Finally took the time to upgrade. Have to say that I’m unimpressed with this update. After almost a year of no updates, I would have expected tons of minor tweaks and quality of life updates, but it’s essentially those specific new features that Andy Mac talked about in the original Sonicstate preview and nothing else. They could have done so much more here.
And the actual workflow improvements with the customizable main menu feels buggy. I tried to put Save on to a pad so I could hit Menu+Pad to quickly save, but that instead flashes a pop-up menu for a split second, slowing me down even further. And the swipe menu is about as useless as it looked liked on the demo video. The fact that they can’t do more in this amount of development time is surprising and disappointing.
Edit: this doesn’t mean I’m not excited about the new effects and features. I just think Akai should really prioritize QoL updates and bug fixes just as much as new features when releasing this infrequently.
And this they just never did/do. Yes, they fixed some really annoying bugs in the past (like the mute mode, and that took more than a year), but there are so much other things that just are so wonky in the MPC software, begging to be improved or fixed.
It feels like the developers are only able to add things because the core code base was so badly written that they are afraid to touch it.
There is a lot of quirky behaviour in the software, and these quirks are not always easily reproducable
Other things like the pad slices do always get corrupted somehow in a new release
In each release where bugs are fixed, new bugs occur or old ones return
The interface is far from coherent, some features and screens are completely different from other parts of the software, components are not reused
Simple things do not work properly, for example the keyboard input (lag), and the touchscreen is not always responding on what you do
Some parts of the UI have not been updated / cleaned since the initial release (examples: it still isn’t possible to change the order of the 4 fx slots or sort the programs in the program mixer)
Integration of plugins, like for example the drumsynth, is not as it could have been
Obviously the MPC Key 61 must have been taking a lot of the team resources over recent times… it would make sense that this would stall the development of the MPC firmware as we all knew it up to release of Keys.
I do not think it’s that complicated. They use a linux based platform combined with the JUCE framework, so some of the complexity is already captured in proven software that exists for a long time.
And mostly common in software development with codebases which are not easily adaptable.
That could be the case, but also most business people understand that you can’t just add features without some bug fixing / refactoring / rebuilding to make the platform more stable. But that is maybe just my point of view and not really reality
Yeah it’s impossible to know without inside info. I just don’t think any of your points is necessarily an indication of badly written code. Some of the code is most likely ”older”, since the system has been around a while now.
So many things factor into the planning of software, and getting new customers is definitely a big one.
I mean there are bugs in hotel booking apps, we are time stretching, slicing, repitching, mangling and synthesizing audio in a large amount of instances in real time. It’s complex
The difference is that nobody makes music on stage with a hotel app. the MPC needs to be reliable and stable, and bugs prevent exactly that. It’s supposed to be pro material, they are called “AKAI pro” after all.
The MPC Key has the same OS, thus the same bugs. Some of the bugs are just unacceptable for a device at that price.
This is quite in line with Akai of old. I want to point to the MPC1000 and MPC2500, which basically had pretty limited software on them ex factory…it took an ex-Akai engineer to rewrite a more powerful, less buggy operating system in JJOSXL…and it sort of blows my mind, that Akai was fine with someone else doing the work that would have been their job and thus also took the money that could have been theirs.
Just to be clear, I appreciate the features that were added since initial release of the modern MPC Line. Up to 2.8 I felt they owed us the updates, because the initial release was deliberately unfinished in more ways than one. But to me, with 2.8 they sort of fulfilled all their initial claims. Anything that came after is extra and well appreciated. That said, it also blows my mind that they’re not dealing with some of the bugs, workflow issues and UI idiosyncracies that have been on feature request lists and discussed in forum threads across the internet since release.
My point isn’t that 2.11 is buggier than 2.8, but that Akai clearly isn’t prioritizing bug fixes and QoL improvements, and that’s disappointing. There are so many things they could fix easily, even down to the very basic stuff like ensuring that the Ok/Do it/Proceed action is always on the right side. The inconsistencies are everywhere. It’s the day to day grind that determines whether you love the workflow or not. Features are of course essential too, but it shouldn’t be an either or.
General consensus on Elektronauts seems to be that one should stop “complaining” and “just deal with it” …because you know, if you point out workflow inconsistencies or bugs in a thread about a particular device you’re being ungrateful and all
And the good news is for those who feel salty about individual posts and the emojis in them, you can move on to other threads while the rest of us carry on with the conversation!
can’t wait till they get finished with the mpc keys and bring out the version that takes everything out of the mpc but the mpc, imagine how streamlined that model is going to be, hope they make it the size of the X- in beige color, that one is gonna be a keeper for life
I can see why they add new features instead of fix bugs, because more features draw in new users and get more sales, while bug fixes are for people who already gave them their money.
I have my fingers crossed for bug fixes on almost every one of my non-100%-analog devices . Bugs are a very serious issue when using gear live.
if Akai took the 
to fix some of the 
and 
inconsistencies even if some of the 
♂:alien: on this forum don’t mind the 
🪲 and 
the 
as is.
. Bugs are a very serious issue when using gear live.