Akai MPC One [ Retired : Search for MPC Thread ]

The Lounge Other Gear
#1463

Pads feel nice to me, seem quite similar to older MPCs, yes they have a bit of give to them.

The crappy midi sync is a big problem for me at present, I hope it gets addressed in the next update. I’d have thought that given older MPCs had decent midi sync, and that there is a good chance a fair few MPC customers are using a MPC in favour of a DAW, precisely to get away from midi sync problems - it would be a priority from day one.

It would not be so bad if it was just syncing to other gear, but it is not a stable master either. I guess the rest of the current range are the same, probably due to being essentially a linux computer inside.

I tried a number of things doing my tests and out of all my gear the MPC is by far the worst at sync which really surprised me, upto 6ms of jitter as master or slave on first tests, I need to do some more extensive testing and try to figure out the best method of getting it synced. Obviously I am talking about syncing to/from other hardware only, no DAW.

On that note I also noticed the MPC desktop software can’t record when synced either, a bit of a bummer as I was hoping to use it as a workaround for the other problem, I did not bother to check its sync but I suspect it would be the same or worse as the hardware.

#1464

yuk…

Like timing is not important in music.

1 Like
#1465

I don’t mind the Force pads for melodic stuff, but the One pads are obviously bigger and thicker. I would probably say I have the reverse issue, in fact - I prefer the MPC pads for drums and the Force for instruments. Generally the extra 48 pads on the Force are fair compensation, though. I think the last great MPC pads were on the 2000XL, which I used to use as a controller for the 1000. But it may be that the pads on my 2000XL were just nicely broken in.

Re. sync, I’ve had good results with the MPC as master recording an audio track from a synced A4 and Octatrack - ran it for a few minutes and it all seemed fine. But my MPC One throws a fit half the time when acting as a master to the Subharmonicon - the second beat is regularly very early, after which it behaves. I haven’t managed to work out who’s at fault here because they both behave fine with other gear. I need to try the Force as a master for the SubH, see if the problem persists there.

2 Likes
#1466

spent the past hr or so testing the timing with a SyncGen and a DAW.

I was getting up to 4 or 5 ms out for the first bar, but then it tightens up to no more than 1 - 2 ms after that. Only clock & transport getting sent via midi.

(Testing methods fairly rough and ready, but gave me a pretty good idea what’s going on)

1 Like
#1467

Here is whats weird, I can sync the OT to MPC with ok results, but with the MC-707 there is noticeable flamming, but if I go MPC in to OT, OT (with both send and receive sync on) out to 707 then the 707 syncs ok.

But MPC does not sync very tight to OT either, 707 syncs well to OT.

#1468

Yah that does seem odd, although if I’m remembering correctly we might expect some amount of flamming since each sequencer will have a certain amount of internal jitter regardless of clock source. No idea how adding the OT inline might change anything unless there’s some midi messages getting filtered out? Just spitballing here, still a bit iffy with setting up mpc midi ins & outs.

Might have a play around testing with the mpc & 707 myself over the next day or so and see if anything else falls out.

#1469

Try putting snares on down beat on 707 and MPC, MPC as master, not pretty :slight_smile:

#1470

I can only imagine - it was the glaring snares that nearly sent me insane a few years back!

#1471

can anyone confirm if this is a bug?

#1472

Happy to try it @captain8, give me about a hour :wink:

1 Like
#1473

Ok 11mins :slight_smile:

Yeah acts same way as you describe here.

But - come out of recording in looper and you can go to main change tempo without losing loop, then can go back into looper and add further overdubs, not ideal but it seems not to lose the buffer this way.

1 Like
#1474

hmm you’re saying exit overdubbing, but keep it playing and then you don’t lose the buffer?

ok will try that

#1475

Yeah seemed to work like that for me.

#1476

that was the ticket man, thanks.

the looper is so deceptively simple but so good imo

1 Like
#1477

I am loving the size of the mpc one far more now than at first, but also I am much more disappointed that it doesn’t have an internal battery… even in spite of the small external batt packs available I think they really missed an opportunity to make the goto portable of this current era… they should have done it with the mpc one retro, would have been an even huger success…

the mpc live’s are cool, batt is really nice to have but they’re heavy Af,

something else they could have done on the mpc is updated the firmware with an intelligent loopback feature so that even though the mpc one only has 2 inputs that you could internally send tracks through virtual outputs that could feed the looper so there would be no feedback issues.

#1478

Batteries are heavy af! You won’t have much fun with small lightweight batteries on such a device. Take a volca and compare it with and without batteries. It gets 4 times as heavy.

1 Like
#1479

you know this one is pretty small, not a bad option but, it is what it is

#1480

Speaking about issues, I didn’t like the phones jack, very cheap and in a bad position also.
Checking my previous posts in this topic, there was a hum/buzz noise, now I realize also @darenager probably have a similar issue, completely forgot about it.
Regarding build quality, well, the live II is better in every aspect, hardware and software/features wise. Not that the one is bad, for the price is excellent, but the live i better and I think also the X is better built.
Speaking of other brands, the Ableton Push 2, Maschine MK III, Novation Launchpad III, all are very nicely built, not that I disassembled all of them, it is a feeling.

#1481

I’m not a fan of where the headphone jack is either.

Otherwise I think the built is great.

Not sure what you mean re software. They run the same OS so Live 2 / One have the exact same feature set.

#1482

Actually I don’t remember what are the differences, can you access the SD card via the usb connection on the one?
can you control ableton live?