Live drumming is so much fun! I’m going to use the MD primarily for looper purposes now, except some straight kicks and hats. 8 tracks for RAM recording/playback. Unquantized percussions, pure funk!
Maybe shut down the elektrons during a gig and switch to 100% live?
In a way, this thing seems like a MPC “for the poor” but I perceive the lack of a sequencer and other special features as an advantage because limitations improve creativity and I’m sure that I would otherwise focus on the preparation of nice patterns.
Anybody here who’s doing live drumming on drum pads like this?
i saw this one few months ago and thought i would get one but i’m still not 100% convinced…it does look interesting and it would be nice to know if it’s worth buying it or not. for the size/price seems like a good solution for a cheap drum pad/sample player
I played with one a few months back. Felt pretty good for the price. Didn’t like that it only uses midi channel 10, and if I recall there are some limits on the sample playback time, but if you want to add pads or one shots, it seems like a good deal.
It can do what it’s supposed to do and do that quite well: play 8 samples via 8 velocity-sensitive pads. you can store up to 512 samples on a sd card, use several sd cards if you need more, adjust some basic parameters per sample, save/load kits, exchange samples, fire up samples. The pads feel very responsive, better than on a MPC 500 in my opinion.
Main drawback from my perspective is that you can’t play back samples during a loading process. It should be used together with a sampler, looper or other gear so that you don’t need it 100% of the time. But then again, who’s going on stage with just 8 drum pads?
That little player has so many disadvantages… Yet, I bought one to accompany my MnM, and it’s wonderful! I can load whatever I want (well, not exceeding something less then 30 MB), and play and sequence it thru reverb or some other machine in MnM. Besides, if you feel like drumming, just do it - even while MnM is running. MPX8 was just the missing sample part of MnM - one track less (ok, TWO tracks less, one for MIDI and one for input machine), but so much more! And so much fun…
MnM+MPX sounds like a good combo, because you can ensure some straightness (for instance regarding kick and snare) via the MnM’s MIDI and still drum around as you like. just kit changes need some “improvisation”… but you can still just use the MnM alone while samples are loading.
I like the MPX because it’s so simple, small and straight-forward.
If only AKAI would wake up and make another actual MPC with lots of audio processing power- with enough audio and MIDI I/O it could be the missing link for a lot of hardware studios and live setups. Give it a multi touch screen for sample browsing editing and chopping and it will sell…
Instead people pay $6-800 for the 10 year old MPC 1000 and buy Maschines rather than similar AKAI products…
playing the MD on the quneo pads is also very nice.
setting the quneo up to e.g. xy CCs linked to FM machine settings, or sample retrig, turns the MD into a whole new beast.
@RyanElektric: you’re right, they should make a new “real” MPC.
@tMt: nice idea! I just miss one thing when MIDI-controlling the MD : velocity-sensitivity. that’s why I purchased the MPX, instead of an usual drum pad controller.
We are deciding on some of the products we will be carrying and the MPX 8(the MPX 16 is being released this summer i believe) it was one of the choices, so I decided to do a search and found this thread.
The thinking was that this would be a great addition to the Octatrack not for the sampling (Octatrack has that well covered ) Velocity sensitivity but as I understand it velocity sensitivity can only be transmitted to midi tracks ?
(anyone with knowledge of this please feel free to comment)
Anyways editing looks pretty straight forward never thought about the MnM not a bad idea maybe a good companion to the AR. for added samples I guess that way you don’t have to share voices ?
For $ 100 you can’t beat it , great live tool and studio tool
Amen to that !!!
I came from MPC’s and the SP1200 currently have a Renaissance.
MPC are excellent midi control hubs, multi midi out ports 64 tracks of sequencing on some models ( I think more with the JJOS) multi outputs
For the Life of me I don’t understand why the just didn’t develope for iOS and Windows tablets connected to Ren, Studio or element., that would have given NI a run for their many money.( I love NI design but prefer the AKAI MPC work flow)
It could street for sub $2K (cost iPad or windows tablet included) be far cheaper than a Circklon (love those units but too rich for my blood)
MPC 4000 but updated.
The iPad seems like a natural host for an MPC or equivalent - they’re ubiquitous and the processing power and touch interface are built in, so a hardware bolt-on with good pads, MIDI interfaces, storage and audio I/O seems like a golden opportunity for a PC-free command centre / sampler, much like the 4000.
My main concern is the potential upgrade situation, because obsolescence seems like a genuine concern with iOS devices - software updates that require newer machines, changes to the physical connectors and intrusive OS / SDK amendments are all valid concerns that have already had real-world impact.
Still, you have to balance that against the potential for development - an MPC2000XL is still a dependable piece of kit today, 15 years after release, but - third party card readers aside - it hasn’t changed at all in that time. Obviously a iPad app allows for continual development (as well as improvements in processing power).
Personally I’m always happiest with a self-contained unit, and at the moment the Octatrack is my control centre and I’m very happy with that. That’s not to say that a nice, touch-friendly waveform display wouldn’t be welcome…
Is there a better tool that does this these days or is the MPX8 still probably the best bet? Basically just looking for something to be able to play back a few long samples.
