Live discontinued?

CharlesRandolph wrote:The MPC is a lifestyle.....it's been in my family for half my life. This is what they don't understand.

20yrs for me, almost half.

Just thought of something, I never named it. Has anyone named their gear?

Since 1999! The only machine l used besides the Dr-5 Boss drum machine before l got my first MPC.

Shit used to play bass while my friend used his boss drum machine (not sure which one but it seemed cheap compared to gear nowadays) finger drumming into a 4 track for a few years, got an asr for a wedding ring I found at a mini golf course and the mpc shortly after that in like 2005-2006. Wish I would have found this spot back then. Wasted slot of time trying to learn this shit on my own.

Man that Dr5 was hard to quantize. That's where l learned to play on time. Those lil azz pads were a pain lol but it helped me become a dope drum programmer.

MPC-Tutor wrote:

lordradish wrote:I'm not fantasizing at all about a new MPC. If they kill the Live without addressing these things we've been griping about, why on earth would I buy another Akai product? If that's the case, I'm most likely dumping this and getting some other sequencer that already has the features I need in place.

Which is the way people should be buying all their gear, i.e. buy it for the features it actually has today, not the features you hope/expect/assume it will have.

Well if people did, how many of us do you think would have bought the Live/X in its initial state? And for those that would, how happy do you think they would be with their product? I think Akai may have had to go back to making MIDI controllers again.

If manufacturers were able to stick to the Listening to the community way of doing things then I would prefer the unfinished OS gear over some small group of business peoples idea of what people want.

That's why I got the MPC Live, as I saw its potential and liked the idea of being able to influence which direction it should take. And I'm glad that I did, the Live is pretty great for the most part. Not happy at all about the direction Akai seem to have taken with the last couple of updates and the lack of interest in communicating with their customers though.

HUBA wrote:Well if people did, how many of us do you think would have bought the Live/X in its initial state? And for those that would, how happy do you think they would be with their product? I think Akai may have had to go back to making MIDI controllers again.

If manufacturers were able to stick to the Listening to the community way of doing things then I would prefer the unfinished OS gear over some small group of business peoples idea of what people want.

That's why I got the MPC Live, as I saw its potential and liked the idea of being able to influence which direction it should take. And I'm glad that I did, the Live is pretty great for the most part. Not happy at all about the direction Akai seem to have taken with the last couple of updates and the lack of interest in communicating with their customers though.

Counterpoint: perhaps you bought the MPC Live for the wrong reasons, then? Assuming its "potential" would be realized in features that didn't exist at the time you bought it and hoping you'd influence its development was a poor understanding of what the product was, IMHO. But perhaps I'm biased, as I bought the MPC Live back when it was still on firmware 2.4 and felt it brought enough to the table to make it worth the purchase. Anything added after the fact is just icing on the cake, IMHO.

That's not saying I don't want more - of course I do, as I have plenty of feature requests. But if they never materialize, I still feel I bought exactly what Akai was selling me when I bought it. Anyway, I made sure I bought it from a vendor with a lucrative return policy so I could kick the tires for a month before committing.

EnochLight wrote:

HUBA wrote:Well if people did, how many of us do you think would have bought the Live/X in its initial state? And for those that would, how happy do you think they would be with their product? I think Akai may have had to go back to making MIDI controllers again.

If manufacturers were able to stick to the Listening to the community way of doing things then I would prefer the unfinished OS gear over some small group of business peoples idea of what people want.

That's why I got the MPC Live, as I saw its potential and liked the idea of being able to influence which direction it should take. And I'm glad that I did, the Live is pretty great for the most part. Not happy at all about the direction Akai seem to have taken with the last couple of updates and the lack of interest in communicating with their customers though.

Counterpoint: perhaps you bought the MPC Live for the wrong reasons, then? Assuming its "potential" would be realized in features that didn't exist at the time you bought it and hoping you'd influence its development was a poor understanding of what the product was, IMHO. But perhaps I'm biased, as I bought the MPC Live back when it was still on firmware 2.4 and felt it brought enough to the table to make it worth the purchase. Anything added after the fact is just icing on the cake, IMHO.

That's not saying I don't want more - of course I do, as I have plenty of feature requests. But if they never materialize, I still feel I bought exactly what Akai was selling me when I bought it. Anyway, I made sure I bought it from a vendor with a lucrative return policy so I could kick the tires for a month before committing.

Well, 2.4 is not the same as how it was in the beginning now is it? And I said I was happy about getting it and how it turned out before Akai took the Disney route and how it's still great dispite the fact. You may need to stop reading made up things into what is actually written. Also you're free to buy all the gear you want that is not going to be updated with the public having some potential influence. In fact, that's almost all gear that has ever existed. Perhaps it should be ok then that others are happy about stuff that differs somewhat from that rule without being called out for buying for the wrong reasons and having poor understanding?

mr_debauch wrote:i just don't get why anyone wants to turn the live (or mpc x) into a touch screen controller to use with your laptop to perform with ableton. unless i am missing something here.... the people in the board room who gave that the OK are the same people who okayed the timbrewolf so why should i be surprised.

I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it here. The intent in the long run is for the Live/X/Force to meet up. This means that the same functionality afforded to the Force, will be available on the MPC. So most likely, this is more a bi-product of that unification plan, than actual "invested time". I'd wager that the next update will be more of a content/performance update, and will coincide as a post-NAMM release, especially if there is a MK2 on the way, giving them ammunition when launching the MK2 while "still supporting the original models".

With all that said, gawd I just want to go home right now and "play" on my MPC. I know alot of folks here are unhappy with features missing, but I just feel the spirit of my ancestors when I release. At this point it does everything that I wanted it to do (I haven't even bothered with the last two updates).
- Unreall

Unreallystic wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:i just don't get why anyone wants to turn the live (or mpc x) into a touch screen controller to use with your laptop to perform with ableton. unless i am missing something here.... the people in the board room who gave that the OK are the same people who okayed the timbrewolf so why should i be surprised.

I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it here. The intent in the long run is for the Live/X/Force to meet up. This means that the same functionality afforded to the Force, will be available on the MPC. So most likely, this is more a bi-product of that unification plan, than actual "invested time". I'd wager that the next update will be more of a content/performance update, and will coincide as a post-NAMM release, especially if there is a MK2 on the way, giving them ammunition when launching the MK2 while "still supporting the original models".

With all that said, gawd I just want to go home right now and "play" on my MPC. I know alot of folks here are unhappy with features missing, but I just feel the spirit of my ancestors when I release. At this point it does everything that I wanted it to do (I haven't even bothered with the last two updates).
- Unreall

Yeah I also like it as it is now.
And I am sure it will be even better.
I just have some perplexity about this Mpc/Force melting, I am not a clip launch lover.
And I also have the feeling an MK2 is on the way, maybe this Namm or not but it's on the way.
Another perplexity I have is for the software and Ableton integration, I would have focused on standalone.
But everyone wants Akai to do what he needs.
Maybe it's the opposite, we all should adapt to Akai.

Unreallystic wrote:...With all that said, gawd I just want to go home right now and "play" on my MPC. I know alot of folks here are unhappy with features missing, but I just feel the spirit of my ancestors when I release. At this point it does everything that I wanted it to do (I haven't even bothered with the last two updates).
- Unreall

Yeah, I'm settling in. After giving up on the software and dedicating myself to Studio One, my experience has improved. Like many, a handful of workflow improvements would sweeten it, but I'm cool with it for the most part. The hardware is 3-4 small improvements/features from perfect for me.

I passed on 2.7. I'll likely update when they release a point update to address the bugs that came along with it.

I got an email from Akai talking about the MPC. Control Ablive lol
I deleted it quick

Studio one is dope. Im starting to do my drums in it.

Bezo wrote:

I passed on 2.7. I'll likely update when they release a point update to address the bugs that came along with it.

Danoc wrote:Studio one is dope. Im starting to do my drums in it.

Yeah, I'm digging it.

90% of the time, I power up everything less my hard synths and start working. I'll sequence drums in S1 with one of my go-to drum VIs using the Live as a controller, in standalone. Still getting used to the quantize/swing workflow in there. I need to set up some Macros and get more familiar with the keyboard shortcuts.

The other 10% of the time, I'll start with just the MPC & Komplete Kontrol to sketch something. Sometimes I'll power up my hard synths for a small electric band vibe. I still prefer programming drums & percussion on the Live. I just haven't taken the time to get all my sounds set up in there. I'm going to put in a few hours this weekend to autosample some drums.

@bezo Which drum VIs do you use? I’ve been thinking about getting a couple, but don’t know much about them.