That… actually looks pretty bad ass! And yes, coming from my Live II - I would absolutely consider a Force II in that form factor if it ran off of a battery. Nice work on the render, BTW - if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that looks like it could have come off of an FCC filing.
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For me the playability of the Force’s pads is huge. With the Polyend Play and Deluge that’s gone. The pads are way too small. In my design I kept the height of the pads equal to the Force but reduced width with a third.
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cintroller below screen, so you can see which parameter is tweaked. Also the x fader, overall a good sketch thou.
I’d love to but with the Mpc Live 2 speakers
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I saw that you did that and I like it, I think that the pads on an akai offering would be the least thing to worry about as out of all manufacturers I trust them to get the pads right most of the time…
as far as the form factor examples I listed I think with the exception of polyend they all waste alot of space. I think there is a significant opportunity for akai or anyone for that matter to put out a beatmachine with the sampling and sample editing prowess of the mpc /force and do it in a sleek design… your design looks sweet, but for it to be really throw it in your bag grab and go portable it would have to be alot sleeker in thickness than the mpc live 2, at a minimum at least as sleek as the mpc touch but even more so hopefully but if one came out it would be an instant buy, probably buy two tuck one away for back up!!!
Smaller pads is my first take on this, as well as not wanting to reach over the screen for the crossfader, and missing the q-link screens, which I really like. I’d find it hard to give up much of anything on the Force… but a horizontal format like this could definitely work. At the size of the Live 2, I’d expect it to maybe have only six rows of pads, to keep things playable (and ideally include the q-link screens). I’m always a bit surprised they didn’t just put the crossfader on the touchscreen, too…
For me the most obvious reference to the upcoming MPC Keys was the new feature of splitting tracks across keyboard ranges. It even has a nice new UI.
And afaik there is no feature in the current MPC OS that has real connection with or is aimed at an external keyboard.
Presenting the MPC Keys at NAMM makes much more sense for Akai in my eyes. There you’ll a much larger crowd of people who are the “classic” MPC clientele or like to use a workstation (in comparison to Superbooth).
My guess is that Akai may try to step into market space where people use workstations.
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I find even the force pads are pretty small compared to a push 2! I still think the one has the best form factor tbh, minus the reduced outputs.
My brother in christ, have you seen the price of a camper van?
TE was flexing on us poors!
Jesus had a brother? Dude owes me $20. I ain’t poor - I made my first million at 23.
Can I have one?
Old question but interested in the take from my friends here in this thread: I got a good offer for a potential upgrade from the One to the Live 2 for a small price difference of about 150-200 EUR. Would you upgrade?
I’m hesitating because it looks like the workflow is less quick on the Live 2 since it makes navigating to Program Edit, Track/Pad Mute and things like Sample Edit slower, and it’s obviously bulkier on the desktop and costs more.
I’m attracted to the idea of being able to move around the house with no cords, and to jam out live using the speaker with my kids. But then again, what happens if the battery gets old, can it be replaced relatively easily or will it turn into a brick in a few years time?
Can the wifi/Bluetooth be used for things like transferring a file to your phone? Or are there some other key benefits of the Live 2 that I should know about (I know about the added I/O of course).
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Definitely.
Navigation with menu+pad 12 will become second nature and take you to the program edit screen. Track/pad mutes are a double click away, so is the sample edit screen.
On the plus side you get the speakers, which I ended up using more than I expected and portability, and mine moves around a lot, even to just sit on my lap rather than on my desk.
And the internal hard drive and more ins and outs.
I’ve only used Bluetooth midi with the IPad for sequencing but quite sure there is no file transfer.
Overall a no brainer to me.
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I’d echo what @Automageddon said… I’d do it in a heartbeat, especially with 2.11 around the corner.
You’ll have some workflow adjustments to make, but they’re just different, I don’t ever feel frustrated by it. Well apart from typing names in on the touchscreen which the One and X also have.
I wasn’t sure I’d use the speaker and/or the battery that much… but I’ve used them 50x more than I would have expected.
It’s a handy tool to have around, apart from just MPC’ing. I listen to records through it. I play other synths/instruments through it. It’s great.
In fact, right now, this is how mine looks… I just picked up a Circuit Tracks, so wirelessly able to hook it up and play in my living room. (EDIT: ‘wirelessly’ if we ignore the wire connecting them. You know what I mean. 
)
The freedom it gives is great, you find yourself constantly making music with it.
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HOWTO: automate volume, pan and fx parameters on master and submix busses.
Since it may well have gotten a bit snown under in the last bit of the previous thread between all the discussion about screen foils…
…posted here again, written down a bit more structured.
Required: A usb midi controller and a DIN midi cable
Steps:
-Connect the midi controller to your mpc
-enable “control” and “track” for the controller input in “midi settings” menu
-Use “Midi learn” to assign midi cc values to the parameters you want to automate.
-Create a midi track, send its midi to the midi-din output on the channel that your cc’s are defined on.
-Set the midi input for this track the port on which the midi controller is coming in.
-Use the DIN midi cable to connect a din midi output on your mpc to the din midi input (midi loopback)
-Enable the din midi input on the mpc for “control”
Result
Now you can use the knobs of the midi controller to record automation into your dedicated midi track, or you could use the step sequencer to draw it in.
One snag: You have to subsequently play and resample the whole track, since these automations will not be heard if you just choose mixdown.
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Another argument maybe: I always liked the buttons on the Live much more than those on the One: Less noisy, they feel more convenient and they are backlitted in the dark.
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That seems only to be the case with the normal edition, and not with the live retro…
…backlit text, that is.
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Seriously? Glad I got the black version
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Yes, I just double checked, there’s a backlit bar on the button but the text isn’t backlit. Never noticed until now.
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I’ve gone the other way…
Had a one first but had to send it back because of cosmetic damage. Ended up getting a Live 2 and had that for a while before eventually selling.
Live 2 pros-
speak is pretty damn good!
Battery life was ok. Pretty sure it’s easy to get to for replacement through the HD compartment.
Cons-
It’s bloody huge and heavy. Check the weight on that thing!
Buttons missing you mentioned
Buttons generally felt like they’re in odd places
Screen to one side never felt right
Black soft touch finish damaged easy and started peeling at the corners (maybe I had a bad one, but have seen it on others)
Personally I preferred the more positive buttons on the one even though they felt cheep.
Anyway, ordered a live 2 again recently as Andertons said it was a retro version bstock, turned up and it was the normal black one. Sent that back. Ordered a one retro last week, so will update. Hopefully I feel the same as before and memory served me well haha.
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