MPC Live II to FL/Live and back to the MPC One+

I don’t think I have posted here in quite some time, but it’s fair to say that I have been on a journey for some time to find the best inspirational process for making music.

Apologies for the long post.

Back in the 90s I was lucky enough to have a small home studio, based around a Yamaha QY700, Akai S3000XL, Roland 2080, Korg TR Rack. Such an amazing time, but a time long gone.

Fast forward 25 years and I have been revisiting the fun of music production. The biggest eye opener in recent years has been the MPC. At first I wasn’t sure, but once I got into it . However, having written the basis of a track on the Mpc, I moved to FL (possibly way too early?) Unfortunately it taken me four months to make it into a final track. Now there is clearly some process tweaking to be done before my next attempt.

However, in the meantime I have been trying to learn Ableton. The interesting point is that someone I know is roughly taking the same time to finish a track (solely in ableton) So the issue here isn’t platform, it’s clearly process.

I would love to get my head around Ableton, but for whatever reason it just doesn’t seem to click. I’ve now purchased it twice ‍♂️, possibly about to sell it for the second time. It just doesn’t feel as intuitive as turning on the MPC One + and just creating. FL (lifetime licence) seems to work just as well.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is I am loving being back with the MPC. Do I regret selling the Live II, yes. Thankfully I didn’t need all the ins and outs, the MPC One+ is awesome .

I’ve been following the crates motel on YouTube for some time, such a great wealth of inside MPC knowledge.

While process is always important, I wouldn't make an "apples to oranges" comparison between Ableton Live and the MPC. The types of benefits and problems are usually hardly comparable.

That said, you can absolutely develop speedy or slow workflows on either, and if you're both learning how things work then that will absolutely be an impediment.

Where I find the MPC shines is in the ability to frequently "just go". By design it is much more of a playable instrument, and it is self contained enough that once you get a handle on it, everything is fairly internally consistent.

Where Ableton Live shines is the ability to really manipulate samples at a much finer level, and the clip view to arranger view method of working is quite fast and flexible. For me though, it does require more work to put into Ableton Live in order to develop a workflow, because you can work with it in so many more ways without adding external effects and instruments. Once you add in more effects and instruments, it becomes easy to drown yourself in choice.

I own both, but have over the last four years gravitated more to the MPC. Sure it doesn't have all the latest and greatest bells and whistles, but it also "just works" out of the box. On my computer there's always an update for something and plenty of other things to be distracting while trying to work on a song. On the MPC I could certainly drown myself in expansion packs, samples, and external gear... but I also feel like it is typically offering more than enough for me to get something put together.

Just keep having fun, and keep on learning!

NearTao wrote:... I own both, but have over the last four years gravitated more to the MPC. Sure it doesn't have all the latest and greatest bells and whistles, but it also "just works" out of the box. On my computer there's always an update for something and plenty of other things to be distracting while trying to work on a song. ...

That‘s why I use Pro Tools 5 TDM on MacOS 9 and SAW Studio on Win-7 plus a MPC4K.
No updates to expect anywhere. Such a relief...

@StuFF my DAWs are fairly unpopular today, but who cares...
If Fruity clicks with you, go for it.
Imho it‘s more important to really LEARN a DAW instead of constantly hunt for the next latest and greatest.