The 2.8 update is available now. 
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Man, I am really trying hard not to want a one!
The only thing saving me is the unavailability at this point.
Could be the go-faster-stripes effect, but GUI feels a bit snappier.
oh man that speaker is strange, just donāt get itā¦ why akai? why?
even with this update, the mpc live donāt sync when in slave mode
Because Akai really does not listen to its market and customers AT ALL. And I mean AT ALL.
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they are certainly not listening to me and I have a bunch of complaints regarding my MPC Live, but I wonāt trade it for any other machine on the market, regardless of price and Akai do sell a ton of these, so they must be getting something right; with or without listening.
They watch what customers do ( 
), not what they say ( 
)
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Iām pretty convinced that Akai sell many of these due to
A. The reputation of the MPC brand
B. People buy them before they realise their usually quite ridiculous limitations.
On B. Akai has been a LOT better with this on this particular generation than with generations before, ie theyāve given us - though at a slow pace - feature updates that people were requesting (and that arguably should have been in the box at launch).
But also on B.: look at a few forums that cover the topic of the MPC and see how many excited buyers you will find in there bitching about their box right after purchaseā¦(I know there are MANY!)
And Iād love to believe that Akai have some form of human-centred design approach going where their sharp observation skills survive even the most misguiding of user feedbacks, but again they really donāt.
Iāve witnessed this first hand in fact, as I have a friend who is a featured artist of theirs. But even without that, just look at user forums etc.
And just to get this straight: I own many MPCs and I LIKE this generation of boxes quite a bit, but Akaiās stubborn/ignorant attitude towards customer feedback is holding their success back, not driving it.
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Also: can anyone tell me where the pad perform mode went on the MPC Live after updating to 2.8.
I canāt see it in the menu but know that it is supposed to be there 
EDIT: ok found it. SHIFT + 16 LEVELS reveals the Pad Perform mode.
If you didnĀ“t say AKAI I would have guessed youĀ“re talking about Native Instruments here 
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Or how about song mode blah blah 
Song mode on the DT was never a feature that was promised or taunted by Elektron.
On the other hand Wifi and bluetooth functionality, plugins, flexible midi routing etc were all features that were implied/advertised for the MPC series when it came out and NONE of those features were integrated then! They got implemented bit by bit, some of then actually today. So not quite the same.
If you wanna compare it with Overbridge though, thatās a different story. Otherwise Iād say Elektron is MILES above and beyond Akai in customer awareness and engagement AND authenticity.
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And see where it got them
That said, I really dig the new midi routing on the MPC Live. Experimenting with the iPad as sound source with Midi over bluetooth routed through ApeMatrix to a bunch of synth apps, and apart from the minor lag (which is quite normal for bluetooth midi), this is really good.
Finally!
Yeah, I bought my live after reading all the bicthing and moaning on the Akai forum and deciding that I can live without disk-streaming and 3rd party plugs. I did not imagine for a second that it couldnāt receive more than 1 MIDI channel at a time. Guess I should have listened to the bitching more carefullyā¦
Then, just as I come to terms with this and find some work-arounds, 2.8 drops and I canāt ask for moreā¦
The most complex and multi-functional devices will alway have the most requests/complaints/disappointments. You probably wonāt see much action on the āVolca Kick Feature Request Threadā.
Also, Akai is just one brand in a conglomerate of many companies that also produce consumer electronics and entertainment lighting. They will not listen to their user-base in the way Elektron or Waldorf or Soma will. With these small companies the developers and the top management are very close or might even be the same people. This makes for tight integration between the people, the product and the business model. It is hard to sustain when the company gets big or when the founders get old. Thatās how SSL start making sound cards, Porsche start making SUVās etc. It will happen to Elektron too, eventually.
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I thought update was todayā¦not available yet?
I hear you. And I even agree on stuff like disk streaming and 3rd party plugins. Though if you didnāt expect your MPC to receive more than one midi channel, then you maybe werenāt all too familiar with MPCs as thatās a feature thatās been integral to the MPC in the past AND advanced midi functionality was implied by Akai upon release for these as well (after all MPC = MIDI Production Center).
I also hear you about the corporations. I work with many of them actually and I can tell you that the Porsches etc of this world are indeed recognising that, no matter their size, they have to have a closer, more engaged and more honest relationship with their customers. They also donāt always succeed but at least they try.
Akai also tried for this generation after they totally botched and alienated good parts of their user base with the MPC Ren and (to a lesser degree) the MPC Studio.
So for a while Dan popped up on Gearslutz, here and beyond and even Andy Mac would occasionally comment to show us that Akai was there and cared and listened. But ultimately inMusic/Numark/Akai have their way of doing things and it isnāt all that customer centric.
But again, with this release the MPC is finally a āreal MPCā in basic functionality PLUS all the good stuff the X/Live/One has added to the tried and tested concept. So Iām with you re being good with the device.
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Itās because your channel strip is opened. Clic on the eye (HIDE), and pad perform will appears in the GIU when midi track is in āfullā gui mode. and yeah the shortcut is there anyway
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