took my 4k round to visit friends 5k

I am in disbelief,
I was really looking forward to having ago with the 5k.

I cannot believe how appalling the 5k is.
Its a total shock.

It is a disaster.
even the data wheel is hideous.
sample editing is clumsy
timing correct not real time.
badly organised windows. which means click click click click for even the simplest stuff
ridiculous preset management for the synth.
Reverb is stilll crap.

I cannot understand how they have produced something so obviously awful. They must have only one poor bastard working on it, otherwise how can it be that bad???

I really wasn't expecting that.
Its really sad they have done such a bad job.

Hold onto ur 4k for dear life.
Look after it.
Mines suddenly become that much more precious. I may get a second as a spare.

I hope Roland rip the Mpc better with their next MV as Akai have gone to sh*t which is a real shame.

g

I personally think both Roland and Akai are off their rockers...

Only good thing about it, is that it leaves the market open for somebody with foresight and knowledge
and understanding to make a better product. Whether that's the LinnDrum II or something other company
that none of us knows is going to be the question.


But then again, knowing both Numark and Alesis before Jack purchased Akai.... didn't make me very optimistic
and they are just living up to their expectations...


I'm guessing about now Jahrome will show up and tell us how much superior what ever he chooses this month
is over the 4000... (got too make those sales!)

Few weeks back visited guitar center. Finally they had 5k on display, they also happened to have used 4000 next to it. The feel alone between the two machines was night and day. I personally dont like the 5k myself, thing is ugly as hell.

renegadebliss wrote:I'm guessing about now Jahrome will show up and tell us how much superior what ever he chooses this month
is over the 4000... (got too make those sales!)

I just got home visiting a few music instrument shops. I messed around with the 4K, MV (can't believe I found one to demo) as well the usual suspects..MPC 5000, 1000, etc.

MPC 4000:
There is no doubt that Akai put alot into the physical aspects of the 4000. It is a monster. The LCD is really nice and many of the buttons are larger than those of the newer MPCs which appear to utlize parts from the MPC 2000XL. As far as the feel, the MPC 4000 doesn't do anything out of the ordinary that inspires music than any other highend MPC. Some people love them..some people hate them. The same goes for any MPC.

MPC 5000:

Data wheel. The MPC 5Ks data wheel is exactly like the MPC 2500. I don't really care for its clicky data wheel and much prefer the data wheel of the MPC 2000. Its just one thing users have to live with.

Windows. The windows of the MPC 5000, 2500, and 1000 are all similar. Those windows are just fine and are even better now that the 5K has a larger LCD screen. I believe Akai brought back the original feel of the MPC that was lost with the MPC 4000.

Sample editing. I can't understand why anyone would have a problem with the 5Ks sample editing which is as good as any workstation out there. There are a few features I would like to see added but it currently does 90% of what I need it to do.

Timing correct. The 5K does have the most advanced timing correction function of any MPC to include the 4000. You can even undo/redo changes in real time as the sequencer plays.

Synths presets. The synth program presets that come with the 5000 have to be loaded just like sample prorgams. I wish a few update has an audition/preview function. But even without this being added, no other MPC (or MPC clone) has a 20 voice synth.

Effects. Akai forte has always been samplers. I can't recall anyone raving about their effects. But I don't have any problems with the quality of effects in the 5000. From what I can tell, they are as good or better than the MPC 4000. The 5000 has a 4-buss multi-effects processor which allows insertion of two effects per buss. Effects can also be routed to any output. I feel that is impressive. What I would like to do in the near future is to do an effects shoot out with it and my Fantom G. I hear plenty of people that talk about how great Roland's effects are so I think this will be an interesting test. More to come....

Overall, the MPC 5000 is a great machine. With a few OS tweaks...I believe it is going to be amazing. I don't believe long time MPC 4000 users will feel the same way unless Akai adds keygroup sample programs. But you guys always have the option of picking of a Z4 or Z8 and have exaclty what you have grown to love...or simply keep your MPC 4000 and continue to make music. Having or not having an MPC 5000 will have very little impact on your skills as a musician. But if you can't make great music with the MPC 5000, you have to look at the man not the machine....

Askia Shaheed wrote:
MPC 5000:

Windows. The windows of the MPC 5000, 2500, and 1000 are all similar. Those windows are just fine and are even better now that the 5K has a larger LCD screen. I believe Akai brought back the original feel of the MPC that was lost with the MPC 4000.

BS - I've used MPC's all the way back to my new MPC60 (years ago). I can duplicate your so-called "feel" with my MPC4000.

MY QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

"If you can't groove with the 4000, it's not the machines fault."

Don't quit your day job...

Pilotwings wrote:

Askia Shaheed wrote:
MPC 5000:

Windows. The windows of the MPC 5000, 2500, and 1000 are all similar. Those windows are just fine and are even better now that the 5K has a larger LCD screen. I believe Akai brought back the original feel of the MPC that was lost with the MPC 4000.

BS - I've used MPC's all the way back to my new MPC60 (years ago). I can duplicate your so-called "feel" with my MPC4000.

MY QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

"If you can't groove with the 4000, it's not the machines fault."

Don't quit your day job...

Can't really understand why you would say that my comments are BS but....

When I am talking about "feel" I am talking about how users make their way in/out of different menus. Coming from another MPC, it is fairly easy to get around the MPC 5K without studying the manual. This is not necessarily the case with the MPC 4000. Of course, if you learn the MPC 4000 in and out, you can do the exact same thing (and in certain aspects more) as other MPCs. However, based upon my experiences. the MPC 5000 as well as the other latest MPCs are very close and intuitive like the MPCs of the past.

konc3pt wrote:I personally dont like the 5k myself, thing is ugly as hell.

Yeah, definitely not that aesthetically pleasing at all. Treat this machine like a homely chick,
she could be the best for ya but you'll never find out cause you won't even talk to her.
But to be fair I didn't like the looks of half of the MPC's when they first came out.
(60II, 2000, 4000, 1000, 5000) A good thing that it's what's on the inside that counts...

"Windows. The windows of the MPC 5000, 2500, and 1000 are all similar. Those windows are just fine and are even better now that the 5K has a larger LCD screen. I believe Akai brought back the original feel of the MPC that was lost with the MPC 4000."

Nope the windows are badly organised, key sample parameters are still spread out over multiple windows for no good reason. CLick Click Click Click.



"Sample editing. I can't understand why anyone would have a problem with the 5Ks sample editing which is as good as any workstation out there. There are a few features I would like to see added but it currently does 90% of what I need it to do."

Not what it does the way it does it, JJ got it right on the 1k Akai didn't. Akai click click click click.


"Timing correct. The 5K does have the most advanced timing correction function of any MPC to include the 4000. You can even undo/redo changes in real time as the sequencer plays."
Cool I only had half an hour with it and I couldn't get it to work in real time like the 4k, but if it does then thats positive.

"Synths presets. The synth program presets that come with the 5000 have to be loaded just like sample prorgams. I wish a few update has an audition/preview function. But even without this being added, no other MPC (or MPC clone) has a 20 voice synth."

I still think the preset implementation is crap period. Also I think a S and S engine would make more sense for hiphop. Akai have release S and S modules before and also have their drum machines, I would rather have the variety.



"Effects. Akai forte has always been samplers. I can't recall anyone raving about their effects. But I don't have any problems with the quality of effects in the 5000. From what I can tell, they are as good or better than the MPC 4000. The 5000 has a 4-buss multi-effects processor which allows insertion of two effects per buss. Effects can also be routed to any output. I feel that is impressive. What I would like to do in the near future is to do an effects shoot out with it and my Fantom G. I hear plenty of people that talk about how great Roland's effects are so I think this will be an interesting test. More to come...."

There is no excuse for a crap reverb thats sucks on drums in 2008 on a drum machine sampler. That ringing crap akai are still dishing out isn't good enough. Call up a drum kit and try to find/make a bearable drum room or ambience preset. It will be there on the roland.


"Overall, the MPC 5000 is a great machine. With a few OS tweaks...I believe it is going to be amazing. I don't believe long time MPC 4000 users will feel the same way unless Akai adds keygroup sample programs. But you guys always have the option of picking of a Z4 or Z8 and have exaclty what you have grown to love...or simply keep your MPC 4000 and continue to make music. Having or not having an MPC 5000 will have very little impact on your skills as a musician. But if you can't make great music with the MPC 5000, you have to look at the man not the machine....[/quote]"

Overall the mpc concept is wonderful but the 5k takes it no further and it could have been improved alot, Akai have added some extras which are badly implemented rather than making the MPC stronger at what it does well. The sample editing is clumsy, the screen organisation is bad, the seq lacks 4k features, the reverb sucks, the parameter organisation is messy, detailed seq editing is still poor, You still can't play a sample in reverse without applying it offline?????, the audio tracks are a joke, The 5k is good at what the old MPCs are good at and bugger all else.

Look at the man not the machine? nope not if your buying a machine, look at the machine.

Its a shame that it takes JJ to show akai the way to develop a good concept further,
I recently used a mpc1k with jj2 on it that really made me smile really improved U.I to the point where sample editing on the 1k is nicer than my 4k, I really loved the JJos2.

the 5k made me mad! definitely not for me terrible U.I. i would have love to have found it great but... it wasn't
Pity
If I was in the market again I would go for a 4k or a 1k and a nice keyboard.
g

Oh yeah and it looks like u still can't have different start end points for a sample.
i.e. different region markers that over lap without copying the sample each time.

g

Askia Shaheed wrote:
When I am talking about "feel" I am talking about how users make their way in/out of different menus. Coming from another MPC, it is fairly easy to get around the MPC 5K without studying the manual. This is not necessarily the case with the MPC 4000.

Maybe it's the user..... When I first purchased the 4k, I had no need to crack the manual at all. Of course, I only had little
experience with the MPC series (played a few shows on my brother in laws 2000XL), but did come from an Akai S-Series
background. There really wasn't much learning curve at all from my perspective, but maybe because I didn't have the
earlier MPC's to cloud my view.

If I wanted to Sample, I just hit the Sample button and all the options were layed out via the F Buttons. If I couldn't find something,
just hit the "Window" button. Same with the Program and Multi buttons. It's all really fairly straight forward. All the various menus
are available via dedicated "page" buttons and then broken down further with the F function buttons below the screen....

If anything the 4k's manual will confuse you more, then if you just sit down at the MPC itself.. as it's all fairly logical.

But then again, I had been making music with my synths for 15 years prior to purchasing the 4000

Askia Shaheed wrote:

Pilotwings wrote:

Askia Shaheed wrote:
MPC 5000:

Windows. The windows of the MPC 5000, 2500, and 1000 are all similar. Those windows are just fine and are even better now that the 5K has a larger LCD screen. I believe Akai brought back the original feel of the MPC that was lost with the MPC 4000.

BS - I've used MPC's all the way back to my new MPC60 (years ago). I can duplicate your so-called "feel" with my MPC4000.

MY QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

"If you can't groove with the 4000, it's not the machines fault."

Don't quit your day job...

Can't really understand why you would say that my comments are BS but....

When I am talking about "feel" I am talking about how users make their way in/out of different menus. Coming from another MPC, it is fairly easy to get around the MPC 5K without studying the manual. This is not necessarily the case with the MPC 4000. Of course, if you learn the MPC 4000 in and out, you can do the exact same thing (and in certain aspects more) as other MPCs. However, based upon my experiences. the MPC 5000 as well as the other latest MPCs are very close and intuitive like the MPCs of the past.

Askia,

Sorry, I thought you were speaking of groove or music one could create with the 4K vs. 5000, as apposed to workflow. I do agree with you that the MPC4000 (although there are many similarities) is much different than other MPC's. The 4000 is what I've always wanted in an MPC (full sampler, etc.). Sure I could think of many updates and features that it doesn't have, but for me the other MPC's are just to watered down for my purpose. I would feel like I was going backward...

The MPC500 looks pretty cool just 'cause of it's size. I imagine you could take that just about anywhere & have fun making beats

The crazy thing about the 4k is Akai went
these dumb hiphop dudes couldn't handle the complexity of the 4k so it was the complexity thats at fault,
so lets simplify it for these pea brains and do just drum sampling again.

Where as what I think they should have done,
Is critically look at the U.I. of the 4k and gone, yep its a bit disorganised no-one in their right mind would easily guess that that parameter is hidden under that function > and then the window button.
Who would guess to jump to a keymap u got to press shift goto and pad. Yeah its a bit unclear. We could do this alot better.

What we need to do is make it more transparent and easier to use and not hide key parameters.
What we did with the 4k had great potential but lets make it easier to use, after all kids can use a keymap sampler easily in a computer therefore hardware should be just as easy.


but they didn't


g

renegadebliss wrote:I'm guessing about now Jahrome will show up and tell us how much superior what ever he chooses this month
is over the 4000... (got too make those sales!)

^D@mn Askia Shaheed on cue d@mn near.
F#@kin 3500 is such a joke man, y'all that read the forums when that sh!tbox first dropped know my hatred of these new techno jerkoffs running Wakai........face first faildive into some f#@king dry pavement.