While I still love my Octatrack MKII, Maschine+, MC-707, and other grooveboxes, I am seriously considering whether to add a MPC Live II to the collection in the coming days, in spite of my dislike for touchscreens.
The quality of Akai’s updates have improved since the days of the MPC Renaissance. The MPC Renaissance was a lot of fun when I used it often in the past, but most updates had bugs that caused my PC to regularly crash. Akai seems to be doing a better job these days.
I’d love, LOVE to get a 1 retro [if it existed]. Me, I really don’t want the speakers. The extra buttons are nice, but not a necessity. But that lovely grey…to hide all that gnarly dust/skin/cat hair, would be great. And the fact that color scheme is sick!
Have you considered simply customizing it with a skin from Style Flip, buying some grey pads and different knobs from MPC Stuff, etc.? Would probably prove to be the cheaper option, and you could add some personal touches.
Cheers!
not into skins. thanks for the link tho.
I had made one for fun. but I’m not gonna get it.
[wow I found it…]
One retro does exist bro haven’t you seen it? Looks badass. Bet it looks even better irl too because you can choose pad colours. I always set my pads to match my gold MPC
@Wolf-Rami your cosy pic on the other thread is half of what’s making me want the battery!
He means the MPC Live 1 (I was also confused)
I hate touchscreens too, and the MPC screen is no ipad, but I found with using a stylus instead of finger it is a little less annoying, and a lot of stuff can be prodded then adjusted with the dial or qlinks if you want any kind of precision.
I guess what I’m saying is that it is still a good instrument, despite the touchscreen, it won’t replace your OT or 707 but it works well with both of them - OT can be mounted as USB drive, 707 can be used for audio and midi over USB.
Oh got it, makes sense, wraps are the only way in that case
with a usb cable you sync the 707 as a slave, and can the audio be recorded into a audio track on the MPC?
Live 1 not the One one 
Better off not using sync as MPC does not send a stable midi clock and 707 does not slave well, just set tempo same and record that way.
@darenager was the midi clock always unstable? Or does it differ from firmware version?
Ha…ok thanks.
The sound from the MPC is amazing, quite refreshing to my old ears
the FX are somehow in the middle but really usefully … on top of that you can link it to the MPC Software so you can add your beloved vst-FX
a thing Elektron should consider … a special-purpose DAW for the tools they offering
regarding the screen, over time you will get used to
The sync isn’t great. Having said that, I compared recorded loops from my Elektron to the MPC and the little gap at the start of the loop (latency) looks the same to me.
Purely observational on my part, but both my OT and MPC Live midi sync function very similarly.
I’ve had no issues with sync going either direction.
I’m on the Force but I noticed that the more I get to know it, the less I use the screen.
Thanks for the feedback!
I hope so.
The workflow of the MPC Renaissance and Studio Black were perfectly ideal for me, and would probably still use them today if I did not return to an out-of-box studio setup. The MPC Renaissance and Studio Black were used far more often than my Maschine MKII at that time
The touchscreen workflow has been the primary reason preventing me from owning one of the present standalone versions. However, as a MPC user from the 90’s/00’s, I miss having one in the studio, and the newer units are more convenient in regards to storage and compatibility with modern devices.
Storage is easily upgradable on the older devices. 1k can top out at 256gigs for about 60$ US.
Also found that much space kinda overkill.
Im in your boat tho. Ive found less than a handfull of old school mpc users liking the jump.
Most of the time it just reminded them how much they miss an mpc now and just picked up a 1k.
Wasnt crazy about the touchscreen workflow and im a heavy ios user. Felt I spent far too much time on the touchscreen than playing. Seemed like i already had all of it and more with ios and the 1k offered me something. Nkw with the battery mod, im kinda loving it all over again.
