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Good luck with the MPC! Some things to be aware of, that I am discovering:

  1. It is easily as convoluted to learn as the Octatrack, imo. Fortunately, you should be able to figure out a majority by instinct, but it can be a very deep machine, especially once you install JJOS2XL. I think part of the problem is that you kind of have to learn the basics from the foundation of the Akai OS, and then try learning JJOSXL from online resources and the broken English in the manual. Be prepared to take some time to really just learn the machine.

  2. Think about how you are going to fit it into your setup. I’ve got mine set up as a slave to my OT, but have had to spend the last couple of days just playing around with the routing so that I could still use the MPC sequencer without conflicting with the OT. Both sequencers want to be the star of the show, so it might take some effort to retrain one of them to play backup. For me, since I have kind of a convoluted setup, I decided to devote Midi Out B on the MPC to only my multitimbral gear, and set up my midi patchbays to only feed out accordingly. That also meant sorting out all sorts of other things so that the MPC and my Elektrons didn’t step on each other’s toes.

  3. Get the fat pads. It’s so much more enjoyable of an instrument to play with them. If that means you have to do the pad upgrade, so be it-you’d have to do it eventually anyway.

Funny you mention smokes and drinks in this context as well, as I quit drinking and smoking (well, cigarettes anyhow :wink: ) about a month ago, and the money I’ve saved made it possible to get the MPC and all the upgrades. Not to mention that I physically feel so much better :joy: .