With the announcement of the MPC XSE and some of the reaction. There’s something that doesn’t sit right with me when it comes to Akai and the MPCs. I think a lot of it has to do with my interactions with the die hard users and employees but also from my time spent with the MPCKey61 in the store.
The Fabric XL engine (which I was most looking forward to trying) came off like a rompler. The sample editing capabilities and just being able to create sounds from scratch is incredibly limited compared to other products out there. A lot of the presets sort of felt redundant (same Celeste, guitar samples and everything swamped in effects and ridiculous amounts of vibrato aftertouch) and it quickly exposed how limited the engine was.
OP-4 was easily my favorite engine. Not the best FM but it has a unique sound which I appreciated.
The other engines I could take or leave as I’ve heard much better out there (and in some cases own much better).
The drum sounds I found a bit flat after my experience with the Tempest and S2400. Not sure what it was but it just felt the drums didn’t have any character to them.
The sequencing was fast which was great but I still prefer other workflows.
Oddly enough I found the Maschine+ to be more my liking in terms of sound. It felt like it was everything I wanted a modern Synclavier to be. The Prism, Kontakt and FM8 engines really sold me on it over the MPC. Sure some of the sound design functionality is buried but I think the on-board sounds as they are really have a unique quality and character to them which Akai didn’t.
Overall, I think my experience with the MPC sort of reinforced my mindset towards workstations or “do it all” devices. I’d rather have individual devices which specialize in specific abilities rather than a device which I’m either going to only use a portion of or has compromised features to accommodate the kitchen sink approach. I’d rather just have dedicated drum machines and dedicated sequencers and dedicated synths for specific sounds.
Akai have an established following and are catering to a specific customer and genre. They aren’t going to deviate from that or offer anything to anyone outside of that. Even with the MPCKey61. They promoted it like some type of ground breaking device ( on the SonicState demonstration it was like “you can sequence external gear and have all these awesome on-board sounds along with sampling...something that’s never been done before.” And I’m like....wait....what? Who are they trying to sell this to?). And any criticism of the available sounds on the Keys (being limited compared to Kurzweil, Roland, Yamaha etc) is met with “Well you don’t make beats, the product isn’t for you.” The hell?
I’m not sure what people expect from a new Akai product at this point. They are essentially rehashing the exact same engine over and over again in different form factors (similar to Roland’s ZenCore). So the XSE is exactly what’s to be expected.
I think Akai is addressing "different strokes for different folks". A lot of producers (especially those of hiphop/trap) live and breathe by the Akai workflow, and I think maybe as a product, the MPCKey61 was in part making sure that their product line was more competitive with NI (Komplete Kontrol and Maschine). From a business standpoint I believe this makes sense for them.
Fabric XL is a rompler indeed. I would never recommend an MPC if someone's main goal is to use it as a polyphonic synth -- I think the processors in these groove boxes aren't powerful enough to do polyphonic synths right. This is one reason I bought the Roland SH-4d for my portable setup for those kinds of sounds. That said, Mini D and the Odyssey plugin are really good. I don't know that Mini D really sounds like a Model D, more like (to my ears) a better sounding punchy bass synth with great mid range.. I like the sound better than a Moog; it's good enough that I've actually considered temporarily bring the MPC Live 2 into the studio and using it just as a dedicated bass synth. And for my use (the MPC is more of an idea starter than a complete production box for me) it was really a worthwhile purchase. OP-4, as you mentioned is also great -- it's not a DX7 emulation but its own thing.
But none of the shortcomings of it as a synth really matter for how I use it, as an idea springboard.
As far as the drums, I don't recommend anyone limit themselves to the drum kits that come with it. Make your own kits, put together from aftermarket sample libraries. Sample chopped drums from other tracks, that's one of the strengths of the MPC.
About the workflow, you really have to own an MPC for a while to fully warm up to the workflow, learn the shortcuts and the way of doing things on that particular unit (there are differences between the various models, such that some who learn on a MPC Live 2 don't like certain things about the MPC One or vice versa). Personally I like the MPC way of doing things, I've owned a Maschine since the original Mk1 came out, and just never really liked the workflow of the sequencer. I still use it as a drum machine because I have lots of kits, but more so the plugin, controlling it with something else as I never really liked the hardware. But that's a preferential thing, I've heard a lot of people say they prefer Maschine's workflow.
When you said the sample editing capabilities are limited, I think you're talking about modifying the sounds inside FabricXL, is that correct? I do agree that plugin is limited.. but sample editing overall is fantastic on the MPC, it's really the reason the device exists at all. Especially using it to autosample other instruments, import other audio sources and mangle them into something new, etc. The relationship between the hardware and the sampling features is where it really shines I think.
In my case, the portability aspect (including the battery and the speaker) of the MPC Live 2 is a huge reason I own one of these at all, so the bigger units like the MPC X and SE don't particularly interest me. Although, I'd be lying if I said I didn't sometimes wish for more inputs and knobs. I'm in a happy place with using the touch screen + q-link knobs, but having all those knobs with LED labels on the larger units would really come in handy for folks who use the MPC as the primary brain of their system; and I've seen people do that.
One thing that doesn't get talked about enough is the fact that while some of the NI synths sound good, they really were designed to run on a more powerful PC, and thus the usability on Maschine suffers. Also I hear a lot of people who use both Maschine+ and MPC say Maschine+ is far less reliable in terms of freezing/crashing. MPCs are notorious for their stability, they don't let you down much which for folks in live situations is very important. Part of this may be because Maschine+ is trying to run PC plugins on a more limited platform, where all of the Akai stuff is specifically designed with limitations to prevent the CPU from being overloaded.
In some cases those limitations might make it not the right choice for some. Here in this thread, one thing I've tried to do is bring up some of the various points that are important to me and how I use it in my compact setup. It's definitely a YMMV thing. Back to the MPCKey61, I was just never interested in workstations so I wouldn't be interested in one of those any more than a Fantom, ModX, etc. but I do understand the appeal for some.
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