2.3 better feel like 3.0!

And, someone will always say, "Just use the MPC plugins", and as much as I appreciate having them (they're latency-free), I LOVE using my 3rd party plugins.
I've paid a good price to get some amazing plugins that sound superior to Akai ones (not dissing Akai at all; I wouldn't even expect them to include lush reverbs, mastering-quality limiters etc) in their software.
I'm an audio engineer. That's in my nature. I love honing the sound till it sounds exactly like I want. But the MPC software currently will not allow for that.
I'd be fine with master latency (e.g., add a limiter on the master, and metronome is now off time), but it's just not acceptable that you put something on the kick and soon your kick is off time. Or put some tape emu on your drum buss, and then it's completely off time with the rest of your song.
That's why this is CRITICAL: to allow MPC users to use the nice MPC software (I like working in it after making the bulk project in standalone!) with their favorite plugins.

I can say my use of MPC Live will increase once this is implemented.

yes its an essential component.

The old argument used to be, I want to do everything in the box. No Computer! 100% Software Dawless! Now the argument is Automation Lanes and Plugin Delay Compensations inside the MPC 2 Software, using 3rd party plug in on a computer.

Listen I just want God of WAr, Apple Pencil, Skype, Xbox One support, External touchscreen LCD monitor out, and Windows Paint.

as long as it will bring more MIDI flexibility to the MPC Live: I was nothing but shoked when I bought my MPC Live and found out that I wasn't able to control several midichannels at the same time, from different keyboards/controllers/the pads. Seemed such a BASIC function for an instrument like this! Scrolling between tracks to make them active to access different tracks/instruments... Really?
And yes: through the din + through the USB (so this port sending out as well). Only with this ability it could really be the DAW-less centre of the livesetup it claims to be. Well for my needs that is the only big problem I face with this otherwise great instrument.

And only that way I would stop doubting whether I should switch to Ableton or not!

Let's just hope that the wait for this update will soon be over and not take 6 months+ to arive.. Because the hype for the update won't last that long..

zangetsu01 wrote:Let's just hope that the wait for this update will soon be over and not take 6 months+ to arive.. Because the hype for the update won't last that long..

Where HYPE is present, OUTRAGE will soon follow.

CharlesRandolph wrote:The old argument used to be, I want to do everything in the box. No Computer! 100% Software Dawless! Now the argument is Automation Lanes and Plugin Delay Compensations inside the MPC 2 Software, using 3rd party plug in on a computer.

Listen I just want God of WAr, Apple Pencil, Skype, Xbox One support, External touchscreen LCD monitor out, and Windows Paint.

Heh.
You may found it funny, but majority of the music you hear these days has been mixed in the box.
That's what I want. You can make it all ITB and call it a day, but fact is, to make it exactly right and take it to the professional level, it'll need some 3rd party help at least.
E.g., today, I'm mixing a beat that was done entirely with MPC Live. Definitely does not sound bad. But the all-analog UAD treatment as well as digital resonance control I'm giving it does make a difference and puts that cream on top.
It was Akai who opened that avenue by introducing the use of VSTs.
Sure enough you CAN export the tracks and mix them in another DAW (and that's what I'm doing as we speak…) but then again, why have the VSTs in the first place.…and if the modern MPC with its software functionality wants to be the Center of things, you can't go without PDC in 2018.

Fanu wrote:

CharlesRandolph wrote:The old argument used to be, I want to do everything in the box. No Computer! 100% Software Dawless! Now the argument is Automation Lanes and Plugin Delay Compensations inside the MPC 2 Software, using 3rd party plug in on a computer.

Listen I just want God of WAr, Apple Pencil, Skype, Xbox One support, External touchscreen LCD monitor out, and Windows Paint.

Heh.
You may found it funny, but majority of the music you hear these days has been mixed in the box.
That's what I want. You can make it all ITB and call it a day, but fact is, to make it exactly right and take it to the professional level, it'll need some 3rd party help at least.
E.g., today, I'm mixing a beat that was done entirely with MPC Live. Definitely does not sound bad. But the all-analog UAD treatment as well as digital resonance control I'm giving it does make a difference and puts that cream on top.
It was Akai who opened that avenue by introducing the use of VSTs.
Sure enough you CAN export the tracks and mix them in another DAW (and that's what I'm doing as we speak…) but then again, why have the VSTs in the first place.…and if the modern MPC with its software functionality wants to be the Center of things, you can't go without PDC in 2018.

I understand what you say but I just took another approach.
I use Live mostly as an instrument to be played in realtime, i put a hard.disk inside with all the samples I collected in 10 years of computer music and I am very glad to have the chance to play and tweak them in realtime.
I connect MPC to a firewire mixer and I route the 3/4 and 5/6 outputs to external effects and then again to the mixer.
Then I go from the mixer to a Mac via firewire and so I have 3 stereo tracks on a multitrack recorded in real time.
After that I finish the mix with Mac.
I found this is my best solution, I like to make tracks live even if I am alone and I find it a good antidote to the coldness I was feeling aftet 10 years of computer.
I think MPC Live better use is like this, I never thought to use it for mixing.

Frisbi wrote:I understand what you say but I just took another approach.
I use Live mostly as an instrument to be played in realtime, i put a hard.disk inside with all the samples I collected in 10 years of computer music and I am very glad to have the chance to play and tweak them in realtime.
I connect MPC to a firewire mixer and I route the 3/4 and 5/6 outputs to external effects and then again to the mixer.
Then I go from the mixer to a Mac via firewire and so I have 3 stereo tracks on a multitrack recorded in real time.
After that I finish the mix with Mac.
I found this is my best solution, I like to make tracks live even if I am alone and I find it a good antidote to the coldness I was feeling aftet 10 years of computer.
I think MPC Live better use is like this, I never thought to use it for mixing.

Totally understand that whole-heartedly.
I personally know dudes who've said they'll never want to use a computer or any digital aid for their music in any way, and I can appreciate that way of working. 100%. When it's working for you, there's no need to change it.
And after all, that's how one had to operate with all earlier MPCs: track it out.

However, as Akai is trying to bring the MPC functionality to modern age – as well as now offer the MPC software even to those with no MPC Live/X – I'd say that if using plugins cause a lot of headache, it's not a great look offering a product that largely has to do with plugins.

FWIW, at some point I saw Marco Polo on Instagram use MPC Studio. Dude seemed pretty hyped.
I messaged him and asked how he feels about it and also asked if he's using plugins and how he feels about the lack of PDC and his reply was something like, "Shit, I noticed that already".
He was using it for a while, but now, you can see he's back to his trusted MPC 2000 XL.
So, Akai…think about this.

Without wanting to sound negative…why I think PDC is not the thing that's coming?
It'd be hard to market with a bang and make a video about it because it's such a basic feature these days.
Not saying it's not necessary, as it totally is, but it'd be kind of corny/funny marketing it with new video.

"BOOM! Plugin delay compensation finally works! This is BIG!"

Fanu wrote:

Frisbi wrote:I understand what you say but I just took another approach.
I use Live mostly as an instrument to be played in realtime, i put a hard.disk inside with all the samples I collected in 10 years of computer music and I am very glad to have the chance to play and tweak them in realtime.
I connect MPC to a firewire mixer and I route the 3/4 and 5/6 outputs to external effects and then again to the mixer.
Then I go from the mixer to a Mac via firewire and so I have 3 stereo tracks on a multitrack recorded in real time.
After that I finish the mix with Mac.
I found this is my best solution, I like to make tracks live even if I am alone and I find it a good antidote to the coldness I was feeling aftet 10 years of computer.
I think MPC Live better use is like this, I never thought to use it for mixing.

Totally understand that whole-heartedly.
I personally know dudes who've said they'll never want to use a computer or any digital aid for their music in any way, and I can appreciate that way of working. 100%. When it's working for you, there's no need to change it.
And after all, that's how one had to operate with all earlier MPCs: track it out.

However, as Akai is trying to bring the MPC functionality to modern age – as well as now offer the MPC software even to those with no MPC Live/X – I'd say that if using plugins cause a lot of headache, it's not a great look offering a product that largely has to do with plugins.

FWIW, at some point I saw Marco Polo on Instagram use MPC Studio. Dude seemed pretty hyped.
I messaged him and asked how he feels about it and also asked if he's using plugins and how he feels about the lack of PDC and his reply was something like, "****, I noticed that already".
He was using it for a while, but now, you can see he's back to his trusted MPC 2000 XL.
So, Akai…think about this.

Yes I just suggest to consider using hardware external effects more then plugins.
To my ears, they sound much better.
I made a comparison between Eventide SR2016 plugin and a Boss RV500 and man, RV500 sounds way better in terms of depth and clarity.
Same with delays, there are many very good options out there, Strymon, Boss or even some racks like Lexicon or Korg.
It's all digital anyway but hardware digital effects sound much better then plugins to my ear.
This way you don't care about plugin compensation anymore and you rediscover how fun is to control effect knobs in real time.

Fanu wrote:Without wanting to sound negative…why I think PDC is not the thing that's coming?
It'd be hard to market with a bang and make a video about it because it's such a basic feature these days.
Not saying it's not necessary, as it totally is, but it'd be kind of corny/funny marketing it with new video.

"BOOM! Plugin delay compensation finally works! This is BIG!"

PDC is so necessary for software like this. And I agree - not something to market big time, as you're just reminding everyone how late to the party this feature is.

When they introduced the possibility of using VSTs, surely someone had to test them and say "um, guys, there's no PDC here". But for some reason they still released it without this critical feature when 3rd party plugins are allowed.

Either testing never really tested it, or they knew it and released the feature anyway, knowing it would be unusable.

I'm not trying to be negative either. I use my MPC every day in standalone every day. Just would love to see these basic things added.

Frisbi wrote:I made a comparison between Eventide SR2016 plugin and a Boss RV500 and man, RV500 sounds way better in terms of depth and clarity.

Totally not to rain on your parade, friend, but that's not really a fair comparison unless that Eventide plugin is very accurately trying to model the Boss.
A lot of hardware reverbs are digital; that's why a lot of users seem to be happy with the UAD Lexicon 224; it's using the same code as the original.
I love my UAD 224, and I have no idea how it'd compare in a blind test with the hardware one, but what's enough to me is that is sounds dope (I'd take a hardware one any day if it was given to me, of course).

If you work for Akai Pro/InMusic Brands and see over and over and over again for years that your paying customers want PDC, perhaps you should listen to them and give them PDC, the same goes for Sidechain, and Automation Lanes. Everything else will probably create interest, but it will also build resentment and a seething anger that you will see resulting in that user base not investing in future hardware releases because they haven't forgiven you for ignoring their needs...

Fanu wrote:

CharlesRandolph wrote:The old argument used to be, I want to do everything in the box. No Computer! 100% Software Dawless! Now the argument is Automation Lanes and Plugin Delay Compensations inside the MPC 2 Software, using 3rd party plug in on a computer.

Listen I just want God of WAr, Apple Pencil, Skype, Xbox One support, External touchscreen LCD monitor out, and Windows Paint.

Heh.
You may found it funny, but majority of the music you hear these days has been mixed in the box.
That's what I want. You can make it all ITB and call it a day, but fact is, to make it exactly right and take it to the professional level, it'll need some 3rd party help at least.
E.g., today, I'm mixing a beat that was done entirely with MPC Live. Definitely does not sound bad. But the all-analog UAD treatment as well as digital resonance control I'm giving it does make a difference and puts that cream on top.
It was Akai who opened that avenue by introducing the use of VSTs.
Sure enough you CAN export the tracks and mix them in another DAW (and that's what I'm doing as we speak…) but then again, why have the VSTs in the first place.…and if the modern MPC with its software functionality wants to be the Center of things, you can't go without PDC in 2018.

MPC = BOX
Desktop = BOX
LAPTOP = FLAT BOX

BUT NO PDC and NO XBOX SUPPORT.