What lack of communication? Just read from GS a few days ago that Dan From Akai has agreed to reconsider the reintroduction of MENU + PAD commands for navigating the MPC live menus. Sounds quite communicative to me tbh
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AFAIK there are zero alternatives for a feature-to-feature identical stereo processor with 100% MIDI control. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
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For me dan on gearslutz saying they might consider things or just saying “it’s something we’d like to do” didn’t really cut it. The new mpcs are cool, I think I’ll just lay off until they’re more developed. That is if it’s not too late by then, I’m quite enjoying maschine now 
I’d have loved menu+pad functions again, shame they wouldn’t be marked on the box though
Wow… “considering” the REintroduction of something so obvious that it shouldn’t have been removed in the first place. Sorry, that’s not enough, far from it. Taking customers requests into account with a dated road map. That’s the communication I’m talking about.
Heading off topic here but not sure I follow.
Akai (like Elektron) entered R&D and production of something they had solid intentions with. Now, in Akai’s case, the fan base is rabid and borderline almost gleefully wished on Live/X to fail (in some quarters).
What I will say in Akai’s defence is they have engaged very well on forums in my opinion. Dan in particular has been a shining example of solid customer engagement. Companies should learn from it. He has been busy helping with user issues, requests, concerns.
Sure a lot of this could and arguably should have been baked into the development cycle but no release is perfect. From my MPC Live experiences though I had a blast with the thing. I was up and running far quicker than when learning a comparable piece of hardware.
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Akai is no shining beacon of honesty and customer trust 
They have a sworded history of blatantly lying to customers, remember the renaissance fiasco?
They said the mpc ren had the actual circuitry of the mpc3000 in hardware inside the box, only when people got and opened it up there was no such thing.
Then someone found a file in the pc program, renamed the extension to vst and found that there was a VERY basic bitcrusher vst they were running in the background when you enabled the mpc3000 vintage “circuitry” 
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Another great one was when they released the mpc fly for iPad and hard coded the pads to random jumbled midi cc numbers so you couldn’t use the controller with any other iPad apps 
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Shall we talk about those “2 gigabytes for samples” printed on every boxes ?
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There’s so many 
The live was actually pretty good, I hope it gets where it needs to be eventually. Felt a bit toddler friendly imo but it did make it easy to get going. I think it needs a more mature graphic overhaul but I think it was designed with the new young EDM/hip hop producer as a demographic so I don’t know if that will ever happen. More important than how it looks it needs all the basics added first, particularly on the X. No drawing of automation with that huge colour touch screen on a £1800 music production centre is lame. in that price range the FX should be the absolute bomb too. Dan talking on GS is better than nothing but there should be more actual information, more rough time frames, more updates. Even small victories
@buska that’s funny as shit
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this.
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THIS.
I logged in from work, especially to heart this.
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of course we don’t, because there are thousands upon thousands more guitar players doing the opposite. The stylistic potential of an instrument like guitar, and especially piano, is far wider than that of a step sequencer (and 64 steps at that!) w/ some basic tone generators and programmable filters.
Unless I can get my OT/MD/MM hybrid machine in the original form factor, or a REAL upgrade to the OT, I’m probably done buying Elektron gear (except maybe the Heat). I enjoy my OT and A4, and the MM has a special place in my heart, so they fullfill most of what I need or is available from the boxes), The new form factors and prices are just ridiculous for the MKII line. I dig the DT and DO form factors, but the device limitations seem like they’re just done to “justify” the price point (in 2018, there’s no reason for only 8 voice polyphony on a digital synth that’s supposed to be 4 tracks and costs almost $800).
With that said, I’ll continue to rock the 3 I have, and occasionally desire an ARMKI just to have drum a drum machine. I sold my MD and I’ve only missed having it once (2 nights ago, actually) but I managed to get on with the OT and MD samples (though it’s not the same for P-locking).
I wonder if you’ve ever been in a position like Dan from Akai. He’s not responsible only to the customers, he’s responsible to Akai. Bureaucracy and all that.
It’s a ”damned you dont, damned if you do” world for tech devs out there. A very thankless job. In that world, even stating considering something means alot (and lets face it, that’s about the best he can do anyways)
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I’m not interested in the personal case of “Dan” or whoever is in charge or wether he’s doing the best he can. I blame Akaï as an organization, not a single person.
Fair enough. I personally think your view and expectations are a bit on the naive side, but if you think that’s how big businesses handle their CS in 2018, who am I to argue.
As a customer, I expect to be cheated out of my money and treated like dirt… and if the opposite happens, I am pleasantly surprised. Maybe I’m the cynic here? Although I like to think its ”realism”… PS did I mention I work partly in CS too lol
Well, I prefer to remain naive then 
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oh, btw, I’m a developer for a living so… And thank whatever god, my company is small enough that bureaucracy is kept at minimum. I even get to talk directly to customers, can you believe that ?
U a lucky one then!
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