its not unlimited. 128 drum, keygroup, clip or MIDI tracks in any combination. Which is plenty though for most cases 
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dang! yeah, i always get something wrong.
128
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Should be enough seeing as there is 64 spots per program.
I think for you to really understand you would have know the ecosystem of the MPC. Nick D (akai employee) posted a really informative response here: https://getsatisfaction.com/akai_professional/topics/mpc-live-d3ghdqa4k7j9u which explains the entire hierarchy of the MPC Live/MPC X.
Audio tracks are a new edition to the MPC ecosystem. They are currently the closest thing the MPC has to a daw audio track, but theyāre also very limited when compared to a daw. I believe it has been mentioned by Akai that a more realized song mode/audio tracker is in the works?
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Thanks for the link, super informative
Sure no problem!
Guys, the MPC Live pads do transmit midi in program mode (drum mode)?
Thanks!
Like let s say I wanna sequence the MPC drums from Ableton, so I press Rec in Ableton and start tapping the Mpc padsā¦ but no luckā¦ 
Sāup yāall, donāt mind me, but I have one more quick question, similar to my last one:
Iām still reading through the MPC Live manual here, and now Iām wondering if itās possible to map velocity to slices, as apposed to the padās 4 sample layers? Iām guessing not, but thought Iād ask anyway. I see that you can assign a slice number to each pad layer, but that would still only give you 4 layers total. Iād like to be able to use velocity to trigger incremental slices in a longer sample chain. Wishful thinking?
Cheers!
Comparing bfd with an mpc is pretty silly imo.
No where near the same application, again imo.
Agreed.
Iāll take that as a ānoā then (smirk)?
I guess hausland would have suggested mapping velocity to slices if it were possible; you know, when I asked about pad layers the first time (sheepish grin).
Bummer though! Oh well, cāest la vie.
For the record, I bought one yesterday anyway. I need a comprehensive sampler, with pads I can hit, for an upcoming tour, and we wonāt have redundancy for software applications onstage; so itās the MPC Live or bust really. Hereās hoping it works outā¦
Cheers!
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Glad to see you on board John 
Iām sure youāll push some AKAI buttons too 
Make sure you join GS thread tooā¦A lot of action goin on there with Dan from AKAI following up closelyā¦
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Yessir! We needed the savage on the team!
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Considering the effort put in to get tempest development done, I love this 
. Though that was mostly coordinated with Roger Linn iirc. Who has a higher standard than inmusic alesis nukai
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Hahaā¦ Thanks, Yorgos and Strangelov3!
Yes, wellā¦ Iām trying to not look too closely for bugs in this one. I think debugging the Tempest was enough of an undertaking for one lifetime (wink).
All I need the MPC to do is be a drum machine. I just wanna be able to press record, hit the pads, have them trigger the appropriate noises, and ultimately play back what I played, as I played itā¦ No random voice stealing, no yada yada! Seems reasonable, right? Are you listening, Tempest? Ahem!
Anyway, I am meticulously sampling my Tempest sounds into the MPC as we speak. Hence my questions about velocity mapping and pad layers, etc. Itās a lot of sounds to sample, and each have a lot of velocity response baked in, so Iām just trying to get a feel for what the most efficient workflow might be, and what is likely to yield the most dynamic results. Itās a step backward in expressivity, but a step forward in overall functionality I think. In any case, the MPC should prove the lesser of two evils in this respect, or at least I would hope so (nervous grin).
Thus far, Iām making sample chains for each of my sounds at 16 different velocities (mostly for posterity), making ānon-destructiveā slices of those hits, then mapping whichever 4 of those slices happen to work best as velocity layers to each pad. Weāll see if this (potentially misguided) logic serves me wellā¦
Cheers!
make sure you also try the round robin (pad cycle) mode. Wonderful on hihats and snares!
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Thanks for the tip, tsutek!
I actually have several sounds that donāt use velocity per se, but they do use noise and random LFOās as modulators; so being able to cycle through 4 different samples of those sounds will help preserve their random natureā¦ 
Cheers!
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Iāll need to keep an eye on this. When I was following Live prior to release what I was really hoping for was the Live acting as a modern multitrack for recording guitar/bass/synths to go along with my sample/midi tracks. If they can get that kind of functionality sorted out well I would definitely consider picking one up! My roots are on an MPC1K, so Iām quite familiar with the basic workflow.
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There was a moment when I wasnāt thrilled by my MPC Live. I was pretty close to selling it, and then Akai released the 2.3 update. It didnāt address many of my issues, but it showed that Akai was invested in improving the MPC. The 2.4 update has been great though. There are so many new quality effects that allow for me to use the MPC as an actual tool for sound design. Another saving grace has been Akai Danās presence on the gearslutz message board. Heās been pretty transparent about Akaiās vision for the MPC and has laid down a roadmap for 2019 that addresses all of my issues. If everything heās talked about can be implemented, then the MPC Live/X will become the hardware unit Iāve always dreamed of (with the addition of my Octatrack, which fills a different void.)
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So true 