Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
By Yorgos Arabatzis Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:39 am
Monotremata wrote:Highly doubt it. Thomann even restocked the Live this afternoon. Sweetwater and everybody else here is set to get them at the end of the month, It aint going away any time soon.


Yep as i thought so ^
Live is the big gun between the three and betting has the biggest sales against the X :-D Oh yeah!
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By astral_Signal Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:47 am
CharlesRandolph wrote:You don't have a MPC 1000 or MPC LIVE/X. What are you using?


I haven’t been producing anything since I sold my MPC 1000. But as soon I stopped making music I missed it. I need a creative outlet so I’m keen to get back into it. I’m set on another MPC, because I loved the 1000. It completely changed my workflow for the positive. In saying that though, it wasn’t perfect by today’s standards. Especially internal memory which was maxed out at 128MB. And as mentioned in my post, the build quality wasn’t great as the tactile button switches become unresponsive overtime plus the pad sensors needed to be switched out. This was the MPC 1000 black btw.

So, I’m keen to jump into production and I want to return to the MPC format. As much as I respect the older generation units like the 60, 3000, 2000XL, s950; I feel like they would be more trouble than they are worth in regards to spare parts and compatibility. For me and my current setup, the MPC Live is ideal. Ticks all the boxes, whereas the MPC One just has so many questionable design decisions. I’m honestly just confused why Akai chose to make these decisions albeit the cheaper price tag.
Last edited by astral_Signal on Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By astral_Signal Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:49 am
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Last edited by astral_Signal on Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By Bezo Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:53 am
CharlesRandolph wrote:
Bezo wrote:That was my worry when I had an unrelated screen problem. So I jumped at the chance to upgrade to the Live when exchanging it.


With the exchange, how much did you end up paying for the LIVE? Also how long ago was that?
-$100 maybe a little more than a year by now.

Monotremata wrote:Highly doubt it. Thomann even restocked the Live this afternoon. Sweetwater and everybody else here is set to get them at the end of the month, It aint going away any time soon.
Just saw this posted on another site. I wouldn't have understood the Live going out at this time. In some ways it's the best of the MPCs.
By CharlesRandolph Wed Jan 22, 2020 12:26 pm
Why they made the MPC ONE:
My guess is because of all the gear, released in the sub $700 market that uses cv/gate. Honestly, it's just a simpler MPC like the MPC 2000XL or MPC 1000 without the extra outs. It all depends on how elaborate someone's setup is.

It's not really made for person, who has lots of gear and searching for some kind of centerpiece. But at it's basic, the MPC ONE is a sampler, sequencer, midi pad controller, and sound module. It really comes down to the person, because the machine is more than capable.

As far as the LIVE, it still has some retail life left in it. However the run is coming to an end in that market. I'm sure the second hand market, will continue to buy and use it.


astral_Signal wrote:I haven’t been producing anything since I sold my MPC 1000. But as soon I stopped making music I missed it. I need a creative outlet so I’m keen to get back into it. I’m set on another MPC, because I loved the 1000. It completely changed my workflow for the positive. In saying that though, it wasn’t perfect by today’s standards. Especially internal memory which was maxed out at 128MB. And as mentioned in my post, the build quality wasn’t great as the tactile button switches become unresponsive overtime plus the pad sensors needed to be switched out. This was the MPC 1000 black btw.

So, I’m keen to jump into production and I want to return to the MPC format. As much as I respect the older generation units like the 60, 3000, 2000XL, s950; I feel like they would be more trouble than they are worth in regards to spare parts and compatibility. For me and my current setup, the MPC Live is ideal. Ticks all the boxes, whereas the MPC One just has so many questionable design decisions. I’m honestly just confused why Akai chose to make these decisions albeit the cheaper price tag.
Last edited by CharlesRandolph on Wed Jan 22, 2020 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By EnochLight Wed Jan 22, 2020 12:35 pm
astral_Signal wrote: For me and my current setup, the MPC Live is ideal. Ticks all the boxes, whereas the MPC One just has so many questionable design decisions. I’m honestly just confused why Akai chose to make these decisions albeit the cheaper price tag.


You’re not wrong - the MPC Live is very likely the best MPC available right now. Yeah, it’s missing most of the dedicated controls of the X (even the One has more) but it’s super compact, totally mobile, has full size pads, and WiFi and Bluetooth (which most certainly are NOT “gimmicks” - if people think they’re “gimmicks”, they’re using their Live wrong). :lol: :nod: And having a proper phono input is pretty handy.

I’m still not convinced the Live has ceased production. Prior to the One, it was the best selling MPC that Akai had in their product line up. The X remained laughably overpriced by today’s market metric, and the Force was aimed at a different customer (and was more expensive than the Live).

Regardless, the Live will continue to receive software (firmware) updates for the foreseeable future, so it’s quite future-proof. For just a few hundred $$$ USD over the One, it’s almost a bad choice NOT to go for the Live if you’re getting back into music.
Bymember04959388 Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:07 pm
EnochLight wrote:
astral_Signal wrote: For me and my current setup, the MPC Live is ideal. Ticks all the boxes, whereas the MPC One just has so many questionable design decisions. I’m honestly just confused why Akai chose to make these decisions albeit the cheaper price tag.


You’re not wrong - the MPC Live is very likely the best MPC available right now. Yeah, it’s missing most of the dedicated controls of the X (even the One has more) but it’s super compact, totally mobile, has full size pads, and WiFi and Bluetooth (which most certainly are NOT “gimmicks” - if people think they’re “gimmicks”, they’re using their Live wrong). :lol: :nod: And having a proper phono input is pretty handy.

I’m still not convinced the Live has ceased production. Prior to the One, it was the best selling MPC that Akai had in their product line up. The X remained laughably overpriced by today’s market metric, and the Force was aimed at a different customer (and was more expensive than the Live).

Regardless, the Live will continue to receive software (firmware) updates for the foreseeable future, so it’s quite future-proof. For just a few hundred $$$ USD over the One, it’s almost a bad choice NOT to go for the Live if you’re getting back into music.

Yeah I agree, why getting a One if you can get the same gear but with more outputs and battery for the same price?
Live is around 700 euros used now, same price as new One.
My idea is that they will merge X and Live in the future for a X/live with the layout of X (buttons, 8qlinks and so on) for the price of Live when it was released (1200 euros).
So they drop the price of the line, an Mpc One for 700 and a X/Live for 1200 instead of an X for 2000 and a Live for 1200.
I guess Akai realised that today's market is not good for pricey grooveboxes, people use computers and buy less hardware and want to pay less.
So every brand is shifting to low budget and the expensive ones are not selling that good. You can see no brand apart from Akai put down new groove boxes on Namm, and new Roland Mc707 is not selling that good I suppose, I don't see much talking about it.
And I also think they sold more Live then X.
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By EnochLight Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:49 pm
Frisbi wrote:
EnochLight wrote:You’re not wrong - the MPC Live is very likely the best MPC available right now. Yeah, it’s missing most of the dedicated controls of the X (even the One has more) but it’s super compact, totally mobile, has full size pads, and WiFi and Bluetooth (which most certainly are NOT “gimmicks” - if people think they’re “gimmicks”, they’re using their Live wrong). :lol: :nod: And having a proper phono input is pretty handy.

I’m still not convinced the Live has ceased production. Prior to the One, it was the best selling MPC that Akai had in their product line up. The X remained laughably overpriced by today’s market metric, and the Force was aimed at a different customer (and was more expensive than the Live).

Regardless, the Live will continue to receive software (firmware) updates for the foreseeable future, so it’s quite future-proof. For just a few hundred $$$ USD over the One, it’s almost a bad choice NOT to go for the Live if you’re getting back into music.

Yeah I agree, why getting a One if you can get the same gear but with more outputs and battery for the same price?
Live is around 700 euros used now, same price as new One.
My idea is that they will merge X and Live in the future for a X/live with the layout of X (buttons, 8qlinks and so on) for the price of Live when it was released (1200 euros).
So they drop the price of the line, an Mpc One for 700 and a X/Live for 1200 instead of an X for 2000 and a Live for 1200.
I guess Akai realised that today's market is not good for pricey grooveboxes, people use computers and buy less hardware and want to pay less.
So every brand is shifting to low budget and the expensive ones are not selling that good. You can see no brand apart from Akai put down new groove boxes on Namm, and new Roland Mc707 is not selling that good I suppose, I don't see much talking about it.


Totally!

Frisbi wrote:And I also think they sold more Live then X.


I can 100% guarantee you they did, based on cost alone.
By morph860 Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:26 pm
I can't wait to get my hands on one. Seems like a great intro-MPC for a current user of another brand - or an upgrade for someone using a Studio or older MPC that doesn't want to spend the $$ to upgrade to a Live or X. I don't think Akai is expecting Live/X users to sell their machines to buy one of these as a replacement. Although I do know a few people that pre-ordered the One that already have Live's and/or X's. I prefer the dimensions and the additional buttons of the One vs. my Live, but I think I'd miss the battery and the SSD too much.
By Cockdiesel Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:34 pm
I think them omitting the ableton control is counterintuitive. They could get a lot of people to transition to the one who just use controllers rights now. They can still have their controllers and a small standalone unit.

Could be wrong haven’t tried ableton control yet, so it could be bunk.
By c-real Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:44 pm
Cockdiesel wrote:I think them omitting the ableton control is counterintuitive. They could get a lot of people to transition to the one who just use controllers rights now. They can still have their controllers and a small standalone unit.

Could be wrong haven’t tried ableton control yet, so it could be bunk.


I may be wrong, but I think the main reason of this omission is because there is no sufficient reliability to make a wired connection between Live/X and computer. This better works with wifi. Even Akai almost not speaks about the wired connection via ethernet (just mentioned it very quickly). So the question could be: why Akai did not integrate wifi on the One? To reduce costs? Or just: why making a wired connection is not as user-friendly as making a wifi connection?
By earthboundboy Wed Jan 22, 2020 4:28 pm
I had a 1000 about a decade ago but been using Ableton since. Wanted to get back into MPC world and was looking at second hand 2KXLs on ebay. But the One looks like a nicer option for about the same money.
By Cockdiesel Wed Jan 22, 2020 4:41 pm
You’d think it would be better. I mean they still have to deal with updates with the os and drivers on the computer for use as sound card.

Is it that much more to be able to service the controller aspects when the live/x will need them?

Seems to me they are targeting a market but overlooking a whole demographic of consumers.

Maybe something in the contract with ableton? To not interfere with sales of the push? Maybe a new push is coming out?