kday wrote:I really don't see any competition yet for an Key61. And probably won't ever until Akai if ever comes out with a Key61 II. We're talking the greatest sampling keyboard ever created. And too me the greatest workstation ever created in terms of all three components sequencer, sampler and sound capability. I know a lot of people seems bitter about their sampler boxes. But the X is still the greatest sampler ever created. Then upgrade that to a sampling keyboard with all the X features is an unbeatable combination. The Fantom sampler takes nearly five minutes to sample one sound and then another five to ten minutes to save and edit the sounds. Fantom is not for people who wish to sample a lot and edit for quick songs, but a long tedious process designed to create multisamples by having to sample the sound, one at a time, then save the sound, then reload it after being forced to save it first. It's not an MPC person's sampler by a long shot. Anyone thinking they would get anywhere near an MPC sampler out of a Fantom will be highly disappointed. Roland and Yamaha makes keyboards, and Akai makes samplers. Korg Kronos is the only workstation that gives you a full fledged sampler and it's even tedious compared to the MPC but it is by far the best sampler in any workstation by a long shot and you can get a lot done easily, but in an awkward editing process.
After owning a Fantom X6 for over 15 years and an MPC Live for 5, I can definitely explain the clear differences between the Roland Sampling engine and the MPC. The clear advantages of the MPC are Round Robin's and multiple samples per pad, and 2 GB of Sample Memory. I personally don't even use the Round Robin's, I keep everything at One sample per key/pad.
The Fantom X series had zones and groups for multi-samples, so that you could have more complex sounds using different samples on different sections of the keyboard, the current keygroup engine doesn't have this feature.
Also, the Fantom samples quickly, just as fast if not faster than the MPC. The MPC takes an average of 200 seconds to auto-sample a patch depending on settings. I got so frustrated at how time consuming it is to get decent sounds into it by having to set loop settings, and wait for the machine to auto-sample. Even the Fantom X series came with 1024 stock sounds, the Zen-Core engine has over 3,000.
The MPC Key 61 will have very few advantages over the Fantom 0 series. The Fantom is definitely for people who want to sample a lot, the MPC has a cumbersome and tedious process for editing and time-stretching samples. At least the Fantom 0 has a decent Mod matrix, Splits and layers, and decent polyphony per patch. Sure, Akai Fanboys will pick the MPC Key 61 over the Fantom 0, but a feature comparison of the 2 is like comparing the MPC Live to the Toraiz SP-16 and saying that the Toraiz is better. The Sampling on the Roland Fantom is quick, easy, and simple. The only thing faster and better is the warp engine from Ableton Live, which is better for manipulating samples anyway.
Until the features and OS of the MPC Key 61 are revealed, I can only assume that it will not be as comprehensive of feature full as the Roland Fantom 0 series.
I wonder if the MPC Key 61 will have Poly Aftertouch?
