What form factor has been best for you? Live vs. other

B-Wise wrote:If Akai release an X+Force

"Akai MPC X-Force" - it has to be the name of the new flagship !

Jean-Marc Liotier wrote:

B-Wise wrote:If Akai release an X+Force

"Akai MPC X-Force" - it has to be the name of the new flagship !

Sold!
That sh*t sounds like a fighter jet

If I buy a new mpc it would be the 37 or the mpc one+

I would like the Foece more if it had a 10“ tiltable screen like the X. And buttons that are not so hard to press. Ha.
Other than that I love real estate in the form of direct access buttons. So the X is the thing for me. I like the many buttons on the Live 3 and can’t wait for the layout of an incoming X2 (or what it’s called)

With the modern MPCs, I started with the vanilla One, then a Live 2, now I have a MPC Key 61. I was a mouse hair away from getting the Live 3, but canceled my order at the last minute. I don't need it. I can do everything I need to with my Key 61. Sure I'd like Pro Stems in standalone, but I don't need to load 31 plugins at once and shiz like that. I make boom bap hip hop and sometimes some house music and the Key 61 takes care of that no problem. Combine that with the fact that I have a SP 404 mk2 and Roland GAIA 1 synthesizer and I'm golden on some music making for realz.

Space Force. It's gonna be huge.

Update: I bought a used Live II, came with a nice case as well. So far so good. Wasn't too painful to register and load up my plugins.

Immediately like how quick it is to make a basic drum, bass, and chord groove, plug in my guitar, and make a bunch of clips to get the improvisation I like. The Clips matrix is a big win IMO in a semi-portable box like this.

Now I'm facing the pad vs. key decision. Again. Do I bother finding a super-thin keyboard to keep in the case? Or do I learn the pads and get cozier with the touchscreen Grid editing to not care anymore about the lack of keys? BTW, I have barely competent keyboard skills, enough to enjoy the synth hardware I got.

We'll see how it goes. Of course, happy to hear what you've learned.

joegrant413 wrote:Update: I bought a used Live II, came with a nice case as well. So far so good. Wasn't too painful to register and load up my plugins.

Immediately like how quick it is to make a basic drum, bass, and chord groove, plug in my guitar, and make a bunch of clips to get the improvisation I like. The Clips matrix is a big win IMO in a semi-portable box like this.

Now I'm facing the pad vs. key decision. Again. Do I bother finding a super-thin keyboard to keep in the case? Or do I learn the pads and get cozier with the touchscreen Grid editing to not care anymore about the lack of keys? BTW, I have barely competent keyboard skills, enough to enjoy the synth hardware I got.

We'll see how it goes. Of course, happy to hear what you've learned.

The Force 64 pads can be put in piano mode that converts to a 4 octave keyboard & it's the best device to get the most out of the matrix as it was designed for it.

What's the logic of 6 outs and only 2 ins on the Live. I don't get it. For me the Live should have more inputs, to incorporate other musicians being mixed and played in the Live, live.

Neodymium wrote:What's the logic of 6 outs and only 2 ins on the Live. I don't get it. For me the Live should have more inputs, to incorporate other musicians being mixed and played in the Live, live.

On the 2k you had to paid for the 8 outs. It for sending out to better FXs. I don’t the 6 out but 2 inputs is corny. I wish they had ports that could flip between in/out based on what you need. Flip-Port!

B-Wise wrote:

Neodymium wrote:What's the logic of 6 outs and only 2 ins on the Live. I don't get it. For me the Live should have more inputs, to incorporate other musicians being mixed and played in the Live, live.

On the 2k you had to paid for the 8 outs. It for sending out to better FXs. I don’t the 6 out but 2 inputs is corny. I wish they had ports that could flip between in/out based on what you need. Flip-Port!

I get 4 out and 2 in, as 2 are the main out, then if you used with fx, 2 out to Fx and the 2 in to Return. But with 6 out, you can't return the FX, so if you add 2 outs, why not add 2 in. So 6 out baffles me still, especially as the FX now they added the reverb are pretty good all round.

I agree, and it is silly to have them as combo jacks, it’s great you can plug in a mic but I want to keep a condenser plugged in as well as a stereo signal in the studio. It is silly but it is what it is… the x is the only real interface for such powerful software but it is just so huge I still prefer the live. It us not the end of the world, I have other mic pre’s.

As someone else said somewhere in another thread: the X was the perfect merger between the original OS and hardware - the pads were complemented by the 4x4 q-link bank, creating seamless crosstalk for editing and mixing. Of course, all that has been totally messed up by the camel that is OS3.XX - the flow between hardware and software has been compromised. The X is still a great machine however. If we are stuck with 3 then i hope the updated X is well-designed for it

sparky wrote:If we are stuck with 3 then i hope the updated X is well-designed for it

So, a Force2?

The L3 top buttons are only compensating for lack of more drum pads. Which, is cool, but it doesn’t line up with the on screen matrix (the buttons are set horizontally, while the matrix is vertical).

One of biggest workflow advantages the Force has over the MPC with clip is that it has dedicated buttons for; Copy/Paste, Delete & a track/clips Select button, allowing it to copy & or delete a bunch of clips via the 64 drum pads instantly, without long-pressing a clip to bring up a clip settings pop menu just to copy/delete a clip - Super Slow compare to Force.

I think the X size will allows it to more effectively merge with the Force to make it better for running 3.0 - Force always had 3.0 & they even had to stop Force os update for like 2 years just to let the MPC os to catch up. I hope they make it so the new X-Force pad can actually be used as 4 banks of 16 as well as still do all that new MPCe stuff.

The L3 has 16-step buttons that also act as 4 banks of 16 Pad Grid macros buttons. The Force 64 drum pads can be used as 64-step buttons & 64 velocity/pressure sensitive Pad Grid macros pads. The 16 top buttons can only act as on/off switches. The Force pads can do that, plus be use a pressure sensitive fader for vol, filter, FX...etc.

B-Wise wrote:

sparky wrote:If we are stuck with 3 then i hope the updated X is well-designed for it

So, a Force2?

Maybe… I never got my hands on a Force but I’d understood from anecdotal evidence the main grousing about it was concerning the hardware? Tiny pads, not enough physical controls, the lack of tilt…