What I wish I'd known: MPC ONE

Cockdiesel wrote:I get that but 3 button presses doesn’t seem like a “game changer”. You can easily plan this on your live set. I haven’t tried but perhaps hitting solo on the track you want might be a work around in some cases

Nothing about this machine is a "Game Changer". But Seriously, I agree it's all about planning and rehearsal.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

Cockdiesel wrote:I get that but 3 button presses doesn’t seem like a “game changer”. You can easily plan this on your live set. I haven’t tried but perhaps hitting solo on the track you want might be a work around in some cases

Nothing about this machine is a "Game Changer". But Seriously, I agree it's all about planning and rehearsal.

Sure, planning and rehearsal is a given in any scenario, the question is how does the hardware facilitate your ability to perform in a quick and intuitive way, and is the ONE better or worse at this than its 1k predecessor running JJ.

Given the rise in menu diving and button clicks to achieve the same goals I'd currently have to say it isn't. But that could change with time (only had it a week).

It is a bit unfair for me to constantly go on about the use of MPC's in the context of live performance, they are first and foremost designed for production in the studio, where many of the gripes I have are not applicable. But they are such expressive and performative instruments, and powerful "brains" that they could be amazing in live scenarios with just a few UI tweaks.

Akai obviously understand this to an extent (as the inclusion of Track Mute and Next Sequence buttons on the ONE prove) but currently the software doesn't quite go far enough to realise its potential.

Loving all the tips and opinions on here, it's really helpful. Great forum as always.

I had this a while ago too. Was dating this girl, pretty, half asian. Found out she takes HUGE dumps, stinky ones too.

I'd wish i had known

CharlesRandolph wrote:

NearTao wrote:@Lampdog... I'd go so far as to say that the defaults for most of the Akai One/Live/X effects are awful and in no way show what you can get out of them. Scrolling beyond Init will often give you a lot of variety that Init just falls flat on. Agree here, tweaking is essential to really learn the character, they do actually go beyond skin deep as it were.

+10! The Air effects hp and lp filter are 100% better than Filters in the Program Edit. I've never used an MPC FILTER that adds pops and artifacts, that they're suppose to filter out. thank goodness, I avoid the MPC 5000

The grimey steppy filter is one of the things i miss from the 5000.Has more character than you can shake a stick at.Certainly gave life to boring samples....

champtracks wrote:
Sure, planning and rehearsal is a given in any scenario, the question is how does the hardware facilitate your ability to perform in a quick and intuitive way, and is the ONE better or worse at this than its 1k predecessor running JJ.

Given the rise in menu diving and button clicks to achieve the same goals I'd currently have to say it isn't. But that could change with time (only had it a week).

Do you have an example of a function, that could be more intuitive for you?

CharlesRandolph wrote:

champtracks wrote:
Sure, planning and rehearsal is a given in any scenario, the question is how does the hardware facilitate your ability to perform in a quick and intuitive way, and is the ONE better or worse at this than its 1k predecessor running JJ.

Given the rise in menu diving and button clicks to achieve the same goals I'd currently have to say it isn't. But that could change with time (only had it a week).

Do you have an example of a function, that could be more intuitive for you?

Sure, although I thought I already did in the main post.

Let's take the track mute page in a live performance scenario as an example.

Track mute in JJ - ALL tracks visible from one page, and in addition, note repeat is available from the track mute page which is a great feature for live performance. It enables you to build to a crescendo right on the page where you're about to unmute the rest of your tracks. Super intuitive.

Try doing that on the ONE. With audio and midi tracks, you'd need to navigate at least 3 pages, twice. Audio tracks to mute audio, track mute to mute programs, main to perform on the pads and then back to all 3 again.

Even if you workaround and sacrifice audio tracks in favour of programs, you're looking at 3 page changes. Not very intuitive.

Same goes for track mixer. In JJ, one page for all track levels, pan and sends. Super easy for live performance tweaking. Not so on the ONE. The workaround again is to sacrifice audio tracks, and duplicate programs so everything is in one page. But even then you can't view the faders side by side.

Hope that helps to clarify, but I'm a noob so would love to hear if you have more workarounds.

A minor detail I noticed was that solo only works for the selected program and across all sequences. Meaning if I wanted to solo the high hats and copy the sequence, I actually have to go and delete the other drum sounds I don’t want. I guess it can help for changing sequences and dropping the drums back in but not so well when you just want to make a quick copy of a sequence to transition to.

Ah well. I understand some of the short coming and actually for me going back to the basics I’ve come to appreciate the live more. Tracking out my synths into it in standalone is really dope for me.

champtracks wrote:
Sure, although I thought I already did in the main post.

Let's take the track mute page in a live performance scenario as an example.

Track mute in JJ - ALL tracks visible from one page, and in addition, note repeat is available from the track mute page which is a great feature for live performance. It enables you to build to a crescendo right on the page where you're about to unmute the rest of your tracks. Super intuitive.

Try doing that on the ONE. With audio and midi tracks, you'd need to navigate at least 3 pages, twice. Audio tracks to mute audio, track mute to mute programs, main to perform on the pads and then back to all 3 again.

In Track view you can do those things, the only issue is, you can't mute via pad. But you can use note repeat, play the pads, etc.

champtracks wrote:Even if you workaround and sacrifice audio tracks in favour of programs, you're looking at 3 page changes. Not very intuitive.

Same goes for track mixer. In JJ, one page for all track levels, pan and sends. Super easy for live performance tweaking. Not so on the ONE. The workaround again is to sacrifice audio tracks, and duplicate programs so everything is in one page. But even then you can't view the faders side by side.

Hope that helps to clarify, but I'm a noob so would love to hear if you have more workarounds.

Yes, the mixer layout needs to be tweaked for live performance. That's why many people stayed with 2.7.2 and use track view to do all those things. This is where, you as the user comes into play. 10 year on MPC 1000 vs less than a month on MPC ONE. You're going to have to give yourself more time, to wrap your head around the machine.

You have to retrain your brain and alter your workflow. It's not the MPC 1000, so you can't think like a MPC 1000 user.

CharlesRandolph wrote:
In Track view you can do those things, the only issue is, you can't mute via pad. But you can use note repeat, play the pads, etc.

Muting and unmuting of multiple tracks while performing? I don't think Track view is an option for this. You can only see 4 consecutive stacked on one another, you'd need fingers the size of pencils to simultaneously hit mute on all of them, I'm not that precise. The Track mute page just needs work to be more usable.

CharlesRandolph wrote:
Yes, the mixer layout needs to be tweaked for live performance. That's why many people stayed with 2.7.2 and use track view to do all those things. This is where, you as the user comes into play. 10 year on MPC 1000 vs less than a month on MPC ONE. You're going to have to give yourself more time, to wrap your head around the machine.

You have to retrain your brain and alter your workflow. It's not the MPC 1000, so you can't think like a MPC 1000 user.

You're absolutely right, it's a different machine and it requires a fresh approach. Thanks for the tips!

champtracks wrote:Muting and unmuting of multiple tracks while performing? I don't think Track view is an option for this. You can only see 4 consecutive stacked on one another, you'd need fingers the size of pencils to simultaneously hit mute on all of them, I'm not that precise. The Track mute page just needs work to be more usable.

It's an option, just not ideal. Basically, view mode should be converted into performance mode.

You could:
1. Assign qlink to mute pad. But then you can only use 4 at time and twist two at time.
2. Use external MIDI pad or button controller, then use MIDI learn and assign pad mute.
3. Get use to clicking Track Mute and Shift / Track Mute and use the Tabs.