Ditching the software and strictly standalone.

I use stand all lonely . I hate it. It is not actually made for creating. And it cannot accomplish. Ther re no real automations. The fx are lug. On/off. Those are the choices, they are programed to be set, but we need them to be plyable. There is no ability to sculpt and hone sounds. Akai should be ashamed, making claims of automation, and production, and puting useless knobs on the thing.
The pads and pads options are real nice tho.

Caustic Yoda wrote:I work and write in stand alone then use software for track out when its ready, the software is hard to look at and make any sense of, it really is a mess, 1.9 was easier on the eyes and smarter layout, mixer is getting there tho slowly, ive not had any latency problems or crashes i just fin it uninspiring and am totally lost trying to operate it from the software screen

I wish akai would have let you have a 1.x version and 2.0 installed at the same time. Native instruments lets you do that with Maschine. I would settle for working in 1.9 and then finishing in 2.x.

1.9 was so easy to work with visually, instead of the horrible looking blood red and black. The browser is such a chore to manage also. The way the thumbnails scale it becomes a blurry mess.

For my purposes, the software is 4-5 features away from being good. Give me PDC, multi-output plugin support, a way to group tracks in folders Logic style and/or VCA tracks, real stereo panning, and real drag & drop in and I could make it work.

It wouldn't be as convenient as Logic, but I wouldn't NEED Logic like I do now. I could get rough, presentable mixes done. Until then, I can only write/program/sequence in & on the MPC.

I’m 100% standalone on the Live. Very gratifying workflow.

Here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... MXIAtg86o4

I also work solely Standalone on the X. It is actually why I wanted the machine in the first place -to be away from a computer when making music. I hook up synths to it and track vocals and record guitar parts mic'ing my amps.

I do wish there was a bit more in standalone mode. more automation for sure, but my main thing is processing effects. I am yet to discover a 31 band EQ (I would even take a 15-band) to remove certain overtones from samples or field recordings. I would actually gladly take any recommendations on this.

optik415 wrote:Who here has done this and how has the journey been?

I was straight MPC software with my Live but the software kept giving me too many probs and killing my creativity/workflow.

Plug-ins crashing, Huge latency which turned into computer crashes, freezing up outta nowhere, beats not loading up and plenty more. The software also uses alot of CPU almost a Gig actually.

I've been strictly standalone for the past couple months and it's been great although I went back to the software and changed some things hoping it would be smoother and that wasn't successful lol.

Anyone else strictly standalone for similar reasons?

Software DAWs just aren’t as inspiring to make music with as outboard gear.

I think of my MPC Live as my secret weapon I have when I need it. Almost like it's my personal exclusive version of Reason on steroids.

I use Reason for production but will sometimes connect the MP just to chop up some samples or program some saucy drums, all which can easily just be dragged right into reason with the little bounce to clip button in the software.

Also love starting ideas and limiting my options to stand alone mode which brings out a different side of my creativity. Not to mention the portability. Truly beautiful!

Now with all my splice sounds and my other samples already loaded in there I'm dangerous!!!

To me, unless you're into lofi or some very specific style of music it's hard to produce modern music on standalone mode alone every single time. I wouldn't be able to create every single idea that comes to my mind. I would need such a crazy amount of hardware synths and outboard gear that it would make the process waaaayyyyyyyy more complicated and uninspiring than my DAW with some great controllers and my 40 inch 4k Samsung.

The beauty is that I don't have to choose. I just follow my creativity and do what feels right at the moment. NO RULES BABY!!!

Ps. : I've been an exclusive hardware produced before. I bought my MPC 1000 and had it with a Jv1080 back when the 1000 was the new kid on the block