Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
By jpeg Tue Feb 20, 2024 9:48 pm
J.O.BEATS wrote:Also the presets are kinda useless. Not that you should need presets everytime but again, RC20 gives you a great starting point with most of theirs


far as the akai and air fx I always use presets; I just find the preset that is closests to the settings i need; then tweak from there if needed.


but on average when using the insert fx on a channel for example compressor settings i usually dont need to tweak as one of the presets will do the job
By johnnytravels Tue Feb 20, 2024 10:53 pm
jpeg wrote:
johnnytravels wrote:Yeah true, I’ve decided that these plugins aren’t for me. This is included stuff in Maschine, I’d probably buy them at 10 quid a piece. Already got burned on Flavor Pro. The activation systems sucks too.
Not to say that it isn’t cool that the discount is still working but I also see why the MPC software is so buggy now

what happened with flavour pro?

i tried it and was not overly impressed


I wasn’t overly impressed either.
I mostly just use it now to dial in he stereo width of samples and sometimes use the filter.
What bugs me though is the wait until the presets come up. Most have to do with verification as none of the included plugins seem to have that. It should start with init not some whack as over the top effect that nobody’s ever gonna put on anything.
By Elijah Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:09 am
J.O.BEATS wrote:I still don’t quite understand the main knobs.

The main knobs seem to adjust the dry/wet in Digital and Vinyl, and the intensity of effects in other effects.
By B-Wise Wed Feb 21, 2024 6:42 am
IMO to get the best out of Flavor Pro & most plugins, start with blank parameter settings & have a track with a simple pattern going on. Now just take your sweet ass time tweaking each of its parameter & listen to the range of sounds it can make, then start combining stuff like Distortion & Vinyl noise...etc. That all with just Flavor Pro, but then start to test it with other insert FXs & don't forget about the Drum FX’s.
By johnnytravels Wed Feb 21, 2024 7:26 am
B-Wise wrote:IMO to get the best out of Flavor Pro & most plugins, start with blank parameter settings & have a track with a simple pattern going on. Now just take your sweet ass time tweaking each of its parameter & listen to the range of sounds it can make, then start combining stuff like Distortion & Vinyl noise...etc. That all with just Flavor Pro, but then start to test it with other insert FXs & don't forget about the Drum FX’s.


This is generally the right approach. I wish the default preset would actually load by default.
I think what’s bugging me out a bit about how bad the presets are is the fact that tweaking Flavor Pro actually takes longer than just sampling something into actual lofi flavor gear and back into the MPC.
By B-Wise Wed Feb 21, 2024 11:44 am
johnnytravels wrote:
This is generally the right approach. I wish the default preset would actually load by default.
I think what’s bugging me out a bit about how bad the presets are is the fact that tweaking Flavor Pro actually takes longer than just sampling something into actual lofi flavor gear and back into the MPC.

I would make my own presets & the first one would be a total initialized preset. Ext gear has it's own pros/cons. Not everyone it & if you do, your limited to what you got. With the built-in FXs it's like having at least 128 Flavor Pro's at one time & there nothing stopping us from stacking 4 on 1 track, a pad or both. Not something you would want to do with Ext gear even if you the time, space & money.

You can even use ext & internal FXs together to add to a greater whole. Like if you have a great guitar amp that has a unique sound you love that shits all over Akai Amp sim's, you'll still be limited to that 1 sound but if you use both things get more interesting. You can use Amp sim & or other Akai FXs to add different tones & harmonics helping to spice up that great ext amp getting more bang for your buck. This is the way of thinking to we can approach the MPC/Force to really push it. :smoker:
By jpeg Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:10 pm
B-Wise wrote:I would make my own presets & the first one would be a total initialized preset. Ext gear has it's own pros/cons. Not everyone it & if you do, your limited to what you got. With the built-in FXs it's like having at least 128 Flavor Pro's at one time & there nothing stopping us from stacking 4 on 1 track, a pad or both. Not something you would want to do with Ext gear even if you the time, space & money.

You can even use ext & internal FXs together to add to a greater whole. Like if you have a great guitar amp that has a unique sound you love that shits all over Akai Amp sim's, you'll still be limited to that 1 sound but if you use both things get more interesting. You can use Amp sim & or other Akai FXs to add different tones & harmonics helping to spice up that great ext amp getting more bang for your buck. This is the way of thinking to we can approach the MPC/Force to really push it. :smoker:


which are ur most used insert FX when mixing the beat?

For me its the air channel strip or one of the various compressors;I pretty much use those on any track be it synth, drums or sample.

just wanna get suggestions on what other fx are good to use during mixing; also which compressors r best for certain types of sound, cos opto compressor vs bus compressor vs vintage, i just try them all and see which one fits the sound on the track, but I dont know much about what each compressor is specifically designed for.
User avatar
By jaymack Wed Feb 21, 2024 2:01 pm
I wish they would allow you to affect a whole program w the Drum FX page as opposed to a pad at a time
By B-Wise Wed Feb 21, 2024 2:19 pm
jpeg wrote:
B-Wise wrote:I would make my own presets & the first one would be a total initialized preset. Ext gear has it's own pros/cons. Not everyone it & if you do, your limited to what you got. With the built-in FXs it's like having at least 128 Flavor Pro's at one time & there nothing stopping us from stacking 4 on 1 track, a pad or both. Not something you would want to do with Ext gear even if you the time, space & money.

You can even use ext & internal FXs together to add to a greater whole. Like if you have a great guitar amp that has a unique sound you love that shits all over Akai Amp sim's, you'll still be limited to that 1 sound but if you use both things get more interesting. You can use Amp sim & or other Akai FXs to add different tones & harmonics helping to spice up that great ext amp getting more bang for your buck. This is the way of thinking to we can approach the MPC/Force to really push it. :smoker:


which are ur most used insert FX when mixing the beat?

For me its the air channel strip or one of the various compressors;I pretty much use those on any track be it synth, drums or sample.

just wanna get suggestions on what other fx are good to use during mixing; also which compressors r best for certain types of sound, cos opto compressor vs bus compressor vs vintage, i just try them all and see which one fits the sound on the track, but I dont know much about what each compressor is specifically designed for.

This dude is Conan AKA The Crates Motel is all you need. He got a whole deep series for mixing on MPC. This covers all the types of compressors, but check out his channel for more gold.
By B-Wise Wed Feb 21, 2024 2:32 pm
jaymack wrote:I wish they would allow you to affect a whole program w the Drum FX page as opposed to a pad at a time

Yeah I had put that on that big-ass Force/MPC list I made a while back. The most you can do is use MIDI-Learn to set all the pads to the same macro knob. Did you ever try that?
User avatar
By jaymack Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:31 pm
Ohh no I haven't. I have trouble wrapping my mind around working w the q-links, aside from the default settings. I'll have to read up on that
By B-Wise Wed Feb 21, 2024 4:29 pm
jaymack wrote:Ohh no I haven't. I have trouble wrapping my mind around working w the q-links, aside from the default settings. I'll have to read up on that

You can assign upto 128 parameters to 1 macro knob. For the Drum Programs parameters you can set Edit Zone to Edit-All pads to quickly assign all 128 pads to a parameter like Cutoff to the same knob.

Setting up project templates with all your marco tracks set up is key to taking this box to tweaker paradise. The Force has a more advanced marco system but the MPC is still powerful.
By J.O.BEATS Wed Feb 21, 2024 8:10 pm
jpeg wrote:
B-Wise wrote:I would make my own presets & the first one would be a total initialized preset. Ext gear has it's own pros/cons. Not everyone it & if you do, your limited to what you got. With the built-in FXs it's like having at least 128 Flavor Pro's at one time & there nothing stopping us from stacking 4 on 1 track, a pad or both. Not something you would want to do with Ext gear even if you the time, space & money.

You can even use ext & internal FXs together to add to a greater whole. Like if you have a great guitar amp that has a unique sound you love that shits all over Akai Amp sim's, you'll still be limited to that 1 sound but if you use both things get more interesting. You can use Amp sim & or other Akai FXs to add different tones & harmonics helping to spice up that great ext amp getting more bang for your buck. This is the way of thinking to we can approach the MPC/Force to really push it. :smoker:


which are ur most used insert FX when mixing the beat?

For me its the air channel strip or one of the various compressors;I pretty much use those on any track be it synth, drums or sample.

just wanna get suggestions on what other fx are good to use during mixing; also which compressors r best for certain types of sound, cos opto compressor vs bus compressor vs vintage, i just try them all and see which one fits the sound on the track, but I dont know much about what each compressor is specifically designed for.


My drum buss usually starts with MPC60-air lofi-air eq-flavor (for mono)
but Ill also use air distortion or air tube for saturation and air compressor if I want parallel compression

Sample buss starts with Flavor Pro-compressor vintage-air filter

I make lofi boombap stuff
By jpeg Wed Feb 21, 2024 9:42 pm
J.O.BEATS wrote:My drum buss usually starts with MPC60-air lofi-air eq-flavor (for mono)
but Ill also use air distortion or air tube for saturation and air compressor if I want parallel compression

Sample buss starts with Flavor Pro-compressor vintage-air filter

I make lofi boombap stuff



good info thanks for sharing; Ihave not really played with the mpc60 or mpc3k or sp1200 fx as my initial thought was they are not that good.

I did used to use the mpc3k lp filter on on kick drums or bass but nowadays i prefer to use the xyfx filter for lpf of kick drums or bass.