r/akaiMPC

Out of boredom on Saturday I bought an Akai Mpc Sample and an MPC KEY 37. I hit a few pads and keys at the store and thought hey this could be fun.

Oh man, this is no fun at all.

First of all, the MPC Sample is just hiss and buzz when connected to anything via USB. So I had to a pull out a good old Line Transformer Isolator to cut the ground loop. Once I did that, when receiving clock from Ableton, it started to sound really garbled due to Flex Beat somehow causing havoc to the samples, I have no idea what the fuck is going on but putting Flex Beat mix to 0% seemed to fix it. Bear in mind this is within minutes of plugin the machine and before I could even figure out what "Flex Beat" was. Also, not possible to send samples direct to the machine ? is this that good old FAT drives can't share connections with two machines ? I'm going to have to wip out an SD card ? Or even worse, use the MPC Sample as an audio device so I can sample in real time from the USB and so fucking up my whole audio routing ? I have an RME system with 48 I/O I can't exactly just run my whole shit to a battery powered toy, as it seems that is what Akai is selling.

Then there's the MPC Key 37. Oh man, what a train wreck that is. The whole InMusic activation bullshit is already infuriating. Also same thing, the drives can't be share with the computer to transfer files and samples, I have to save, flip it to Controller Mode, add the files to the drive, turn off Controller Mode, lol this is just hilarious. I don't even know exactly what else to say about it anything I tried to do was just a god awful nightmare. I bought this because I love to load a one shot in a sampler and play it like a synth, but have you tried to load a one shot sample into this thing ? You will have to walk around the block 4 times before it actually works. Load Into Pool, created a keygroup, select the file from the pool to put it in the keygroup lol like what ? I know this is the old Akai system but if you want to make this work like an old Akai machine at least allow me to be able to load my S1000, S2000 and S3000 presets and patches ? Oh and I won't even mention the fact that when you use this with the plugin, the keyboard just turns into a dumb midi controller and you have to re-install all the plugins as VST3 and AU plugins to be able to use them in the MPC3 app, which just goes to show, it just turns into a shitty DAW.

Last but not least. And the worst part of it all, this thing sounds great. But as a working musician, who is not a beatmaker who makes 8 bars loops (this is not a critique, just saying that's not what I do) it is a headache I didn't need.

Now I made the mistake to purchase this in a shop. I go there often as it's one of the only music shops here and now I know I am going to have to go through hell to bring this thing back, because for the life of me, I can't keep this. I'm going to punch a hole through it. This is about 25% of what I have to say about it btw, happy to discuss this in comments if you have stuff to add.

Fun fact : Akai blocked me on Instagram.

Has anyone been unable to register their new Live 3 hardware? I'm currently in the slowest email exchange with inMusic... The website won't accept my serial. With the 21,without it, brackets around the 21, no brackets... It keeps asking for 30 digits. They maybe send one email at midnight my time, so far just requesting information I've already provided multiple times.

On top of that, all my software downloads from old hardware I've purchased that came with bonus expansions have dissappeared, and I've got no response except for apologies for the delay and being told that's a different department that apparently doesn't have any staff or something.

Not really the experience I wanted after dropping just shy of 2k on my most recent inMusic brand affiliate product. No shade to the hardware itself, it so far performs mostly beautifully. It's exactly what I needed to replace my Deluge which was struggling for my intent. Just expected better from support rather than apologies for their new AI support and the fact they can't respond to my emails even if I respond immediately.

Wondering if this is isolated or if others have had this? It's the SE edition that might matter since it was released later and has newer generated serials.

Hallo zusammen,

ich bräuchte mal eure Einschätzung und einen guten Rat für den (Wieder-)Einstieg ins Musikproduzieren.
Kurz zu meinem Hintergrund: Ich bin seit 1999 als DJ an den Decks und fest im Techno verwurzelt. Das Gespür für Trackstrukturen, Beats und Grooves ist nach all den Jahren also absolut da. Allerdings tue ich mich schwer damit, das richtige Werkzeug für die eigene Produktion zu finden.
Ich habe in der Vergangenheit schon einiges ausprobiert:

• Native Instruments Maschine (die PC-Anbindung und das Starren auf den Monitor haben mich extrem genervt)
• Elektron Digitakt 2 (das Konzept und der Workflow haben mich einfach nicht abgeholt)

Ein ganz entscheidender Punkt für mich: Ich will absolut nicht am PC arbeiten. Nach der Arbeit oder beim Musizieren möchte ich den Rechner gar nicht erst einschalten müssen. Ich suche eine reine Hardware-Erfahrung.
Beide bisherigen Ansätze haben bei mir nicht gezündet. Jetzt bin ich an einem Punkt, an dem ich bereit bin, einmal richtig Geld in die Hand zu nehmen, um mir etwas Solides und Langfristiges hinzustellen.
Mein Blick ist bei der Akai MPC XL hängen geblieben. Ich suche nach einer echten All-in-One-Lösung. Einem Gerät, in das ich mich über Monate und Jahre richtig reinfuchsen kann, das eine komplette, autarke Workstation bietet und bei dem ich alles an Bord habe, ohne jemals eine Maus anfassen zu müssen. Zudem würde die große MPC perfekt in die freie Ecke an meinem Tisch passen.
Jetzt meine Fragen an euch:

1. Ist die MPC XL für deepen, treibenden Techno und einen reinen Stand-alone-Workflow eine gute Wahl?
2. Übersehe ich alternative Flaggschiffe, die komplett ohne PC funktionieren, aber für elektronische Musik vielleicht intuitiver sind?
3. Oder bin ich am Ende vielleicht einfach nicht fürs Produzieren gemacht, wenn mich die bisherigen Grooveboxen so schnell frustriert haben?

Ich freue mich auf eure Meinungen, Erfahrungen und ehrliches Feedback!
Viele Grüße