SumOne Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 This isn't a Bass Effects pedal but the MPC One is well worth a look if you want a hardware drum machine, sampler, synth, stand alone DAW, midi controller... And it turns out - a decent Bass multi effects unit. It's good enough for live effects with the Bass plugged directly into it that I'm selling quite a few pedals to help fund the slightly rash decision of spending £600 on the MPC. I wouldn't recommend just getting it as a Bass multi effects pedal as there are limitations (big, expensive, no footswitches, only 4x effects on a channel at one time, effects aren't bass specific, no tuner) but it's got loads of decent effects that are very tweakable via a 7" touchscreen and knobs, including compression, eq, drive, modulation, delay, filters (including auto wah). And you can still simultaneously use it's pads to trigger samples, drum hits, loops, or as a synth. And on top of all that, the next firmware update (late June) includes amp and cab sims! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Krow Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 Wow, that adds a whole new dimension to this piece of kit! What are your impressions of the synths on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted June 13, 2022 Author Share Posted June 13, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, Al Krow said: Wow, that adds a whole new dimension to this piece of kit! What are your impressions of the synths on it? The synths are pretty decent and fairly simple to figure out and get good sounds from, and not plugging into a Laptop to edit is great. I was considering gettting a FI or C4 again but I think the MPC potentially has a lot of the synth Bass sounds covered - at least for recording, perhaps for playing live too. Obviously it misses the performance/fun of playing them on a Bass guitar, but it adds more live control of the parameters - and bashing drum pads is fun and can be quite a performance! Hype and Odyssey are the ones I've used most so far (The Odyssey video is demonstrating it on the Laptop software, but the editing can be done on the MPC as a standalone like in the Hype video). Edited June 13, 2022 by SumOne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted June 13, 2022 Author Share Posted June 13, 2022 John Mayer: “When I’m playing on people’s sessions, I don’t bring an amp; I record all my guitars through my Akai MPC” https://www.musicradar.com/news/john-mayer-when-im-playing-on-peoples-sessions-i-dont-bring-an-amp-i-record-all-my-guitars-through-my-akai-mpc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted June 14, 2022 Author Share Posted June 14, 2022 (edited) Okay, I'll stop banging on about this now, but using the the MPC as a live Guitar/Bass Multi FX unit* and recording tool for Guitar/Bass doesn't seem to be mentioned much by Akai or reviewers or on forums anywhere and I only stumbled on it's usefulness for it after buying it primarily as a drum machine, so I'm spreading the good word a bit! Latest free update (23rd June) will include a lot of things, but specifically of interest to Guitar/Bass: NEW MPC TUNER MPC 2.11 also adds an integrated high-fidelity instrument Tuner to its arsenal of tools. Now you can tune your external MIDI CV synth, guitar, bass, fiddle, hurdy gurdy or any other musical instrument using the MPC Tuner. More than a plugin, use MPC Tuner in either desktop or standalone systems by selecting it from the menu in MPC. AIR AMP SIM MPC 2.11 brings a new Q-Link-mapped Amp and Cabinet Simulator to the MPC platform for adding sweet harmonic distortion to samples, vocals, drums, synths, bass, and yes—guitars. Lay down a guitar or bass lick in MPC or run your drum bus through a full stack to soak it in some creative harmonic distortion. This new MPC plugin offers colorful amp simulation and cabinet emulation effects of many types and sizes. *Caveat being I've only owned it for a week and haven't played out live with it yet. The biggest potential issue I can envisage to using it as a live multi FX (apart from no footswitches and only 4x simultanious effects per input) is if there's latency as it's designed primarily as a sampler/drum machine rather than a live Guitar/Bass multi-fx unit. I haven't done any scientific test to measure the latency but haven't noticed it being an issue, I guess to effectively monitor an input and then record it in-time with the MPC drums/synths etc it is designed for the monitor to have low latency. I can't see one example online of anyone using it as a live Guitar/Bass multi-fx unit though so perhaps I'm missing some fundamental flaw that I'll only realise once I've sold all of my individual pedals! https://www.akaipro.com/mpc211#New_Air_Effects Edited June 15, 2022 by SumOne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted June 19, 2022 Share Posted June 19, 2022 I bought one for my son as he's into electronica, DJ'ing, dance music etc. I had no idea of all its capabilities! I may have to "borrow" it when he comes home next week 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basskit_case Posted July 5, 2022 Share Posted July 5, 2022 I like the idea of this, real varied box of tricks, some effects, drum machine, recording, daw. What's the connectivity like on this, can it work with a Bass plugged in directly or does it need something in between to boost the signal? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted July 5, 2022 Author Share Posted July 5, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, basskit_case said: I like the idea of this, real varied box of tricks, some effects, drum machine, recording, daw. What's the connectivity like on this, can it work with a Bass plugged in directly or does it need something in between to boost the signal? I plug straight into the line level input. It works okay for me but I have a high output active Bass that I also did a bit of a mod to to make the signal louder. If you've got a low output Bass then it'd either need a lot of volume added by the MPC or using a preamp pedal to boost it. The new Amp & Cab sims and tuner are pretty good and there are a couple of Bass specific ones. Not as tweakable as Helix stuff but not bad for something that isn't sold as a Bass effects unit and lots of decent presets including: slap, fat fuzz, valve DI ...and 'pant filler'! It means you get a decent EQ and drive and still have space to add three additional effects like compression, modulation, delay. Here's someone using some of the new updates with a guitar. He's using it to record a loop but you can just set it to monitor (rather than recording) and you still hear the effects and Amp/Cab sim that the MPC is applying. Edited July 5, 2022 by SumOne 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basskit_case Posted July 5, 2022 Share Posted July 5, 2022 Thank you, great video, definitely tempted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 On 05/07/2022 at 15:04, SumOne said: I plug straight into the line level input. It works okay for me but I have a high output active Bass that I also did a bit of a mod to to make the signal louder. If you've got a low output Bass then it'd either need a lot of volume added by the MPC or using a preamp pedal to boost it. The new Amp & Cab sims and tuner are pretty good and there are a couple of Bass specific ones. Not as tweakable as Helix stuff but not bad for something that isn't sold as a Bass effects unit and lots of decent presets including: slap, fat fuzz, valve DI ...and 'pant filler'! It means you get a decent EQ and drive and still have space to add three additional effects like compression, modulation, delay. Here's someone using some of the new updates with a guitar. He's using it to record a loop but you can just set it to monitor (rather than recording) and you still hear the effects and Amp/Cab sim that the MPC is applying. Interesting, I'm thinking of ditching the Mac and going the standalone route. Seems with this, to get the most out of it as hard disk recorder, you have to buy more gear for it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basskit_case Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 Looks like you add as cards for memory 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted July 9, 2022 Author Share Posted July 9, 2022 (edited) Yeah, it takes SD cards for extra memory. I've also got an Akai midi mix on the way but that's more for additional live mix/dubbing sort of stuff. A midi keyboard is handy too. It can do everything stand alone but I find it easier to complete full tunes using the Laptop DAW it comes with. On its own its best for sketching of ideas/loops and live stuff. Edited July 9, 2022 by SumOne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 (edited) Stems separation on the way: https://synthanatomy.com/2024/01/akai-pro-brings-stems-separation-to-its-mpc-hardware-and-software.html (sorry, if admins see this perhaps this thread is best being moved into the 'other instruments' section) Edited January 22 by SumOne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ567 Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Nice! I have an MPC Keys, never tried running bass through it but I will now... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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