCSI WHAT SO EVER.

For me time is also not an issue. Workflow and experience for me is key. That the workflow feels natural making composing beats a fun and recreative thing to do. For me tracking out is what I also hated doing, so the MPC software really made things easier for me to finish my beats. But I still had my best sessions when focussing on a dedicated machine.

Thank you for your insights.

bredal187 wrote:Oh yeah, the software is horrendous. I've worked extensively with Logic, Cubase, Reason, Ableton, Studio One and Maschine software and MPC is the worst daw I've ever experienced.

I’m quite content with the MPC software. Like CharlesRandolph said; it probably need some more time to get more stable.

Me for instance can’t get used to Ableton and FruityLoops. But to each his own I guess.