MPC Live price drop: now $999 USD - new hardware incoming?

CharlesRandolph wrote:I'm not sure what is busted about what I said? It pretty much works for most, moderately price music systems. It's easier for some people to rationalize, buying 3 separate units for $850, than to buy 1 unit for $2450. That's why people own so many little pieces of gear, that all do the same thing.

Where it is busted is the difference in value/opinion of specific function gear, vs all-in-one solutions. Its like the old audio racks my pops had, receiever, with cassette player, with CD-player, etc. Sure he could get a boombox, but the individual pieces provided him the flexibility to swap the cassette player with a dual cassette player or upgrade the reciever, or deal with his son breaking the Cd-player without replacing the whole thing *whomp whomp*, or add new technology like integrating the DVD player so the surround sound could run everything, or hell going from stereo to surround sound.

Its the same with audio creation. Gear with specific functions can be improved - hell I have the Tr-8, and earlier this year I bought the Tr-8s. More audio mangle options, more flexibility for looping, sample playback means it can bring more value to a live set, etc., and it pairs right in with my AIRA setup, one USB cable handles MIDI and loss-less audio. With the Fantom, we have a couple solid pages of people poo-pooing the sampler, in a piece-meal solution, you would just pair it with the sampler you want. If a feature is lacking on the Fantom, there is no improving it.

So again - there is merit to your example, enough for me to concede the general point of the value of the Fantom, but there IS a rational for piecemealing together a setup.

EnochLight wrote:Assorted musings: I've also got some Aria gear (System 8, System 1, TR-8, TB-3, and an MX-1 tying it all together). One could argue that this collection of gear is far more inspiring than a Fantom, and in a live performance setting - far more powerful. The Aria gear is literally made for live performance - the MX-1 included.

Yeah I've most of the AIRA stuff
(2) MX-1 / Tr-8 / Tr-8s / System-1 / System-8 / VT-3 / VT-4 / DJ-505 *loosely related* / A Couple boutiques (JX-03 that I need to sell, and D-05) / And I plan on getting the MC-707 as a reward for getting an album done. I haven't done a full length since like 09.

The AIRA stuff is WAY more inspiring as you mentioned than a workstation, its why I purchased the Tr-8s - to add my own drum sounds in and make it more "hip-hop" sounding, and part of my "training" as a musician has been live performing via live looping, so the MC-707 is the missing piece since the System-1 only has an arpegiator, and the VT-3/4 both have no memory. I bought the Force and have been hyper tempted to resell it to get the MC-707, but my kids interest in music has me paused on selling any gear, I'm currently setting up a live looping station in the play room for my son, teaching him the Tr-8 *now*, and the JX-03 will be next.
- Unreall

Sometimes the all in one system works better. Sometimes a modular system works better. It all depends on the work flow and how well integrate things are. I've always found there are people, who buy gear because of the gear and those who buy gear to get work done.

Keep it simple, direct, and high quality.

Unreallystic wrote:Where it is busted is the difference in value/opinion of specific function gear, vs all-in-one solutions. Its like the old audio racks my pops had, receiever, with cassette player, with CD-player, etc. Sure he could get a boombox, but the individual pieces provided him the flexibility to swap the cassette player with a dual cassette player or upgrade the reciever, or deal with his son breaking the Cd-player without replacing the whole thing *whomp whomp*, or add new technology like integrating the DVD player so the surround sound could run everything, or hell going from stereo to surround sound.

Its the same with audio creation. Gear with specific functions can be improved - hell I have the Tr-8, and earlier this year I bought the Tr-8s. More audio mangle options, more flexibility for looping, sample playback means it can bring more value to a live set, etc., and it pairs right in with my AIRA setup, one USB cable handles MIDI and loss-less audio. With the Fantom, we have a couple solid pages of people poo-pooing the sampler, in a piece-meal solution, you would just pair it with the sampler you want. If a feature is lacking on the Fantom, there is no improving it.

So again - there is merit to your example, enough for me to concede the general point of the value of the Fantom, but there IS a rational for piecemealing together a setup.

CharlesRandolph wrote:Sometimes the all in one system works better. Sometimes a modular system works better. It all depends on the work flow and how well integrate things are. I've always found there are people, who buy gear because of the gear and those who buy gear to get work done.

Keep it simple, direct, and high quality.

Oh indeed, I'm not championing or putting down either, but if you value one over the other, your perspective on the value will be different - I personally prefer integrating solutions - for a multitude of reasons(not worth getting into), but - I can't argue the financial comparison and pretend like it is a better deal than buying an All-In-One.

With that said, my stance is slightly changing on "New" MPC hardware. It was a hard no, now its become a soft one, there are a few things that if done, could quickly get me to come back and re-purpchase, doubtful as they are - a huge spec jump, and a shift in how arrangements are done to make making a song not built out of just loops easy - would be pretty game changing for me, but I highly doubt a refresh is going to bring too much more than a spec bump at this point.
- Unreall

Unreallystic wrote:Oh indeed, I'm not championing or putting down either, but if you value one over the other, your perspective on the value will be different - I personally prefer integrating solutions - for a multitude of reasons(not worth getting into), but - I can't argue the financial comparison and pretend like it is a better deal than buying an All-In-One.

With that said, my stance is slightly changing on "New" MPC hardware. It was a hard no, now its become a soft one, there are a few things that if done, could quickly get me to come back and re-purpchase, doubtful as they are - a huge spec jump, and a shift in how arrangements are done to make making a song not built out of just loops easy - would be pretty game changing for me, but I highly doubt a refresh is going to bring too much more than a spec bump at this point.
- Unreall

To more humanize the MPC, I've found longer sequences, no Quantizing, more chord progressions, and using different time signature tend to help. At this point, I'm not sure what the new MPC's will do. Maybe they'll just release an software,OS update and fix the bugs.

They should fix the bugs. My boy has the very first off the boat Ren and it still has glitches. He's getting rid of it and got the MPD226, cause he has Reason now and will rock that. Crazy how many years and the Ren still has glitches.

I’m not one of those people pushing for more specs, features etc. the core of the mpc workflow is there and i can finally track my synths out into it. All I need. I may be in the minority, but the live is perfect for me and something I had been dreaming of for like a decade.

As for their next steps forward it will be interesting to see. I find the effects and synths useful, but prefer to use my own for a lot of reasons. My hats of to akai for even trying to fit a piece of hardware into a market that had long abandoned it, now the market is way different with hardware making a resurgence all the synths we have, modular, groove boxes etc. it could also be argued that off all the hardware that has come out since the mpc might be the most useful in terms of features and options.

Haven’t used reason, ever. But from the reactions I’ve been seeing eylac was right. Akai needs to find a way to turn heads on the software side of thing. They attempt with some like fl studio, and ableton but they seem to drag their feet Or to be one off type of deals. The mpc software is ok, but nothing of the same standalone experience of Mpcs past.

Akai can’t ever compete on the level of those software companies, when it boils down to it in music sells some generic utility audio gear. Although behringer is somewhat changing things up, I really think Akai will need lasting partnerships of mutual benefit to move forward.

Great post. I really dont2know what to say about Akai other than... Pete if he would worry about the products instead painting is nails black we could grt some where.

Cockdiesel wrote:I’m not one of those people pushing for more specs, features etc. the core of the mpc workflow is there and i can finally track my synths out into it. All I need. I may be in the minority, but the live is perfect for me and something I had been dreaming of for like a decade.

As for their next steps forward it will be interesting to see. I find the effects and synths useful, but prefer to use my own for a lot of reasons. My hats of to akai for even trying to fit a piece of hardware into a market that had long abandoned it, now the market is way different with hardware making a resurgence all the synths we have, modular, groove boxes etc. it could also be argued that off all the hardware that has come out since the mpc might be the most useful in terms of features and options.

Haven’t used reason, ever. But from the reactions I’ve been seeing eylac was right. Akai needs to find a way to turn heads on the software side of thing. They attempt with some like fl studio, and ableton but they seem to drag their feet Or to be one off type of deals. The mpc software is ok, but nothing of the same standalone experience of Mpcs past.

Akai can’t ever compete on the level of those software companies, when it boils down to it in music sells some generic utility audio gear. Although behringer is somewhat changing things up, I really think Akai will need lasting partnerships of mutual benefit to move forward.

That’s the point. Akai is relying on a small group that’s part of a bigger group in in music, with a lot of dimensions to how the corporation is run. While ableton, reason etc can focus on its one product and have doing so for years.
Akai does a decent job bridging the gap between the hardware side of things and software as you can see with their controllers, keyboards etc. bringing the software up to the same par is a different task in itself. In all honesty it’s a side I don’t even care much for. Can’t be much simpler than sequencing and tracking out synths into it. I’ll leave sound design and mixing for better tools.

The spec jump is necessary though, without getting into it and keeping it a buck, as music has become easier and easier, to stand out, people have gotten more and more complex with how they treat things, 10 years ago, the Live would have been a MONSTER. In this day and age it can be a bit limiting - beyond the "useful" levels of limiting (reffering to stand-alone).

There is a real discussion/decision that needs to be made with regards to software vs hardware. Is the MPC a controller or a true standalone device. I *personally* didn't get it for software, I already had Ableton and Reason. Now I have FL Studio & from a production stand point I have but don't use the Maschine software. MPC 2.0 is NOT going to mess with ANY of those from a software point of view. So for me, the hardware needs to move in a direction that either
A) Makes it a better instrument
B) Makes it a better workstation

Both have merits and aren't exclusive. I personally got it as a portable workstation, and for "me" to purchase again, would need that aspect of it to improve greatly as I have a laptop, and coupled with the Fire, don't really need the MPC for anything. For a more general audience though, they need to make strong public relations improvements - for confidence purposes. I personally have only had a couple of bugs happen to me, but let this forum say it, and the MPCs are filled to the brim with bugs, I don't have the history to say that, but if I'm thinking of buying a MPC and see all these complaints, I'm not going to want one.

But my anticipation is some kind of Mk II with a spec bump, a software bump, and a color change. They've made promises with regards to the future of the MPCs, and it wouldn't make sense for them to put fourth that effort, then split up the platform with brand "new new" hardware that can't use the same or similar OS.
- Unreall

Danoc wrote:They should fix the bugs. My boy has the very first off the boat Ren and it still has glitches. He's getting rid of it and got the MPD226, cause he has Reason now and will rock that. Crazy how many years and the Ren still has glitches.

Not noticed any on mine.Maybe its his computer.

His computer is good. He has a Mac. Everything else works perfect. But he's moving on.

dryad-66 wrote:Not noticed any on mine.Maybe its his computer.

I see the force has gotten a price drop on Sweetwater. It’s $1288.

Damm l didn't know the Force cost that much. WTF!

Whoa yeah I thought the Force was cheaper than the Live even?? Ive never really looked into it but I could've sworn it was only like around $800???

Yep me too.