Are you happy with your X or live

I'm pretty happy with my X, yeah. I have a small(ish) eurorack and so I wanted the flagship with the CV stuff, which is really nice to have. I borrowed a friend's Live and didn't really feel lost on it without all the buttons, but I have to say it feels super lazy and/or cheap of Akai to let the Live show CV and the extra inputs and outputs the X has o.O

I hate the pads. They feel very hard and not great (to me), and that black picks up everything and look awful. I'm having to clean them constantly. I may have to replace the pads with white or something, but pics I've seen seem to show a lot of bleed through on MPCStuff's white pads

If we got browser sorting, I'd pretty much have all I want in that box; my needs are somewhat simple, and soon covered.
The lack of browser sorting means I can't sort samples by date and see the latest ones, which is a downer for me.

I've kind of given up wishing for PDC on software by now to be very honest – can't say I'm holding my breath for that one anymore. I'd guess it's a big thing to do and would take major re-coding of the software and may be hard to implement for an existing one (this is just a pure guess).

Koldunya wrote:I'm pretty happy with my X, yeah. I have a small(ish) eurorack and so I wanted the flagship with the CV stuff, which is really nice to have. I borrowed a friend's Live and didn't really feel lost on it without all the buttons, but I have to say it feels super lazy and/or cheap of Akai to let the Live show CV and the extra inputs and outputs the X has o.O

I hate the pads. They feel very hard and not great (to me), and that black picks up everything and look awful. I'm having to clean them constantly. I may have to replace the pads with white or something, but pics I've seen seem to show a lot of bleed through on MPCStuff's white pads

You can change sensitivity of pads from preferences.
I also felt they were too hard at the beginning but as I lowered the sensitivity, they now work perfectly for me.

Frisbi wrote:

Koldunya wrote:I hate the pads. They feel very hard and not great (to me), and that black picks up everything and look awful. I'm having to clean them constantly. I may have to replace the pads with white or something, but pics I've seen seem to show a lot of bleed through on MPCStuff's white pads

You can change sensitivity of pads from preferences.
I also felt they were too hard at the beginning but as I lowered the sensitivity, they now work perfectly for me.

Agreed. I changed the sensitivity and my Live's pads are damn near perfect, now. I'll concede that their propensity to soak up body oils and dirt is horrible, though. I've never seen one YouTube tutorial with clean pads, and I find keeping my own clean can be challenging.

That said, a good microfiber cloth lightly sprayed with Pledge Mulitsurface goes a long way.

@ Enochlight

Yeah dirty pads are a part of the design.

On the Studio I have to turn the thing to max everything in sensitivity otherwise I literally have to bash it to get anything out of it. The top of my desk is pretty thick glass but still, I dont like that sound when I have to smack it every time. Sixteenth notes get gnarly haha. Im hoping they start softening up, but Ive been banging on the thing every day for about two months straight! Its getting a little better, probably just needs a little more time.

Also requires daily dusting and wiping as well. Dust reaaaaaaally seems to love that enclosure, I have no idea where it all comes from every day.

I use those sticky rollers to help with the dust on my pads. I noticed lense cleaner for LED screens does a good job with the oils.

might not be worth it but could you install the phat fats on the studio, or the cork pads?

Got my MPC Live today to add to my machine mk3 and MBP. I really just wanted something super portable so I can write on the go (took doggo to park and threw in my backpack so had a quick session in the wild). For live performances this will fit nicely in with my current minimalist rig.

Couple of things I've noticed. I have a track mostly about 80% finished, but didn't keep my tracks in the same position across sequences, so need to manage that better in future. Need to come up with a template of some sort.

Have decided to just use sd card and 256gb USB stick - ssd seems somewhat overkill for my needs. Will just keep backups in cloud.

Autosampler is amazing I wasn't even that bothered with the software as mainly intendng to use standalone but being able to sample VSTs from the software is killer.

Based on my current usage and the track in progress I am very happy with the CPU / memory performance. Specs are important to a point, however in hindsight I placed too much weight on this during the purchasing decision.

Plugin synths seem very usable, I'm not a big fan based on the preset demos I've heard but I think with some tweaking they can definitely add a dimension to the MPC live. I'm fear NI has made me a plugin snob.

Touch editing is a beast, step sequencer has a great implementation. So much to be happy about.

Looking forward to post dinner session on lap while watching as yet undecided SciFi movie with sound turned down.

baztek wrote:… didn't keep my tracks in the same position across sequences, so need to manage that better in future. Need to come up with a template of some sort.

Yes, track sorting would be super welcome!
I always add some perc stuff later and would like to all drum/perc tracks to be next to each other, but a shaker always ends up being track 7 or something while main drums are 1.

baztek wrote:Looking forward to post dinner session on lap while watching as yet undecided SciFi movie with sound turned down.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that does this. It's nice to be able to just sit on the couch with a pair of cans and jam away, while the wife watches something on TV. I'm no longer considered a basement studio troll. It's a win for everyone.

Coming from a 1000 with JJOS and having used that machine mostly as a self-contained sampling device, there is absolutely nothing I am missing on the Live and too many quality of life improvements to count (people complaining about menu diving often seem to forget that many of the features we get in sub and subsub menus weren’t even present on the classic MPCs, only exception being the main menu points).
I hear all the criticisms but they do not seem to apply to the way I use my MPC.
If there was one thing I could ask for feature-wise, it would be better sorting options for the browser and the ability to not only sort by tags but also the possibility to add tags to files in standalone.
That and the ability to access the main menu entries directly with shift-pad...

U can use Main + Pad to go directly to main menu sections

Yea i love it...a return to form for me in a huge way. Back to my old self, with my records, my 4 track tape recorder, my asrx, and a mix console witha whole bunch of effects boxes I could never afford back then ...all in a portable box...

I always struggle to see any real issue with the post daw shit...thousands of dollars worth of (virtual) equipment at your fingertips. Coming from a kid who started out recording vocals thru headphones over pause button breaks...I love it

robleighton22 wrote:U can use Main + Pad to go directly to main menu sections

Cool thanks! Makes sense...

EnochLight wrote:I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that does this. It's nice to be able to just sit on the couch with a pair of cans and jam away, while the wife watches something on TV. I'm no longer considered a basement studio troll. It's a win for everyone.

THIS is exactly why I want a Live haha. The fact I dont have to sit at this stupid desk to do anything is what sealed the deal. Going outside for a smoke break? Might as well finish tweaking that bassline while you're at it. Oh were going on that 2 hour drive to your moms this weekend? Beats on the freeway, you're driving baby!