Akai is not fixing issues due to corporate greed

horisonten wrote: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.

I would like to add that these developers don't make beats & if they do, they don't use the MPC/Force!

Gen² seems to be like this may had change, & so far they have been more consistent with OS updates & 3.7 fixed many bugs, but is this only because its been Akai turn to used the shared developers?

Where the Hell is Akai Dan?... We needs answers!

mpc_fan_2022 wrote:

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.

Alright, I'm not making further assumptions but I don't know what to tell you man, I've worked in software and game development since 2011. What I said was pretty much facts.

I'm also noticing from the comments that it's not immediately obvious how much stuff they've actually done. Each feature has a ton of sub features (when you browse through the different pages and elements in the MPC) - those don't exactly appear out of thin air, someone has to design it, do the math, implement it and document it. Each one of those.

You can just open up the MPC OS manual and read through all the features to realize it's a metric f*ckton of code. And every feature has to be bounced to the QA team and they throw it back, rinse and repeat.

Oh well.

horisonten wrote:- 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.

I *think* this is the way it should work. Setting a PC (Program Change ) on a midi track, sends that PC each time at the start of the sequence.

If you want just to send that Program Change once, you have two solutions ( at least, these 2 ways are the ones I know and tested ). Bare in mind that both ways require that you set the Program Change to off on the track settings.

Solution 1: having a sequence - for example 1 bar long - that starts at first, just to set the PC for each gear. On each midi track, open the event list and insert a new event (type: midi automation, Program Change ). Set the value of the PC to the desired patch the remote gear has to be set. Start that sequence first, just to set all the gears accordingly. From then, you can switch to the next sequence and record midi events for each gear.
This is IMO the best way, just remember by each new project to reserve the very first sequence to this purpose.

Solution 2: if you don't want to use a sequence for that, you can insert one bar to a sequence, and let it loops from the next bar and not from the first. Put a PC event on the inserted bar and you are set. You should however rewind the sequence to the bar nr.2 if you don't want to send that PC each time. That's why you should set the bar loop to 2 instead of 1. Example. You have a 4 bar sequence. The bar loop start is obviously set to 1.
Now you insert one bar at the beginning and put a PC in the event list ot the track. You may now set the sequence bar loop start to 2. This way when your sequence loops, it loops from bar 2, hence the PC will not be sent anymore (unless you make a manual rewind to bar 1 )

I hope it makes sense for you.

Bonsaipanda wrote:I'm also noticing from the comments that it's not immediately obvious how much stuff they've actually done. Each feature has a ton of sub features (when you browse through the different pages and elements in the MPC) - those don't exactly appear out of thin air, someone has to design it, do the math, implement it and document it. Each one of those.

You can just open up the MPC OS manual and read through all the features to realize it's a metric f*ckton of code. And every feature has to be bounced to the QA team and they throw it back, rinse and repeat.

... And that is why the users end up being the QA testing team: so much functionality that industrially testing every combination is practically impossible, so many different use cases that no two MPC users use their MPC the same way, an ocean of users impatient for features, and a marketing department impatient for features (but not for the same reasons)... No wonder Akai offloads much of the testing to prod'. Akai could ensure quality, but the cost and delay would both be unacceptable for their market. I've walked in those shoes - I can't blame them for this choice.

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

Yes it does. so does the denon line and the headrush pedals. they have since their invention. uname -a while in ssh have a look. dmesg |grep "PREEMPT_RT" poke around. It's why if you overload the processor it will seg-fault crash and re-init the mpc progam. I bet even the gen2 units do it but have a bunch more bandwidth to waste before seg faulting. heh...

semar wrote:If you want just to send that Program Change once, you have two solutions ( at least, these 2 ways are the ones I know and tested ). Bare in mind that both ways require that you set the Program Change to off on the track settings.

Solution 1: having a sequence - for example 1 bar long - that starts at first, just to set the PC for each gear. On each midi track, open the event list and insert a new event (type: midi automation, Program Change ). Set the value of the PC to the desired patch the remote gear has to be set. Start that sequence first, just to set all the gears accordingly. From then, you can switch to the next sequence and record midi events for each gear.
This is IMO the best way, just remember by each new project to reserve the very first sequence to this purpose.

Solution 2: if you don't want to use a sequence for that, you can insert one bar to a sequence, and let it loops from the next bar and not from the first. Put a PC event on the inserted bar and you are set. You should however rewind the sequence to the bar nr.2 if you don't want to send that PC each time. That's why you should set the bar loop to 2 instead of 1. Example. You have a 4 bar sequence. The bar loop start is obviously set to 1.
Now you insert one bar at the beginning and put a PC in the event list ot the track. You may now set the sequence bar loop start to 2. This way when your sequence loops, it loops from bar 2, hence the PC will not be sent anymore (unless you make a manual rewind to bar 1 )

I hope it makes sense for you.

Thank you for the detailed explanation! Funny thing is that me and my band mate are leaning towards solution 1 described here. Dedicate Sequence 1 on every song to be the transition/setup sequence. Then the song actually always start on the second sequence.

I have the pleasure of owning an Octatrack, so I myself do not need to make compromises regarding program changes. The Octatrack is intelligent in that it only sends out the Program Change once. Only when a pattern utilizing another part (out of 4 available per bank) is reached. Then it can send out a new one, but only once, and so on.

The issue is that my band mate does not have the luxury of owning an Octatrack, only an MPC One. So we need to find a solution for his end. So Solution 1 is what we are leaning towards

Midi Clips in the PRO PACK have a start point, a loop point and a end point.

So it's just a matter of sending a PC at the start of the clip then let it loop between the loop points after that, then change scenes to execute that process again, instead of using sequences.


page 466

https://cdn.inmusicbrands.com/Software/ ... 20v3.7.pdf

All right, you already answered one question I have I think. How Clips and Sequences correlate/play together. So they don't basically?

My issue is that I'm using external gear that needs to be in sync with the stuff on the MPC. So "sequences as parts of songs" has been the perfect concept for this.

But now I need to read up on the clips mode to understand the concept better. But I think that I cannot utilize clips currently since they cannot be accessed with program changes like I can with the sequences. Or can they..?

horisonten wrote:All right, you already answered one question I have I think. How Clips and Sequences correlate/play together. So they don't basically?

My issue is that I'm using external gear that needs to be in sync with the stuff on the MPC. So "sequences as parts of songs" has been the perfect concept for this.

But now I need to read up on the clips mode to understand the concept better. But I think that I cannot utilize clips currently since they cannot be accessed with program changes like I can with the sequences. Or can they..?

These videos may help you understand clips & song building:
https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... ount=34462

B-Wise wrote:These videos may help you understand clips & song building:
https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... ount=34462

Yeah thanks, but I won't be able to use clips anyhow currently.
My MPC is slaved to my Octatrack. And clips cannot be reached with program change as of now, so it simply won't work.

I'm sure its great for anyone using the MPC on its own without external gear.

I seen buddy say he works in gaming/dev since 2011. I work in film/gaming, and they do get paid about 90k - 150kCAD, but it really is painful to see a company put so much time coding new plugins, or even manufacturing new products(many new ones...) before even fixing issues.

I feel like they gas lighting us hella.
Remember when they showed the MpcX with Hdmi Out then released it without?
I won't forget.

They will say they are working on addressing issues, but completely ignore the issues to spend more money on dev's to create plugins, make new sample packs or port their software to other devices.
It's a kick to the nuts.

To put out a MpcXL, where all they did was move the qlinks, add buttons, and usb-c audio is not worth 1300.00cad extra $$$'s than the Original X on a device where I am the beta tester, again... They didn't even add extra inputs or a way to use all 6 inputs at once(i could be wrong). On the X ya could only use the 4 on the back or the 2 on the back and 2 on the front, not all at the same time. That's a small issue. If I went into bigger ones we be here for a while.

InMusic/Akai are not a great company.
They have and will release good products here and there, but as for the price and if its worth the headache? It's really depends on the product. I hear good things about Denon and they are InMusic. It's hit and miss and I feel the XL is sorta a miss for the price. All good though. Maybe a new update will roll out to change my opinion, for now.. I'm more suspicious of Akai just not wanting to waste the time addressing bugs because they don't believe it will sell units.

Fine by me. I will shop elsewhere for now.

horisonten wrote:.. clips cannot be reached with program change as of now, so it simply won't work.

You might be able to do a custom MIDI map for the MPC, but I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle. When choosing between the MPC and Elektron I would go with one or the other as they don't really play well together (MIDI side doesn't follow scenes on the Octatrack, MPC is indeed better on it's own at the moment).

When I was using the Octatrack with my MPC, I would just play background stuff with the clips (using IamForce when clips were not available) but now I've just moved completely into Force.

horisonten wrote:

B-Wise wrote:These videos may help you understand clips & song building:
https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... ount=34462

Yeah thanks, but I won't be able to use clips anyhow currently.
My MPC is slaved to my Octatrack. And clips cannot be reached with program change as of now, so it simply won't work.

I'm sure its great for anyone using the MPC on its own without external gear.

Cool, but I hope you still watched to learn more about how clip work with seqs like you asked for. Who knows, you may end changing or creating a new workflow at least when your working on the MPC.

I linked to the guide already, clips can be used with sequences in place of the arrangement. But that's a $200 fix

I'm done here, good luck.

BeatWilson wrote:InMusic/Akai are not a great company.

I generally don't trust companies that collect brands