I bought the software first and used it with Maschine Studio, AKAI made a pretty good template for the Maschine. After using Maschine though you want something that's built to order. From reading this thread you would think that it's horribly crippled, it's not, we're all just a bunch of picky bastards. It's still much better with the hardware.

Also, I mainly bought the Live over the MPC Touch because I really like the direction AKAI is going with this, battery powered, touch screen, a built in place for an SSD, built in sound card and MIDI in/out. I needed a new live performance sound card, and if I'm not having to deal with an external SSD live etc. If you don't have those concerns then the software and the MPC Touch are pretty cool IMO.

What's special about the setup is the standalone capability of the Live, in my opinion. In other words, I'm not sure I'd be interested in the software if not for the Live. It's fine - it does the job - but if that's all it was I'd probably get something a bit more developed like Ableton or Bitwig for performance (or Logic or Pro tools for production). As it is, I still use Pro Tools in conjunction with the MPC and its software.

@ Praxisaxis So would you ever use the software on a computer without the Live?

For me personally, that would be tedious.

Put it this way:
I'm faster at Pro Tools than I am at any other DAW.

However, I am faster at sketching tunes on the MPC than I am in Pro Tools (or Ableton). I also feel freer using the pads to compose.

However (part II), the MPC software is useful when there are things which are troublesome or unfeasible to do standalone (e.g. editing keygroups from many separate samples; or dragging effects from track to track).

My basic process is:
* sound design (in Pro tools using Reaktor)
* compose the entire tune on the MPC (it's still free to mess around with the structure, or do a "live" version of the tune)
* bounce out the song to Pro Tools to do a final mix / master.
The middle stage is where most of my time is spent.

Great reply, thanks

I have already emailed retronyms a wish that the iMPC2 app could be used for making programs for the new MPCs. Such a feature exists now but its half-baked, IIRC you can only export one program at a time via iTunes File sharing and some things didn't work, like having the same sample on diff. pads with diff pitch settings... I kindly requested them to flesh it out, they said they'd look into it.

If I could use the iMPC2 for making programs for my MPC live, I'd get back to using it for sure. As it is now, no MIDI sequencer? gtfo thats not an MPC then

that's by design. you can have 512 keygroups, so you can imagine what would happen if you instantiated 512 reverb plugins at once.

if you want an insert for a keygroup, do it on main at the program level.

it's intentional, as it's a single oscillator with a 5th and sub octave as a divide down. an enhanced single 303 / moog style osc.

its so if someone has an X, and a live, when a projecti s opened on Live, it doesnt lose anything when going back to the x.

Just bought another MPC Live (sold my previous one, regretted it almost instantly) and I'm super thrilled with the 2.3 update.

Still would be nice to see improvements in clips, assignable MIDI channels / multitimbrality, and some improvements to MIDI learn functionality. I currently don't see any way to map any synthesis parameters on plugins or keygroups which is a real bummer. Also being able to modulate decay with velocity and making the modulation routings bipolar would be awesome. (or hey, mod matrix??)

But all that said it's still my favorite groovebox right now and I have loads of them. I'd say it's actually tied with the OP-Z but that may be novelty. But it's knocked the Deluge out of the top spot now that it can make some noise itself

If you're looking for further AIR plugin ideas (standalone), a 4-op FM synth would be cool

@ xparis001 - Thanks for the reply. This makes complete sense now that I think about it a little more. At the time I guess I thought either "all" would be greyed out or it would auto revert to a program-level insert. I thought I was doing something wrong. In a way I was.

To everyone else: does anyone else find they have to unplug/replug their usb keyboard whenever a new song is loaded on MPC Live standalone? Still trying to source the manual. Using the MPK Wireless.

My wishlist is based on a similar workflow.

-1st phase of sound design in MPC software via VSTs (combo of synths & traditional instruments)
-Compose on MPC, but in controller mode as I rely on those VSTs
-Bounce to Logic and finish sound designing (won't call this mixing yet as this is stuff I can't do in the MPC software prior to composing)
-Mix / master in Logic

With the addition of stand alone compatible plugins, auto sampling, crossfade looping & arpeggiator, stand alone provides much more value to me. In addition to bug fixes, I'm now hoping for a few plugins covering more tradition instruments, a bit more automation for corssfading, user arp patterns in stand alone mode & internal program changes. Barring the ability to add more RAM, that about finishes the Live for me.

But my dream scenario is for them to bring the software up to par with other DAWs, even if only for creative duties. Support for multi-output plugins, PDC & a few other things would be the minimum. The ability to mix effectively & comprehensively would be ideal.

Akai is not far off my dream hard/software combo, but I doubt they're aiming at what I'm hoping for.

The software is solid, I do wish the browser was updated. The tag browsing is very basic, I’m surprised they haven’t ported over VIP tagging into the mpc software.

would be awesome
I would love to manage the presets on my hardware synths too, just like the plug-ins
it would be way better than PC/MSB/LSB numbers...
it should not be too difficult to implement, especially if it is based on lists made by users with simple txt files

I guess I shouldn't be surprised as their Advance boards are paired with VIP. But what shocked me is that the Advance isn't paired better (read pre-mapped) with the MPC software similar to Komplete Kontrol & Maschine.

I started my plugin collection with a Native Instruments bundle and have added other NKS plugins since. That & the Advance's lack of connection to the MPC software made the Kontrol an easy winner over the Advance. Browsing via Kontrol is the only reason the sub par MPC browsing doesn't bother me. Hopefully they get around to that.

oh, I'm not touching this one

I want to submit to ask for mouse support but I refuse to do it without a mouse!!

JUST WHEN WE MOVED ON WE GET SUCKED BACK IN

Hi

Is there a way on mpc X or Live to merge/link 2 notes? can't find anything on this. Let's say i create a 4 bars sequence, that i record a note on the 13rd step of bar 4 and want that note to keep on sounding in bar 1 for a certain amount of time. If this is not available command, it could be done by allowing to change the length with edit end: when edit end reaches the end of the bars, going further with edit end would make the note appear at the beginning of the sequence (jump to the start). Hope i'm clear enough.

at the opposite, can we divide notes?

thanx a lot

Is it a note or a sample you want to sound past the sequence loop, if its a sample there is a setting in preferences for that.

Yes the new 2.3 update lets you split notes its a lot like ratcheting but more flexible

Thank you, i figured it out about split events, was searching in grid mode, but you have to go in track mode. I think it should be a tool in grid mode, but maybe i'm wrong.


It's a note.

Might there be any advanced Select Notes features in Grid Mode I'm not seeing? Select all highest/lowest notes, for example?

So it's coming?!?!

On the "main" screen, if you tap the pencil icon in the sequence field, it will let you copy events. You can merge tracks.

thanx for your answer. unfortunately this does not make it. i want to merge the last midi note in the grid with the first one of the bar so that this last note plays longer when the sequence is looping. in other word, how can the last midi note in a 4 bars lasts longer than the 4 bars without retriggering it at the beginning.

I will try to make a picture, it will be easier to understand ;-))

Yeah that's a surprising missed opportunity. Maschine software handles Komplete Kontrol functions for itself even, no need to pull up the KK software. you would think that AKAI would follow suite here and add in VIP to MPC2 in the same way. I suppose that's a lot of work that the hardware OS won't directly benefit from, but it increases the value of the software on a Mac/PC insanely.

A side note, I almost didn't buy the MPC Live for a simple reason, AKAI's slash and burn tactics hardware wise. I bought a MPK88, then VIP, which is not that well supported by VIP, you're pretty much mousing for everything. In the case of the MPC2 software, the MPK 88 isn't supported at all. So, Arturia and NI keyboards are supported by the MPC2 as control surfaces, but the only 88 key controller AKAI made is not supported. They bothered making a template for Maschine where it's 8 encoders are permanently mapped to Q Links etc. but didn't do the same for the MPK88..... blah!

Dont merge them, keep them on separate tracks. Double the track length for the note you want to extend.

In the "main" mode, in the track field you can change the length by beats.

Interesting, good to know. There's not much information aka manual around for the new MPC synthesier integration by Air technology ..isn't it/did we miss it?

MPCSOUND

I was 99% set on an MPC, but that 1% was definitely the lack of keyboard support/compatibility from their own line. I'm guessing they saw more revenue potential in separate software than in creating an Akai universe.

that's a good workaround that would make it for some of my tracks. thanx a lot