I asked the folks at Akai about some of the questions y'all had. They said they'll be re-implementing mutes per sequence (hopefully by the time of the public beta), and potentially audio clips in the future.
If you're still talking to them...be an absolute game changer to be able to lock the piano roll to a scale. Imagine being able to slide a triad up and down without having to move each note separately. I'd love to see a revamped step sequencer also but a proper scale-locked piano roll surely can't be that hard - the pads do it after all and the pain it would save...
Have they mentioned if they are adding back the ability to change time signatures to anything outside of 4/4? This was something I used all the time on the MPC but somehow it's missing in the new update.
Could really benefit from your knowledge/experience . I want to upgrade from the tracks well the sequencer and a better drum machine. Don't want to make a costly mistake and your advice has been right for me in the past.
I feel two ways about it. I came from a linear work flow using old Reason and adapting to the mpc workflow was quite inspiring in of itself. But sometimes going back to a linear workflow is what i want. So having a dual boot machine to swap in-between would be the best of both worlds...
@@dontcallmebrave MPC was Akai's V2 platform. Force is V3. They needed separate updates due to different platforms, but they've been working hard to update MPC to V3, and then should be able to update both simultaneously in the future. Force doesn't get as many updates because it was already years ahead, but that should change when MPC catches up.
Really appreciate your thoughts and honesty, Gabe. Thank you for walking us through this. I am very excited about the update. It should only get better as more people use it and give AKAI feedback.
Thank you for the overview. I'm really looking forward to playing with the new layout when I gat access to the Beta. Personally, I like the dark mode. A couple of things I would really love to see : 1. A setting that makes recording loops auto assign to a pad in a playing state while at the same time muting the loop sampler for live looping. 2: The ability to have a separate start point and loop region in a given sample.
I dont think that audio tracks are adequate to replace audio clips. Audio clips have a very important feature that have instant time correction and choke groups something that audio tracks do not have
The arranger is cool, but one thing that I think people are sleeping on, is that keygroups are no longer a pain to use due to the merging of tracks and programs. Unlike instrument plugins, there’s no limit to keygroups. And if Akai allows keygroups to be conveniently streamed from disk, it will possibly be nothing stopping sound designers from making super high quality keygroups libraries.
I love the look of the new UI in terms of aesthetics. The old one looked super dated in many areas. Also i'm used to it from the force a bit. I do wish they can fix the track mutes for song mode on MPC's as I didn't even like the arranger in the force so I'm going to assume I will also not like it on my MPC one. I would rather have next actions on clips for force to build a song that way.
if akai would add some type of spectral analysis, i swear i wont ask for ANYTHING else! pretty sure id be able to fully mix in stand alone at that point.
This new update seems so much easier to operate. I've been waiting to buy one of these primarily because I didn't want to learn such a different way of doing things. I wanted something more familiar. This new update has so much to lure me into the ecosystem.
you can still use the sequencing the same as before. you don't have to work in a linier fashion. you can still make sequences and then structure them together in song mode or track edit
Tell me if this make sense to you guys? I imagine to make the arranger faster is to not have so much midi detail. That could be handled in grid mode and on arranger it’ll be “blocks” of those regions. Maybe you could have a screen button at the bottom to even open those regions to see midi events in detail. But You’ll have basic commands on screen with one touch so you can copy / delete blocks faster and be able to move them around more freely. Right now the arranger feels like a lot of menu diving to do those basic moves. What do you think?
Great possibility the FORCE 2,will carry newer MPE PADS FEATURES 😀, since... the sightings of ROGER LINN 😮with the gifted MPC LIVE II from Akai, great if it spills over to the latest MPC soon to arrive. Another prediction is a KEY25 WITH included features on the pads and keyboard 😀 😉 👍, sooooo niceeeeee if it comes to light, everyone.Gabe did you find out if VST3 are available for 3.0.Thanks for the demonstrative video.
I was considering selling my MPC One because I hated the interface and would get discouraged every time I tried to use it. This update looks promising and might be the reason I give the MPC one more go
I like the new update a lot. At first I was reluctant because I have gotten used to the workflow of the old firmwares but this looks great, and fun to use
Cool to see different work flows that highlight the new changes. The duplicate track with or without MIDI data was nice add. Great approach to showing the update.
I always like to try something like this blind. If something works as you guess/expect it to, then someone killed it. And lots of things were very intuitive in 3...I love it.
It was a big mistake to sell my MPC Key 61 for some odd personal reasons. Since this update was announced I wish to come back to the MPC world, as for me this system is the most motivating and exciting one I've experienced on a workstation. Wondering if the public beta will start within august.
I am fairly new to the MPC world, I started with an akai force. The programs issues doesnt concern me. I think, keeping the sequences is nice for song mode. I will most likely use different sequences to build up different song sections and then copy all to arranger to add in and tweak on the linear timeline. Then you could record audio tracks across the song. I do agree the arranger timeline is not a DAW but seems good enough to work with. I am overall excited but since I use my key 61 for church, I am not jumping on the beta anytime soon.
Out of all the videos I’ve watched, you are the only one to say it right. Most people just leave it as MPC 3 Update, which always makes me think that AKAI officially dropped it. 🤦🏾♂️
Very informative. I don't know the limit of how many parameters you can put one macro, but once on the Force I had edit-all pads on in a drum track & used MIDI-learn on, then pick a parameter & it assigned it to all 128 pads to same macro knob. I should've tried to add more, but at we know it can do up 128. Make sure it's what you want or able to press undo because if you want to delete it you'll have to delete all 128 one at a time. I hope they add a clear all for the macros.
I'm really hoping for a universal tuning capability for the whole software function so that I can tune my creations to existing tunes that aren't strictly A=440 Hz. This seems like a major omission which should have been implemented at the outset in the same way that it is always included in most hardware synthesizers.
Great Video, Gabe. Thx. I`m not an MPC user yet, but I want to add an MPC One to my setup. I have only seen some videos about the MPC - of course yours too - and the new OS looks very nice to me, in terms of the design. The macro function for the Q-Link is a killer feature for live performances. Especially the stacking of parameters. Great...The dark mode looks nice to me. And I believe the OS 3 is easier to learn for me as an old school logic user.
Great Update! But whats thr difference between the old and new q links? I mean you could also use them in project mode before and control the same parameters
Started watching all these MPC3 videos a month ago but thought Nah Leave it till I have the software. One day in and I'm loving it. Makes a bit more sense when you can try it hands on too. Just curious to your thoughts a month later. Might be the right time for a 1 month in update.
If Akai are listening to you Gabe, please ask them to enable the sampler to auto-trigger from beat 1 of the sequence (whether initial or the next time it loops). That's still my biggest feature wish. 🙏 [Edit: and before anyone suggests the looper - the problem is: it loops!🙄] Nice to get your take on v3. I agree about sequences - if they'd taken them away that would blow away my entire MPC use case! The whole reason I bought the One was to escape from the restrictive multitrack tape paradigm of DAWs. I love to create verses, choruses, pre-choruses, breaks, whatever, and switch them around and try stuff out (always tedious and janky in a linear recording system). I also use sequences for live jamming.
If you want the sampler to record from beat one, and you don't want the looper because it loops - maybe you could use an audio track? It will record from start and then you can export that and put it on a pad? I might be missing the your workflow reasons for doing this though.
@@tom-541 thanks for the suggestion. There are a couple of problems with the audio tracks that make them useless for me... They're only as long as the sequence which means taking time to extend the sequence and having the tracks loop and then shortening the sequence afterwards. I know many people do the "single sequence for the entire song" thing but my entire use case for the MPC is based on its ability to let me create multiple sequences and build them into songs or line them up on the fly in a live jam. The other problem is fiddling about exporting the audio track into the sample editor because the audio editor (at least in v2) doesn't offer the features of the sample editor. It's all extra steps.
I've had my MPC since december of 2020 and I seriously don't understand it's backwards upside down way of doing things this 100% better then the older way. Track Mutes are coming back though. Nice track!
i still like the idea of one instance of a program shared between different sequencer tracks....i haven't installed the update....whats the CPU overhead ?
Bookmarking this for later, but is List Mode still available? I do a lot of step input/step record and that’s the only way to do it on MPC so I don’t want to lose it. Thanks! 💞
Hello Gabe, thank you for this very nice demo. You might answer this question : Do you know if it is possible to change a preset plugin for a same track when you change the sequence, or is it always the same preset attributed to a plugin of a given track what ever the sequence you select ? It could be very nice if we could change a plug in preset from a sequence to another. Thank you for the answer. Regards
Overall, I'm hyped. I loved a lot about the Force and I like what they've incorporated from that. I'm wondering if the arrangement grid will follow odd time signatures on MPC. That was the thing that made me ditch the Force and I was bummed because it was damn near perfect for me, but that's a deal breaker 😢 Haha P.s. I love the track you were messing with in this one.
The problem with the 3.0 update is the SONG MODE, as it has been severely DEGRADED. (as it stands right now) Song Mode is "still there".... well yes, but barely... Indeed, you can't mute each and every track independently / per sequence anymore! That is my most used feature, and the whole reason I got the MPC in the first place! It replaced my old but great Alesis MMT-8. That is a massive change that totally kills my usual workflow. All my +300 projects are filled with programmed mutes on and off... Thus, those projects will be incompatible with 3.0... a big loss! I will evidently not upgrade to 3.0, as long as they have not fixed the independent mute per sequence feature problem. Lets hop it's just a bug??
That makes a lot of sense, and I'll see if I can raise it with the folks at Akai. I doubt I have much (if any) influence, but that is something I'd like to see retained as well now that you mention it.
@@GabeMillerMusic Thanks for your reply. Yes, if you can contact Akai about this it would be wonderful for all of us heavy users of track-muting recording independently per sequence!
How do I feel about the dark mode? I like it so much I have no desire for any of the changes in the update but will be transitioning to get rid of the gross red accents.
I love it so far i think that in pad mix and so forth the numbers are way to small for a lot of people to read if they could magnify those that would be great
How do I con you into buying a Deluge? It's replaced most everything in my home office studio besides sentimental stuff, but the new community firmware is getting game changing new features faster than we can make videos about them lol
Did I see “recording to arrangement” popup when you went into song mode. That’s what pops up on the force when you select record to arrangement, in the record options. How’s that work? Wonder what pressing record and changing sequences on the fly does?
@@robinr22 you need to contact a master who knows how to solder well, firstly, secondly, you need to choose good preamp chips. The MPC has almost the cheapest preamps on the headphone output and on the monitor output. Search the Internet for information on this topic. Unfortunately, for some reason I can't send links on RU-vid.
it allows you to select all the notes in a particular clip, it's useful if you lets say want to duplicate all the notes in a clip, transpose all the notes, shift all the notes, for example with percussive sounds, any manipulation with all the notes in a clip
@@WesleyCrushersthose are all available as an menu option and probably faster than selecting all notes. Probably that is why Akai didn’t include it earlier. The problem is that they put it on sequence menu, not track menu and it is super unintuitive. Also they didn’t made those options available on the grid window, so many people didn’t eventually know they existed
Gaeb, why don't yo uuse RANDOM (sample tab 4) instead of LFO set to Random shape applied to pitch and pan? You can get each hit to play a random volume, pitch, decay, cutoff, etc. It's very powerful, but often overlooked.
Hi, still no access to my beta. Can you record your playing sequence with all your live knob tweakings into the timeline? Will it also record sequence changes? Thnx
Hi! one question do you know if they changed the support for external usb audio interfaces? the most important part is support for 48khz on external interfaces
I heard that they changed how programs work, like you can’t scroll through loaded programs on a track. That is a complete deal breaker counter to the mpc workflow
Even better, you can simply load programs into you track from "disc". No more need to load them into finite RAM first to then apply them to a track. All we need is to have a fav. list for programs now!
I did very briefly, but I need to dive deeper into it. It does work, although I'm not sure if it retains mutes on a track by track basis. I usually correlate programs and tracks, but if you don't, you'll end up with a bunch of tracks because it creates one per program.
@@GabeMillerMusic Thanks for checking. The primary use I have for my MPC One is for playing clips in our cover band. (I'm terrible at beat making) While I doubt that would be affected, I'll sit tight and wait for the official release.
Great video as usual Gabe! Please ask Akai to address the sonics & convertor issue. A video would go a long way to explaining to users how to achieve a better sound. Maybe even update the vintage mode models. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Question about syncing mpc to external source: Currently (any firmware before 3) when MPC is sync'd to external source, if you arm an audio track (1 or more)> arm MPC rec or over dub> hit start/play, it only records a blip (very small audio track) and then immediately unarms the track. Is this still the case? If so, Can you (or anyone) please report this to Akai. I use studio one and it hs to be the master clock source. I have no work around to record external audio. I really want to use my MPC in this manner. I'm not alone, but I'd guess it's under reported. I've created a RU-vid video and Reddit post as an example.
Am I wrong or it's not possible to open projects made on MPC 3 on the desktop app that's still 2.15. In other words if you update to v. 3 you are stuck in standalone mode.
