MPC Thread : MPC Live - MPC X - MPC One (Part 1)

As others have said, mpc looks no match for OT in these areas. But looks to have ‘enough’ for it to still spit out interesting sounds. Automation/resampling/slicing etc should allow some creativity for typical Elektronesque field of sounds. I won’t be selling my OT tho :wink:

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And there might be a simple reason for this. Both machines have been designed with quite different musical ideas in mind. MPC was never a “techno” dedicated machine like the OT or the other Elektrons with a sequencer. It was more of a sampling, chopping, time-stretching, and remix device. Completely different workflow. That’s why Hip-Hop producers adopted it :wink:

The interesting thing is indeed … both do not compete, because it’s quite hard, if not nearly impossible, to do the typical things of one machine on the other :wink:

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To me [ AR + JOMOX ALPHA ] + [ MPC Live + OT ] + HPD20 (Live Percussion / one-shots playing)
Powering by ACME 4
Mixing into Behring X18 then Final Enhancement in ANALOG HEAT…

When I solve my family issue that will be my definitive SETUP. I guess… :joy:
(maybe some kind of self/joke/irony on that I guess…)

Edit : I forgot Jomox Alpha Base, see :wink: irony hahaha
And I could live with AR + MPC Live + HPD20 (small setup)

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I’ll take the rytm and the MPC live, mix em with the RJM mini line mixer (or the rytm input if the live is loud enough) and put the heat on the main output. A lot of mileage just with those alone!

Ok ok, maybe a PO tonic or a preenFM to spice it up some more :diddly:

The Advertisement annoys me - seperate from the pack when its clearly a overhyped product. For hiphop its maybe decent, but for Techno i dont see so much usage besides launching prepared clips.

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Serious? Polyphonic 64 voice sampler with linear sequencing, step sequencing, automation, tons of memory options, keygroup instruments, clip launch, tons of simultaneous fx (tho quality seems questionable), option to launch/program/select sequences via pads like Elektron sequencers, bpm per sequence, x/y fx, external midi sequencing, full daw integration, decent connectivity, USB hub, audio tracks etc… And whatever they add later once it gets user feedback after being out in the wild.

Seems like the most bang for buck/feature rich unit that’s appeared in a long time. Hype seems justified… If it’s solid…

Just needs to find its way in to the right hands for some decent demo videos/creative workflow examples etc…

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it woulda been real easy to implement p-locks on the mpc live. if they’d done it I’d have bought it but it’s a deal breaker for me.
seems an amazin box for the money but very limited live unless you’re into finger drumming.

yeah, obviously useless to have a cv plus midi sequencer (with 999 bars sequences) with 128 tracks for making techno with outboard synths and modulars :nyan:

Look, forget the promo videos etc, they are only showcasing the “whats new” aspects. The barebones for making any kind of music have already existed on all MPCs since the MPC 60

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Depends on your angle/workflow I guess but I think there’ll be some pretty busy live performance demo vids coming out from users pretty quick after release. There’s a ton of stuff you can potentially ‘perform’ on it. Maybe it’s kind of biased towards ‘players’ rather than ‘tweakers’ in a way tho. Personally I have a kind of love/hate relationship with Elektron knob tweaking. Hate the response curves. I’ll be pretty happy to just be tweaking knobs that feel expressive in a normal way…

P-locks is a shame to not be included but automation will do for me as a vague workaround if I want that kind of stuff in the mpc. I’ll still use my OT for ‘elektronised’ stuff.

Just had a thought, Wondering whether in practise it would be pretty quick to just duplicate a sound to another pad on a kit, tweak parameters and use that tweaked sound on the step where you’d put the p-lock if using Elektron? Like if copy/paste is fast then that might be pretty feasible workaround to get the same sounds/vibe as using p-locks. Not ideal but I think once I get my hands on the mpc I’ll figure out ways to do what I want for most Elektron kind of tricks. Except scenes/fader… Hoping they add something in that area or expand the x/y functionality…

Ok so you’ll buy an Ot again later !
I had an Hpd15, great pads. Hpd20 seems better.
Much better than Mpcs.

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I’d be more interested in the Live if it had polyrhythms, parameter locks and LFOs. if it did, I’d be sold.

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Yep my thoughts too…

I thought someone already confirmed polyrhythm stuff is possible on the mpcs?

Re p-locks and Lfos. It seems like there’s kind of a divide between people’s requirements. Fair enough either side of the fence. For my music things like p-locks and lfos are cool/useful/fun to have but not intrinsic. I’m more in to finding interesting/quirky source samples and often barely touch them after that besides pitch/timestrech/fx and then composition. I mostly just find weird rhythms/loops hidden in samples or use samples as polyphonic instruments etc. For that kind of stuff I don’t really ‘need’ p-locks/Lfos and the Mpc just looks super fast/convenient for traditional linear kind of composition.

Its a taste thing I guess. For example I prefer stuff like Panda Bear’s Person Pitch LP (made on roland SP’s, as recently discussed in another thread) to stuff that is more focused on tons of modulation etc.

And for everything else OT is still king and not going anywhere :wink:

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It seems lots of people here are just wishing for an Octatrack in MPC format, as far as I know, MPCs are completely different, both in form factor and “philosophy”…

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Anyone know if you can browse and instantly switch kits while resampling? And can you change kits via midi? So in theory I could run a midi cable out and back in and use a midi track to cycle through different sounds on the same sequence?

Yeah I think polyrhythms were confirmed as possible in the current MPC Software version and with a Touch. And @Callofthevoid is right. It’s horses for courses. The MPC won’t have Elektron style p locks or the OT’s wackier shit but then what box out there can do it all?!

Owning an OT and Live would be overkill for me but I think you’d have a hell of a lot of fun if that was the sum of your set up.

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I doubt that. Imho Step Sequencer(edit) on MPC will be cr.p! It will work for simple stuff(like kicks, snares and so on) but ones you start messing with serious programs with a lot of samples it will be unusable. You will be better off with Grid edit where you can see all the sounds and tap to add trigs(notes).

That works for elektron because they have limited tracks/sounds. You have 8 trakcs(OT) and when you select the track you can clearly see where are the trigers. On mpc when you select a drum tack you have 128 pads each with his own Step sequence(equivalent of OT track). You are p-locking what? How many params does OT have to P-Lock and how many MPC? Imagine the nightmare if you have multiple tracks with multiple samples each with his own pattern(and P-Locks) per PAD.

MPCs way of sequencing is simple. What you play, it will playback. I wouldn’t rely on Step Sequencing feature.

MPC is not polyphonic OT. Completely different beast.

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The step sequencer on the MPC Live looks pretty straight forward to me. Especially the way I work with MPCs. On the MPC live you get 8 banks per program (kit) The way it looked to me is each bank gives you 16 sounds to step sequence at a time. I like to use each bank as a separate kit, in this case I’ll have 8 kits per program in the MPC Live.

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Overkill!?!? The capabilities of my setup already waaaaaay exceed my imaginative capabilities. I see no reason to stop now :metal:

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Ok the sequencer linear feature is something new coupled with pattern mode. I have not seen that besides in Ableton Live. It seems to deliver a lot what Live can do. Many of us already could install it on a laptop and sequence linear, launch clips etc. Write emails, when on tour wont you take your office with you? Simple midi controller with 16 pads connected with tons of customization options? Probably many users hype something what they already have.

I am not a big fan of touch displays, maybe i am wrong. But i wait on your review and demo.