MPC Key 61 to control all DAW vs. MPC handling all VSTs

Which is more likely to happen? Or are both just too crazy to hope for?

As a Key 61 owner, I feel the Key 61 would make a great controller for most DAWs and most VST plugins if the compatibility were there. And if SOMEONE ELSE did the MIDI mappings or work on the compatibility.

So which is more likely to happen? Or is none of it worth waiting for? Of course, Akai will keep releasing plugins, and they've been great. But I still want the flexiblity to run Falcon and to use DAWs like Ableton or Repear while staying on the Key 61.

Thoughts?
- Joe

Frankly I’m surprised a touchscreen keyboard with those integrated capabilities hasn’t been launched yet. I had hoped the komplete MK3 would have offered those feature’s with a touch screen.

Funny, we have groovebox after groovebox, analog synths galore, yet a highly tactile interface with a touchscreen that seamlessly integrates VSTs and DAWs is apparently still unavailable.

The closest piece of gear I’ve found that actually integrates many VSTs with DAW like funcrionality is Maschine MK3. I imagine the Push 3 is somewhat similar. I haven’t used the MPC 61 in controller mode yet so I’m not sure how it handles 3rd party VSTs but yes, having a GUI of 3rd party VST plugins that you could interact with using the touchscreen like you can interact with like the Jura or Mini D would be game changing imo.

you can interact with VSTs via touch screen as long as such VST expose its paramaters to the outside world (90% of VSTs).
Granted it's done via barebone parameters diplay but if you make your own skin - you can do whatever.


EDIT:
here's full link as the forum throws some sort of playback error (?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej3HT6eKpKQ?si=ojGEs61SjhNxV71t

EDIT 2:
Poentially we could create a "MPC Forums - VST WIKI" of some sorts where we could upload skins for different plugins and share the knowledge on how to make them, but I guess, since 3.x is around the corner, it's better to wait for release and find out how it will look like in upcoming version. You don't wan't to invest your time for something that AKAI will make "obsolete" in a couple of months.

[quote="dustyslices"]you can interact with VSTs via touch screen as long as such VST expose its paramaters to the outside world (90% of VSTs).
Granted it's done via barebone parameters diplay but if you make your own skin - you can do whatever.


Nice! I had no idea that is possible.

That’s the type pf tactile interface I’m talking about. Look at the Jura, it’s like having a virtual Juno with all the parameters accessible via touch screen.

I don’t know how to make skins but if that’s all that is required I’m not sure why this hasn’t been done commercially. Comprehensive mapped touch screen controls would have immense appeal.

As I said, , A keyboard or MPC type touchscreen device that when hooked up to a computer can access 3rd party plugs as if they were native to the workflow would be game changing, imo

Someone can make alot of money creating vst skins..

I'm often baffled how close technology gets to perfectly fit and yet manufactures still miss the wiffle ball. I wonder if patents and other IP restrictions are at play here. I also looked into the computer in side the MPC Key and realized its not much more advanced (if at all) than a Raspberri Pi4, which I have a few of. Had Akai put an extra $50 on each unit, we could probably run 20 plugin tracks instead of 8. The maker of their chipset already has a new generation out with ram options at 8GB and up.

Akai must have bet that most "classic" users just sample a non-intensive amount of audio and throw small drums files on top of that (which is mostly true). So they may have taken the chance on a "tolerable" limitation of a new feature to make some margin. The problem with being part of a bigger conglomerate is that great profits might be split up to cover other debts instead of reinvesting in the successful product in a more ideal way.

Anyway, to the OP's point, that level of integration is already "possible" even with existing hardware. If Akai open sourced some of their code base, they could save costs on software development and sell more hardware. There could be editable custom user interfaces in MPC OS mapped to midi CC in your DAW. Midi 2.0 is supposed to help with this.

JBlongz wrote:I'm often baffled how close technology gets to perfectly fit and yet manufactures still miss the wiffle ball. I wonder if patents and other IP restrictions are at play here. I also looked into the computer in side the MPC Key and realized its not much more advanced (if at all) than a Raspberri Pi4, which I have a few of. Had Akai put an extra $50 on each unit, we could probably run 20 plugin tracks instead of 8. The maker of their chipset already has a new generation out with ram options at 8GB and up.

Akai must have bet that most "classic" users just sample a non-intensive amount of audio and throw small drums files on top of that (which is mostly true). So they may have taken the chance on a "tolerable" limitation of a new feature to make some margin. The problem with being part of a bigger conglomerate is that great profits might be split up to cover other debts instead of reinvesting in the successful product in a more ideal way.

Anyway, to the OP's point, that level of integration is already "possible" even with existing hardware. If Akai open sourced some of their code base, they could save costs on software development and sell more hardware. There could be editable custom user interfaces in MPC OS mapped to midi CC in your DAW. Midi 2.0 is supposed to help with this.

I don't get alot what your saying .. but open sourcing is not the right idea.. in my opinion but hey let's see..

Certified Beatz wrote:Someone can make alot of money creating vst skins..

not going to happen until someone get hands on any scrap of documentation, as the skinning process is pretty much educated guessing game atm. It looks like "technical writer" position at AKAI is non-existent and any sort of documentation that comes from them is poor at best
As an example, take a look at any Abletons software "point version" release notes and compare it to AKAIs release notes for any of their major version. It's night and day in comparison:
https://www.ableton.com/en/release-notes/live-11-beta/

Certified Beatz wrote:I don't get alot what your saying .. but open sourcing is not the right idea.. in my opinion but hey let's see..

Native instruments gives you tools to make Kontakt Instruments for free, Korg has released their "logue" SDK that allows you to write your own oscillators and effects and for the hardware, I won't even mention Image-Line or Ableton, take a look at PUSH documentation:

https://github.com/Ableton/push-interface/blob/master/doc/AbletonPush2MIDIDisplayInterface.asc

This is the reason why companies such as Isotonik Studios can thrive and create awesome control surface scripts.
You see, nobody ask them to release a source code for the whole firmware or something, all they have to do is to release documentation for "non-essential" parts of firmware which already can be manipulated by the end user. For example, imagine how nice would it be to have Touch overlays for all of your external gear, you just load a MIDI track, select appropriate skin an you can freely control your midi enabled synth, pedal or any outboard effect. At the moment what you're left with is a buggy firmware where the end users need to have a "crack" at it to get plugins that they've paid for, work without problems. It takes less than 30-45 seconds from the moment you download the update from your account to your pendrive and update your MPC, to unlock all of the released and unreleased plugins, that's how much this firmware is f***ed. I'm not releasing that info but trust me at some point, someone, somewhere will get frustrated enough with his machine and release the method and no AIR "flash sales" and no Andy Mac doing his "candy like" videos will help them (YOU HEAR ME AKAI ? THIS IS NOT A THREAT - ITS A WARNING )
You remember that guy AVIICI using cracked sylenth because legit version was sh**t ?
Four Tet is doing the same nowadays calling people to crack Strymon Blue Sky plugin because it can only work online. Don't get me wrong I do pay for my sh*t, I can post screenshots of my account, but the fact I'm forced to crack their plugins is not right. Jeeez... that escalated rather quickly and turned into a vent nobody will read anyway
I guess the bottom line is: AKAI should start to work with end-users, not with mostly clueless beta testers just because they've developed some sort of online image.

Has anyone tried this?... https://kushview.net/element/

It's supposed to let me use any VST with the MPC. If that is true, it would go a long way to keeping me on MPC / MPC2.

joegrant413 wrote:Has anyone tried this?... https://kushview.net/element/

It's supposed to let me use any VST with the MPC. If that is true, it would go a long way to keeping me on MPC / MPC2.

I saw this a few years ago I never tested to see.. looking from the tutorial he hasn't supported it in a long time..

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc_O ... J2zs94vOI8