Okay, I have to admit that floppies/zip drives are beyond my patience too. Hence my love for the 1000/2500. Yes, there is a bit of a wait to load off a CF card/hard drive, but how much of a hurry can someone be in? It doesn’t take very long. And at least you aren’t bombarded with adverts for sample packs and Splice on the home page by default. And the storage management is simple but effective… I can’t stand the storage browsing on the One/Live/X, it’s weirdly confusing to me.
I appreciate this is very much my perspective rather than ‘facts’ (as there is no one universal truth when it comes to opinion) but I never felt inspired by the newer MPCs, only paralysed by options and confused by the UI.
Out of curiosity, what does the S2400 lack that a new MPC would provide? I know MPC has plugins and a touchscreen etc. but I mean more in terms of your specific workflow.
Yeah, unfortunately the main dev left the project some time ago and the people left have just been milking the product off reputation with minimal updates. Stability is OK but as iOS and hardware marches on (M1 etc) more bugs are inevitable.
Koala sampler is still a fantastic option on iOS though.
When I first got the ONE, it just had the electric piano, the mono synth & poly synth & I hardly used them but since they added the other instruments it’s changed what the machine is to me. I really like using the instruments in the box a lot & it’s made me use external synths less & less, in fact I’ve sold 3 synths in the last few months. I still use the A4/Rytm and occasionally the Digitone with it, but you do have that pattern changing stuff to deal with with Elektron, but I do like using the analogs with the MPC & putting up with it.
I can see how the older ones having more limitations is maybe appealing, although JJOS XL was a bit too feature packed for its own good & you could overtax the CPU if not careful. I sold most my old samplers & keyboards a few years ago & I’ve lost all interest in classic gear beyond computer emulations. I mean these are amazing times for current gear, there’s loads I would love to play with if I could afford it or had space. The MPC might be a PC in a box, but it’s absolutely dedicated to music with workflow & controls to match, that’s all you need really & the willingness to learn how to use it which is what Andy’s MPC Bible is for
I’ve never seen any adverts for anything on mine, I’ve never used splice, but the ONE doesn’t have wifi, so maybe that’s why. I use a network cable to update it & it’s disconnected all other times.
TBH I’d love to able to remove all the factory “content” on the MPC/Force, and I agree with @Claid the browsing and big pictures of the packs is a bit turd burger, the Splice thing should be a user installed option too, it is a bit annoying it is always taking up screen space in some screens, when I will never use it. Also the sounds and expansions screens are annoying, IMHO.
But, every bit of gear has annoyances and limitations, so…
I removed the factory content of an MPC Live and remember well the horror of the machine no longer working properly. Akai were able to sort me out with the factory content so all was well in the end, but I couldn’t believe a device originally intended to be an instrument of expression had to be filled with stock corporate bullshit in order to function.
I’m getting older and my vision is getting older. That’s why I use the Mpc studio mk2. I get the big screen to chop samples. Plus I can pick which outboard to run my samples through before going into my computer.
Having a great AD / DA setup really stepped my sampling and performing setup with my iMac and Mpc studio mk2
Yeah it is pretty unbelievable - it put me off buying for a long time, not to mention the factory content is very “contemporary” and to my ears sounds shit, over polished and similar to the kind of dross in the charts - which I also hate. Competitive attention seeking/demanding shite
I usually just press the empty project as soon as it boots up. You probably know, but you can use the 5 buttons in the browser to store locations by going to a location and then holding the SHIFT button and pressing one of the 5 location numbers. That slot will then be a shortcut to that location. I have one set to my SD projects top folder & one for the SD top samples folder, that’s what I always use so maybe see the other stuff as white noise. Yeah apart from the F9 stuff, the included content is useless paint by numbers stuff as far as I’ve looked.
Yeah those folder shortcuts are handy and allow the factory stuff to be hidden to a degree at least. I just wish that there was a bunch of patterns and samples on a demo folder for those that want it, and for those that don’t it could be removed. I have mine set to load last/empty project, as I imagine most users do, quite why anyone would want the demos to be always present is a mystery to me.
I keep feeling torn about the vintage vs modern MPC approach but have ended up gravitating towards Isla S2400. Seems like the best of both worlds. Vintage workflow and sound, fully modernized in terms of connectivity and speed.
