If only Elektron would make the SedecinTrack (16 tracks) or even just the DodecaTrack (12 tracks) I could pass on the MPC… but 8 tracks just isn’t enough… for me.
I think the reason presentations have been like this is the simple fact that the 2.0 software is not ready yet. He is probably worried about running into a bug during the presentation and therefore “keeps it simple”. Preordering at this stage is not without risk so YMMV caveat emptor
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Oh yeah for sure it has ton of stuff missing that ‘could’ be onboard (a synth etc) or kind of weak (mod, env options could always be deeper and fx quality etc) but all the basic stuff for a box like this is there for me. Finally… Just so many times in past I’ve been like, ‘dang, wish OT had poly tracks’ or the implementation of ‘tape’ refined on OP1 etc or similar and people been like ‘just embrace the limitations’ 
where sometimes limitations aren’t creative at all and just kill an idea stone dead or take 5 minutes to do something that could take 5 seconds…
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I think Im in a not dissimilar place. I don’t have much hardware these days - an AK/AR and a Yammy FS1R but already thinking what life would be like with a Live and something else. I’m actually quite interested how quick and easy it will be to, say, design sounds/clips within Ableton and to transfer them over. One video I watched implied it was incredibly easy - effectively drag and drop into the 2.0 plugin and then click “export” (or whatever its called…). If it works that way then I will be delighted.
But still has me thinking about my Elektrons and FS1R. They have been gathering dust for a while now and though I love OB and what it brings I’m starting to wonder. I don’t have the silly guilt induced urge to flog everything like I did 12-18 months ago but there’s an itch to scratch some how. I do like the sound of one killer hands on module replacing everything and just using a USB midi keyboard for playing though…
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I wonder what their wifi/bluetooth plans are?
Could be iOS integration? Onboard dropbox? Controller mode without a cable?
The “8 audio tracks” with this thing. Would that be like Groups? If I were to bang out a drum kit beat on this thing using BD, SD, HH, and Tom would that count as 1 voice or 4?
1 voice per sound, or 2 if stereo, so if all 4 sounds are playing at once that’s 4 or 8 voices out of the 64 stero 128 mono
Has that been confirmed? It’s not a problem for me but been a bit of a great area - one video seemed to suggest you had the 8 audio tracks sitting seperate to the overall polyphony. Either way it will be plenty for me.
Audio tracks are a separate type of program. Consider audio tracks as long stereo samples, whole songs even, like when using static machines with the OT. Except that you cannot sequence the audio tracks, you can only edit the audio like in a DAW audio track (splice regions, move them around, crossfade etc)
With Oneshot samples for drum duties, you have two options: A keygroup program (enables 128 layer round robin!) or a drum program (up to 16 x 8 slots for layering up to four samples per slot). Polyphony is eaten for every key/pad held down, so a basic drum beat with a simple 8th hihat and a kick-snare would eat polyphony of 3 notes max (on the second and fourth beat).
Once more, the architechture is as follows:
Within a project, you have 64 tracks. Any of these tracks can be of a flavour from the following:
- Audio track (long, continuous audio file) - up to eight of these max for now
- MIDI Program (send out midi data from the output din ports)
- Drum Program (128 slots for 128 pads, divided into banks of 16 per pad bank)
- Keygroup program (128 layer sampler program with layers, splits, round robin)
- Plugin Program (only in controller mode, for sending MIDI to VSTS/AUs and receiving the resulting audio)
- Clip Program (audioclip grid with cells like on ableton/launchpad iOS)
- CV Program (only on the X model, for sequencing cv)
In elektron lingo, you can conside these to be “machines” that you can allocate across the 64 tracks.
Any of these programs and their resources can be individually loaded/saved for easy reusing of material in any project.
Now then, you can have as much sequence data within these 64 tracks as you want, but the engine can only play back up to 64 simultaneous stereo samples, so any moment where your current “trig” total (including sustaining notes) exceeds this amount for all the tracks, internal sounds will be cut off. There is (practically) UNLIMITED polyphony on the sequencer side itself.
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I’d wager bluetooth MIDI at least. As for wifi, no idea, could be anything from wifi streaming to file management.
You can play it on the couch. Yep but why not just move the couch
Very cool! So the 8 tracks is only pertaining to the clip launch feature. Very cool!
Thanks!
no, not clips, but Audio tracks. And this limitation of 8 audio tracks might be removed later on (my guess is Akai is trying to implement hard disk sample streaming to overcome any RAM limitations).
I edited the earlier post, had some errors, I recommend checking it again.
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Portability. And if I say that the Analog Keys is too bulky, you’ll see where I’m coming from.
Give me a workstation in the Yamaha Reface format, and I wouldn’t be on this thread for much longer.
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Apparently the MPC X will have superior audio converters than the MPC live. I’m not sure what the differences will be exactly, but it’s something to consider when choosing between the two!
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I just started to count the amount of fx one can cram into a single drum program, eq+comp for every pad etc. These fx must be really optimized if this theoretical maximum can be pulled off for 64 tracks! So I’m not getting my hopes up on the fidelity of these fx fwiw. As long as the eq is usable and there’s at least one decent delay and reverb, I’ll be ok.
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Haha yeah I started the same math yesterday and came to same conclusion. Apparently on the current software theyre the same fx as the mpc5000. I was hoping they’d improved them for v2. But that’s potentially a ton of fx processing if you max it over 64 separate pads and then programs and master!
In future maybe they’ll make things ‘dynamic’ re fx. Like add some really nice quality stuff and have it so you get told when you’ve hit limit. Like on the line 6 Hd500, from memory I think in my Hd500 it’s theoretically 8 fx per patch, but if you use some of the more taxing ones you get a ‘DSP limit reached’ before you fill all fx slots. Id be down for that kind of deal if it meant addition of some really good fx.
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SO to have only 2 or 3 Octave to play doesn’t bothered you ? 
Very cool! You suppose with the audio track, is there a way to record that into the machine live or can it only be opened from the hardware?
I think I’ll end up using the controller mode more than I’d like, or at least resampling stuff through my Apollo twin. But I suppose it’s good to have something to use as “placeholder fx”
Resampling through the AH will probably turn out to be super useful as well. Man I always hated the filters on the MPC1000, sounded terrible lol
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