Thanks alot for sharing your impressions!!
By the way, are you sure there aren’t 8 stereo tracks in standalone? I think they specify so on their site.
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Yeah, there are 8 tracks available. But there are only 6 individual outputs…so that means there are 6 tracks that can be routed to separate channels on a mixer. To me, that’s the same as only having 6 tracks to work with. I’m still very confused why there would be only 6 individual outs with 8 tracks available. Probably the strangest decision on the whole box imo.
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You can run the software on Windows 7. One dude in the group described what updates you will need. I will ask him.
Edit:
Ok finally got to use 2.0!!
Just managed to install these updates.
After constantly getting the error 1603 (wich stated that my win7 needed to get updated to its full potential, not getting all the updates through official windows updater i got a mail from iLok with some info about 2 updates i need to find and install. Ok with all the try and error i found out i needed another one 1st to get these 2 on my system. Here goes:
Step1: try to find update pack KB3020369 (you need this to install the next one)
Step2: try to find KB3125574 this is a service pack with multiple updates in 1 package.
Step3: try to find update KB3033929 ( this is an update that’s actually in the previous package BUT i found out you need to do an actual separate install of this one.)
Step 4: install the license manager from iLok (you FINALLY can install this one without undergoing an error 1603!!)
Step 5 run mpc 2.0 (and it finaly goes further than "needs to link with iLok)
Hope this help some of you guys out who had the same struggle?
If you want to have 2.0 work on Windows 7 you have to have had these 2 updates: (i experienced an error called 1603)
KB3033929 & KB3125574
before you want to install KB3125574 you need to get KB3020369 first.
These updates will make the install of iLok on your system possible so you can open 2.0… god damn this was a hell to get throught tho’!
As far as I can understand, you need fully updated windows 7 and it should work.
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Aaah, I see. You have a point!
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I remember reading the spec sheet when it was uploaded a few months ago and it said it would run on windows 7. Then I got my MPC and couldn’t find any mention of compatibility with windows 7 anywhere, so I gave up.
I would be VERY excited if I could run it on windows 7, so definitely keep me updated on that info. Thanks a bunch!
As far as doing an A/B test of the different timestretching, 90% of my studio is in boxes but I may have a video camera laying around not yet boxed. @Yorgos_Arabatzis, I haven’t compared to the complex pro algorithm directly, but since I’ve used complex pro for MOST of my Ableton stuff over the last few years, I can tell you that the MPC is way better even in standalone mode. Hearing them side-by-side isn’t necessary to notice a difference so massive. I wouldn’t even put them on the same planet, frankly.
If you try stretching something 250+ BPM higher or lower using complex pro, it sounds absolutely terrible by the time you get to maybe 10-15BPM away from the original tempo. I’d say the range on the standalone that sounds really good is about 70 BPM or so, which is a HUGE sweet spot imo. Of course, that depends on a lot of factors like type of sample, etc. Also, I’ve only timestretched demo samples and a few one-hits from my own collection so far. I wouldn’t trust my limited experiences with the MPC timestretching TOO far. After all, it’s just one man’s opinion after using the unit mostly for MIDI and one-hits so far. Loops are the next thing I’m going to dive into though, and I’m sure the uglier side of the timestretching will come out with full loops being stretched.
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Just read the EDIT in my post. It works for sure. The dude is legit!
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For real? That’s a pretty big deal if accurate. Isn’t the standalone timestrech the weakest of the 3 mpc algos? With the strongest (only available on the computer) being Elastique? Which is the same algo as reaper if I’m not mistaken and to my ears not nearly as good as complex pro in ableton for many uses. (edit - So it would be odd if the mpc software’s ‘weakest’ algo, was actually better than it’s ‘strongest’ algo…which would need to be the case for it to be better than Complex Pro… As Reaper clearly isn’t and uses the same algo as MPC’s ‘best’…)
Have you tried it with a sampled chromatic instrument? Like for example a single piano note sample with some sustain. Played with timestrech active, chromatically and polyphonically. The difference between Ableton’s ‘beats’ algo and Ableton’s ‘complex pro’ algo is huge when used for this kind of thing in terms of maintaining realistic timbre faithful to the original source.
hello
this thing is a beast!
get this, in addition to all the midi/drum/etc tracks, the audio tracks actually run PARALLEL to that stuff! So you always have an 8 track OT-but-not-as-smooth recorder which can grab audio from any input on the fly 
The UI is a mess compared to working with the 1k - maybe just too used to it… will take time to become fluent.
I’m resampling the outputs of my preen fm while feeding it with MIDI seq data… The results in the audio tracks can immediately be warped on the fly, edited etc. Kinda like how you can combine midi clips with audio clips to build audio loops with apc40, although the interface is not there, you need to cludge abit. and btw the nudge works really well! All in all, pretty imoressed. When they’ll flesh this out and iron out the bugs, I’m guessing we have a keeper here.
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Dang, these user reports are making me itchy for one again. Need to resist!
Looks like a super useful box tho. Enjoy!
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Would be good to hear your OT vs Live thoughts further. I can see them working well together but then I could see the Live working with any of the Elektron boxes.
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Well, pulling off a smooth “OT crossfader transition trick” is still outside my abilities right now but I’ll try to RTFM some more. OT is heckuva lot more immediate for this type of stuff tho (realtime looping/mangling)
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You raise some good points for sure. Unfortunately I can’t answer any of it yet. Tonight after I’m done working I hope to have some time to do timestretching tests and see what happens. A single piano note is definitely a great test, I’ll try that as well as other types of samples.
I’ve barely done anything with sampling so far and my opinion could still change a lot when I do more. I’ve been wondering if perhaps the demo sample loops have been “sweetened” to sound better when they’re stretched. Idk. But it also depends on what you’re trying to do with the timestretching. Complex Pro in Ableton is constantly underwhelming me when it comes to most of the things I like to timestretch, so perhaps you like it a lot more than I do. If so, then you’ll probably be less impressed with the Live algos than I have been.
@tsutek- I never bought the 1k, though I came close many times. So I haven’t used an MPC in…14 years. I love the UI though I think it could be streamlined by about 20% overall via OS updates. I think it’s just impossible to have a 100% streamlined UI when there are so many things possible.
The other thing you mentioned that I also love is the nudge (and transposition, etc.) function. I find myself using it pretty much all the time, I’m glad you mentioned it. 
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Oh yes, and before we get all excited, some complaints:
- no ERASE ALL TRACKS option in the erase menu by going below track 1 like on the JJOS. That thing would be super handy.
- How do I jump between tracks quickly? JJOS had a button + pad combo that supported pad banks so you could jump between 64 tracks in a heartveat
- large screen refresh menus are laggy and take some time to refresh
- no ERASE BAR option in realtime mode… JJOS had this
- kinda preferred the old MODE + PAD menu diving tbh
- the nondestructive quantize and swing on the analog rytm etc feels like lightyears ahead of Akai. I have to dial and commit TC edits before hearing them? with no preview? srs?
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Yeah agreed, a lot of this stuff is down to user preference. I’ll try to get my hands on one at some point and see how I gel with it.
Cool you’re clearly digging yours, congrats
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I feel like many of those complaints are based upon comparing the Live to other stuff. Luckily, I think 100% of your complaints could be fixed with software updates, so perhaps you should tell Akai about them if you haven’t yet. Akai is actually listening to the user base and taking feature suggestions quite seriously from what I’ve seen.
My only complaint so far is that there’s no dedicated PASTE button. I’m not sure I really care, but it would be nice.
EDIT: I haven’t gotten into the swing settings much yet, so I guess I’m a little nervous about that now that you bring it up, @tsutek. I may end up doing drums on the digitakt if the swing is better on there. I’ve never used quantize in my life and I’m not about to start now so I’ll leave that one to you. I definitely agree that we need to be able to hear edits previewed before committing. Luckily we have like a billion levels of undo/redo available, but it would be better not to need them for undoing a bad edit because there was no preview.
@crumbledfingers- the effects are workhorse type effects. They do the job, but I doubt a single one is ever going to blow your mind. The only surprise to me was that the filter sounded useable. I thought it would be so bad I’d never even use it beyond sound shaping, but it’s actually good enough to use live.
I wouldn’t want to put it up against any analog filters, but for a digital software filter it’s good an useful.
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Can anybody report on the quality and flexibility of the effects in standalone mode? How do they compare to similar effects in the OT?
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mine is still loading the battery so cant test until I can detach from a temp minirig setup. But so far at least the delays seem to sound decent.
Yeah if anyone can record a loop and go through all the FX for others to hear that would be great Video would be ideal so can see the fx name/parameters but if no has the gear to shoot a video with line-in then just audio would be cool too
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I’m not finding an easy way to reset the timeline to start at 1.1 for starting point in at the top. Is there a setting to adjust this so the stop button resets the play head to the beginning of the track? Right now it basically freezes wherever I punch out and starts from that point mid sequence.
Thx!
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You can use the play start button instead of the play button.