Notes on OS Update Vers 3.6

It's great to be able to use Clips to get other time signatures, but I really hope this isn't where Akai think they can rest. MPC2 had time signatures per sequence, that needs to come back, and each clip should be able to have it's own time signature, this is how it works in Push 3 standalone, and inside every DAW on the computer as well.

The fact that "upgrades" in hard and software these days often come with some company idiotically depreciating a useful feature is super frustrating. I just picked up a NI Kontrol mk3 and they tossed the mute and solo switches, and put them where the navigation switches used to be on the 8 tracks, and didn't replace the navigation feature. So a dedicated control surface to select a track and supposedly edit or browse patches cannot navigate your 16 to 120 track project but by left and right toggles one track at a time. This isn't the only example, Push 3 standalone spent almost two years without time signatures or any way to construct a song with Follow Actions etc. To this day Maschine software and Maschine + has only one time signature per project and partial measures are the only way to get around it. I really hope this isn't how the MPC3 ends up.

Are those by step edit options line ratcheting avaliable on older modells?

ontherun wrote:Are those by step edit options line ratcheting avaliable on older modells?

The Step Edit screen seems to be exclusive to the Live 3. On Gen1, you can edit from the List Edit screen.

Time Signature Changes within a Project!!

A Global Time Signature severely limits the MPC's creative use! This issue with MPC 3 is a deal breaker for any serious composing. There is a vast difference between people that make 'Beats' and others like me that are: Composers.

I like my MPC and it's features. Yet this restrictive Time Signature issue limits a Composer's ability to compose what we want to compose. It's akin to a Painter who's only allowed to Paint with only one color. It's like being a fish that is trapped in an aquarium, not being allowed to be in a lake or ocean.

We want 100% Creative Freedom.

I'd love to be able to do exactly what I need to do 'Sequence-Wise' in my MPC, completely as a Standalone Device, never needing to use a DAW. Yet, I can't bc of this massive 'Sequential-Blunder' in firmware 3.6. that makes the product quite worthless for any serious composing/production.
Diminished Value.

It seems that Akai's focus & marketing Campaign is 100% geared towards people that make 'Beats' that are 'Static'. Honestly, from a Composer's perspective; this is why now all Beat-Makers are all starting to sound very similar, very basic - imho.

Akai please fix this ASAP.

It's very easy to create a composition with multiple time signatures, you just have to use either a 1/4 or 1/8 meter and adjust your bars accordingly. In the MPC Bible I re-create the main drum beat to Led Zeppelin's 'Ocean', which is one bar of 4/4 followed by one bar of 7/8. This is achieved using a project time signature of 1/8, with a 15 bar sequence representing those two bars (1 beat = 1 bar).

So yes, you have to work a little outside the box, but there's nothing stopping you achieving the desired result, so there's no limit on the MPC's creative uses in this respect.

drwavenstein wrote:A Global Time Signature severely limits the MPC's creative use! This issue with MPC 3 is a deal breaker for any serious composing. There is a vast difference between people that make 'Beats' and others like me that are: Composers. .

I was looking at Blackbird by the Beatles today. bar of 3/4, then a bar of 4/4, repeats, then into several bars of 6/4 then into 4/4 with 2/4, and repeat. Note really something I'd want to do on the MPC, but not what I'd think of a some kind of complex composition.

I always think of Outcast 'Hey Yeah', when I see these discussion on time signatures, which is a loop of 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 2/4, 4/4, 4/4.

When creating that tutorial I did a fair bit of research on songs that utilise time signature changes, was surprised how many of my favourite songs feature this, be it Beatles, Led Zep, Metallica, Stranglers, Cream, Pink Floyd etc but it's not common in modern pop or dance music, Hey Ya was one of the only examples I could find, Chemical Brothers 'Galvanize' was another. The problem is time sig changes can make a song difficult to dance to, ideally they at least keep everything with an underlying 1/4 meter (which is the case with Hey Ya and Galvanize)

Paranoid Android's another that comes to mind. But yeah in the most, they use a single time sig throughout.

My MPC 1 is really for dance music, so I'm in 4/4 territory and largely unaffected. But get that many use it for more listening (for lack a a better word) music would want to switch between the different feels and grooves. I set my DAW up form time to time to help learning music outside of my dance music projects (bass/guitar and flute), and if I had the Live with it's portability, would make it really useful for practice and getting away from the internet.

Using 1/8 or 1/4 bars to mimic Time Signature Changes within a Project is quite a cumbersome work-around. I get it!! Yet, it isn't the most ideal way. The MPC user shouldn't have to do all that. The user needs it to be done the right way, instead of this work-around: three 1/8 bars to make one 3/8 bar - five 1/4 bars to make it a single 5/4 bar

Technically, it works. Yet Akai needs to fix this Time Signature Issue ASAP.