MPC X SE – EA-ski SONICS controversy vs BLACK LION audio mod

SuperKonquer wrote:

B-Wise wrote:How are your tracking Akai product sells in order to factually say what selling like hotcakes?

Of course I don't have hard numbers, but I've never seen any one of the others devices ever sold out at so many retailers within a week or 2 of release. Social media is full of proud braggadocious new owners and even in my own circles I know quite a few who jumped on the SE even while saying the original X doesn't fit or not needed for their workflow. I can only assume that these devices were purchased and not given away by Akai.

My observations are mostly anecdotal but I don't recall this much "take my money" buzz (positive +negative)for any of the standalones, even when the live was first announced. I have had the X since release and this SE version doesn't excite me much, but clearly it fits the bill for a lot of people with money to spend. At this point even the new users have a good understanding of what they are buying, likely due to the long and public, somewhat bumpy road the MPC OS has taken since 1.0.

its all about looks my friend; certain units just look sexy and thus trigger gas and then people rationalise why they want or need it, for example this dude made this sp1200 clone and even tho I already have the 2400; I would still by this guys clone just based off the look, people underestimate athestics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOPtduv05wQ

@jpeg, maybe your right about it being about looks for some people, but some it's more about other things like features, price, UI/UX...etc.

I like black MPCs vs the og color so the XSE color wouldn't be a reason I'd get it. The better specs is what gets my attention. Still wouldn't buy any MPC to use it for its sequencer which isn't built well for the way I like to make music, but that's what the Force & Pyramid is for.

The MPCs are great for Hip-Hop beats since since Hip-Hop compositions are simple & don't require more than 10 sequences & are usually under 4-5mins. Back in 2010 I made a sample beat that had about 25 4 bar sequences. This was the best beat I ever made on the MPC, but editing it on the MPC is what made me realize that my creative intensity after 7yrs on the MPC at that point was too much & I needed a better sequencer, which lead me to the great RS7000 in 2014 after I took a break from music & got into photography & videos in 2012 which made me better at making beats when returned to making music more regularly.

A great book for beat makers is "The Art of Photography" by Bruce Barnbuam. His more philosophical approach to making a photo vs just taking a snapshot could be applied to music even if your not into photography it's still helpful for any artist.

One of the limitations of the MPC software is fast and accurate metering. That means you are more likely to digitally clip and mess with the quality of your master bus. I see this in both hardware and software versions of the MPC family. So even if you upgrade your OP amps with Black Lion mods you can still clip by not watching your levels. One solution would be to just leave your master fader at -13dB. This will give you enough head room and won’t make you think the AD/ DA quality is bad. Believe me most audio interfaces in the 200 dollar or greater range sound great out of the box and if you put it up against a 1000 dollar interface it’s harder to tell the difference.

I have 32 bit / 384 kHz / 139dB of dynamic range on my Merging Anubis and when the MPC program clips everything still sounds bad. That’s a $2000 interface that captures how bad everything can sound within the program. The moment the fader is below -13dB I can definitely hear all the good details in my sequences.

If you really want to hear a noticeable difference in your MPC. Output it to an Little Labs monitor headphone amp.
https://www.littlelabs.com/products/monotor

Even if you have 100 dollar Sony MDRs you will hear how good your live or X sound without any mods. You will definitely understand the subtle news of the Akai effects does to your sound. Yes even the Mpc 3000 and 60 emulations.

v00d00ppl wrote:One of the limitations of the MPC software is fast and accurate metering. That means you are more likely to digitally clip and mess with the quality of your master bus. I see this in both hardware and software versions of the MPC family. So even if you upgrade your OP amps with Black Lion mods you can still clip by not watching your levels. One solution would be to just leave your master fader at -13dB. This will give you enough head room and won’t make you think the AD/ DA quality is bad. Believe me most audio interfaces in the 200 dollar or greater range sound great out of the box and if you put it up against a 1000 dollar interface it’s harder to tell the difference.

I have 32 bit / 384 kHz / 139dB of dynamic range on my Merging Anubis and when the MPC program clips everything still sounds bad. That’s a $2000 interface that captures how bad everything can sound within the program. The moment the fader is below -13dB I can definitely hear all the good details in my sequences.

If you really want to hear a noticeable difference in your MPC. Output it to an Little Labs monitor headphone amp.
https://www.littlelabs.com/products/monotor

Even if you have 100 dollar Sony MDRs you will hear how good your live or X sound without any mods. You will definitely understand the subtle news of the Akai effects does to your sound. Yes even the Mpc 3000 and 60 emulations.

Did you watch the Tubedigga video on mixing & mastering on the MPC I just posted?
He showed how to gain stage to prevent clipping while leaving the master knob at max.

So 4 pages and NO Black Lion Audio Mod facts for AKAI MPC X? No definite purchase from anyone on here with audio examples?

Will it punch harder/deeper bass and push more detailed pristine highs like going from an Apollo Twin to an Antelope Audio Orion?


Maschine Lab
9 months ago (edited)
"Volt sounded distorted and the highs were too pronounced. The Apoggee best pristine sound. But the X sounds soooo warm! For my typo of music the X sounded, specially in the snare like my 2K classic. Loved it! "

MaDaCa11
5 days ago
"The MPC X with the Black Lion Mode sounded thick and clear. I like that. It would have lots of applications"



PS: Do BLA upgrade the "Export wave/MP3" sound also or does it need to be recorded like "Live Bounce"?

I want it....want that's not need.

B-Wise wrote:

v00d00ppl wrote:One of the limitations of the MPC software is fast and accurate metering. That means you are more likely to digitally clip and mess with the quality of your master bus. I see this in both hardware and software versions of the MPC family. So even if you upgrade your OP amps with Black Lion mods you can still clip by not watching your levels. One solution would be to just leave your master fader at -13dB. This will give you enough head room and won’t make you think the AD/ DA quality is bad. Believe me most audio interfaces in the 200 dollar or greater range sound great out of the box and if you put it up against a 1000 dollar interface it’s harder to tell the difference.

I have 32 bit / 384 kHz / 139dB of dynamic range on my Merging Anubis and when the MPC program clips everything still sounds bad. That’s a $2000 interface that captures how bad everything can sound within the program. The moment the fader is below -13dB I can definitely hear all the good details in my sequences.

If you really want to hear a noticeable difference in your MPC. Output it to an Little Labs monitor headphone amp.
https://www.littlelabs.com/products/monotor

Even if you have 100 dollar Sony MDRs you will hear how good your live or X sound without any mods. You will definitely understand the subtle news of the Akai effects does to your sound. Yes even the Mpc 3000 and 60 emulations.

Did you watch the Tubedigga video on mixing & mastering on the MPC I just posted?
He showed how to gain stage to prevent clipping while leaving the master knob at max.

Hey B-Wise. Yes I’ve seen this tutorial before. That method works too, The master knob is a habit I have when processing my stems through my Neve and Chandler gear.I pull back 13 so I can ad a gain of 13 later in the AD /DA loop

v00d00ppl wrote:Hey B-Wise. Yes I’ve seen this tutorial before. That method works too, The master knob is a habit I have when processing my stems through my Neve and Chandler gear.I pull back 13 so I can ad a gain of 13 later in the AD /DA loop

Understood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFH_VNIJ3JU

Found it from a short that Bolo posted.

The comments are great, they all believe it sounds better and want to do it to their own machines.

People will hear what they want to hear after dropping a lot on something that is pointless.

How does swapping surface mount capacitors in areas of a machine that have absolutely no processing of Audio is supposed to make a measurable difference.

None the less, if anyone wants to buy some "analog" usb cables for your MPC's. Please let me know, I'm taking preorders very soon. The USB cables I will be making available already have the "mod" done to them to enable auto mix downs and mastering.

Good luck!

B-Wise wrote:@jpeg, maybe your right about it being about looks for some people, but some it's more about other things like features, price, UI/UX...etc.

I like black MPCs vs the og color so the XSE color wouldn't be a reason I'd get it. The better specs is what gets my attention. Still wouldn't buy any MPC to use it for its sequencer which isn't built well for the way I like to make music, but that's what the Force & Pyramid is for.

as we know nothing new feature wise was added to SE and yet people that did not previous feel compelled to buy th eX suddenlt got the SE; so they woant admit it but their choise was driven by looks, and then people backwards rationlise what features are there to justify they purchase.

jpeg wrote:

B-Wise wrote:@jpeg, maybe your right about it being about looks for some people, but some it's more about other things like features, price, UI/UX...etc.

I like black MPCs vs the og color so the XSE color wouldn't be a reason I'd get it. The better specs is what gets my attention. Still wouldn't buy any MPC to use it for its sequencer which isn't built well for the way I like to make music, but that's what the Force & Pyramid is for.

as we know nothing new feature wise was added to SE and yet people that did not previous feel compelled to buy th eX suddenlt got the SE; so they woant admit it but their choise was driven by looks, and then people backwards rationlise what features are there to justify they purchase.

Yup ^
Look up the term: Belief perseverance (also known as conceptual conservatism) which is maintaining a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it.

I like that this conversation has started and I hope it leads to better/higher quality i/o across the entire line of MPCs. Akai has a rich legacy of style forming tech and InMusic should honour that legacy. I also really want to see the S1000 time stretch algorithm on the current line of MPCs.
That being said, I am content running any mixdown (directly from the MPC or stems from Ableton Live) directly into a 404 for some colour and compression, so what I’d really like to get from inMusic is a better browser and a more streamlined OS.

johnnytravels wrote:I like that this conversation has started and I hope it leads to better/higher quality i/o across the entire line of MPCs. Akai has a rich legacy of style forming tech and InMusic should honour that legacy. I also really want to see the S1000 time stretch algorithm on the current line of MPCs.
That being said, I am content running any mixdown (directly from the MPC or stems from Ableton Live) directly into a 404 for some colour and compression, so what I’d really like to get from inMusic is a better browser and a more streamlined OS.

MPC's already have high quality i/o & that's part of the beef some have with it by saying it's too clean. A better time stretch algorithm in standalone would be nice, but I still would want them to keep the current one as an options since I like to take advantage of it's bad quality & make some nasty sounds that a better one wouldn't give me - make lemonade out of a lemon kinda thing.

What browser improvements would you like?

-I know I would like to be able to copy & paste text.
-Rename file names in the load/save menu without having to load the file first. This is where copy/paste would be helpful.
-Play the whole sample, not just 30sec.
-Move files to other folders.

richie wrote:
None the less, if anyone wants to buy some "analog" usb cables for your MPC's. Please let me know, I'm taking preorders very soon. The USB cables I will be making available already have the "mod" done to them to enable auto mix downs and mastering.

You still selling those double helix twist patterned gold plated deoxidized classic USB 1.0 cables? I need that 1.0 warmth!

B-Wise wrote:What browser improvements would you like?

I would like to be able to have a tagging system and I would like to be able to favourite files so I can quickly make collections of samples that are on my SD card.

johnnytravels wrote:

B-Wise wrote:What browser improvements would you like?

I would like to be able to have a tagging system and I would like to be able to favourite files so I can quickly make collections of samples that are on my SD card.

Same. Please rip off Ableton collections. I'm not even asking for something more complex.

I wish they re-designed how programs work. Since there's no tagging/filtering system I don't really mess with the expansions. Pain in the ass to browse a simple one shot.