Akai is not fixing issues due to corporate greed

I saw a comment in another thread that got the wheels spinning. And when thinking about it, it all makes quite a lot sense.

- Akai is well known for being an awful midi slave. This seems to have been the case since the dawn of MPCs (correct me if I'm wrong). Just try it yourself. Set the MPC to receive Midi Clock and notice how like every 5th time it start totally out of sync with the master clock.

- MPC 3 firmware removed being able to send midi Program Changes per track per sequence.
It is now very hard to make the MPC play well with external gear if you want to have everything synced regarding patches/patterns using program changes. And also no option to make the MPC send the Program Change once like on Elektron boxes. No, it will send the same program change over and over again when the sequence starts over.

- You cannot record audio or use the Looper if the MPC is receiving Midi Clock (being the Slave).
I mean common.... Its 2026 and a premium device cannot record Audio when being slaved..?

It's getting quite obvious that they want the MPC to be used as the center piece because of the issues with it being the Slave device.

It's also getting quite obvious that they want you to ditch your external gear and buy their plugins instead. Are they intentionally crippling the possibility to communicate with external gear with MPC 3 firmware?

These issues shouldn't be hard to fix for a company with these kinds of resources and the legacy they have.
So is Akai not fixing seemingly simple issues related to the missing 'Live' parts and communication with external gear only down to corporate greed?

horisonten wrote:It's also getting quite obvious that they want you to ditch your external gear and buy their plugins instead. Are they intentionally crippling the possibility to communicate with external gear with MPC 3 firmware?

These issues shouldn't be hard to fix for a company with these kinds of resources and the legacy they have.
So is Akai not fixing seemingly simple issues related to the missing 'Live' parts and communication with external gear only down to corporate greed?

Maybe.

Problem is the use of an of the shelf SOC and Linux, you wont get tight timing like you would get with a dsp based system

I was going to write a long essay to this on how one C++ developer can cost from $6000 upwards per month. And you need a bunch of them to work on a project of this scale. But I got tired of trying to change a long-standing internet narrative by showing factual examples of how the development has progressed and what are the current side-effects of it.

Yes, they are decorating the cake when the actual cake is not finished. But they are on it.

ontherun wrote:Problem is the use of an of the shelf SOC and Linux, you wont get tight timing like you would get with a dsp based system

Well, there's a real time Linux Kernel but I don't think the MPC uses it.

These are some of the reasons why I wont buy a new mpc and sold my X.
They are more focused on their plugins and sample packs to actually fix the issues a lot of other music equipment just doesn't have.

On paper, the newer Mpc's seem nice, but when using them with other equipment, as slave, or if wanting 48k for film. they sorta a pain. Lost my interest because of this, and also because of the location of the qlinks on the XL as well as the Price which once again is 1300CAD more than what the original X was priced and for what?! Not much I tell ya.

I would much rather get a piece of gear than can slave, or at least works well with other equipment.

Oh yeah... Also I'm still a little mad about when they released the X without an HDMI out and once again this new XL with no Hdmi out.

All Good, Life Goes On.

A lot of bullshit comment in this thread though.

This isn't about paying $6000 a month for an engineer. Ultimately engineers do not decide the functions they have to prioritize, it's the executives. So the problem isn't about paying $6000 for an engineer. The problem is that upper management wants development to be more marketing driven, therefore will prioritize potentially more profitable functions rather than fixing bugs or spending time on minor issues. It isn't a workforce issue, it's a marketing one, therefore the OP is right in his assessment.

But at the same time, AKAI kinds a do listen, and eventually tries to satisfy requests, just not always completely and not always immediately (and not always for free hence the PRO PACK).

What happened with OS 3.X is that AKAI decided to save money on development and just put the Force OS on the MPC... a controversial decision since users lost Programs, time signatures per sequences, program change PER track per sequence... which the Force NEVER HAD to begin with, and it's very unlikely AKAI will bring these functions back, for whatever code architecture reason...

As for sync, I will defend AKAI on this topic, MIDI sync is already difficult, and sample buffering while recording while being synchronized to another device can be extremely challenging from a software and hardware perspective. So it's not unreasonable to expect the MPC to be master when recording audio.

mpc_fan_2022 wrote:A lot of bullshit comment in this thread though.

This isn't about paying $6000 a month for an engineer. Ultimately engineers do not decide the functions they have to prioritize, it's the executives. So the problem isn't about paying $6000 for an engineer. The problem is that upper management wants development to be more marketing driven, therefore will prioritize potentially more profitable functions rather than fixing bugs or spending time on minor issues. It isn't a workforce issue, it's a marketing one, therefore the OP is right in his assessment.

It's not bullshit though. Product Owner decides what the roadmap for the product is and what features are ultimately approved. Priority is with features that bring in the fastest payday.

The problem IS EXACTLY that the developer costs that much and higher. Once those folks put their ass on the chair, the clock starts ticking as it's really really quickly draining your finances. I see you've never worked in development, so it's difficult to imagine.

It's not $6000 per month, but $3000-$12000 a month per developer, which might be 20 people or more. I'll let you do the math. That's just the devs, on top you have the management + marketing + hardware side. It's a dance on a very tight rope developing niche products, so you really have to think carefully on where you put that money (time) into.

Bonsaipanda wrote:I was going to write a long essay to this on how one C++ developer can cost from $6000 upwards per month. And you need a bunch of them to work on a project of this scale.

Here's link backing up your point:
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/C ... per-Salary

I see you've never worked in development, so it's difficult to imagine.

You don't know me, you should certainly stop making assumptions about people as a failed attempt of sounding as an authority on the matter, especially since you have demonstrated zero knowledge of software development yourself on this thread.

I stand by what I said, it's a product management problem not a "developer's salary" issue.

mpc_fan_2022 wrote:I stand by what I said, it's a product management problem not a "developer's salary" issue.

I'll be damn, if I'm gonna pay 20+ people $6,000 a month & they can't (or won't just to prolong getting paid) fix that MIDI-off bug until years later!

Also, does anyone know if Akai have their own developers or do they share them same ones for all of inMusic?
If it's the latter then that would explain why some bug fixes takes so long.

[quoteIt's also getting quite obvious that they want you to ditch your external gear and buy their plugins instead. Are they intentionally crippling the possibility to communicate with external gear with MPC 3 firmware? ][/quote]

I dont believe this BUT for people who like conspiracy theories, the way they are advertising and marketing the XL is very much "YOU DONT NEED ANYTHING ELSE BESIDES THIS MACHINE TO MAKE WHOLE ALBUMS"

I guess inmusic has a team of 5 and each device get 4 hours programming time month for each device

B-Wise wrote:Also, does anyone know if Akai have their own developers or do they share them same ones for all of inMusic?
If it's the latter then that would explain why some bug fixes takes so long.

This would be very interesting to get insight in.
I wouldn't be surprised if InMusic has some kind of soul sucking Amazon workflow implemented where everything is conveyor belt philosophy. Developers sits at their workstations and fix one thing for one brand, then jump to the next thing for another brand.

ontherun wrote:I guess inmusic has a team of 5 and each device get 4 hours programming time month for each device

Certainly seems like it sometimes...
I would really hope that they stop waiting so long between firmwares. Instead of releasing 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and so on. They should really start releasing smaller increments, 3.7.1, 3.7.2 and so on, focusing on bugfixes and quality of life improvements only.