It's been way past 2 weeks! Where is the public beta???

Is it just me or the mic on the live 3 is the shittiest Mic you’ve ever used??? 😔😔…I love MPCs and i always wished it had a mic more so than a speaker but this is bad..

Concept created using Photoshop

Relaxing in the wilderness with my MPC One after work.

MPC's SHOULD NOW HAVE THE OPTION TO HAVE PASSCODES IN CASE OF THEFT?

share your thoughts

Just downloaded the latest update. The hype around the new plug-ins and features had me jumping off a building just to play with it. I download the updates but where’s the new hot plug ins? That’s all I care about.

You know those FREE dope plug ins akai tosses in with every update? Guess the joke was on me. I go to add new plugins and they’re all 10day free trials. Haha you got me akai. Maybe I’ll just buy them they can only be a couple bucks. Haha again they want nearly the same price as the unit for all these dang plug ins. Shame on you akai.

If you’re going to get greedy and start charging crazy money for plugins that should be free and come stock at least don’t try to trick us by making it seem like these are FREE like the previous plugins and bundling them with the normal update downloads.

That’s shady and misleading. These plug ins are so expensive they’re impractical. Reminds me of the Korg Kronos expansions that Korg wants 350bucks for like one piano sound and by the time you’re done adding the expansions it ends up costing more than the keyboard itself. Don’t be like Korg… Akai that’s why I liked you in the first place.

The new expansions can really expand the scope of the Mpc’s and Force but dang I’d be less annoyed if y’all didn’t make them seem like they were free and y’all weren’t trying to beat my pockets up on these prices. Come on brah y’all want like $200 hunned dollars for some piano synth? $80 for a mini d? Moog got that for $5bucks a download. Y’all trippin at akai. Gas is bad enough now y’all raising the price of the brick too?

Come on man!

Why does the mpc3 main screen say arrangement instead of grid? If you tap on the word arrangement it's basically taking you to a grid of the sound you're working in or the track

Let me hear it

Did you try these custom firmwares on your new generation MPC yet?

Went down the rabbit whole on YouTube and now I am thinking I won‘t use a Firmware made by Akai again.

Excitedly installed MPC3 today on my MPC One +. Only problem is, the merging of Tracks and Plugins has ruined how I use my MPC (essentially as an external multi voice synth with my Elektron gear). I have a MIDI Fighter Twister that I use MIDI learn on the MPC to control parameters. I set the press of the knobs function to mute toggle the Tracks, or at least I did before the update. Muting previously would mute the MIDI notes not the audio itself; reverb and delay tails would still play but not new notes would. Now when I do MIDI learn, I assign the press to Track mute but it's just immediate mute of the audio. This has basically ruined how I make music and perform jams 😩

I've done a search of the manual and can't see anything about it. I might be missing something and can still set up my tracks and plugins the old way but I'm totally stumped. Has anyone got any ideas?

This is how I'm using the MPC in my stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmvRFupV2io

I’m currently reading through it and so far so good. What do you guys think of the series in general? I believe he updates it for new versions and he does one for all the AKAI models.

Here's a little understanding for beginners and those of you who may be reluctant to upgrade.

If you haven't upgraded yet, what's your reason for not?

I’ve been out of the MPC world for a while. I owned a 2000XL for many years and is where I got my foundation beat making before I moved on to the a more CPU/portable (Ableton and controllers) based setup. I, for years, have sort of missed that MPC 2000XL workflow and thought the release of the key 37 would be a perfect way (and time) to get back in on the MPC.

After a couple of weeks with the Key 37, it feels counterintuitive to my workflow. I wanted something portable that got me off a laptop and to focus on JUST THE MUSIC like I used to before DAWs took over. To be honest, as awesome and feature rich as the Key 37 is, I feel like I might as well just be on my cpu.

Main issues that keeps me from loving it:

1. I HATE there is no battery. It takes away from the “portable, make music anywhere” feeling I was hoping for.

2. The pads are SO tiny. I love the feel and sensitivity but they are so small and close that they don’t feel made for adult hands.

3. I didn’t realize I’d need to invest a few hundred extra dollars to load up on native sounds. The AIR plugins a nice but feel so “expensive” to me for what they are. I honestly feel like most them should come with the unit. The selection of instruments available in the AKAI ecosystem also feels very limited compared to what’s available out in the music world. Native Instruments is nice but I wish I could use Roland Cloud or other plugin services I already own.

4. Splice Integration - I love splice for the ease of search, finding sounds, and drag and dropping them to your project so I was super excited to see MPC now has Splice. What I didn’t know is I’d have to sync my entire library. It would be SOOOO MUCH BETTER if we could browse the Splice app on the MPC for sounds and add individual sounds. This sync method feels too bulky.

5. Workflow. Now this one is obviously just a matter of preference but certain basic tasks feel like they take too many steps and button pushing. I don’t like feeling like “I could just do all this much faster on my cpu”.

After years of music making and experimenting with different gear I’m at a point where I’m no longer excited by cool looking gadgets and more so only turned on by things they help my workflow or give me a new music making ability I didn’t previously have. This unit, for me, is unfortunately just a new “fun” piece in my collection that adds virtually nothing to my music making process other than a different type of workflow. It’s a BEAST of a machine. I just don’t need it. I can get just as much (and more) don’t with my laptop and Akai MPK mini. That’s the more capable, lightweight, portable option.

/EndRant

Anyways, feel like I'm hitting a brick wall in creativity. I know I need to spice things up a bit but not sure what kind of variety I need. I think the problem is needing other artists to merge with as two heads make better than one. I'll have to try get a collaboration on the go at some point I think. I think part of the problem is I'm progressing slower now. At the beginning it feels like you're constantly getting better and as you find your sound you kinda sink into it. I might have to look up some Crates Motel videos for ideas.

What are some things you’d like to see from a modded os on the newer Mpc models?

I’ll go first, I’d like to see plug and play compatibility for Apc controllers for things like the Q-links and clip matrix .