I’ve had a bit of a break from the MPC while I did some restoration on the old Moog 952 keyboard controller and chased down some gremlins in a couple of the vintage Moog modules. Today, I’m going to do some tests of the old Moog, and take some samples as I go. Maybe it’ll turn into a track.
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Hi MPC fans, I’m not sure if this is the right place to write this, but since everyone here in the forum is friendly 
Somehow I feel like getting an all-in-one box with direct access to sound presets, etc., and after some research I thought about the MPC Live 3 with its step sequencer and arrangement view.
I always stayed away from the MPC because the workflow was said to be very special and not intuitive. The Live 3 seems a bit more streamlined to me, though.
I’ve noticed that I’m not the best sound designer on the Digitone 2, and when I do make sounds, it takes a long time.
I also have the Digitakt 2 for working with samples. It’s really fun with both machines, but I always get stuck in that pattern-mute-DJ mode.
It seems to me that the MPC could fit better into my 2-man combo.
I do some drum beats, a bit of synth sounds, and electric bass. My buddy plays with Ableton Live and keyboard.
Would the MPC Live 3 be a good choice here, or would it overwhelm me as a groovebox? Even if it’s a new format to learn, could it still be a good option?
Thanks!
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It’s primary intention seems to be as an all-in-one box. I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “direct access to sound presets”. It’s not like, say, a ROMpler wherein there are monolithic lists of categorized presets from which to choose. There are many sound sources on the MPC - samples and various instruments, included and otherwise, plus effects. All of them have their own list of presets and combinations can be created and recalled for later use.
I never loved the MPC way of doing things, but neither did I hate it. However, I find the MPC Live 3 to be much more intuitive and inspiring than previous versions. I’ve always been at home in a DAW, and this brings some of the best things about a DAW into a box I can carry around.
There is a lot here, but it needn’t be overwhelming. I’ve been able to get quite a lot of work done after watching a couple of videos and with barely a glance at the manual. I use it mainly as a recording and sequencing hub, sampling external hardware and instruments. I don’t use the factory sounds or samples, but I must assume that it would be quicker and easier to do so. As with most complicated devices, the trick (for me) is to learn only what I need to achieve what I want to do at the time, and gradually check out other features to see if they might inspire me or improve my workflow. I keep it simple and gradually add complexity as I get more comfortable.
Of course, just because I like it doesn’t mean it will be right for you. Keep researching and if you think you might want to give it a go, perhaps buy it from a vendor with a kindly return policy just in case you don’t get on with it.
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As @Scot_Solida said, there’s not necessarily a central list of presets/sounds, but I think finding the sound I’m looking for is rather intuitive on the MPC. I don’t really use expansions, but you can buy/find expansions that collect presets and sounds together that are geared towards some specific use or genre idea.
I mostly use the plugins on the MPC… I understand each plugin’s wheelhouse and it feels like a really great way to find (and tweak) sounds. Jura gives me Juno sounds, Iona gives me SH-101 sounds, Fabric gives me some great ROMpler sounds, opx-4 is great FM, I could go on… I also think the GUI for each synth (or keygroup program) is far more intuitive and useful than tweaking 8 knobs per page on the Ableton Push or looking at a bunch of sliders and knobs on the bottom third of the screen in Live. The plugins aren’t super cheap or easy to build a big collection of (although there are sales on them often), but they’re great.
That being said, as a general rule, I don’t think I’d recommend an MPC over something like Ableton Live and a Move (or a Push) for someone getting deeper into general music production. Up until very recently, I’d say there were too many idiosyncrasies and too much to wrestle with trying to do everything on the MPC (I know many in this thread would disagree and that’s fine). For your use case, though, I think it could work well. More important than the arrangement view (for jamming with someone else) is the clip matrix, where you can lay down ideas for each part or sound and have them play or loop without tying yourself into trying to work with a linear timeline arrangement.
I think some other folks could comment better on how working with clips would go for your use case, because I’m mostly working with Ableton at this point for arrangement and composition, but I think as far as working with a wide variety of sounds is concerned, the MPC provides a really great way of getting around. Now that you can record your ideas for each part into clips (that you can switch between on-the-fly) instead of needing to have separate sequences for each idea (where each part per sound is tied to exactly one other specific part per the other sounds), the Live 3 (and really all of the modern MPCs with Pro Pack) are well suited for what I think you’re trying to do. It will take some work figuring out which plugins to use, which expansions you may want, or which software plugins or other synths you would want to auto sample into keygroups, but it’s capable of so much. I really love working with sounds on my MPC.
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Thank you very much for your detailed answer — I could really relate to what you wrote.
By “presets,” I meant that it might be easier with the MPC to quickly find sounds and keep working on the song — plugins and so on.
From what I’ve seen in the MPC tutorials, I can imagine supporting my bandmate better with just one box.
With the Digitakt and Digitone, I always end up getting lost in solo beats and jams, which is a lot of fun for me, but not really the point of our band — and then I just can’t keep my hands off them. 
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I have a Digitone 2 and a MPC Live 3 and defo selling the Digitone 2 when i get a chance. Ace machine but its totally surpassed by my MPC.
I think USB C audio is selling feature on both machines but i agree with you that sound design isnt that enjoable on the DN2. It sounds good but you are limited to the Elektron sound, not necessarily a bad thing.
MPC is just an amazing sound source for everything. Ive just been getting through some of the keygroup expansions and the sound amazing. Plugins sound great now, FX per track or even per pad on drum tracks is so deep. Sound design is perhaps slightly more enjoable than a DAW VST but not as immediate as say twesking a hands on analog synth.
Its workflow has a learning curve as its feature rich, but to do the basics is easy. Its not as tight a workflow as the Digitone 2, but it does so much more.
The Digi workflows are really great if you intend to go all in with Elektron.
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MPC Live 3 comes with quite a few instruments and expansions. And then there are additional paid ones available from Akai. As well as MPC expansions from third party vendors
Expansions are essentially collections of drum kits pre-mapped to the pads (you can certainly mix and match pulling sounds from different expansion packs). Although they are not always just drum samples, they can be other sounds too.
It also has an Ableton style clip launcher like Ableton Session View (so your Ableton buddy could explain for you why you might want to use that), and then from earlier firmware versions, a song mode. So there are three ways that you can arrange songs.
And yes. It has a hardware button step sequencer similar to Elektron boxes. But unlike Elektron boxes, if you just decide hey, I want to do some major editing of my sequence, there’s also a MIDI editor you can use to change what you have created.
I don’t know if I would use the word streamlined. Because it’s now more powerful. But the workflow is smoother thanks to improvements both with the firmware and the hardware button interface.
It does have a bit of a learning curve. But worth it to invest the time to learn it. MPC Bible 3 is an excellent tutorial/course that will take you through all of the standard features of the 3.6 firmware. And it serves as an excellent reference manual to refresh on things when you need to look something up
https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/268/mpc-bible/
The clip launcher and the hardware button sequencer are not covered in the MPC Bible since those are not standard for the firmware for all MPC, you’ll want to look for tutorials for them on the Akai Professional channel. And from YouTubers if you need more.
Though start with the Bible to learn the basics.
I think you’ll find the clip launcher very helpful for live performance. That’s why Ableton is so popular for live performance.
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Hey everyone who replied so quickly and informatively — awesome!
Yeah, my situation is that my bandmate is really great with harmonies and basically leads the songwriting, and I accompany him with bass, a looper, drum beats, and some nice synth sounds.
So I’m hoping for a good single box to handle that.
Otherwise, I usually bring a Digitakt, Digitone, Boss RC-202, SH-4d, and two or three bass pedals. I thought the MPC might help me reduce all of that and let me focus more on playing bass.
Even this fancy mpc is still basically a drum machine at its core… it can do all kinds of stuff like a daw, but it really is shoehorned in kind of… for a member of a band looking to do fill in sounds I would think a keyboard workstation would be a much better choice. They are basically made for what you’re describing, and can also be a studio tool, mpc is like a drum machine that can also be a studio tool. But much more geared for the studio.
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In case this helps, here’s a demonstration of live looping with guitar using the clip launcher on MPC Live 3
If you have a synth preset you love on the Digitone or SH-4D, you can autosample it into the MPC so that you can play it as a keygroup instrument
Also, if you like the SH-101 sound from SH-4D, Akai just released an emulation of it as a paid add on, the Iona
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Thank you for the Tipps 
I don’t think MPC is confusing. I never used MPC OS 2, but when i bought a secondhand MPC Key 37 it was installed with MPC 3.x and for me this did feel quiet intuitive. There are a ton of options, and often multiple ways of doing the same thing. But if you are clear on what you are trying to do, and then figure out your preferred way of doing this, ignoring all the other options, and create a workflow for yourself, you should be good. Personally I don’t think the MPC Live 3 would make a big difference from an earlier generation MPC when you install MPC OS 3.x. The Key 37, Live 2 etc go for very good prices on the second hand market, and you can figure out if you like the “MPC way”.
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For the benefit of the OP, I can point out several ways it could make a big difference. Of course how big these differences make is a personal evaluation.
For anyone wanting a step sequencer, the touch screen version on previous MPC sucks compared to the hardware button sequencer on Live 3. Which works very well.
Even if one doesn’t use the expressive features, the new MPCe pads have better sensitivity and feel better when playing.
The touch strip, additional buttons with new layout, and the faster CPU and RAM, all work together to provide a smooth, faster workflow.
The Live 3 has a built-in USB interface of 24 bi-directional channels of audio, and 32 of MIDI for connecting to a computer or iPad.
The 16 hardware buttons across the top can be pre-programmed with automations. When you add in the touch strip and the four Q links, that provides 21 points of articulation for live performance, beyond live playing of the drum pads or using XYFX on the touch screen.
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You have some good points, and as you correctly point out, it’s all very subjective and depending on what the OP finds important. For me personally, even coming from a 16steps grid-sequencer background, the 16 buttons on top of the Live 3 didn’t merit a 1000 euro higher price. (nb i’m not interested in the MPCe pads, am perfectly fine with bouncing to audio when i run out of CPU or RAM, and don’t need the very cool USB audio streaming)
I first wanted to see if the “MPC way” made sense to me (and it did with MPC OS 3.x). But agreed, it’s all very subjective and personal.
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Hi guys,
I bought the Propack for my Live 2. I’m also selling my MPC one and would like to know if I could install it on there also so it could benefit the person who will get it (after ownership transfer) but I also want to keep it on my Live 2. Is that possible?
Thanks
Philippe
great points @olafmol and @raistlin65
also don’t forget on the live 2 an mpc one you can use the physical pads for the step sequencer too, not just the touch screen, for people who prefer the 4x4 mpc muting workflow the 4x4 step sequencing might feel more natural than the xoxox type workflow generally associated with step sequencing… the mpc is your oyster.
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Also let’s not forget that the Force 64 pads can be used as a step-seq. It’s the 2 step-seq modes, 1 is the same as the MPC & the other is own unique version that’s way better.
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It’s so odd to me when peeps think you always have to use the screen to step sequence when you can see the pads light up on each trigger that you press on the screen. It’s like step sequencing on the Maschine but no one complains about that!
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Finally ordered a live 3 through Alto. What is the biggest drive size I can use in the SATA slot ? Is it 2TB ?
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They’re on sale now, so it’s worth looking into. I believe Live 3 comes with OPx4 as standard. It does sound great and is not hard to program if you know what you’re doing, but being FM it is not so immediate or intuitive. Worth trying out demo versions of the others on the Air music site, there are demos available than run for a week. Look into the effects as well, especially Delay Pro.
The stock plugins (Tubesynth, Hype etc) that come with the MPC are OK - not great sounding but OK and easy to use. The keygroup sampler is now very very good, much more powerful than it used to be with 2 filters, big modulation matrix, nice envelopes.
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