There's a feeling I can't seem to shake about Akai Pro...

We all know Splice is coming to our MPC X/Live samplers and Akai Pro recently opened Expansion Exchange and Pete Goodliffe is shooting a video for Akai Professional.

The other thing is Guitar Center slashed the prices of the Advance controllers since July and lowerd the price of the MPC Touch in August. I noticed a pattern that whenever a product is about to be discontinued by Akai Pro they reduce the prices then announce the discontinuation and months later release a new product.

I have a strong feeling we're going to see a new touchscreen keyboard controller and a replacement for the MPC Touch in addition to significant updates to MPC and VIP Software.

Am I alone in this thinking?

MPC Live is the replacement of the Touch.

Hey thats with most companies when prices drop they come with something new.

An Akai advance standalone and connected a la MPC X/ Live wouldn’t be a bad thing.

i think if they could integrate 2.0 and V.I.P. to some degree that might be a great thing.i'd jump on an older advanced keyboard being that I already have the Live

I'd be surprised if they replaced the Touch. I wouldn't be surprised if it went legacy status as I called it while it took them so long to address the display issue. And updates no longer mention it. They should replace it though, get it off DisplayLink and offer a SERIOUS discount to Touch owners.

I looked into the Advance, comparing it to Komplete Kontrol, ultimately going KK to couple with the NKS plugins I have. Seeing what Native Instruments did made me wonder why the Advance was not connected to MPC 2.2 in a similar way. Hopefully they'll address that if they release a new controller. I'd be interested in a 25 key version.

But these price drops are what all companies do, make all they can before discontinuing a product.

I'd guess the next six months might largely dictate how it's going to go for Live/X.
2.3 drops, Splice functionality starts, and that's going to bring in some cash or not.
Maybe if it brings in a lot of cash, that's good for future development, but if not…
I can't explain it but somehow I feel the MPC is now kind of close to what it'll be(come).
A new model will prob come out at some point, and *maybe* that will display the much-needed features such as standalone automation lanes, PDC for software, etc.

A New model MPC with standalone automation lanes, PDC for software, etc.? hmmmm

I wouldn't buy into that.

I won't accept a new unit for the comming 8 years to come.. Fix that sh!t now.. Automation lanes on the touch user interface should've been there at product launch.. I can still hear Andy Mac (and Akai team) say that everything you can do with the software that you can also do it from the unit..

zangetsu01 wrote:I won't accept a new unit for the comming 8 years to come.. Fix that sh!t now.. Automation lanes on the touch user interface should've been there at product launch.. I can still hear Andy Mac (and Akai team) say that everything you can do with the software that you can also do it from the unit..

Maybe a new controller but i cannot see new hardware coming anytime soon.. cost is to high for small return..

I really don't think there's a replacement for the Live and X coming soon. I doubt anyone at Akai are even working on it. I don't see what good it would do. The fallout from introducing new boxen when the old ones still have a reputation (justified or not) for being "unfinished" combined with the development costs and hassle of having multiple hardware versions in the field requiring updates... against the very small amount of users that would update? Releasing new hardware is much more likely to cost sales in the near term than generate them.

And really none of the problems with the current series is hardware. The missing features aren't due to missing speed or RAM, they're because the software hasn't been written yet. New hardware would make improving the software harder, not easier. New hardware with the same software would cost sales and create more work for them... So unless they've got another team working on the MPC Next completely separately from the Live/X and are leaving behind the current software base entirely, I don't see it. And they don't, not if they have any sense, they have a product that's been fairly well received in the market but they're publicly acknowledging that it needs more shine on the software side... why delay that by having any resources devoted to a product that *might* do better, when you've got something already out there. It wouldn't make any sense.

The hardware is quite obviously made with minimum effort (and I think that's a good and sane thing for it to be). The CPU module is 3rd party, the mainboard is shared not just between the MPCs, but with a few other InMusic products. The Live's UI has a few boards in common with the Touch... They call it hardware because it's hard, and really what it makes sense for Akai to do is to keep adding to the software and sell the same hardware for as long as possible. That's why they got into the software game in the first place, and the Live is just sort of meeting the oldhats half way I think.

Danoc wrote:A New model MPC with standalone automation lanes, PDC for software, etc.? hmmmm

I wouldn't buy into that.

Just a guess. I would be greatly, positively surprised if they implemented if for the existing product.

Fanu wrote:

Danoc wrote:A New model MPC with standalone automation lanes, PDC for software, etc.? hmmmm

I wouldn't buy into that.

Just a guess. I would be greatly, positively surprised if they implemented if for the existing product.

I expect it to be there in the next software update.. When was the last update February??

rvense wrote:The missing features aren't due to missing speed or RAM, they're because the software hasn't been written yet.

This: for here and all the subforums on MPC-forums and all the threads on every Elektron & Native Instruments forum as well - this should be the greeting message on every login. The answer is this or in some cases: 'bugs'.

Dan@GS said they have plenty of processing power left for Live/X so we’re not gonna see an updated unit anytime soon..Cheers!