Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
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By Bezo Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:36 pm
John Vandenberghe wrote:
CharlesRandolph wrote:The question is, What does the MPC do better than anything other piece of gear? Once they answer that question. Then they build their flagship around that. Currently, the MPC does not have a main focus, it's all over the place, because they want it to be a general purpose machine.

Multi Track Recorder
Audio interface
Hardware Midi Sequencer
Software Controller
Sampling Drum Machine
Musical Instrument
Effects Processor
etc

Akai Pro needs to say, the MPC is the best (INSERT NAME) and then go all out, dedicating every spec of power to creating that machine. But at this point, the MPC would be something like an All In One Printer. It a Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier. It can do them all, but can't do one the best.


Seems pretty obvious to me:

Sampling Musical instrument
Sampling drum machine
Hardware sequencer.

Not necessarily in that order of priority, imo all 3 are equally important.
That’s what the MPCs were always about no?
IMO, if that's all Akai is interested in delivering, they'll be out of business soon. There've been tools added to the electronic musician's arsenal since MPCs hit the market. Folks use plugins/VSTs heavily. I don't know the ratio, but if Akai doesn't build on it's plugin capabilities, how many of these can they sell? I'd imagine the amount of MPC purists is decreasing. I'd imagine folks using MPCs to do something outside of those 3 is increasing.

Danoc wrote:The heart of my stu is my computer.
Is that creatively, technically or both?

I think it depends what we mean by heart, personally. I do all my sequencing in the MPC. But I use a lot of VSTs. Is the sequencing the heart, or are the sounds the heart?

And I mix and perform other technical duties in Logic Pro. Is this the heart as it helps produce the final product?

I consider the MPC to be the heart of my set up as that's where I develop all of my musical ideas. Unfortunately, I need this mystical next gen MPC to do so more efficiently.
Bymember04959388 Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:01 pm
The great idea behind MPC Live is that you can play live without pc and audiocard and controllers, just a box you can put in your bag and there you go.
I don't see other benefits in a comparison with daw and plugins.
I think Akai should focus on that and make MPC a complete electronic instrument to play live.
It is not complete yet but hopefully on the way to be, if they focus on that and don't lose time with expansions, splice or this sort of things.
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By Danoc Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:21 pm
I would of love to have seen where the X and Live you could connect a screen to them HDMI or DVI that would of been dope! I was hoping for that. The MPC 3000 SE had that feature. So you could really work without a computer and be able to use a mouse or touch screen if you want. Now you talk about the future, that's the Motha F***ing future for real! With VSTs plus that? Man listen, it would put other machines to rest.
Imagine, I have a 30 inch screen attached, that is touch screen capable, X Touch One fader port to mix, Vsts, oh my GAAAAAAAAWWWWWD! crazy!

Now see I would buy into that. just Imagine never having to deal with the computer at all. Everything right there in one place. 124 audio tracks! unlimited midi tracks. keep everything it has now. How about both machines get a battery! Tight arse sequencer like never before. help us help you!

AKAI STEP UP YOUR GAME! If you really wanna destroy other competition do these things and more!
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By Danoc Wed Oct 31, 2018 12:52 am
dryad-66 wrote:But you would still have the bugs.............[

Stay away from the computer and there won't be lots of bugs as it is now. When l had the 2000XL there were no bugs. Worked on the 4000 and 3000 SE no bugs.
By dryad-66 Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:35 am
Danoc wrote:
dryad-66 wrote:But you would still have the bugs.............[

Stay away from the computer and there won't be lots of bugs as it is now. When l had the 2000XL there were no bugs. Worked on the 4000 and 3000 SE no bugs.


Maybe its pretty good now but some people have found a few still.And sure some will appear when new OS and features are added.Nature of an open system.And im not sure all the features promised are there yet (??)
By rvense Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:07 pm
CharlesRandolph wrote:I guess they did not connect the HDMI pin to the board. :lol: It still baffles me how these devices do not have an Ethernet port out. If they did that, it would open up the machine, to so many more possibilities.


There's actually pads for both HDMI and Ethernet on the motherboard and technically you could add them if you want. I'm not sure you'd be able to use both the internal display and the HDMI output at the same time, though, and almost certain that the video would be stuck at 1280x800 or however much it is.
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By Danoc Wed Oct 31, 2018 7:03 pm
Thats why you stay away from the computer.

dryad-66 wrote:
Maybe its pretty good now but some people have found a few still.And sure some will appear when new OS and features are added.Nature of an open system.And im not sure all the features promised are there yet (??)
By forsh Tue Nov 06, 2018 8:43 am
MPC-Tutor wrote:The motherboard they use inside the Live did come with a 4GB RAM version, but the motherboard series itself was discontinued years ago, we still don't know how they sourced (or continue to source) the current stock. Unfortunately since inMusic took over, Akai are always a few steps behind with the tech, so I wouldn't hold your breath when it comes to stuff like this.

Ultimately the board they used for the Live was already outdated tech when it was released, so by the time they come out with an MPC with 4GB of RAM everyone will probably be looking for 8GB minimum. Disk streaming will help offset that though. But the CPU will probably start to struggle with all the new features. The solution is to make that leap to using the very latest tech - it's not like Akai don't charge through the teeth for these machines, so I'm sure the margins can cope.




the DDR chips can be unsoldered and replaced with 4x1gb chips. on ours there is 512mb x 4 . another interesting bit of info is original soms used a sandisk nand for the os storage, the new models us a samsung nand
the ddr3 memory swap isnt a big thing if you have the right tools, im not so sure if there is some memery controller, but all the soms ive seen have the same chips on , so i think the memory is reconised only by the software os



edited
Last edited by forsh on Wed Nov 07, 2018 6:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By zangetsu01 Tue Nov 06, 2018 12:38 pm
Personaly I don't see any benefit for an ethernet port if there's already wifi on board (aside from speed). And If you are going to plugin an monitor, a keyboard and mouse why not also an computer?? It has loads of more horse power than stand alone.. And that brings you to the computer mode we already have..
By CharlesRandolph Tue Nov 06, 2018 1:34 pm
zangetsu01 wrote:Personaly I don't see any benefit for an ethernet port if there's already wifi on board (aside from speed). And If you are going to plugin an monitor, a keyboard and mouse why not also an computer?? It has loads of more horse power than stand alone.. And that brings you to the computer mode we already have..


Ethernet would be used for Data transfer, Networking, Tracking Audio, to any Cobra Net, Dante, or AVB system. You could send audio and midi data at the same time, over the same cable.
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By Danoc Tue Nov 06, 2018 2:10 pm
No... We want to move away from the computer. Without getting an interface and dealing with latency. We'll deal with the internal power of the Live/X.
The goal is to make that our computer and the ultimate music maker.


zangetsu01 wrote:Personaly I don't see any benefit for an ethernet port if there's already wifi on board (aside from speed). And If you are going to plugin an monitor, a keyboard and mouse why not also an computer?? It has loads of more horse power than stand alone.. And that brings you to the computer mode we already have..
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By Danoc Tue Nov 06, 2018 2:15 pm
DAAAAAAAAMMMMMM !

CharlesRandolph wrote:
Ethernet would be used for Data transfer, Networking, Tracking Audio, to any Cobra Net, Dante, or AVB system. You could send audio and midi data at the same time, over the same cable.
By CharlesRandolph Tue Nov 06, 2018 2:32 pm
Danoc wrote:DAAAAAAAAMMMMMM !

CharlesRandolph wrote:
Ethernet would be used for Data transfer, Networking, Tracking Audio, to any Cobra Net, Dante, or AVB system. You could send audio and midi data at the same time, over the same cable.


64 channel of audio or render stems and any computer or other machine connected to the network can pull that those files. No more controller mode switching. No more usb key transfer. That also means the live or X, can pull audio from any storage device or computer on the network. :lol: