One scenario I left out in the discussion is DJ sets, which would soak up that 2gig RAM pretty fast....BUT I feel like the MPC isn't specifically designed for this task. Thanks for stopping by 🙏
Pure sample based producers will never hit the limit. You don’t see an issue unless you use a lot of plugins and keygroups. I have hit the ram limit on 2GB MPCs with 5 tracks.
Exactly , people like me that know how to play and make the melodies that sound like the 60s and 70s . I make everything original because I sell beats and don’t want to pay a ton of money to clear copyrights 😂
I can't stand when people think their use case scenario is the ONLY scenario. Per your example, sometimes I just want to load some Fabric or Fabric XL plugins and create strictly via virtual instruments. 2GB won't allow one to go very far within that particular workflow. They should just make the memory upgradeable like the MPCs of old. That would solve everything.
I don't understand how the new tech work's . Once you have 5 track's where do you store them so you can do more track's ? I used to have an MMT8 sequencer that stored all the tracks and triggered the juno , sampler and synth .
@@pauljones4060 you can save all of your tracks in the MPC. It has an 8 audio track limit in standalone and an 8 MIDI track limit in standalone. There are workarounds to get many more tracks but you will have to watch your RAM and CPU. The MPC can trigger any MIDI instrument and sequence them. You won’t run out of RAM using MIDI signal tracks. It’s when you use the MIDI instrument tracks where you could see an issue.
You can also run into the limit when using the MPC for a live set. Unless you are prepared to stop playback and load a new project between songs, you need all the samples and all the plugins for the entire set loaded from the start. I know the MPC is better suited for production than for live, but with a few improvements (like the RAM) it could be great for that.
It could be a compelling alternative to travelling with a computer rig running Mainstage if they implemented disk streaming from SSD, and memory that is in keeping with computers from even a decade ago e.g. 8-16GB. Whoever comes to market with a synth module that offers that kind of functionality and sound quality will probably do well for themselves.
That's why you have the MPC live 4Gb RAM... This thing is for studio. The mistake everyone does is to think it is a portable device. The mpc live 2 without speakers and with 25 keys will probably fill the gap someday... 😉
@@peterkadarmusic9728 and battery 😉🫶... but it would have been even worse to transport it, already since it is quite big and obviously not light. In the studio you don't have the same needs and have a computer if necessary.
Akai should just make the physical memory upgradeable like the old 2500 and 4000s. That would solve all memory problems. Obviously there are use cases where individuals are running out of memory. Otherwise, this wouldn't be an issue for ANYONE. But like most people, and the person in this video, if it's not an issue FOR ME, then it's not an issue.
I like your videos man I been saying 2 gigs is not a limitation, but I think for people who work in the box if they made one powerful enough to do what you could do in the box standalone that would be amazing.
People used to make entire albums in the 90s with 32mb/128mb samplers. The 2GB on MPC isn't as desirable as a PC, but it does have a discard unused memory function for cleaning up, and you really shouldn't be trying to use for chunky library stuff that is the preserve of Kontakt/Halion. Afaik the memory limitations are actually from the chipset that the Juce OS runs on, it comes in a 2GB or 4GB iteration and I guess Akai are trying to use up the stock of SoC's they bought. Maybe the next generation will open it up to 16GB or something. If you think you need more, either get the MPC X SE, or just run tethered full time (no limits), it's still a great box for a different writing paradigm from the DAW.
The reason is the Upsell > buy the Key 61. That is the only reason. We all know 2GB's extra would have cost $1 extra these days. The MPC ONE+ still sells and will continue to sell so they could use the SoC's on that easily. It's just marketing just like Apple does with their entry devices.
Great video and thanks for the useful information. I think the more important question is whether 2GB of RAM is too little for $900 in today's world because it's too little and hardly installed anywhere anymore. If someone buys an MPC and is promised that they can make music without a computer, then the buyer wants that device to behave like a computer. For 900 euros, you can buy a laptop, a MIDI controller, and a sound card, all of which have twice the performance of the MPC and much more space for samples without any compromises in terms of workflow or specifications. In any case, thanks for the video !
Bingo! Although having an MPC all in one somewhat mobile on the go tool has its perks as well. A all in one tool for a specific purpose is what you pay for
With a laptop you also get emails popping in... YT video suggestions... Tiktok alerts... the internet... and oh... what was I about to do? The MPC standalone keeps you undistracted.. that's a big selling point for standalone.
Tech house legend mrG keeps rocking entire venues with a mpc 2000xl and a mackie mixer. Do it like mrG. Also laptops became super thin and powerful enough to be taken along and give tons of ram and cores when the mpc is used as a controller. Hide the laptop away and you still get 100% of the mpc standalone experience and workflow
The gist of the matter is that 2 extra GB would not cost that much in production and therefore not much extra for buyers. But AKAI surely saves some things up for the pro or plus model coming.
1:23 - *~45 minutes of audio. The audio you load gets converted into 32-bit float, so there's some extra padding if your samples are 24-bit for example. When composing tracks on both the MPC Live or the Force, I have never ran out of memory. It's all about taking advantage of the internal plugins (which are great btw, despite what people say) and using just the samples that you need.
As an alternative you can use MPC-Tutor's (the dude that wrote the MPC-Bible) sample packs that's been optimized to use less memory on the MPC & Force.
Thank you for breaking down the system performance on the Key 37. I was damn near ready to pull the tigger on this. After watching your video. I’ll keep it to my LIVE II and MPK 32.
yeah, you aren't gaining much if you've already got the Live II, and you're gaining the speakers, battery, and ability of adding an SSD. I use mine while sitting on the couch all the time, love it.
For anyone my age (61 this year) how I reminisce about my first hard disk recorder with a massive 230Mb hard drive or my Casio FZ1 sampler with a massive 8Mb of mono recording. It really is ridiculous these days to talk about not enough memory. If that is your problem, you're using the wrong piece of equipment. I love my AKAI MPC Key61 and my NI Komplete Kontrol setups.
Times hav changed. There is NO reason for a 2024 device to be low on Ram other than to upsell the Key 61. In the 80's people used different gear. In this day and age plugins do matter otherwise they would be buy a MPC60 (and some still do). It's like buying a new 2024 car without AC and saying that we did fine in the 80's in that vehicle that also got us from A to B without all the options.
Dude I feel that, nothing impressed me more than seeing some of the file sizes of sample based AMIGA tracker sets. I'm a little too young to have had octatrack or its variants back in the day, but I respect that sh*t like you wouldn't believe.
I'd be curious to see the impact of the extra 2GB of RAM on standalone stems extraction. Is that more CPU or RAM intensive? Regardless, I know even with the 2GB machines, stems hasn't been anything ridiculous. I love my MPC Key 61 though. I feel like it's pretty future-proof in case Akai releases any ridiculous plugins that tug on a lot of memory by design. Great video Teft! Peace bro!
bruhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I remember the beard! so glad to have found you again when I started getting into music again. Old earthquake music sub here on Destiny. super glad to have found this,.
I have had the MPC live 2 since 2020 and the biggest problem I have with 2 gigs of RAM is how slow the search is when looking for sounds on my 2TB internal SSD drive. It's not fast enough to find sounds, load songs, or even start up or switch to a new song. I am always waiting for something to load which kills my workflow. On a PC when you search for something instantly finds it especially with 16-32GB of RAM. Would be nice to have 16BG I mean why not? Make it fast and more reliable, I would even pay more for that specifically.
I agree about the need for a decent reverb. It doesn't necessarily need a lot of grunt - my favourite hardware reverb unit is still my humble Alesis Microverb III.
I hope Akai listens to you about the reverb because that’s actually one thing i believe is definitely MISSING in the MPC .the reverbs are almost useless
For those who have not yet heard. Upcoming MPC 3.0 software adds audio streaming directly from mass media. I have not yet heard if the system also does record to disk or not. But this definitely helps situation with long audio tracks.
Great Video! I wish someone would clear up the confusion about about the Mpc one, live, X, & Keys sounding bad. I personally used to own an mpc 60 2 & a 2000xl so I’m pretty much familiar with the old school sound. So many people are saying the new Mpc’s sound horrible. When I use them I just hear the raw unmixed sound that you can tweak when you mix down your tracks in your Daw. I use the new Mpc’s in standalone & controller mode. My question is if you export your stems inside the Mpc’s software in controller mode does it affect the sound quality in a bad way? My understanding is that the only conversion happening is when record through the A/D on the input and when you play back those stems through what ever D/A converter you use to monitor your audio with. So if you use a better quality audio interface / converter shouldn’t that improve the sound quality? I’m interested to know your thoughts on this?
For a minute I was making music on a little 'netbook'(remember those?!) running Linux, and would use the track freezing function to free up resources. I don't believe the MPC line has that as an actual function, but you could convert even a long passage from a plugin into a sample to accomplish the same goal, right? Edit: oh, yeah, you say that around 11:30 :)
I've had a problem where I was sampling. Real instruments, which were violins... And I wanted to create a stereo effect so I. Panned some all the way to the left and some all the way to the right. I did this for several different instruments to create kind of an orchestra. Feel to a hip-hop song. And I did have some problems with memory during playback.
My ONLY gripe with Akai is that i bought a Live and X classic, but have no path to hardware upgrades. There should be some sort of enhancement kit or upgradable RAM option for, at least, the X. I didn't realize how limited the MPC was until my DAW machine went down & i couldn't produce any in-depth music. I hope InMusic purchases Ujam next, & figure out how to integrate some incredible Guitar strum engines, effects, & factory processed samples kits.
12:35 - 12:45 … so, MPC 3.0 will bring Disk Streaming, right? Does this mean that the 2GB RAM limit will no longer be an issue with MPC 3.0?! For all purposes?!?! What will it still be a limitation on/problem for? 🤔🙏🏼
Korg Nautilus uses 3GB RAM. It runs on a Linux like OS and most importantly it streams its patches, as well as samples, giving the impression that they load almost instantaneously. They're loaded in and out of memory on the fly. - This goes back years, to the Korg OASYS. For MPC, I believe streaming was in a recent update but only applies to samples from what I gather. Please correct me on ghis. Therefore, either you can only use one or two sound engines at a time OR you have to keep bumping tracks to samples, in order to use other sound engines.
Lots of peeps in comments talking about sample memory. It's not about audio samples. Plugin instruments eat up the memory! 512mb would be a lot for samples! Akia entering the world of plugins changes the game.
@1:34 i love this question i come from the MPC 1000 where you only had 16mb as factory ram and upgradeable to 128mb which i later did and i thought it was amazing back then.but 2gb of ram is ridiculous and more than enough I’ve actually NEVER ran into ram issues wit my live 2.alot of us are jus spoilt nowadays
I came from the 1k/2500 & thought the same but keep in mind that everything gets sampled at 24 bits on the new MPCs which takes up more memory. Also once you load up your old beats on it & then try to take those samples you can't load them on your 1k anymore bc it has a 16 bit limit, so you'll need to convert them first. Still 2GB-700MB or whatever is still lot for most people. Finally the 1k didn't have plugins to deal with. I glad I started with the older MPCs first, it really makes me respect the Akai Force more than an Akai newbie coming from a DAW - You feel me?
@@Noise-Conductorabsolutely i get u and that something i wanted to mention but left out.Coming from 1k/2500 myself it makes me appreciate what mpcs have become now.alot of things their doin now i truly envisioned them even down to this very mpc key 37 i thot of that shit in 2003/2004
@@Noise-Conductor not gonna lie i cant anymore 😂🤣 all the visions i had have been fulfilled for now but audio to midi wont be long..giving that it has a tuner and can detect key of samples…
It is “enough” if you are interested in the classic use of MPCs: as a sampler. But one day Akai will learn (1) to make disk streaming a thing and (2) to make the cpu/ram/etc user upgradable. I get Akai is too unwilling to actually upgrade the computer side of their hardware as they have almost entirely been making cosmetic changes to the MPC line since the X but at least let us upgrade the hardware
I do know that the 8 plugin and 8 audio tracks limit can be bypassed, I have no idea how, but I do know it has been done on the force with considerably more of each instance. So with that in mind, it will almost certainly be able to be done on the MPC too.
I'm a bit confused about that multichannel audio recording use case - isn't MPC supposed to record that audio to "disk" (SSD, SD card or whatever it uses for storage) instead of keeping it in memory? Any DAW would do just that.
@@MathHammer it's so strange because this is such an easy to implement feature. So basically MPC Keys/One/Live keep all the assets of the current project in memory?
It's kind of funny, the MPC is basically a Raspberry Pi in a fancy case. If you look at it from that point of view you can temper your expectations quite well. I have never run into an issue with any MPC, and despite pushing my Key 37 a little harder than I have any others it still seems like plenty of power. Akai and Air have done an absolutely legendary job at building plugins and tools for this that fit the meager physical system specs like a glove. These things are nothing short of engineering marvels.
4 GB is almost not enough. Each inst, samples, projects takes the headroom. I've run out of memory several times. Poor memory management in the OS. I bought 2 MPC's and a Force.
It would be nice if it was possible to load 2 projects at the same time so that you could switch between them during a gig without the loading delay. Obviously that would use more memory space....
Can’t remember if true or not , wasn’t there a faster loading difference for plugins between the 2gb and 4gb also . Maybe you can check with your key 61
Most of the MPC users online are not musicians. So I do find it difficult to layer a piano, strings, Ep and pads on my MPC live 2. We need more Ram, atleast 8gigs.
They should at least make an upgrade option for people who do need it for whatever reason. I do collaborative sessions and like to load up A LOT of programs to access a wide variety of sounds on the fly. I constantly reach my memory limit and have to purge shit which sucks. If anything this workflow changed my whole perspective about working in traditional DAWs. Rather than being overly intentional about picking the right sounds, I like loading up a tons of sounds before even starting. Ideas come way quicker when you have quick access to a ton of sounds
I mostly use my MPC in controller mode but I try to limit myself in hiw many plugins I use just in case I have to continue work in standalone mode. Of course that's unless I continue the song in Reason or eventually Ableton Live
A couple of points to note, first, you can bounce sample plugins to a sample (create an audio file and assign to a pad, trigger the pad), or, bounce to a literal audio track. In the second option, sure, you are limited to 8 audio tracks, but they are not going to be minutes long, and if they are, Im guessing you dont need 8 audio tracks. You can also literally sample a sample based plugin like studio strings and create a keygroup out of it. Should the MPC's have 4 gb of ram? Yea, why not, they are charging enough for them, it doesnt make any sense not to have 4 gb of memory. In fact, the only reason there isnt more than 4 gb is the OS is still 32 bit, meaning, it cannot access anything above 4 gb anyway (technically, its limited to 3 gb, but with some clever programming, they can do 4 gb). People complaining about the ram have never used the MPC in a real practical purpose, people read 2 gb and assume, based on other architectures that it is not enough. Last, I hear people talk about live sets. This is very easily solved with two MPC's. I have an MPC Live 1 & an MPC Live 2, they both are used in my live sets with a mixer that sits between the two units; with a simple two fader movement, I can easily move between the two units. Where the MPC lacks is in the general quality of sounds and effects. It can get the job done, but to a discerning ear, the FX plugins and actual provided factory sounds thru what it comes with, VST's, and official Akai expansions, it is lacking. The Maschine+ sounds better, has better plugins, sounds, and expansions, and a terrible, terrible UI that is not accessible or modern. It has 4 gb of ram that you can easily hit because they didnt write the software to consider limited hardware capabilities. The software limitations are also frustrating (MSB / LSB, lack of write automation on a global main mix, track mutes not transferring when copying a sequence, artificial limitation of 8 audio tracks / plugin tracks (instead of leaving it to the user to manage their memory usage), the absolute pain in the ass way write automation is edited, etc). MPC 3 is a step in the right direction, but there are definitely places that could be improved.
Great explanation. I was hoping to use an MPC One for stem playback a whisker back but quickly realised it just didn't have the memory for it.a DFD option for larger samples would have been amazing, but alas this seems like a bridge to far for this current config.
When testing I got on a 2gig MPC: Studiostrings 31%, StagePiano 20%, StageEP 16%, FabricXL 15%, Fabric PIano 11%, Fabric EL 9%, Fabric 7%. Everything else seems to use around 1%.
You raise a lot of good points. At the end of the day, MPCs are primarily sampling sequencers with some added workstation capabilities thanks to the built in synths. They make an excellent companion to workstations which mostly treat the sequencer less an an instrument and more as an add-on. Built in sequencers on workstations are fiddly by comparison to the workflow of an MPC. Using the modern MPCs as a sampling and sequencing front end in a setup that uses other gear is a great hybrid approach that gives the best of both worlds. For reference, the Korg Kronos came out in 2011, can host 3GB of ram, and has disk streaming. Remember that when the Kronos came out, they started around 3 grand in 2011 money. So the power of the modern MPCs is limited in some ways but very cool in others. The built in instruments are a great thing to have but in general they operate more like an old school sampler - like an ASR-10 than a workstation like a Kronos. I have a few MPC Lives and a Force all with SSDs installed. It seems to me that loading the sample based libraries that you did took way longer to do so from SD card than what I experience on my units with the SSDs. I very much wish Akai would implement disk streaming and I wish they would have added an SSD bay on the 37. They are boasting some workstation functionality now but they still don't operate in as smooth a way as a Fantom, Montage, Kronos, etc. when it comes to loading and auditioning sounds. I like the idea of the Key 37. I personally would have paid a little more to have an SSD option as well as 4GB of ram but that's because I'm looking for something portable and powerful to be my sound source for live gigs in addition to the standard use case scenarios you described in your video.
When you are talking of RAM I guess you mean the DRAM installed on the board as apposed to physical storage; i.e. SSD?. What I would like to see is what plugins they come with out of the box for each MPC, so you can see the differences. Do you have to connect an MPC to the web before you can use it for making music?.
Man, I know I've been in the comments of every recent MPC video haha, but let me say... My friend let me borrow his MPC One and I have grown to REALLY enjoy it over the last week. I am not really a sample based musician, other than resampling and chopping my own pieces. I have been a bit curious about the RAM limitation since my primary use would be the synths. For how I'd be using it, I don't think I'd have any issues with 2GB of ram just using it as a standalone song sketching tool. The Stage Piano/EP take up much less memory, correct? I could see myself using those two, besides what they cost haha. Thanks for going over this issue.
Recording and looping, especially multiple channels, will chew up the RAM quickly. Disk streaming could solve this, but it is available only on the Force. I don't know why Akai hasn't implemented it on the MPC line.
We upgrade our devices to get away from loading and lag issues. Akai literally gave out the bare minimum of 2GBs Ram on these units that have plug in instruments, compressors, delays channel strips, EQs etc. Fan of the products but they're wildin
Hey I got a question,for anybody, on the MPC 37 I downloaded some trial plugins that have since expired but they still show up on my screen and I would like to get rid of those trial plug-in screen icons,... Do you know if there is a way to do that? Example I did the trial for jura and it has run out but you're still shows up on the MPC 37 screen, it's just annoying
A lot of stem separation tools have an option to use gpu instead of cpu, so I see this being an issue. I don't think stems is coming to standalone until 3.0 and they release a new piece of hardware to force the people that want to use it to buy another piece of gear. I think IF they do bring it to hardware that it will have a time limit or a worse algorithm like how we have a low quality and high quality timestretch. If not the fact we NEED more ram, it's is more the fact they choose to stick with 2 instead of just moving ahead is like some gatekeeping shit. I won't buy anything more akai(hardware or software) until I see improvements with the Mpc's in Standalone in regards to Sampling capabilities and tightening up Midi happens. I'm not sure how many Mpc's or which ones you've owned but they still need to catch up as far as sample features to their older machines. They need to fix older issues rather than move ahead with hardware, or plugin. If they choose to move the hardware direction and the cpu and ram is the same, then hell no. There are other machines with less ram, some are even cheaper than the cheapest Mpc's, and they sound Waaaayyyy better. Akai needs to step up there game instead of treating features that are free on the internet, like they should be payed for and added to the MpcSoftware. That's trash. My 2 cents.
My average MPC protect is over 2GB, not including the ~1GB used for the OS. So yeah, even 4GB isn't enough. And RAM is CHEAP! So they have no excuse. And disk streaming is already on the Force, so they should know that it's a good feature for the MPC
I feel like a lot of people are just afraid to commit to audio. Just get complacent with your audio and bounce to sample….name the sample the preset name if you mostly start from presets…or even save the state of the plug-in as a preset that you tweaked and do the same for the mixer inserts. Really it’ll be okay if you need to go back. Nuke the plug-in then purge. You even have a limit to how many “audio tracks “ you can use, but put those samples in a “drum pad” and turn on the note on option, turn on warp and span the pad in the piano roll. Now that limitation is not even a problem. Just don’t record a whole 3 minute marathon in the piano roll and do that. Think loops. Maybe I’m more disciplined coming from making music on under spec computers not being able to afford the recommended upgrades and working through my broke teenage years, but I’ve learned…If the buffers too high and the cpu is still crackling, or the animations and movement is not snappy anymore it’s time to make it audio and get rid of some stuff. Same concepts. You also have to accept something is done. When handed off it’s almost a 95% chance every track will become audio files anyway.
You put it better than I could have. Well said. Guessing within 5 years they'll upgrade all models to 16Gb RAM and all versions with SSD capabilities and people still be bitching that Akai hardware limitations be what keep them from making that big hit song.
Which opens up the question of..... how in the blue hell is the standalone stem separation processing going to go when they release it? Is it going to be a strictly hardware operation? or will wifi need to be enabled for cloud processing? 🤔🤔
@@Noise-Conductor but stem processing takes a considerable amount of processing power of AI to produce the samples in a specific short amount of time. 2GB of ram is pretty ambitious....unless there is a cutoff capacity of sample length in the MPC
Yes 2gb can work. However I still would prefer 8 to 16 gb, because of the GUI and ability to use plugins and soon STEMS in standalone. The modern MPCs are in many ways a powerful DAW and physical instrument in one. The only thing I want to be added to the new standalone MPCs is premium converters, because I do love sound. And the MPC X SE, Live 2, X are professional level in so many ways; and, these instruments only lack premium converters for the added punch. ( I’m not really complaining though cause I do love my MPC X). I have the MPC X SE and the MPC ONE. Both are wonderful to work with. However I love working on the X SE for the layout, size of the pads and screen and I have the SSD that I added. Until there is truly something worth buying another machine, and for me the Key 37 isn’t it. I’m sure it’s fun but with an MPK 261 or and MPK advance 37 key version and the MPC X SE or a similar set up I get the best of both worlds, because I just don’t want keys attached to my MPC at all times.
These new MPC’s are underpowered. Are we really supposed to believe they are gonna be able to do standalone Stem separation in a reasonable amount of time?
i have an MPC its really annoying having such a limit, ots way less than 50m of samples if you use HQ audio files and no MP3s. Personal i cant understand why they didnt go got 8gb ram is so cheap.
Iv not got any of the paid plug ins just the 8 free ones so now im not fused about getting any iv got a voucher for a free one for registering the unit so im not gonna bother getting them ...
Most guys aren’t keyboard players that play live. That’s why having external gear is cool. MPC meant MIDI PRODUCTION CENTER. Like you said you can resample parts if you need to.
Back in the Good Ole Days, reading Car and Driver, the standard line to “How do I make my car go faster?”. Paint it red. Now, if you need more ram, Akai’s answer is…Paint It Red. Thank God I’ve lived long enough to see this day. FFS!
I think the issues is how cheap ram is and Akai just not adding more ram. The difference is evident when loading Fabric XL and other intensive plugins. Any device after the MPC X SE should’ve had 4gb ram minimum. Truly I believe a sweet spot would be 6-12gb ram would give a ton of overhead that’ll allow much quicker load times and also allow for more audio tracks. But hey that’s coming next. Also they should definitely consider disk streaming to help with the low ram.
"2 GiB RAM isn't enough", they say, right before buying a groovebox with 64 MiB RAM or less. I've seen it happen many times. Personally, I've never even gotten close to the RAM limit on my Akai, even when I use a lot of samples, large kits, and audio tracks. And if I did, I could just turn on disk streaming.
Can music producers make a full length track with 2 Gig Ram : Yes But in 2024 2 Gig ram is not a professional look Standard benchmark today is 8 Gig for music production " for that price point " dont get me wrong i think its a great bit of kit and i have a MPC ONE my self And i do music alot on there but i do get to a point where i need more Ram Theres no point giving us 2 gig ram if we keep getting work flow obstacles . Im sure there are many people who would to see new production line with standard 8 gig ram , im not worried about harddrive space as you can purchase big memory cards today for super cheap
I never used it ......but i've seen video comparing mpc x and mpc x se ......4gb is faster one, proved .....and can take more bigger plugins on channels then 2GB older model ...hmm, is there any posibility for mpc to have linear recording view ....it has only loops? ........how can u create a song then in it? ....there is not one right product that let you work off line independent and to have all views and posibilities ...i need loops only for inserting into tracks few off them rest i need linear writing midi drums or for recording guitar from one take 3-4 minutes onto metronom and later filling drums and layers ....cant they just make one product that has nice preamps big screen and all in it like pc DAWS ....of past ....i dont want any on-line updates or conecting it after i start using it ....offgrid i need .....there is no such product not for any money .....one unit and all things in it and u just plug and play .....i dont want to be buying ( more thinking about new things all the time) equipment all the time ...i need something i'llget used to ...and drive it for at least decade ahead before changin it for same thing but with better quality and posibilitys
The best way to work for a full song is to define a full length sequence, e.g. 200 bars and use the loop brace to cycle on regions that you are working on as though they are distinct sequences themselves. This gets around any kind of glitching or incompatibility when jumping from one chained sequence to another in song mode, which is an issue the MPC5000 used to have. You stay all within the same sequence, every midi/audio track has a permanent assignment, it has plenty of tracks so if you need more just go to a higher number. This way your entire song is navigable, especially on the MPC X which has full transport navigation buttons. Once you get used to this workflow it's actually really fast and a lot like how people used some hardware sequencers in the 1990s. If you change your mind about sections of the tune, the MPC is quite capable of selecting ranges of bars and copying them to other bars, inserting, deleting, duplicating etc, and it can even change time signature for the bars you insert.
A lot was done with less in the past. But now they offer instruments plugins that are ram heavy. Ram is cheap these days. The logic board manufacturer they use has a higher end model for not much higher price.
One scenario I left out in the discussion is DJ sets, which would soak up that 2gig RAM pretty fast....BUT I feel like the MPC isn't specifically designed for this task. Thanks for stopping by 🙏
I think if you're a DJ, an MPC paired with an SP404mkII would be a way to go.
Killer combo!
This was not a fair project demo, an intense project with samples and multi tracks is better suited for a good comparison. Tiss tiss.
@@vjfxtheoryHe mention that.
@@universalvibe72 He did say there's enough RAM for "most" people & most people aren't MPC power users.
Pure sample based producers will never hit the limit. You don’t see an issue unless you use a lot of plugins and keygroups. I have hit the ram limit on 2GB MPCs with 5 tracks.
Exactly , people like me that know how to play and make the melodies that sound like the 60s and 70s . I make everything original because I sell beats and don’t want to pay a ton of money to clear copyrights 😂
I can't stand when people think their use case scenario is the ONLY scenario.
Per your example, sometimes I just want to load some Fabric or Fabric XL plugins and create strictly via virtual instruments.
2GB won't allow one to go very far within that particular workflow.
They should just make the memory upgradeable like the MPCs of old. That would solve everything.
@@coldskoolbeatz I have said that directly to Akai before.
I don't understand how the new tech work's . Once you have 5 track's where do you store them so you can do more track's ? I used to have an MMT8 sequencer that stored all the tracks and triggered the juno , sampler and synth .
@@pauljones4060 you can save all of your tracks in the MPC. It has an 8 audio track limit in standalone and an 8 MIDI track limit in standalone. There are workarounds to get many more tracks but you will have to watch your RAM and CPU. The MPC can trigger any MIDI instrument and sequence them. You won’t run out of RAM using MIDI signal tracks. It’s when you use the MIDI instrument tracks where you could see an issue.
This is one of the few Chanels that I know I’m gonna get honesty…Thanks for that!
This was helpful. Its cool that you used MPC-Tutor's info. Akai never show him no love, even tho he wrote the MPC-Bible. Peace 👍🏾
big up, tutor. total mpc legend
@@samsicles_jr If you know, you know!
💯@@Noise-Conductor
Great channel! When I was a lad, we were happy with an Akai S1000 upgraded to 16 meg. :-)
PJ Ladd 🔥
You can also run into the limit when using the MPC for a live set. Unless you are prepared to stop playback and load a new project between songs, you need all the samples and all the plugins for the entire set loaded from the start. I know the MPC is better suited for production than for live, but with a few improvements (like the RAM) it could be great for that.
It could be a compelling alternative to travelling with a computer rig running Mainstage if they implemented disk streaming from SSD, and memory that is in keeping with computers from even a decade ago e.g. 8-16GB. Whoever comes to market with a synth module that offers that kind of functionality and sound quality will probably do well for themselves.
That's why you have the MPC live 4Gb RAM...
This thing is for studio. The mistake everyone does is to think it is a portable device. The mpc live 2 without speakers and with 25 keys will probably fill the gap someday... 😉
@@danielbarbieri8199Yeah hopefully. For me, I would have paid a few bucks more to get the SSD bay and the extra RAM capacity.
@@peterkadarmusic9728 and battery 😉🫶...
but it would have been even worse to transport it, already since it is quite big and obviously not light. In the studio you don't have the same needs and have a computer if necessary.
@@danielbarbieri8199 Which Live has 4GB of RAM?🤔 It's certainly NOT the Live or Live 2.
Akai should just make the physical memory upgradeable like the old 2500 and 4000s.
That would solve all memory problems.
Obviously there are use cases where individuals are running out of memory. Otherwise, this wouldn't be an issue for ANYONE.
But like most people, and the person in this video, if it's not an issue FOR ME, then it's not an issue.
I like your videos man I been saying 2 gigs is not a limitation, but I think for people who work in the box if they made one powerful enough to do what you could do in the box standalone that would be amazing.
People used to make entire albums in the 90s with 32mb/128mb samplers. The 2GB on MPC isn't as desirable as a PC, but it does have a discard unused memory function for cleaning up, and you really shouldn't be trying to use for chunky library stuff that is the preserve of Kontakt/Halion. Afaik the memory limitations are actually from the chipset that the Juce OS runs on, it comes in a 2GB or 4GB iteration and I guess Akai are trying to use up the stock of SoC's they bought. Maybe the next generation will open it up to 16GB or something. If you think you need more, either get the MPC X SE, or just run tethered full time (no limits), it's still a great box for a different writing paradigm from the DAW.
The reason is the Upsell > buy the Key 61. That is the only reason.
We all know 2GB's extra would have cost $1 extra these days. The MPC ONE+ still sells and will continue to sell so they could use the SoC's on that easily.
It's just marketing just like Apple does with their entry devices.
Great video and thanks for the useful information. I think the more important question is whether 2GB of RAM is too little for $900 in today's world because it's too little and hardly installed anywhere anymore. If someone buys an MPC and is promised that they can make music without a computer, then the buyer wants that device to behave like a computer. For 900 euros, you can buy a laptop, a MIDI controller, and a sound card, all of which have twice the performance of the MPC and much more space for samples without any compromises in terms of workflow or specifications. In any case, thanks for the video !
i agree ....and they should put in topquality preamps and guitar effects so that you can just plug n play directly and get pro results
💯 agreed. personally i think AKAI just is a toy.. I used AKAI 6000, like 20 years ago. But now a I9, M.2, 64Gig ram is a must for me to have now..
Bingo! Although having an MPC all in one somewhat mobile on the go tool has its perks as well. A all in one tool for a specific purpose is what you pay for
With a laptop you also get emails popping in... YT video suggestions... Tiktok alerts... the internet... and oh... what was I about to do? The MPC standalone keeps you undistracted.. that's a big selling point for standalone.
Just cut the Internet off until you need it? @@keithmurray9241
Tech house legend mrG keeps rocking entire venues with a mpc 2000xl and a mackie mixer. Do it like mrG.
Also laptops became super thin and powerful enough to be taken along and give tons of ram and cores when the mpc is used as a controller. Hide the laptop away and you still get 100% of the mpc standalone experience and workflow
The gist of the matter is that 2 extra GB would not cost that much in production and therefore not much extra for buyers. But AKAI surely saves some things up for the pro or plus model coming.
1:23 - *~45 minutes of audio. The audio you load gets converted into 32-bit float, so there's some extra padding if your samples are 24-bit for example. When composing tracks on both the MPC Live or the Force, I have never ran out of memory. It's all about taking advantage of the internal plugins (which are great btw, despite what people say) and using just the samples that you need.
As an alternative you can use MPC-Tutor's (the dude that wrote the MPC-Bible) sample packs that's been optimized to use less memory on the MPC & Force.
Thank you for breaking down the system performance on the Key 37. I was damn near ready to pull the tigger on this. After watching your video. I’ll keep it to my LIVE II and MPK 32.
yeah, you aren't gaining much if you've already got the Live II, and you're gaining the speakers, battery, and ability of adding an SSD. I use mine while sitting on the couch all the time, love it.
I only sample my voice and my flute to use as loops. So i don't think I'd use too much space. Thanks for this!! Really helps
For anyone my age (61 this year) how I reminisce about my first hard disk recorder with a massive 230Mb hard drive or my Casio FZ1 sampler with a massive 8Mb of mono recording. It really is ridiculous these days to talk about not enough memory. If that is your problem, you're using the wrong piece of equipment. I love my AKAI MPC Key61 and my NI Komplete Kontrol setups.
Times hav changed. There is NO reason for a 2024 device to be low on Ram other than to upsell the Key 61. In the 80's people used different gear. In this day and age plugins do matter otherwise they would be buy a MPC60 (and some still do).
It's like buying a new 2024 car without AC and saying that we did fine in the 80's in that vehicle that also got us from A to B without all the options.
I used to play at raves in the UK , my workstation had a 16 second sample time and that felt epic back then .
I just bought key 61 because of RAM shortage. My usage of plugins are heavy.
Did they say the same thing. If the mpc x se had more memory, would have sprung for that. 16gb would be more realistic in the world of plugins.
As someone who used to get his entire 1 hour live set stuffed into 10mb (thats MEGABYTE...with an M) on an E-mu rack sampler...yes. 2GB is plenty.
I remember getting my first 'zip drive' and being blown away by 128mb discs 😆
@@teftymusictechI still use an external zip drive with my MPC 2000. 😁
@@thetruemrstallings I don’t trust Zip disks anymore. I use bluescsi with my old scsi samplers.
Dude I feel that, nothing impressed me more than seeing some of the file sizes of sample based AMIGA tracker sets. I'm a little too young to have had octatrack or its variants back in the day, but I respect that sh*t like you wouldn't believe.
So I guess when the 250 MB came out you were over the moon lol@@teftymusictech
I'd be curious to see the impact of the extra 2GB of RAM on standalone stems extraction. Is that more CPU or RAM intensive? Regardless, I know even with the 2GB machines, stems hasn't been anything ridiculous. I love my MPC Key 61 though. I feel like it's pretty future-proof in case Akai releases any ridiculous plugins that tug on a lot of memory by design. Great video Teft! Peace bro!
bruhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I remember the beard! so glad to have found you again when I started getting into music again. Old earthquake music sub here on Destiny. super glad to have found this,.
I have had the MPC live 2 since 2020 and the biggest problem I have with 2 gigs of RAM is how slow the search is when looking for sounds on my 2TB internal SSD drive. It's not fast enough to find sounds, load songs, or even start up or switch to a new song. I am always waiting for something to load which kills my workflow. On a PC when you search for something instantly finds it especially with 16-32GB of RAM. Would be nice to have 16BG I mean why not? Make it fast and more reliable, I would even pay more for that specifically.
I agree about the need for a decent reverb. It doesn't necessarily need a lot of grunt - my favourite hardware reverb unit is still my humble Alesis Microverb III.
I agree a pro level reverb is needed. However I also want it to be very powerful with a lot of user control.
I hope Akai listens to you about the reverb because that’s actually one thing i believe is definitely MISSING in the MPC .the reverbs are almost useless
mpc2xl 32mb Stereo - 189 secs Mono - 4:00 mins never had a problem with samples NEVER!
ASR-10, 16 Meg. Never had a memory shortage.
For those who have not yet heard. Upcoming MPC 3.0 software adds audio streaming directly from mass media. I have not yet heard if the system also does record to disk or not. But this definitely helps situation with long audio tracks.
Thanks for the vid some folks just wanna complain. Great vid.
it's a valid complain though.
thank you so much for this video because i wanted the 37 key but i didnt know id have much ram but now because of you i understand
Great Video! I wish someone would clear up the confusion about about the Mpc one, live, X, & Keys sounding bad.
I personally used to own an mpc 60 2 & a 2000xl so I’m pretty much familiar with the old school sound. So many people are saying the new Mpc’s sound horrible. When I use them I just hear the raw unmixed sound that you can tweak when you mix down your tracks in your Daw. I use the new Mpc’s in standalone & controller mode. My question is if you export your stems inside the Mpc’s software in controller mode does it affect the sound quality in a bad way? My understanding is that the only conversion happening is when record through the A/D on the input and when you play back those stems through what ever
D/A converter you use to monitor your audio with. So if you use a better quality audio interface / converter shouldn’t that improve the sound quality? I’m interested to know your thoughts on this?
For a minute I was making music on a little 'netbook'(remember those?!) running Linux, and would use the track freezing function to free up resources. I don't believe the MPC line has that as an actual function, but you could convert even a long passage from a plugin into a sample to accomplish the same goal, right?
Edit: oh, yeah, you say that around 11:30 :)
I've had a problem where I was sampling. Real instruments, which were violins... And I wanted to create a stereo effect so I. Panned some all the way to the left and some all the way to the right. I did this for several different instruments to create kind of an orchestra. Feel to a hip-hop song. And I did have some problems with memory during playback.
My ONLY gripe with Akai is that i bought a Live and X classic, but have no path to hardware upgrades. There should be some sort of enhancement kit or upgradable RAM option for, at least, the X. I didn't realize how limited the MPC was until my DAW machine went down & i couldn't produce any in-depth music. I hope InMusic purchases Ujam next, & figure out how to integrate some incredible Guitar strum engines, effects, & factory processed samples kits.
12:35 - 12:45 … so, MPC 3.0 will bring Disk Streaming, right? Does this mean that the 2GB RAM limit will no longer be an issue with MPC 3.0?! For all purposes?!?! What will it still be a limitation on/problem for? 🤔🙏🏼
Korg Nautilus uses 3GB RAM. It runs on a Linux like OS and most importantly it streams its patches, as well as samples, giving the impression that they load almost instantaneously. They're loaded in and out of memory on the fly. - This goes back years, to the Korg OASYS. For MPC, I believe streaming was in a recent update but only applies to samples from what I gather. Please correct me on ghis. Therefore, either you can only use one or two sound engines at a time OR you have to keep bumping tracks to samples, in order to use other sound engines.
Lots of peeps in comments talking about sample memory. It's not about audio samples. Plugin instruments eat up the memory! 512mb would be a lot for samples! Akia entering the world of plugins changes the game.
@1:34 i love this question i come from the MPC 1000 where you only had 16mb as factory ram and upgradeable to 128mb which i later did and i thought it was amazing back then.but 2gb of ram is ridiculous and more than enough I’ve actually NEVER ran into ram issues wit my live 2.alot of us are jus spoilt nowadays
I came from the 1k/2500 & thought the same but keep in mind that everything gets sampled at 24 bits on the new MPCs which takes up more memory. Also once you load up your old beats on it & then try to take those samples you can't load them on your 1k anymore bc it has a 16 bit limit, so you'll need to convert them first. Still 2GB-700MB or whatever is still lot for most people. Finally the 1k didn't have plugins to deal with. I glad I started with the older MPCs first, it really makes me respect the Akai Force more than an Akai newbie coming from a DAW - You feel me?
@@Noise-Conductorabsolutely i get u and that something i wanted to mention but left out.Coming from 1k/2500 myself it makes me appreciate what mpcs have become now.alot of things their doin now i truly envisioned them even down to this very mpc key 37 i thot of that shit in 2003/2004
@BeatsByGemsmiff Well damn dude, now I gotta ask you what you envision for the next 20 years?
@@Noise-Conductor not gonna lie i cant anymore 😂🤣 all the visions i had have been fulfilled for now but audio to midi wont be long..giving that it has a tuner and can detect key of samples…
It is “enough” if you are interested in the classic use of MPCs: as a sampler.
But one day Akai will learn (1) to make disk streaming a thing and (2) to make the cpu/ram/etc user upgradable. I get Akai is too unwilling to actually upgrade the computer side of their hardware as they have almost entirely been making cosmetic changes to the MPC line since the X but at least let us upgrade the hardware
I do know that the 8 plugin and 8 audio tracks limit can be bypassed, I have no idea how, but I do know it has been done on the force with considerably more of each instance. So with that in mind, it will almost certainly be able to be done on the MPC too.
think if you use it controller mode you can have more audio tracks and maybe more plug in tracks too. could be wrong
Thank you, that's exactly the problem I had with Studio Strings on my MPC One +
I'm a bit confused about that multichannel audio recording use case - isn't MPC supposed to record that audio to "disk" (SSD, SD card or whatever it uses for storage) instead of keeping it in memory? Any DAW would do just that.
If it is the Force then yes. If it is a MPC, then no due to no disk streaming.
@@MathHammer it's so strange because this is such an easy to implement feature. So basically MPC Keys/One/Live keep all the assets of the current project in memory?
It's kind of funny, the MPC is basically a Raspberry Pi in a fancy case. If you look at it from that point of view you can temper your expectations quite well. I have never run into an issue with any MPC, and despite pushing my Key 37 a little harder than I have any others it still seems like plenty of power. Akai and Air have done an absolutely legendary job at building plugins and tools for this that fit the meager physical system specs like a glove. These things are nothing short of engineering marvels.
4 GB is almost not enough. Each inst, samples, projects takes the headroom. I've run out of memory several times. Poor memory management in the OS.
I bought 2 MPC's and a Force.
It would be nice if it was possible to load 2 projects at the same time so that you could switch between them during a gig without the loading delay. Obviously that would use more memory space....
With my SP404sx in tow I can have 24 hours of continuous audio. So this could fill the gaps between MPC sequencing when live.
Can’t remember if true or not , wasn’t there a faster loading difference for plugins between the 2gb and 4gb also . Maybe you can check with your key 61
Most of the MPC users online are not musicians. So I do find it difficult to layer a piano, strings, Ep and pads on my MPC live 2. We need more Ram, atleast 8gigs.
This was really useful information. Thanks!
I wonder how much the Disk streaming feature will affect this.
As usual, super informative video! Thank you for making it and sharing it! 😊
They should at least make an upgrade option for people who do need it for whatever reason. I do collaborative sessions and like to load up A LOT of programs to access a wide variety of sounds on the fly. I constantly reach my memory limit and have to purge shit which sucks. If anything this workflow changed my whole perspective about working in traditional DAWs. Rather than being overly intentional about picking the right sounds, I like loading up a tons of sounds before even starting. Ideas come way quicker when you have quick access to a ton of sounds
Are you referring to instrument plugins that have a limit of 8 instances? Or are effect plugins also included?
Plugins portion is true but that means technically you only can have 8 sounds using the plugins unless you bounce them into audio.
For my work flow the only bAd is the sloooow time it takes for samples to load🤦♂️
i heard that they added streaming to disk in the 3.0 update.
or do they mean recording audio is referred to as “streaming to disk”
I mostly use my MPC in controller mode but I try to limit myself in hiw many plugins I use just in case I have to continue work in standalone mode. Of course that's unless I continue the song in Reason or eventually Ableton Live
I find the akai s5000 can hold more than mpc 1 black
And has less less ram
Why is that
A couple of points to note, first, you can bounce sample plugins to a sample (create an audio file and assign to a pad, trigger the pad), or, bounce to a literal audio track. In the second option, sure, you are limited to 8 audio tracks, but they are not going to be minutes long, and if they are, Im guessing you dont need 8 audio tracks. You can also literally sample a sample based plugin like studio strings and create a keygroup out of it. Should the MPC's have 4 gb of ram? Yea, why not, they are charging enough for them, it doesnt make any sense not to have 4 gb of memory. In fact, the only reason there isnt more than 4 gb is the OS is still 32 bit, meaning, it cannot access anything above 4 gb anyway (technically, its limited to 3 gb, but with some clever programming, they can do 4 gb). People complaining about the ram have never used the MPC in a real practical purpose, people read 2 gb and assume, based on other architectures that it is not enough.
Last, I hear people talk about live sets. This is very easily solved with two MPC's. I have an MPC Live 1 & an MPC Live 2, they both are used in my live sets with a mixer that sits between the two units; with a simple two fader movement, I can easily move between the two units.
Where the MPC lacks is in the general quality of sounds and effects. It can get the job done, but to a discerning ear, the FX plugins and actual provided factory sounds thru what it comes with, VST's, and official Akai expansions, it is lacking. The Maschine+ sounds better, has better plugins, sounds, and expansions, and a terrible, terrible UI that is not accessible or modern. It has 4 gb of ram that you can easily hit because they didnt write the software to consider limited hardware capabilities.
The software limitations are also frustrating (MSB / LSB, lack of write automation on a global main mix, track mutes not transferring when copying a sequence, artificial limitation of 8 audio tracks / plugin tracks (instead of leaving it to the user to manage their memory usage), the absolute pain in the ass way write automation is edited, etc). MPC 3 is a step in the right direction, but there are definitely places that could be improved.
Ask yourself: how many hardware samplers other than MPC actually offer more than 2 GB RAM?
This was very helpful, thank you.
Great explanation. I was hoping to use an MPC One for stem playback a whisker back but quickly realised it just didn't have the memory for it.a DFD option for larger samples would have been amazing, but alas this seems like a bridge to far for this current config.
When testing I got on a 2gig MPC:
Studiostrings 31%, StagePiano 20%, StageEP 16%, FabricXL 15%, Fabric PIano 11%, Fabric EL 9%, Fabric 7%. Everything else seems to use around 1%.
You raise a lot of good points. At the end of the day, MPCs are primarily sampling sequencers with some added workstation capabilities thanks to the built in synths. They make an excellent companion to workstations which mostly treat the sequencer less an an instrument and more as an add-on. Built in sequencers on workstations are fiddly by comparison to the workflow of an MPC. Using the modern MPCs as a sampling and sequencing front end in a setup that uses other gear is a great hybrid approach that gives the best of both worlds.
For reference, the Korg Kronos came out in 2011, can host 3GB of ram, and has disk streaming. Remember that when the Kronos came out, they started around 3 grand in 2011 money. So the power of the modern MPCs is limited in some ways but very cool in others. The built in instruments are a great thing to have but in general they operate more like an old school sampler - like an ASR-10 than a workstation like a Kronos.
I have a few MPC Lives and a Force all with SSDs installed. It seems to me that loading the sample based libraries that you did took way longer to do so from SD card than what I experience on my units with the SSDs. I very much wish Akai would implement disk streaming and I wish they would have added an SSD bay on the 37. They are boasting some workstation functionality now but they still don't operate in as smooth a way as a Fantom, Montage, Kronos, etc. when it comes to loading and auditioning sounds.
I like the idea of the Key 37. I personally would have paid a little more to have an SSD option as well as 4GB of ram but that's because I'm looking for something portable and powerful to be my sound source for live gigs in addition to the standard use case scenarios you described in your video.
When you are talking of RAM I guess you mean the DRAM installed on the board as apposed to physical storage; i.e. SSD?. What I would like to see is what plugins they come with out of the box for each MPC, so you can see the differences. Do you have to connect an MPC to the web before you can use it for making music?.
Mpc 3.0 beta 3 stage pianos plugin not enough memory appears
Man, I know I've been in the comments of every recent MPC video haha, but let me say... My friend let me borrow his MPC One and I have grown to REALLY enjoy it over the last week.
I am not really a sample based musician, other than resampling and chopping my own pieces. I have been a bit curious about the RAM limitation since my primary use would be the synths. For how I'd be using it, I don't think I'd have any issues with 2GB of ram just using it as a standalone song sketching tool. The Stage Piano/EP take up much less memory, correct? I could see myself using those two, besides what they cost haha.
Thanks for going over this issue.
Recording and looping, especially multiple channels, will chew up the RAM quickly. Disk streaming could solve this, but it is available only on the Force. I don't know why Akai hasn't implemented it on the MPC line.
If I’m not mistaken the issue happens when you’re like me and use custom keygroups they eat up lots of RAM
We upgrade our devices to get away from loading and lag issues.
Akai literally gave out the bare minimum of 2GBs Ram on these units that have plug in instruments, compressors, delays channel strips, EQs etc. Fan of the products but they're wildin
Hey I got a question,for anybody, on the MPC 37 I downloaded some trial plugins that have since expired but they still show up on my screen and I would like to get rid of those trial plug-in screen icons,... Do you know if there is a way to do that? Example I did the trial for jura and it has run out but you're still shows up on the MPC 37 screen, it's just annoying
A lot of stem separation tools have an option to use gpu instead of cpu, so I see this being an issue. I don't think stems is coming to standalone until 3.0 and they release a new piece of hardware to force the people that want to use it to buy another piece of gear. I think IF they do bring it to hardware that it will have a time limit or a worse algorithm like how we have a low quality and high quality timestretch. If not the fact we NEED more ram, it's is more the fact they choose to stick with 2 instead of just moving ahead is like some gatekeeping shit. I won't buy anything more akai(hardware or software) until I see improvements with the Mpc's in Standalone in regards to Sampling capabilities and tightening up Midi happens. I'm not sure how many Mpc's or which ones you've owned but they still need to catch up as far as sample features to their older machines. They need to fix older issues rather than move ahead with hardware, or plugin. If they choose to move the hardware direction and the cpu and ram is the same, then hell no. There are other machines with less ram, some are even cheaper than the cheapest Mpc's, and they sound Waaaayyyy better. Akai needs to step up there game instead of treating features that are free on the internet, like they should be payed for and added to the MpcSoftware. That's trash. My 2 cents.
My average MPC protect is over 2GB, not including the ~1GB used for the OS.
So yeah, even 4GB isn't enough.
And RAM is CHEAP! So they have no excuse.
And disk streaming is already on the Force, so they should know that it's a good feature for the MPC
I wonder if that's why they don't have a visual Parametric EQ
I feel like a lot of people are just afraid to commit to audio. Just get complacent with your audio and bounce to sample….name the sample the preset name if you mostly start from presets…or even save the state of the plug-in as a preset that you tweaked and do the same for the mixer inserts. Really it’ll be okay if you need to go back. Nuke the plug-in then purge. You even have a limit to how many “audio tracks “ you can use, but put those samples in a “drum pad” and turn on the note on option, turn on warp and span the pad in the piano roll. Now that limitation is not even a problem. Just don’t record a whole 3 minute marathon in the piano roll and do that. Think loops.
Maybe I’m more disciplined coming from making music on under spec computers not being able to afford the recommended upgrades and working through my broke teenage years, but I’ve learned…If the buffers too high and the cpu is still crackling, or the animations and movement is not snappy anymore it’s time to make it audio and get rid of some stuff. Same concepts. You also have to accept something is done. When handed off it’s almost a 95% chance every track will become audio files anyway.
You put it better than I could have. Well said. Guessing within 5 years they'll upgrade all models to 16Gb RAM and all versions with SSD capabilities and people still be bitching that Akai hardware limitations be what keep them from making that big hit song.
Which opens up the question of..... how in the blue hell is the standalone stem separation processing going to go when they release it? Is it going to be a strictly hardware operation? or will wifi need to be enabled for cloud processing? 🤔🤔
It mostly just use up a bunch of power while it doing its thing but afterwards it just like a normal sample.
@@Noise-Conductor but stem processing takes a considerable amount of processing power of AI to produce the samples in a specific short amount of time. 2GB of ram is pretty ambitious....unless there is a cutoff capacity of sample length in the MPC
Yes 2gb can work. However I still would prefer 8 to 16 gb, because of the GUI and ability to use plugins and soon STEMS in standalone. The modern MPCs are in many ways a powerful DAW and physical instrument in one. The only thing I want to be added to the new standalone MPCs is premium converters, because I do love sound. And the MPC X SE, Live 2, X are professional level in so many ways; and, these instruments only lack premium converters for the added punch. ( I’m not really complaining though cause I do love my MPC X).
I have the MPC X SE and the MPC ONE. Both are wonderful to work with. However I love working on the X SE for the layout, size of the pads and screen and I have the SSD that I added. Until there is truly something worth buying another machine, and for me the Key 37 isn’t it. I’m sure it’s fun but with an MPK 261 or and MPK advance 37 key version and the MPC X SE or a similar set up I get the best of both worlds, because I just don’t want keys attached to my MPC at all times.
I wonder if the disk streaming is coming to mpc ever it's been on Force for a while now, maybe the hardware can't handle it.
As long you don't use 3 piano keygroup with 4 velocity layers each... Your fine
These new MPC’s are underpowered. Are we really supposed to believe they are gonna be able to do standalone Stem separation in a reasonable amount of time?
all new MPCs have the same RAM size?
That loading time for the piano is a no go though.
have you ever loaded a Kontakt library?
Does it not depend on the size and amount of plugins you're using on your project?
i have an MPC its really annoying having such a limit, ots way less than 50m of samples if you use HQ audio files and no MP3s.
Personal i cant understand why they didnt go got 8gb ram is so cheap.
i own the mpc x so do you think you have more possibilities with my mpc than the mpc 37?
Can anyone recommend a video demonstrating how to synch one or more pocket operators to an MPC?
Iv not got any of the paid plug ins just the 8 free ones so now im not fused about getting any iv got a voucher for a free one for registering the unit so im not gonna bother getting them ...
I'm mostly worried about the updates and plugins that is gonna take up
Most guys aren’t keyboard players that play live. That’s why having external gear is cool. MPC meant MIDI PRODUCTION CENTER. Like you said you can resample parts if you need to.
Back in the Good Ole Days, reading Car and Driver, the standard line to “How do I make my car go faster?”. Paint it red.
Now, if you need more ram, Akai’s answer is…Paint It Red. Thank God I’ve lived long enough to see this day. FFS!
In the old days we had a floppy drive and 1 meg (not 1 gig) on a synclavier as a upgrade would cost £28,000 LOL
We just want to roll with the flow….without a proper freeze and unfreeze function, 2gb limits the production flow for those who dont sample heavy
Remember people did more with less….but that’s when it was only an os and not a DAW
I think the issues is how cheap ram is and Akai just not adding more ram. The difference is evident when loading Fabric XL and other intensive plugins. Any device after the MPC X SE should’ve had 4gb ram minimum. Truly I believe a sweet spot would be 6-12gb ram would give a ton of overhead that’ll allow much quicker load times and also allow for more audio tracks. But hey that’s coming next. Also they should definitely consider disk streaming to help with the low ram.
"2 GiB RAM isn't enough", they say, right before buying a groovebox with 64 MiB RAM or less. I've seen it happen many times.
Personally, I've never even gotten close to the RAM limit on my Akai, even when I use a lot of samples, large kits, and audio tracks. And if I did, I could just turn on disk streaming.
it should at least have 4gigs or 8gigs
Can music producers make a full length track with 2 Gig Ram : Yes
But in 2024 2 Gig ram is not a professional look
Standard benchmark today is 8 Gig for music production " for that price point "
dont get me wrong i think its a great bit of kit and i have a MPC ONE my self
And i do music alot on there but i do get to a point where i need more Ram
Theres no point giving us 2 gig ram if we keep getting work flow obstacles .
Im sure there are many people who would to see new production line with standard 8 gig ram , im not worried about harddrive space as you can purchase big memory cards today for super cheap
So...how do you perform live without having to load each song one at a time?
I never used it ......but i've seen video comparing mpc x and mpc x se ......4gb is faster one, proved .....and can take more bigger plugins on channels then 2GB older model ...hmm, is there any posibility for mpc to have linear recording view ....it has only loops? ........how can u create a song then in it? ....there is not one right product that let you work off line independent and to have all views and posibilities ...i need loops only for inserting into tracks few off them rest i need linear writing midi drums or for recording guitar from one take 3-4 minutes onto metronom and later filling drums and layers ....cant they just make one product that has nice preamps big screen and all in it like pc DAWS ....of past ....i dont want any on-line updates or conecting it after i start using it ....offgrid i need .....there is no such product not for any money .....one unit and all things in it and u just plug and play .....i dont want to be buying ( more thinking about new things all the time) equipment all the time ...i need something i'llget used to ...and drive it for at least decade ahead before changin it for same thing but with better quality and posibilitys
The best way to work for a full song is to define a full length sequence, e.g. 200 bars and use the loop brace to cycle on regions that you are working on as though they are distinct sequences themselves. This gets around any kind of glitching or incompatibility when jumping from one chained sequence to another in song mode, which is an issue the MPC5000 used to have. You stay all within the same sequence, every midi/audio track has a permanent assignment, it has plenty of tracks so if you need more just go to a higher number. This way your entire song is navigable, especially on the MPC X which has full transport navigation buttons. Once you get used to this workflow it's actually really fast and a lot like how people used some hardware sequencers in the 1990s. If you change your mind about sections of the tune, the MPC is quite capable of selecting ranges of bars and copying them to other bars, inserting, deleting, duplicating etc, and it can even change time signature for the bars you insert.
The music was a bit quiet in relation to your voice, but great explanation
A lot was done with less in the past. But now they offer instruments plugins that are ram heavy. Ram is cheap these days. The logic board manufacturer they use has a higher end model for not much higher price.