Hi! I know, I know…they are different machines, different workflows, etc. but…anyone here who oowns both machines? I just want your impressions or opinion about the sequencer Digitakt vs Akai MPC 3 (or 3.6 o.s. version)
I currently owns a Digitakt 2 which I love, but I am seriously considering to by a MPC Live 3 for different reasons (specially because I love the clip launching and the fact that I can see the whole song finished), but I was wondering how are the things comparable with the Digitakt (step sequencer, parameter locks, and so on).
I love both, though they lend themselves to very different approaches to the workflow and compliment each other very well.
Mpc is more about playing and recording live. DT is more about programming. They both can do the other way, but they excel at their own way of doing it and if you’re like me you will love both ways of working. You won’t regret having both!
To answer your question regarding step seq and param lock: the DT runs circles on the mpc regarding step sequencing and parameter locking. You can do some of it on an mpc to a certain extent, but there’s no competition there, even in the Live 3 where step sequencing got improved with new buttons I don’t believe it holds a candle to the elektron sequencer when doing elektron sequencer stuff and the elektron way.
Hi!
I have an Mpc2500 and dt2.
So, I know mpc2500 is not a live 3 but some spécifications are the same…
→ Mpc has polyphony! Not dt2.
It’s very important when two samples on a track have to merge. Per exemple, when the sample begin every first step of one bar and the length of sample has to continue to play when it is replay on the next bar. Ideal to merge athmos orctexture sample, tail of relase of synth or voice. Digitakt doesn’t do it!
The mpc live 3 had much better parameter locking then anyone who hasn’t even used one really imagines… it has many articulations you can step lock and any effect, any parameter. Super powerful, but super different too.
MPC Live 3 does not have a built-in “parameter locking” feature in the same way some other hardware does, but it offers a form of per-step automation that can be used for similar creative effects.
Users can record automation for parameters like tempo, volume, and others on a step-by-step basis, though a limitation of the feature is that it may not be as versatile as the per-step modulation seen on other devices like the Elektron Digitakt. Some users have requested the feature be improved to offer more functionality
Yes it does, do you own one? Because I do, and it does indeed. It has the ability to lock any parameters of any effects to a step and drum articulations to a step. They are available in the step menus under the steps. You can also lock all that stuff you said too. I haven’t really gotten deep in it yet but I do know that. I’m not sure what else you can do.
I currently own a L3 and I’ve had both the og DT and DT2
P-locking and modulation possibilities are endless on the MPC Live 3 — LFOs, the envelope follower, and a huge mod matrix. You can p.lock or automate basically everything, how and when the layers will sound, articulation dinamics, sends…
It just takes time, and Akai really needs to refine the workflow, because in its current state it’s a PITA to scroll through long target lists. It would be much better to just press a step and have a pop up window with all the modulatable parameters.
Using the step sequencer for automation can lead to great happy accidents tho, but I’d love to decouple the automation lane from the gate lane, or at least be able to route an automation lane from another track.
If Akai tightens up the MIDI side of the MPC, the Push would lose one of its two real advantages over the L3.
You can do anything you’d do on a Digitakt (and much more) with an MPC, but it’s nowhere near as enjoyable as turning on the Digitakt and just playing, having different track lengths, and so on. The MPC feels absurdly slow to operate in that way.
You need a different state of mind, a lot of patience, an established workflow, and a clear end goal to achieve what you’d naturally do on the Digitakt just by turning it on (and that’s exactly what I’m trying to accomplish so I can sell a lot of gear. I’m trying to use the L3 for microsound and glitch-oriented music).
It’s as if the seeds for a truly special device — even for an experimental musical approach — are already there, but they still need to bloom.
The quick edit menu in the step sequencer has stuff you can do quick though like filler, envelope, pitch, plock etc. Also, you can set up global q-link macros that you can plock to get crazy quick stuff going. Also there is a place where you can set it so whatever you touch on the knob’s on the screen gets recorded as a plock. I’m not sure how it works though I haven’t gotten deep in it yet.
Slop generated comments are not welcome here. Please refrain from ever using that useless crap to answer a question posted here. That’s rude and disrespectful to everyone reading this site.
Yes, you can even create a sort of instrument definition for your midi instrument and rename all the CCS, save the midi program for future recall without having to watch the midi chart every time
