Deluge vs MPC live

that’s good to hear. That’s what I’m most sceptical about the mpc, that it might feel like sitting in front of a computer/tablet for hours again.
The touch screen certainly has some big advantages for browsing menues etc. Also the sample editing seems rather convenient with this screen

The sampling screen is fantastic and the touch screen REALLY helps there.
The piano roll is terrible though and the touch screen feels worse than an iPad workflow there. But then I don’t really use the piano roll for inputing or manipulating patterns (I use a keystep or the pads).

All things considered, there’s no way around the touch screen on the MPC Live (maybe with the X), but it doesn’t necessarily feel like a boxed computer or iPad because of that.

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I had one for about a week and didn’t get along with it. It felt like an iPad, with pads and accessory buttons. All the bells and whistles are cool but it’s still kinda heavy and just didn’t feel natural to me. I also really didn’t dig the internal FX (aside from the xyz mode, THAT was super cool.) They felt very sterile and generic.

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For a while I had both at the same time, I still have the MPC and I’m really happy with it. The Deluge does everything, maybe too much for its interface and I found it really hard to work with it.
The MPC Live, despite some odd things, does all I need in a mostly logical way.
But it’s very subjective, if I needed something just sequence my midi gear, without too much sampling or the need for effects, I would go for the Deluge.

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Thanks. No that’s not the case, I actually have more midi sequencers (OT, DN) than hardware synths to sequence.
The Deluge sequencer looks just clever, intuitive. And I think it’s generally cool, that it doesn’t rely on a real screen, but that might also be a disadvantage, I don’t know :slight_smile:
Both seem to be really good and cover most things

Don’t underestimate the MPC’s “pad mixer.” The MPC only has “8 tracks” in standalone mode, yeah, but say you load up a 16 pad Drum Program. Each pad can be panned, levels adjusted, and have 4 insert effects placed on it. Plus the Program can have 4 effects, and your channel can have 4, you have 4 sends/returns, 4 master effects… you get the idea. I’ve never run out of CPU doing this, and I know I read an article with someone using 30+ AiR effects with minimal impact (I’d have to find it again if you want to take a peek. They were exploring the limits of the hardware).

Pad mixer makes dedicating one track to drums a lot easier than sample chain/p-lock slicing on the Octatrack, and I don’t have to sacrifice a neighboring track for two more effects if I want more, plus each drum sound can have its own effects.

Not getting rid of my Octatrack anytime soon, either. They compliment each other and are not necessarily mutually exclusive just because they’re samplers.

I don’t have any experience with the Deluge. The sequencer and built-in synth look pretty great, though

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@Unifono The best thing to do is just order a Deluge. You just have to use it to understand its possibilities and workflow. And it keeps its value, so selling is no problem.

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That’s also a good point; modern MPCs tend to sell for roughly half their new price when used :joy:

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really? In germany they seem to be sold at around 700-750 euro. Which is already quite cheap, a new one is 950

I mainly worry about sound quality. People say synth and fx sound bad :thinking:

Apart from that it looks really promising and innovative

Here in the US a Live is $1200 or so, and I pretty regularly see them for $700 (though $800-900 is a more common asking price, to be fair). MPC X gets absolutely destroyed, though, $2200 to $1500 XD

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I sold my MPC for €725,- Not too bad, but at this moment the Deluge has more re-sell value.

About the FX, they are not bad but also not the best. The developers are working hard (and fast) for improvement. They listen carefully to their community. 3.0 beta started last week, looks very promising.

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Ok, have to check more demos.
I’m somebody who is always defending the OT fx, so I don’t expect strymon or empress quality :slight_smile:

that’s very cool

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Coming from the octatrack(which I still have and love)I was worried about getting a mpc live.but I love it.fast to work with and easy to sample with, I already have over 120gb of samples stored on it. Setting up the software is a nightmare but tbh I never use it

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I am considering buying. And thats my only concern too. Mostly the fx. Perhaps could use a Strymon in the chain to overcome this.

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Or a Zoia…but the price is a bit high

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here we go again :smiley:

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The original fx’s are crappy, but the AIR stuff is good to very good. None of the reverbs will of course compete with a Strymon, but than that’s what the Strymons are for :slight_smile:

I bought mine a few months ago used here in Berlin for 850€ inclusive of an internal 256GB SSD and I haven’t seen any similar deal pop up on Kleinanzeigen since. 750-800€ for a device without hard drive is the going rate.

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Not sure if I understood your post correctly, but the MPC Live can handle much more than 8 tracks! Your point of course still holds, if you consider each pad being the equivalent to a “track” on the OT + the eight banks per program (i.e. 8x 16 samples per Program), that gives you a whole bunch of sounds you can set up, process and trigger on the fly.

I also agree with the complementarity of the MPC Live and the OT, although I had to think and experiment with the combo before both found their rightful place in their union. It’s easy to get lost or overwhelmed with both devices, as on paper they do similar things, but do them so differently and have strengths in different areas. Getting the MPC made me acknowledge and come to peace that the OT is phenomenal for some stuff (sample mangling!!!) and not so great for other things (slicing, chopping, finger drumming) and vice versa (MPC is AWESOME for sampling and sample triggering, the midi sequencing capabilities I skip though).

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