By Scott Righteous
Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:53 am
I bought the MPC bible and read though it over the course of a week. It's way better than just reading through the manual, with some great examples and shortcuts/different methods clearly indicated.
It did however raise a few questions. It's possible that I just didn't understand it all. I certainly think that anyone who has taken the time to go through the tutorials will be left with a list of improvements for Akai.
Anyway, here is my feedback - please let me know if I'm wrong about anything.
1) TC settings are not saved with a project. This seems weird. Akai should make that an option.
2) If you set snap to "relative", it only works if you drag events using the touch-screen. If you use the main dial to slide things around, it won't adhere to 'relative', but certainly it should. The touch screen is iffy, the dial is reliable. Akai should allow "relative" snap to work with the dial.
3) There is something about drawing in automation/volume that I don't understand. Following the tutorials, I was able to have all events selected, and then all events like volume could be raised or lowered, drawing involves some technique not described, and basically I have only had it work a few times quite randomly. No idea what is going on, but wish Akai made it dead simple.
4) When using the program mixer, there seems to be no logic to the order that programs will appear on the pads. If I wanted to have many songs, all set up the same for ease of use live, I'm not sure how to even predict the order that programs will appear in the mixer.
I hope there will be more chapters coming! I am curious about using the looper in a variety of set-ups. Also clips seemed to be glossed over. Is there any difference between clips, and just having looped samples on pads which you play having a very strict TC set so that they can't be out of sync?
Thanks for the bible - and all the hard work it must be to keep it up to date!
S.
It did however raise a few questions. It's possible that I just didn't understand it all. I certainly think that anyone who has taken the time to go through the tutorials will be left with a list of improvements for Akai.
Anyway, here is my feedback - please let me know if I'm wrong about anything.
1) TC settings are not saved with a project. This seems weird. Akai should make that an option.
2) If you set snap to "relative", it only works if you drag events using the touch-screen. If you use the main dial to slide things around, it won't adhere to 'relative', but certainly it should. The touch screen is iffy, the dial is reliable. Akai should allow "relative" snap to work with the dial.
3) There is something about drawing in automation/volume that I don't understand. Following the tutorials, I was able to have all events selected, and then all events like volume could be raised or lowered, drawing involves some technique not described, and basically I have only had it work a few times quite randomly. No idea what is going on, but wish Akai made it dead simple.
4) When using the program mixer, there seems to be no logic to the order that programs will appear on the pads. If I wanted to have many songs, all set up the same for ease of use live, I'm not sure how to even predict the order that programs will appear in the mixer.
I hope there will be more chapters coming! I am curious about using the looper in a variety of set-ups. Also clips seemed to be glossed over. Is there any difference between clips, and just having looped samples on pads which you play having a very strict TC set so that they can't be out of sync?
Thanks for the bible - and all the hard work it must be to keep it up to date!
S.