MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

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.
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Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By Lampdog Mon Jul 29, 2024 10:53 pm
kaydigi wrote:couldn't get the embed to work


He made his vid unavailable on websites other than youtube is why.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By benway Mon Jul 29, 2024 10:57 pm
B-Wise wrote:I had a 1000/2500 since 2005 & I hated the traditional MPC way handling sequences/tracks/programs.

Well, the good news then is that you're probably gonna love Akai's new MPC firmware for people who don't like MPCs.

Personally, it never bothered me to have to go and organise sequences manually, at a minimum it's well worth the payoff of having huge flexibility to quickly throw together ideas and try out various drums and chops in the initial creative flow phase.

I really don't get why people think it's an imposition or creative drag, organising sounds and tracks is pretty much the essence of composition and arrangement, and always has been. One way or the other you have to do it once you've got the initial idea up and running. So I really don't like that the machine now is now going to try to tell me how I should do it from the get go and force me down narrower paths.
pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:They already are. Caught one of those today. According to him the problem with MPC's is that they don't function like Ableton as he was used too. So it's "outdated". Everyone will like it except us "legacy users". And I should watch a video by a youtuber because there's nothing wrong with track mutes.

A lot of people seemingly think anything that doesn't work in exactly the same way as Ableton is therefore confusing. It gets especially ridiculous when you see some of the takes around Push standalone, a lot of salt because it's not exactly the same as the DAW, just about 85% the same.

When I say "DAWless DAW", really what a lot of people think they want is Ableton in a box. And don't think through how bad an idea that actually is and how even executed at the highest possible level it's always going to be worse than just ... using Ableton. But it looks like the most important thing is being able to say you don't use a computer, actually.
Last edited by benway on Mon Jul 29, 2024 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By researchintospeed Mon Jul 29, 2024 11:01 pm
renegadebliss wrote:No need to wait for the Public Beta to tell them that they need to store the track mute's in each sequence.


And if that came to fruition, it would change me from no-go, to...go!

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By HouseWithoutMouse Mon Jul 29, 2024 11:28 pm
MPC3 is not like Ableton. No session view and no MIDI clips. And the "arranger" looks like the same performance recording contraption as in the Force.

The Force is not like Ableton either. No MIDI clips, no actually working arranger. No transient detection, no warp markers and warping. The only Ableton'ish thing that does work is the clip/scene launch view.

Akai have not made the MPC3 be like Ableton. The fact that traditional MPC concepts were removed, does not make it Ableton. The Force has the scene/clip launch thing which mostly makes up for the lack of multiple sequences and per-sequence track mutes, but apparently that's not there in MPC3.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By B-Wise Mon Jul 29, 2024 11:37 pm
benway wrote:
B-Wise wrote:I had a 1000/2500 since 2005 & I hated the traditional MPC way handling sequences/tracks/programs.

Well, the good news then is that you're probably gonna love Akai's new MPC firmware for people who don't like MPCs.

Never said I didn't like the MPC as a whole. I didn't like the sequencer after 5 years when my beats got more complex, but I still loved the sampler & the drum programs that's now just drum tracks on 3.0.

The a Force is was the best of both worlds for me. Without the clip-matrix I won't fully like MPC 3.0. The clip matrix make up for the lack of track mutes. Without I can see why people like you would have a problem with 3.0. All I was trying to say was that I used the MPC in a similar way you did & in the beginning I loved it, sorry for not making that clear, but now having the Force I'm able to still pretty do what I did on the MPC but way faster with some adjustments. That was made those videos that I post earlier, but here they are again if you or anyone missed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EqgHG1oPp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ankzrt01JZ4

The Force has dedicated copy & delete buttons to make & the touch screen to make moving clip around on the clip-matrix very fast efficient. Hopefully they can implement those features in 3.0 or make new devices more suited for it.

You may always prefer it the way it is, no matter what & I'm OK with that.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By benway Mon Jul 29, 2024 11:45 pm
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:Akai have not made the MPC3 be like Ableton. The fact that traditional MPC concepts were removed, does not make it Ableton.

Oh yeah, to be clear I'm not saying that's what they have done or are trying to do - but it's what a lot of people think they want as far as I can make out.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By robleighton22 Tue Jul 30, 2024 12:01 am
Agree that the clip matrix in the Force is an alternative to track mutes. Personally I found building anything more than an 8 scene arrangement confusing in the Force and Push 3. Particularly if you wanted to test ideas before arranging. Which is where the MPC track mute sequence workflow actually ends up being simpler. Despite it not being as immediate perhaps.

Plus the clip matrix is definitely most beneficial with an 8x8 grid. The differences in methods are the perfect combination! Clip launching for performance vs sequence based composition for song writing. And an element of you can do either option on both machines in more limited ways. That's basically what we had in V2.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By jamos Tue Jul 30, 2024 12:30 am
I have to admit that I can't understand all the consternation regarding this upgrade. Admittedly I don't work in the traditional old school MPC style, but it seems like all of the omissions have some sort of simple workaround.

For example, programs: they're still there! They're just tied directly to the track. For those who insist on using multiple tracks to play a single program, just duplicate the program. It shouldn't take up more than a few kilobytes of memory for the program data, the sample data will all be shared. I wonder how Explode to Tracks works now, I bet it does exactly that.

The lack of track mutes per sequence does sound like a pretty radical change, but it occurs to me, that if track mutes can still be automated, then that's a fix right there. Just insert a mute in track automation for the sequence that you want to mute a track on, and Bob's your uncle. Unless they removed mute automation, which would be a horrible change indeed.

And aligning tracks across sequences makes sooooo much sense. I pretty much gave up on using individual sequences to build a song because this was so difficult to manage.

So I'm excited. I will of course move slowly amd watch for fatal flaws - they may be there - but I think it will all work out.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By B-Wise Tue Jul 30, 2024 12:38 am
robleighton22 wrote:Agree that the clip matrix in the Force is an alternative to track mutes. Personally I found building anything more than an 8 scene arrangement confusing in the Force and Push 3. Particularly if you wanted to test ideas before arranging. Which is where the MPC track mute sequence workflow actually ends up being simpler. Despite it not being as immediate perhaps.

Plus the clip matrix is definitely most beneficial with an 8x8 grid. The differences in methods are the perfect combination! Clip launching for performance vs sequence based composition for song writing. And an element of you can do either option on both machines in more limited ways. That's basically what we had in V2.

If you're using more than 8 sequences on the MPC where you can't see what's going on multiple tracks & sequences like on the 8x8 matrix would seem just as if not more confusing. But I don't know what you mean by confusing. The clip matrix let make 1 main sequence with everything than make copies like you would on the MPC but instead of muting a track you just delete that clip on that scene. Mind you, you can still launch clip that you deleted on other scene if you want to hear it on a scene that you deleted on & you can just copy it back if you want.

The MPC wouldn't need 64 pads to take advantage of a 8x8 clip-matrix if they give it the touch screen view where the screen itself becomes the 8x8 clip launcher. Having the clip matrix as an option will open up new creative workflows on the MPC. You may still be confused by it but I think you'd be in the minority, but I think you would agree that the option should be there.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By moonlake Tue Jul 30, 2024 1:20 am
jamos wrote:I have to admit that I can't understand all the consternation regarding this upgrade. Admittedly I don't work in the traditional old school MPC style, but it seems like all of the omissions have some sort of simple workaround.

For example, programs: they're still there! They're just tied directly to the track. For those who insist on using multiple tracks to play a single program, just duplicate the program. It shouldn't take up more than a few kilobytes of memory for the program data, the sample data will all be shared. I wonder how Explode to Tracks works now, I bet it does exactly that.

The lack of track mutes per sequence does sound like a pretty radical change, but it occurs to me, that if track mutes can still be automated, then that's a fix right there. Just insert a mute in track automation for the sequence that you want to mute a track on, and Bob's your uncle. Unless they removed mute automation, which would be a horrible change indeed.

And aligning tracks across sequences makes sooooo much sense. I pretty much gave up on using individual sequences to build a song because this was so difficult to manage.

So I'm excited. I will of course move slowly amd watch for fatal flaws - they may be there - but I think it will all work out.


have you worked much with the MPC? The number of programs had been and most likely will be limited.

And I take that back that the screen design is on a new level.
I think its too contrasty and cluttered.

Image

Channel strip. why. where s the improvement, maybe I just dont get it but why had these things have to change at all?

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By robleighton22 Tue Jul 30, 2024 1:25 am
One thought...what if the track mute screen could set the mute states to the looped region in arranger...now that might be a good trade off. It would be a super quick way of muting multiple tracks with a similar efficiency to the old workflow but also an improved way of working in the arranger.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By LivePsy Tue Jul 30, 2024 1:32 am
moonlake wrote:And I take that back that the screen design is on a new level.
I think its too contrasty and cluttered.


That jumps the shark even for you. Cluttered? When the MPC2 hardware TUI is the definition of cluttered with things tacked on as they were added. This MPC3 has a much more streamlined wOrKfLoW baked into the screen design.

Re: MPC 3 -- Let's GO!!

By moonlake Tue Jul 30, 2024 1:37 am
out of curiosity, how did you work with the old OS, and any chance where I can listen to your output?
before I worked in music biz I had worked as an screen designer and art director btw.
Just saying. doesnt mean my opinion counts. but I am surprised you get so irritated and defensive.
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