MC-707 vs MPC Live II

This is what’s interesting to me as well. I had the Force for a while, but as an Ableton user I couldn’t help but find it was Ableton, but worse. And it wasn’t portable at all for me. Looking at the One or Live 2 I can see enough differences to make it function as a sketchpad. The Ableton export is Ace.

MPC over the 707 for me. Sold the 707 recently but hope Roland can improve areas of the OS, particularly the sampler. Much preferred the hands on nature of the MC909 too so would like to see Roland offer a new device combining some of the hands on feel of that with some of the newer features in the 707.

MPCs are light years ahead for me. Never understood the DAW comments as you can use whichever bits of the OS you need and ignore the rest if you want to replicate working on an MPC2000 or similar older device. I’d much rather choose how to work, setting my own limits, than have it enforced on me.

G

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I’m pretty sure this is exactly what people mean by the DAW comments. It’s a do-everything solution that will be overwhelming if you don’t set your own limits. And setting these limits requires solid knowledge of both the DAW specifically and music production workflows generally.

Compared to Roland devices which tend to be much more focused and provide a ton of their own limits built-in :wink:

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Have both. The BIG difference is sampling. If you want to do a lot of sample based music go MPC. I think the MPC also wins in sequencing other gear. Yet, I prefer the 707. It is more natural for my line of thinking. But, I can see someone using the 707 to create loops, then moving them to the MPC for chopping and arranging.

There is one thing I don’t see mentioned very often. MPC loop based sound sets are usually full of applied effects. In fact, it is hard to find loop based sound packs that are effects free. This makes it hard to get a clean sound when putting a song together. A lot of times I get inspiration from the MPC packs and play with arrangements, the recreate those loops on the 707 to get back control of the effects.

different than a daw, the mpc always feels more like an old porta studio 4 track to me, just gives me those vibes, like a sampling beatmachine + a portastudio in one for when you wanna take it there, kinda like this guys vibes

daws on the other hand feel alot more rigid to me

this is basically the same workflow I employ, along with substantial amounts of slicing sprinkled throughout… then I export to the daw and go from this chill kind of vibe to daw mode, and when I’m in my daw I don’t feel like this at all.
when I had the mc-707 the workflow felt a little less organic to my process, but feature wise it’s definitely a capable box

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I just use the MPC like a Portastudio - see video shared by Captain8 for similar idea. Never had a desire to use all the features of a full blown DAW and had only used a Portastudio previously. If I ever decide to change the way I work, the MPC will support that and I won’t need to spend any more. Appreciate others mileage may be different and maybe some people get sidetracked if they find choices overwhelming.

Current MPC line lets the user choose their own menu layouts so it’s very easy to group together the features you need and ignore those that you don’t.

G

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