Digitakt v MPC Live: real buyers survey (UK£)

Oh, it’s intuitive to use alright.

Exactly! Can’t even resample with panning or the stereo fx intact - epic fail!

You can fit a LOT of stereo one-shots and short loops into that much RAM

Okay, I’ve locked in my decision. MPC Live = preordered. Thinking it will be great live in combination with a Nord Drum 2, the Heat, and a couple of H9s.

Choice determined mainly due to the expressiveness and immediacy of the pads, plus stereo sampling. I might have made a different decision if the DT had allowed it. Still haven’t bought an Elektron machine other than the Heat, and definitely want to. It will happen, maybe even the DT a little bit down the line.

Good times.

where’s Motty? we need a score check!!!

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The things that make me favor the DT over the Live:

Cost
Reverb (effects, filter) quality
Size

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Thanks for your continued lively participation team, I’ll update the scores this evening after I pickup my motor from the garage and have a cup of tea.

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You won’t be sorry. I had the MPC Touch for a year, and the UI, workflow and overall design (pads, etc) won me over, big time. As soon as the Live was announced, I sold it off, along w/an MPC 500 and Boss RC-505 loopstation to finance the Live. I know exactly what to expect, and I cannot think Of anything that would dissuade me from that purchase. I have (and adore) an OP-1, but between the two, I hope to be done w/ gear purchases for years.

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Coming from someone with an Op1 to be able to watermark against that sounds promising :slight_smile: General concern has been if the Live would ‘feel’ nice to use/work on with the UI/OS.

You sold your rc505 to get the Live, does that mean that you feel you can basically do all the same looping stuff with as much flexibility on the Live (from your experience with the Touch looper)? Or you just flipped it cos you needed the £? Been wanting a 505 for a while… Hard to find detailed mpc looper vids…

Though apparently Empress are putting a powerful multitrack looper in their Reverb pedal that I have in a free update soon… Need to check that first :wink:

Let’s put it this way; the MPC will be an embarrassment of riches. If I were you, I’d check YouTube for “MPC Touch” vids. As I said, the Live UI is 90% based on 1.9 software w/ the Touch. The other 10% being features new to 2.0 software; audio tracks, clip launching, etc.

If you exhaust those Touch videos, you should have a very clear picture.

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Watched a ton already! hyped for it to get released :slight_smile:

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Great to hear that you dig working with the Touch, which bodes well for the Live. I’m pretty pumped by the possibilities, and also really love finger drumming / hand percussion, so after demoing the Touch last week I was pretty much sold. Plan on using it in three ways: as the brain of a live rig, as an inspiration generator to get started cooking up new tracks, and as a live hand percussion instrument. Also curious to know how deep the looping can go.

  1. MPC Live
  2. I hope it will solve the problem of bringing my productions to the stage without having to resort to a static playback track or having to re-program the track for a device that simply isn’t capable. Also stereo samples.
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1 - DT
2 - Not sure the two are really comparable, but here it is Digitakt… I am looking for a rock-stable drum instrument with added flexibility and for what I want to do, my priority is p-locks against single-shot percussion samples and flexible sequencing via a great interface. I have watched a LOT of videos and I feel Digitakt has overcome all my initial reservations here (and we didn’t even see the midi or master functions properly yet).

If my priority was loops, playable finger pads, or battery power, then it could easily have been MPC live because I am planning on buying the Overbridge expansion and the price difference is relatively small once this is factored in. But right now, I am happy dealing with stereo sampling, polyphony, slicing etc in the DAW (when I do it - which is not often! :slight_smile: ). Finally, the aesthetics should not matter - but I love the look of Digitakt.

Both will be pretty fantastic and I am sure will have a lot of fans. But Digitakt is what I am looking for to complement my existing hardware, and the workflow will fit in perfectly with the ways I like to work.

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Yep, the DT surely looks better - it’s a little beauty. The MPC Live has a plastic early nineties basketball shoe vibe - nonetheless, it’s the one for me.

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Reebok Pump?

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I couldn’t agree more! I LOVE the design of the Digitakt. I can only imagine how good it feels to interact with it as well. Probably the best looking piece of gear I can remember.

Bwahahahaha! Nailed it! I had an insta-flashback to my old Reebok Pumps (what a disappointment THOSE were, hopefully the MPC will be different in that way)

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Can def see the mpc/old sneakers thing :slight_smile: Not the most beautiful box ever made…

I must be getting old/losing touch re the digitakt design tho. I don’t dislike how it looks, it’s a nice box, but just looks like a computer keyboard/transport with some knobs on to me!? Nothing special… Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder I guess :slight_smile:

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Just a tilted screen, wood panels and old 1980’s Kenwood knobs would make all the difference :blush:

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Nah, you’re not old or losing touch–it’s just a design thing. If you don’t spend time looking at architecture blogs, watching entire documentaries about a single typeface (and know the difference between a typeface and a font), and aren’t following at least 20 different graphic designers on instagram–then industrial design/product design is probably just not in your wheelhouse. I think that probably describes about 80-90% of people.

Some of us enjoy a minimal aesthetic where everything that is not essential is removed, and everything essential is immediately available with tactile control. Other people don’t care much or they prefer things to be NOT minimal and have bright flashy lights everywhere. Neither is right or wrong of course, just preference.

Plus, little design decisions add up to the overall experience. On the Digitakt, the lights don’t blink. They light up, then fade so it is less abrupt and distracting/unpleasant than a simple flashing light. It is a small decision, but those types of small decicions add up to a much better end product and user experience imo.

Compare that to the Aira series of instruments. I know a bunch of people who wouldn’t buy anything that looks that way no matter how it sounds. I know other people who bought an Aira (usually more than 1) MOSTLY because of how they look.

Would anyone in this thread choose the MPC Live over the Digitakt based 100% on just the way they look? I wonder.

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