Don’t feel sorry. This place has many smart people. Hopefully someone can help figure out a solution. I never heard of no BS like this.
Good luck!
I mean, they’re so different. One is a complete creative environment. The other is a very focused synth. So it all depends what you wanna know
Anyways, bought my first plug. Soft Clipper. That one is really good. And on sale.
Man, I feel for you and with you. We’ve had conversations before and it would be presumptuous of me to offer any advice or consolation for your situation. But you have my empathy and sympathy, for what it’s worse.
And you know, if Logic was all you had for the rest of your life, you’d be in one of the best places ever to make music.
And you don’t have to spend a single dime on a plug-in. Just go for Spitfire, and user their Labs plugs. They’re all free. And sound f*****g brilliant. The only thing you won’t be getting, is features. You got like one or two tweaks per plug, at the most.
But man, you’ll need nothing more. They’re that good.
So as far as music making goes, if this is a perspective that might work for you, I’d say that going for Logic only is liberating in many ways.
I survived what you’re about to do. It’s not permanent! I got divorced, needed to move 1800 miles back towards family, had to take care of my parents for a while, was homeless for a while sleeping in my jeep, stayed with family, etc…
It’s sucks but all possessions can be replaced, I’ve always been kind of lean on possessions (exwife had all the nice furniture), so that was easier to get everything important to me paired way down.
I bet a little MPC One can fit somewhere!
And good luck.
Yeah I already have the 12V one for my Syntakt but I just ordered the 20V one and will pray that it won’t fry the 19V-hungry MPC. I guess I’ll report back in a year from now if that happens?
Well if you had to choose one to pair it with Logic?. I really want a Field, but my head is saying no but my heart yes. I did have the OG OP-1 and from all accounts it sounds more like a sideway iteration than a V2.0. The Minifreak is something I like from trying the VST out, however, not sure if better off with the hardware or just getting a decent midi controller like the keystep 37 and getting more mileage out of that.
Just want to add to this discussion the fact that the MPC drumsynth is actually very deep and powerful, and has a lot of Machinedrum DNA in it. The insert effects are very useful; the one thing I long for is some LFOs. I’ve really been into messing with it this week. I think if Akai and AIR had issued this thing in its own box, as a separate device, or even maybe just given it a more distinctive name, it would be on more people’s radar. I hope they update it with new features at some point.
None of them, really. Logic is rich enough on its own. Get a good controller if you want keys, with solid key action. Don’t get a hardware synth with Logix just because. It needs to fill a very specific purpose to be worth it, and if you don’t have one, save your money and get a good controller.
I usually never work with MPC Software but I’m testing Jura on it now. Is it just me or is it extremely CPU hungry?!?
If I add both oscillator waveforms, play 5 note chords, it completely annihilates the M1 Max processor with noise and crackles…
It’s a completely blank project, I also tested with 44khz sample rate and 1024 buffer
That’s unusual… I’ve just tested mine in MPC Software and Ableton as a VST 3 plugin, both registering under 5%.
I know I’ve had cases in the past where higher buffers have been worse performing, I usually run at 128 and it’s fine.
Can you try it in a DAW? At least that’ll tell you if it’s MPC Software itself or the plugin, or something else in your system…
This got me thinking, it’s 2024, the hardware synth market is saturated, but I don’t have or don’t see a solid compact and versatile VA synth on the market with a good hands on experience. They ALL seem to have drawbacks.
I’ve got the Minifreak, and it is good, but I honestly think the VST with a controller is the better option. The hardware version doesn’t feel great (creatively inspiring I mean, not physically) to me, and the biggest beef I have with it is NOT being able to display a setting/value without adjusting it… that drives me mad and is a vibe killer.
Synths that I like the workflow of tend to be big and single voice… Matriarch, Rev 2, Prophet 6, PolyBrute, Roland JD-XA (this is an exception actually, it has 8 parts but it is a bit menu-divey).
I’ve thought about the MC707/101 with a controller attached to it in the past, but that’s too divey too, it becomes annoying.
I have a Digitone and A4mk2 that are a constant in my setup, but I still feel like there’s another Elektron box waiting to happen that combines these and the Syntakt… a four-voice (ala Digitone) polyphonic VA with 16 voices… I’d buy that in a nanosecond.
I kind of agree with @circuitghost on this, a decent controller connected to your DAW is hard to beat in 2024… I’d add that, as much as I don’t feel it’s organic enough from a tactile POV, an iPad and a controller takes some beating.
An iPad/controller into ---- DAW, MPC, SP404mk2, Maschine+, Octatrack ---- take your pick, is all anyone needs really.
That doesn’t stop me blowing money on new synths though tbh.
Thanks for the response! Great idea! It runs perfect in Ableton, same as you, so that’s great to know
There’s definitely something with my MPC Software. Even Tubesynths crashes the CPU. Same results if I run MPC as a plugin inside Ableton. Going to update MacOS as a final resort…
No such problems here, but it does seem that Jura is a tad more resource picky than TubeSynth. The problem I have is in the form of random clicks/pops which are then further accentuated if it’s fed into the Jura reverb or delay. It seems to be a lot better when I use my Steinberg UR22 audio interface to render audio where there’s hardly any pops at all unless I run a lot of other software at the same time. It pops a lot more often from the built-in audio interface of the MPC Live 2, especially when running multiple instances of the plugin.
So there’s definitely an increase in processing load from these higher quality plugins, but for the most part it runs just fine.
I should also add that I make excessive use of the Jura plugin and could easily reduce the load if needed. For example, I have a bass drone that’s not really evolving much and could easily be autosampled into a keygroup instead of occupying one of the precious 8 synth plugin slots. But so far the problem with the clicks has been manageable so I haven’t felt the need to rationalize my use of the plugins.
On the latest project, Jura is used for the pad (up to 4 notes of polyphony at a time), the bass, the bass drone and the lead. Then the arp and the “sitar” is OPx4. That project runs just fine in standalone with no audible hiccups or CPU spikes.
I know it’s been discussed before but can you have a 16 encoder,knob interface act like the 16 knobs on the X? How well does this compare in real life on a live of one?thanx
This may be a really dumb question, but how do I export something I’ve sampled with the Autosampler (in MPC Software) to use on standalone MPC/Force? Do I just grab all the samples and the xpm files and throw them in one folder? Or is there a way to organize them better, like exporting them to an expansion?
MPC programs are kind of annoying to organize because the program file and the samples all live at the same level. I tend to make a lot of subfolders. I’ve only used the auto sampler in standalone but I imagine it spits out the same exact thing in software.
Having been a hardware guy for a long time, and just recently letting that (mostly) go, I’d say the place for hardware kits are as relevant as ever. But like plug-ins, getting them just because, won’t do anything but confuse you more. With purpose and deliberate thought, there’s plenty of hardware that software can’t replace.
In my case, I still haven’t found anything that does what many of the Chase Bliss pedals do. Mood, Blooper and Habit come to mind. And the specific workflow and defined limitations of the OP-1 is unmatched in any daw or plug. And I know I’ll take some heat for this again, but a proper Sequential runs circles around even the best VST:s.
That’s not to say you need any of these now or ever. Because there’s no hardware kits that do what say Slate + Ash plugs do (well some of them at least), Beat Breaker in Logic is a godsend audio manipulator and sure, even if you can tell the difference between a software Sequential and a real one, that difference needs to matter. It almost never does.
So you know, pick the tool that does the job. Sometimes, the tactile experience is part of getting the job done. Sometimes, it’s the specific function. Sometimes, it’s both.
I’ll say this tho in terms of hardware controllers - those who try to get as close to the one knob experience as possible that a proper hardware synth does, they don’t really pull it off. Controllers work best when they do their own thing, not trying to be a Prophet 6 or Moog to all synths, but just allowing the player to be a player, on their own terms,.
The fact that every time I come on here the MPC thread has, like, 50 replies it makes me kind of hopeful that either:
- There’s been some kind of amazing MPC update
- Elektron is working on something kind of similar, like if you built one of these new devices out of the DNA of the Octatrack instead of the MPC60/3000/2000.