Any MPC one + users ?

[sshorepunk]

Taking early retirement soon (end of May) where you used to get a carriage clock or a gold watch, we now get points that can be converted into vouchers 

 

so after enjoying my novation circuit I decided to go a step further and treat myself to an MPC one +
was also because I wanted to use more electric pianos and other things that were probably doable on the novation, but easier on MPC

and also because, I’m worth it 🤣

 

points were converted into Amazon vouchers and it was purchased along with a 128gb SD card, arrived Saturday as I’m out all day tomorrow 

 

Tony 

 

[SumOne]

Excellent retirement gift!

 

I had an MPC One, and then an MPC Key 67, both were great and I kinda regret selling them. A bit of a learning curve as they have different ways of doing things to DAWs, but is mostly quite straightforward. I never did get any good at finger drumming though!

[sammybee]

I sold my MPC one a couple weeks ago... missing it already.. Luckily i have 2 MPC's and an ISLA S2400 to soften the blow

[Kiwi]

I have had one sitting on my desk for two years and I have tried to start figuring out how to use it and then other things have taken priority (family usually).  I've had an open tab on YT showing the introduction video for probably about the same time.

[sshorepunk]

Well I got it but my time leading to retirement is hectic, no rush, it will still be there in 4 weeks 

[SumOne]

I had been considering getting the MXR Bass synth pedal, and recently thought a a small drum machine will be good to have, and my stage piano doesn't get bought along to gigs as it's too much faff/too big for the limited parts I'd use it for....so in a round-about way that has put a MPC Keys 37 right to the top of my wishlist! 

[Magister Ludi]

On 20/04/2025 at 08:47, Kiwi said:

I have had one sitting on my desk for two years and I have tried to start figuring out how to use it and then other things have taken priority (family usually).  I've had an open tab on YT showing the introduction video for probably about the same time.

IVE been using MPC WORLD by akai for some time now,just ordered another piece of hardware  to join the alt music making world-its certainly intrequeing to expand the old mindset.......there a thing happening now where the buzz is make all the diff toymakers play nicely together.

check out where christian is taking crow hill in composition......its NOT all banging noise you know!!!

Edited October 15 by Magister Ludi
grammar

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Hope you are enjoying your retirement! So, it’s true what Bruce said about points making prizes. I’ve been watching various you tube videos on these , loopop knows his stuff!

I ‘m still on GarageBand  with a couple of Roland sp samplers , and thought of maybe going down the MPC route .I’m too old to be doing excessive menu diving etc, but I’m interested to know how you get on …

[Woodinblack]

I have an MPX16 which I take live. i use it for the keyboard parts of 'in the end'  by linkin park, its small and fits on my stand. i also used it at christmas to fill out 'stop the cavalry' and for a few other single shots. i have a single shot on my dwarf as a sound in 'baker street', and I have an organ sound that I play with my 12 step for 'brick in the wall'. The MPX and Dwarf/12 step are not connected.

So I thought it would be nice to get the things together and bought an MPC-One. Loved that, played around with it but thought if I am gigging it was a bit more of a faff, so I upgraded to an MPC Live II, which were luckily cheaper as the Live III was rumoured.

I haven't had a chance to get round to getting together what I want to get, but I do want to be able to trigger sequences, as well as playing the synth stuff through that - first goal is to get 'Power of love' on the footpedals through it, which I can't do on the MPX, as that is a pure sampler, and some of the synth parts on the power of love are the same chords but held longer.

I am aware I could do that with a soundfont on the dwarf, but havent' got that far yet!

[TheLowDown]

There's a MPC Live III now. Looks very good, albeit pricey

[Woodinblack]

39 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

There's a MPC Live III now. Looks very good, albeit pricey

 

Looks great if you have the money for it. I got the Live 2 knowing that the live 3 was going to come out, I thought it was worth the risk, and it is, its great but no way would i have paid that!

[TheLowDown]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Looks great if you have the money for it. I got the Live 2 knowing that the live 3 was going to come out, I thought it was worth the risk, and it is, its great but no way would i have paid that!

Yeah it's a bit on the steep side for what it is. Many people still consider the Live II to be the best of the MPC devices, on balance. It only had 2GB RAM but it's enough for most purposes.

Edited October 15 by TheLowDown

[Woodinblack]

3 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

Yeah it's a bit on the steep side for what it is. Many people still consider the Live II to be the best of the MPC devices, on balance. It only had 2GB RAM but it's enough for most purposes.

 

I am sure that if you are a power user the Live 3 is going to be great, but I am not there yet, for me the built in battery, and the fact I can sit and work at stuff without plugging in is great.

[TheLowDown]

That's much of the appeal together with the speakers.

[SumOne]

A good thing with the Live iii is the included plugins. It's a cost  with the Key 37 (and One+) that I'll need to factor in.

 

£150 each for things I'd want like Stage Piano, Jura synth, Opx4, Organ, Electric piano....(you can choose one for free). Could quickly add up. 

 

By the way, the Mini D (Mini Moog) plugin is on a good sale price right at £29 reduced from £99.

Edited Monday at 13:13 by SumOne

[Woodinblack]

I initialy worried about that, but there are a bunch of things built in that are pretty good, and other things you can download (such as excelent drums). Then of course if you have something such as a synth that you want to copy you can just set it to automatically copy it (it plays the midi and records the audio).

It is a shame there aren't more plugins (I thought the Key 37 had them? I know the larger key does).

 

51 minutes ago, SumOne said:

By the way, the Mini D (Mini Moog) plugin is on a good sale price right at £29 reduced from £99.

 

Now I look I see that Jura is also cheaper, which is something I might like to get!

[SumOne]

Done! I've ordered a Key 37. (Amazon 0% interest on 12x monthly installments is a dangerous thing!) 

[sshorepunk]

@RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE retirement is great, thanks for asking! I have never been as busy, it’s like I used to go to work for a rest 

 

re: MPC

started using it eventually, once I had time, which you may think is an odd thing to say now I’m retired 

 

I watched a whole load of videos then realised a lot where before they did a major OS update, back, chipping away

But, I’ve been spending more time with my DAW, getting everything work over midi in a way that makes for an easy life

That includes my old Novation Ultranova, a Roland SE-02 I bought last year to use with the novation circuit that I had at the time and a Korg minilogue XD, because I’ve always wanted one 

Also have an Arturia keystep and a Behringher X-touch controller which is the last thing to connect 

it all runs through a Tascam Model 16, which was another retirement treat, a mixer upgrade from my 12 channel Mackie

 

so next I’m going to throw the MPC into the USB hub and see what happens, now entering  the world of midi clock with so much hardware, not something I’ve got involved with before 

 

I saw the Live III, probably makes a lot of sense for what somebody already called a ‘power user’

I suspect a few months in, as a mere mortal, I will only just have scratched the surface 

 

life is good 😊 

 

Tony 

 

 

[sammybee]

Does anyone else find themselves crippled with option paralysis when faced with these newer MPC's? 

I just find them so incredibly (over) complicated and distracting to the point of being un-musical.. I just seemed never to get anything done with them. I used to have the MPC Live and latterly the MPC One (both sold) and found the same issue with both of them

I find I get a lot more done with my MPC 2000xl's and Isla S2400 which i use just as drum/percussion sampling drum machines/midi sequencers, recording all my instruments straight into Logic

[BigRedX]

This is why I never switch on any of my musical technology until I have a really good idea of what I want to do with it.

[sammybee]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

This is why I never switch on any of my musical technology until I have a really good idea of what I want to do with it.

I kinda get that, but these machines are mostly marketed as compositional tools

[SumOne]

23 hours ago, sammybee said:

Does anyone else find themselves crippled with option paralysis when faced with these newer MPC's? 

I just find them so incredibly (over) complicated and distracting to the point of being un-musical.. I just seemed never to get anything done with them. I used to have the MPC Live and latterly the MPC One (both sold) and found the same issue with both of them

I find I get a lot more done with my MPC 2000xl's and Isla S2400 which i use just as drum/percussion sampling drum machines/midi sequencers, recording all my instruments straight into Logic

Personally, I think the new MPCs are excellent precicely because they have so many options, they are marketed primarily as a 'standalone production centre', but there is nothing stopping you saving a template that is just a drum machine and only ever using it for that, or I had a template on the MPC Key 61 that I've just added to my Key 37 that is 'Live stage piano' that has Piano, Organ, and Electric Piano each loaded and set up so drum pads mute/engage them - meaning I can easily solo or combine,when I'm using that preset the drum machine, effects, sequencer etc don't get touched. I also have a setting to use it just as a Bass multi-fx. 

 

I find them fairly straightforward to use - especially if just focusing on one thing at a time. 

 

I have found that finishing off a song structure and mastering type stuff is easier to do on the Laptop though, the MPC is more of a live tool and an all-in-one for putting ideas down.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by SumOne

[SumOne]

I'm loving the Key 37. I think the keybed and the sounds of stage piano things like Organ, EP and Piano are better than my Yamaha CK61 which costs more (that does win on extra keys and hardware controls though), and then of course there are additional things like synth, drum machine, sampler, sequencer, effects etc. All in a size I can easily take to gigs for those occasional times it's needed and it sits conveniently on my desk next to my laptop to distract me from home working. 

 

There is a good sale on for Plugins at the moment. e.g. Keys collection is £49 reduced from £249.

Edited 5 hours ago by SumOne

[BigRedX]

13 hours ago, sammybee said:

I kinda get that, but these machines are mostly marketed as compositional tools

 

Then at the compositional stage limit yourself to a set of standard sounds. Worry about getting those right only when you finalising the arrangement or doing actual recording. Just because a device offers you a multitude of options doesn't mean you need to use them all. Stick with the ones that do what you want.  As I have said in other threads about composition and recording, is that for me at least these are two very different functions with almost zero overlap. Also when I'm writing, I'm writing for whichever band I'm currently in which will have a specific sound. Therefore I already know what sorts of sounds I'm going to want before I even start.

[Woodinblack]

16 hours ago, sammybee said:

I kinda get that, but these machines are mostly marketed as compositional tools

 

Well, marketing is how you sell something, not necessarily how someone uses something - if you found the old ones made good drum machines, you will find that the new ones also still work as very good drum machines. Yes, they do more, but they don't have to if that is what your job is.