Akai is back at NAMM this year

Yup

John Schaefer wrote:

MPC-Tutor wrote:Chatting to the beta testers and they feel it's as intended. If you need different env/filter settings per keygroup, use legacy. If you want the other stuff, use advanced, they reckon it's probably a CPU optimisation related to the mod matrix.

Absolutely shocking if that is the case.

I understand the CPU optimisation but I don't appreciate Akai being dishonest about the new features. Essentially that is a new program type, not a new keygroup type, and that new program can only really have *one sample*. They're gonna lose people over this, and I'm one of them.

”… Akai being dishonest …” - have they said anything about this new feature yet, that makes them dishonest?

”… can only really have *one sample* …” - it actually can have many many samples (128, perhaps?) and several parameters can be edited per sample, like pitch, but some are ”program global” like filter.

”… lose people over this, and I'm one of them…” - if I understand you correctly, you will sell your MPC now that you have received more features and possibilities - for free - plus access to the old features.

How very strange …

Here starts the crew of the Akai defenders.
Can you please let people be disappointed sometimes?
Don't need to mention the reasons, they are quite clear.
Thanks.
And no, older projects cannot be loaded flawlessly on mpc3 so don't say lies please.
Thanks again.

No one is shutting down Akai critics. But if you want to actually have a constructive dialog, you critics need to allow people you perceive as "simps", "fanboys", "apologists", and "defenders" to make their case as well without resorting to personal attacks/ad hominems**, otherwise all of your criticism is moot.



** Note: I'm not saying you personally did or are doing this. It's meant as a general statement.

Straker wrote:Here starts the crew of the Akai defenders.
Can you please let people be disappointed sometimes?
Don't need to mention the reasons, they are quite clear.
Thanks.

I think we're trying to understand what aspect he's disappointed with, as the reference to advanced mode 'only supporting 1 sample' is incorrect, clearly it supports multiple keygroups and multiple samples per keygroup, so maybe these some crossed wires with terminology.

Advanced mode is still pretty amazing IMO, I've already seem some awesome instruments being made (on the closed beta group), and (ironically) these were just from a single sample.

Logrinn wrote:
”… Akai being dishonest …” - have they said anything about this new feature yet, that makes them dishonest?

”… can only really have *one sample* …” - it actually can have many many samples (128, perhaps?) and several parameters can be edited per sample, like pitch, but some are ”program global” like filter.

”… lose people over this, and I'm one of them…” - if I understand you correctly, you will sell your MPC now that you have received more features and possibilities - for free - plus access to the old features.

How very strange …

Listen to yourself, man. The mental gymnastics required to explain away this catastrophically dumb new feature...

You're asking why I'd sell the MPC after getting new features? It's pretty simple really. The modern MPC line was advertised with certain features, for example LFO. It has, until now, never had an LFO, because one that retriggers on every key or pad is an envelope. I tried to get round this by running the MPC I paid good money for in tethered mode and turning to plugins to make up for the missing LFO. However since they also haven't managed to make the Mac version of the app work without crackles, pops and timing glitches below an unusable 512 samples buffer, that option was also ruled out. I hung out to give them one last chance, a new real LFO in v3. Boom, it's there, and you can use it on *one sample* per program.

Good luck with your byzantine one-shot drum machine.

MPC-Tutor wrote:Advanced mode is still pretty amazing IMO, I've already seem some awesome instruments being made (on the closed beta group), and (ironically) these were just from a single sample.

I agree. I did some quick editing and playing around with it yesterday - also with just one sample - and were able to make some amazing synth sounds. I like it a lot.
And then being able to switch back to Legacy mode and get a whole bunch of parameters per sample as well. Great stuff.

MPC-Tutor wrote:

Straker wrote:Here starts the crew of the Akai defenders.
Can you please let people be disappointed sometimes?
Don't need to mention the reasons, they are quite clear.
Thanks.

I think we're trying to understand what aspect he's disappointed with, as the reference to advanced mode 'only supporting 1 sample' is incorrect, clearly it supports multiple keygroups and multiple samples per keygroup, so maybe these some crossed wires with terminology.

Advanced mode is still pretty amazing IMO, I've already seem some awesome instruments being made (on the closed beta group), and (ironically) these were just from a single sample.

I also make keygroups with just a sample, usually a long one, and it becomes very interesting because you can get to some almost grainy results, the sample being stretched according to the note and notes overlap for minutes, since the source is a long sample.
I wish I could then tweak that source sample in real time, so the texture created by overlapping notes can evolve and change.
Anyway, from my point of view, some people are quite disappointed that after years and years of asking to improve the very basic sample edit and program edit we had, which was below the level of a 90s sampler, now Akai put hands on it and just made a mess.
Meanwhile they go full hype to advertise dated expansions that even NI gives for free on his site.
Not so nice to see that from some people point of view who need a reliable advanced device.
Just that.
I think we have the right to see thing this way.

Are there any videos, or anything new aside from the NI collaboration..?

Why do they have the control all tab at the top if this is expected behavior? Doesn't it do absolutely nothing now? Shouldn't it go away when you click on any of the filter, lfo, most envelope pages? It seems really confusing now.. like on most pages it is irrelevant, on the "global" page it has an effect for a couple things.. it seems really off.. and it is weird you can actually have more filters on the legacy mode though it looks simpler.. it feels too confusing..

zangetsu01 wrote:Are there any videos, or anything new aside from the NI collaboration..?

nothing all hot air

I just think having roger linn cosign and getting 3.0 out of beta was the aim; the ni collab was an after thought to creat more hype, cos they knew the current state of the 3.0 was not strong enuff to stand by itself

jpeg wrote:the ni collab was an after thought to creat more hype, cos they knew the current state of the 3.0 was not strong enuff to stand by itself

I mean... I'll 100% agree that MPC 3 needed more time to bake, but... the NI collab "an after thought"? Lmao - I'll wager that a lot more thought and planning went into this collab than simply being an after thought, friend.

Now imagine that mpc3beta becomes an official MPC3 even if half-baked, in typical Akai style.
This means MPC2 would not be supported anymore and so 2.15.1 would be the last MPC2 one.
Then imagine that, needing to keep the hype, Akai starts releasing new features, plugins, fx, for MPC3, even if it's still not stable.
Actually it's already happening, I don't think the new keygroups will be available for MPC2.
So, to have a reliable stable machine, some people stay on MPC2, they would love to finally put hands on improved keygroups but it is what it is.
Then maybe Air make some new fx and synths or whatever, but they will implemented on MPC3, so it is what it is.
Then Akai, in typical Akai style, fixes some bugs and breaks some legacy feature, as it happened with track mute during MPC2 update 7 years process.
So MPC3 will still be a work in progress, some bugs get fixed, some other created and so on.
And meanwhile the ones who stayed on MPC2 start to think, what the hell, I am missing a finally improved keygroups system, new plugins and fx, maybe it's time to upgrade, but wait, is MPC3 working flawlessly as finally is MPC2.15 after 7 years of updating process?
A big Hamlet Doubt for modern Akai users.

kja wrote:Why do they have the control all tab at the top if this is expected behavior? Doesn't it do absolutely nothing now? Shouldn't it go away when you click on any of the filter, lfo, most envelope pages? It seems really confusing now.. like on most pages it is irrelevant, on the "global" page it has an effect for a couple things.. it seems really off.. and it is weird you can actually have more filters on the legacy mode though it looks simpler.. it feels too confusing..

I mean, Legacy mode is still present (and enabled by default) so - that's a win. I dunno - I see Advanced Keygroups as a step forward (with the obvious caveats already discussed ad nauseum), but clearly it could use more refinement if it's causing this much confusion. Have you spent some time exploring the 3.4 User Guide on the Keygroups section? It's pretty meaty.

shout out to this brother for doing what Akai could not be bothered to do; Akai NAMM 2025 has been shody