Maybe we could all agree to draw a line under this now, I know I haven’t been super active on this thread for a minute now but let’s not let it descend into the kind of mpc threads that we see on “other” boards, so far this is definitely the best and most helpful thread around on the interwebs concerning mpcs…
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I think of the MPC as a happy compromise between a playable instrument and a full blown DAW. Coming from the DAW world, the productivity I have reached with the MPC is off the charts - I’ve made more music on it in six months than I made in my entire “career” before it. With that said, I still used the word “compromise” above because it’s definitely not the most immediate environment and very different from picking up an acoustic guitar to jam out for five minutes. But compared to a DAW, it’s immediate enough to inspire me to explore sounds, melodies, beats in a hands-on way using the excellent pads (that also double as excellent keys that play in scale).
I personally agree with you that the general Browser is a bit hard to use. I tend to just hit my 5 favorite folder shortcuts and search. There are many aspects of the UX that feel like it’s a behemoth of code that was written by several teams over a long period of time, but I’ve used it long enough to feel really fast in the MPC environment today. It honestly only took a couple of days for me to start to feel fast, and today it’s second nature.
But I’m still looking for something smaller, more portable and immediately playable as a song sketching device/instrument for those times when the resistance to starting up the MPC is a little too high. Like right now, when I’m here writing posts on Elektronauts rather than making music. 
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How about a TR6S? … 
EDIT: I greatly appreciate your take, I think you’re spot on, the MPC Live for me too is more immediate than a DAW by a mile. Never really looked at it from that angle, as I tend to compare it to my performance tools (Digitakt, OT, SP16) rather than my DAW workflow.
Funny enough, using the SP404mk2 has given me a different access to the MPC Live and I managed to reproduce a beat I made on the SP404 with ease on the MPC Live (sampled vinyl, chopped up, played some guitar, some vocals, drums). But creating on from scratch is much more difficult for me due to its workflow.
With a bit of discipline the MPC Live is a great tool, though, no doubt.
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Anyone using an MPC with an Elektron Drum/sampler? Specifically the Digitakt or Rytm?
Saw a liveset that utilised both. Currently owning a DT and Rytm but they overlap quite a bit; wondering if the expanded sampling capabilities of the MPC one are worthwhile.
Using it with DN for some percussion duties, but not comfy enough with the sampling system of the MPC to have a clear opinion… But I found the mix of the two sequencers really cool.
Funny, I’ve found the situations where I felt more quick/handy with the MPC than with my DAW really rare yet. Touch screen and buttons are lightyears of mouse/keyboard efficiency, but yeah : to each their own.
To me, it has more to do with how it inspires me to make music rather than getting distracted by options paralysis. Opening up the DAW feels a bit like opening up a blank spreadsheet to me: I can make whatever I want, but there’s nothing that guides me along the way.
The MPC encourages me to use my ear. I almost never record notes live in the DAW; there I manually click them in using the mouse. It’s hard to explain and clearly it’s different for everyone, there’s no one way to make music. But one thing is clear for me: hardware makes me more productive.
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Yes the new mpcs have to be the master unfortunately.
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Joining you on this one.
I’ve didnt took time to search deep on this thread, I’m sorry, but is there a way to lock the duration of a sample ? To tell my MPC that I want to keep the duration the same even if I move my starting point ? For wave-sampling funny times.
Haha yeah I sure am tempted, by that one and too many other instruments. GAS is a never ending story for me. 
Both are fair comparisons really. I (re-)started the hardware journey on a Digitone+Digitakt combo and they felt much more immediate in some aspects, like how fast they started and how you picked up your music just where you left it when shutting it down, and how quick the step sequencer felt.
Personally I’m more of a person that wants to produce music, not perform it, so ultimately the Elektron boxes felt too performance oriented for me. So I’m comparing the MPC against the DAW simply because that’s where I’m coming from. From that perspective, it’s pretty amazing that the MPC can get so close to a DAW while still being very playable. But clearly it comes at a price of increased complexity, boot times, etc.
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WHen I’m in the program edit page for a program with samples sliced up on it, when I choose “all” and then go to the effects page, why does it only add effects to the last pad I touched instead of the whole program?
I think going to the Track Mixer and adding an effect at the program level is the way to do it.
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Ever tried to do it on a octatrack?
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I just realised that the more I use the MPC live, the less I use its internal synths, I just tend to build kits out of samples and loops. Even with midi tracks I end up just resampling one shots or loops.
Which is why I really really wish Akai will enable notes mode in the sampler page, it’s killing my workflow.
Rant over as to be honest, I’ve never been more productive.
Anyone here using an MPC with a Keystep Pro?
I gave it a thought and the KSP might be a good “Sub”-Sequencer for the MPC, where you can have a better way for creating melodies and anything “note-based”
Another advantage could be a more immediate control over melodic sequences or rhythms over the MPC, that could also be recorded as a MIDI track into the MPC.
They make a good team imo as long as you accept that program changes don’t work with the Rytm. Sampling on the MPC is deep but can also be very simple , there is assigning samples to pads as a one shot which is quick an easy, but there are also polyphonic instruments called keygroups that can have up to 128 samples such as multisamples and up to a depth of 4 velocities if you want. Although mostly I more enjoy the ease of just throwing a sample in there and it’s playable polyphonically and can use xfade looping. That kind of old school simplicity seems to be very rare this days in modern gear and so the MPC is really the modern equivalent of a 19" rack sampler (though much easier to use).
But besides the sampling, the MPC offered an insane amount of features. The big difference between an Elektron and the MPC in terms of workflow is that you have to really play what you record and it plays that back. The piano roll isn’t great and could be much better but it’s functional. You don’t get anything like Trig conditions to work with although they have added some randomize filter and velocity parameters in the last update so maybe it will move in that direction. But really have an Elektron and the more DAW like workflow of the MPC is a good combination for me. They’ve added so much stuff since the beginning and are still committed to working and developing it.
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I do. Well I use a basic keystep so I can play they keys when I want. The MPC sends MIDI to all my synths so it its easy to pick a synth and play normal keys when I want. I haven’t dug super deep into further sequencing since I like the MPC arps a lot.
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Nah, no offence taken. Just realised my post might’ve looked like i was ready to start arcing up. But like you say it’s a first world problem and each to their own etc etc. Perhaps one that’s even blown out of proportion because IMO there’s not so much else to complain about.
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I had one hell of a time today getting the MPC Live to spit out stems for Ableton Live. Best way I could find was by exploding the drums on each sequence, then one sequence at a time going to the folder icon, choosing Export ALS, then choosing the save location, naming the folders (S1, S2 etc) and then once that rigmarole is complete going into Controller Mode, locating the folders and dragging/dropping the tracks into Ableton Live.
Took ages and I’m sure I must be missing something. However other than the odd track being imported at double speed the drag/drop process was super easy. It was just exploding the drums on each sequence and dragging each sequence’s stems into Ableton Live that took sooo long. I was happy that the length of the stems was spot on - I remember this being a massive issue with the Polyend Tracker last time I used it, the stems were either too long or short.
Yeah this is why I dont explode at all. I just go track by track like with the old school MPC. I prefer it since I can quickly audition 16+ kicks in one track and use different ones together if I want. Then I arrange my tunes with track mute jams. From there, song to sequence. Then I export the stems from that sequence. I found that plugging in the MPC and exporting via the MPC app is much more reliable for whatever reason. So I do that and then just drag and drop all the WAVs into the DAW.
One small workflow thing: you can drag a bunch of stem to Ableton simultaneously. On Mac, it’s just selecting a bunch of clips in Finder, then dragging them to the arrangement view with CMD (i think) pressed.
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