New Plugins Available to Buy From Akai

Straker wrote:And yet is 99$ for a piano which is 100 times better then Akai 149$.
But if you buy other companies pianos on rack extension shop, you can find an excellent piano for 30$.
We bought a Rhodes extension on my studio for 30$.
It sounds exactly as a Rhodes.

And Some of us will NEVER use Reason with that atrocious UI. I've got plenty of ROMplersz Rhodes presets and over 15,000 presets of vst virtual instruments in my VIP, and I'm still going to pay for the new Plugins, because they're convenient, versatile, and unique to the MPC. If I want to deal with a DAW, I can always deal with a DAW, but in a few hours I'll have the ability to create unique FM sounds at 30,000 ft in the air if I want to. It's all about standalone, and I'll gladly pay for the ability to have some good starting points on my MPC. I'm definitely not expecting Nexus, Sampletank 4 or OmniSphere quality, but at least it's a start.

MPC-Tutor wrote:

ACRE wrote:Studio strings : 149 euros for a pretty static string library (20 GB).

Studio Strings is not 20GB, it's just over 1GB.

it says, "20GB for all content", you'll need a computer for the 20GB ? what are the 20GB about then ?

20GB is the disk space needed for all the plugins (Fabric, Studio EP, Piano etc), 2GB for studio strings plugin itself. To be fair, this is what they say on their site. I've just checked my Studio Strings folder, and it's exactly 1.23GB

What I do think is very much open to confusion is the claim of 25 plugins in the MPC Key, as 'Fabric' is classed as 4, drumsynth classed as 9. I think most people would just refer to them as 2 plugins.

MPC-Tutor wrote:20GB is the disk space needed for all the plugins (Fabric, Studio EP, Piano etc), 2GB for studio strings plugin itself. To be fair, this is exactly what they say on their site. I've just checked my Studio Strings folder, and it's exactly 1.23GB

1.23GB !?!?!? 149 bucks ... i'm not trolling guys but ... 1.23GB for a sound library !?!? ... i must be missing something here ...

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:By the way, the current plugins are actually really good.

I'm really surprised by this. I find these extremely basic. They fill in blanks but really don't stand alone.

I wasn't too impressed with these while beta testing them for the past few months. It looks like the one standout item that I did test hasn't been released today which is disappointing...

I'm struggling to see where the 20GB is coming from. I'm running the latest beta versions, so perhaps they've somehow tripled disk usage overnight.

Fabric: 3.75GB (for all 4 plugins)
Studio Strings: 1.23GB
Stage Piano: 713MB
Stage EP: 799MB
Organ: 164MB
OPx4: 52MB
'Generic' and 'Components' folders: 5MB

That's around 7GB. Perhaps there's some support files I've missed for the computer install, but that's it for standalone.

MPC-Tutor wrote:OPx4: 52MB

Alright AKAI, make it $52 and deal.

To be fair, the sizes of the libraries is never going to compare to a Kontakt library, that's unrealistic given the limitations of the environment they have to run within, so it would be unfair to judge based on file size. In fact a lot of the work on these things is actually working on reducing RAM usage, I know this from my instrument libraries. They will have designed these to run on minimal RAM, so it's unlikely that any patch is going to exceed around 100MB, probably a lot less in most cases. Kontakt developers couldn't care less about RAM usage, plus it all gets heavily compressed anyway, so they have the freedom to pile on the layers and round robins.

I remember testing the Stage Piano 'grand', this was using up around 6-7% of RAM on my MPC Live. On the notes I tested I was getting 4 distinct velocity layers, there could be more though, I would have to perform a thorough re-check.

As a comparison, the 8 velocity grand piano in the Piano Suite is around 8% RAM, the 4 velocity version is around 5%.

I use my MPC as my studio centrepiece and also have the studio midi controller to control the software. With a very heavy heart I'm seriously considering selling this. This is probably the hair that broke the camel's back. I simply don't like doing business with companies that head in this direction. I thought akai was different and this is my own fault. Bummer.

i've tried OPX4 & STUDIO Strings & these 2 libraries are pretty cool actually. OPX4 is nothing revolutionary but expand the sound palette of the Mpc X definitely ...
Studio Strings is surprisingly good sounding actually ... there are loads of different playing technique that you'd expect : legato, staccato, pizzicato, portamento, tremolo etc etc ...

so, to be honest, these 2 libraries Studio strings & OPX4 are a good surprise but i won't pay 300 bucks ... it's too expansive for me but i think it's pretty worthy.

BoxBeater wrote:I simply don't like doing business with companies that head in this direction. I thought akai was different and this is my own fault. Bummer.

What direction though? On a day when they release yet another free firmware/software update with a whole bunch of new features?

What exactly is so bad about them offering some 'optional' extra plugins, just like they offer optional extra expansions. You can just ignore them, don't buy them, and continue to use the free synths and the continually evolving and updated firmware they gave you already!

So many other things you could find fault with Akai, being upset because they decided to offer people some optional extras is baffling.

kja wrote:How can you compare with vst that runs on a computer when mpc is all about standalone.. of you have a computer then you could just run the mpc software as a vst in live and have any vst for your beats.. this cost what itt does because you can use them without a computer.. obviously they won't be as nice as omnisphere.. that is not the point.. do you want standalone or not? Lol. If so, this is the best option yet..

Well I don't believe the software supports vst3 also I can't work with the software I need my mixer to control my channels...

Fre$hBreath wrote:I wasn't too impressed with these while beta testing them for the past few months. It looks like the one standout item that I did test hasn't been released today which is disappointing...

Looks like your NDA is getting pulled lol

Most people just need something to complain about, I read an article on MusicRadar about Beyonce's Can't Break My Soul record. In there they mentioned the Korg M1 which at the time had 4MB of sound data. Look how much impact those small few sounds have had on music till this day. Today we have so much more and the free stuff on MPC at the moment are great already.

My main reason for choosing MPC was because I got sick and tired of the endless sound options on DAWs, just looking at bluey Omni and selecting patch after patch takes out the fun for me. After all isn't that the main point of the MPC, to be simple and limited? Now folks want Omnisphere and Kontakt libraries inside the MPC. I personally like that Akai did this so they can get some more income, they are not for me though, there is already more than enough sounds to go from. Anymore options makes me feel sea sick but I get that some people like having it all. But we can't expect everything to be free. Also Roland does this with their new keyboards too.