It’s the little things that keep you happy sometimes. The Sunday Soundtrack blog has an interesting idea for tracking work on the MPC — write it down. (I have to say, I miss having paper notes as I did when I was making hard-copy patch diagrams of my Moog and Buchla modular creations in college.) This fellow has a printable template you can use yourself if so inclined – and, of course, it’d work with any 4×4 grid, not just the MPC.

Post:
Music Production on the MPC
Full-sized image for use as a template

Keep anything on paper in the studio yourself – music notation? Lyrics? To-do lists? MIDI maps? Doodles of made-up creatures to keep you company? I’d love to hear how you work.

Previously: A Brief History of the MPC

Want to load ReCycle REX sample files onto your MPC? Or looking for a better solution for chopping up samples – that is, firing up ReCycle on your screen? Joe Lambert writes in to share his GBP11 Mac utility for the task:

Just a quick note to let you know about a little application I wrote that lets users easily convert chopped Recycle files into Akai MPC program files.

http://apps.steamshift.com/

This essentially allows a producer to chop a breakbeat (or other sample) using their Mac instead of having to use the built-in chopshop and small screen on the sampler itself. It also makes sample CD’s with pre-chopped loops a lot more useful for MPC users.

Unrelated, but he also has a nifty “virtual BCF2000″ utility so you can make use of its control mappings on the road, even when you don’t have the Behringer handy. (Editing in coach class, anyone?)

I’m curious what your REX/MPC workflows are like and if this is helpful.

MPC Forever

I certainly have no doubts that this is relevant to some people. I actually spent a good part of yesterday and today hanging out with MPC creator Roger Linn. Among many other conversations, Roger noted his own bemusement at the ongoing popularity of the original MPCs – to say nothing of the MPC as a category in general. You can buy version 3.10 software for the MPC60 from Roger Linn Design. Tom Oberheim’s SCSI adapter for the MPC also came up. From that site:

NOTE: As of March 1, 2009, Tom Oberheim’s Marion Systems has stopped manufacturing the MPC-SCSI due to diminished demand. However, he’ll make another batch if there is enough demand. If you definitely wish to purchase one at for the former price of $300, email us to let us know and we’ll add your name to a waiting list. When the list grows long enough, Tom will make another batch and we’ll contact you.

Yes, just to be clear, we’re talking the MPC60 and the now-defunct SCSI. (While you’re at it, maybe you’d like a new dust case for your Apple III?) Of course, despite allegations that electronic music tech is easily outmoded or disposable, the MPC is doggedly neither. And while I have no personal need for an MPC60, elegant achievement that it was, I find something comforting in that. So I’ll do my own small part – with apologies to Tom and Roger – to call attention to the thing.

Of course, if you do want something new designed by Roger Linn, the LinnDrum II is planned for release later this year. The moment I can talk more about that, I will.

Akai has announced 2.0 OS for their flagship MPC5000 drum machine workstation, a free download for MPC owners. Now, the MPC itself has long been a bit minimalist in what it does – I think that’s part of its appeal, that it has resisted complexity. But users of the MPC1000 and 2000/2500 have as a result turned in some cases to an alternative firmware, JJOS, to get all the features they want. And Akai has generously looked the other way.

Akai says the 2.0 OS responds to user requests. Here’s what’s baked in:

• Keygroup programs for chromatic, key-mapped samples (that wasn’t in there before, really?)
• S1000/3000/4000/5000/6000, Z4/Z8 import
• Effects automation recording, “an MPC first” (by which I assume they mean it’s the first time on the MPC, as this is commonplace in software, certainly)
• Controller Grid Edit Window for graphical controller automation / event editing (something Roland has touted in the past on their machines)
• “Chopshop” for slicing samples into smaller pieces, with a Zoom feature
• MultiEdit: edit multiple pads at once
• Quantize Track Mutes (something Ableton users, incidentally, have asked for but not gotten, although implementation on a computer is a different can of worms because of plug-ins)

Generally, it looks good to me – not anything that’s so impressive for those of us committed to computer workflows, but looks nice if you’re a 5000 owner. But as a non-MPC person, I’m not terribly qualified to respond. So I leave that to our MPC-using crowd. Let us know what you think, and whether you folks with devices like the MPC1000 and MPC2500 with the JJOS running are jealous – or don’t care.

Free download / more specifics:
www.akaipro.com/MPC5000

Drum machine lovers, you now have the beat gear equivalent of Matt Harding and Where the Hell is Matt?. Kamoni, aka sonic creator, composer, and experimenter Micah Frank, takes his favorite devices out on the road, piecing them together into an epic YouTubular jam.

Doepfer and Korg, Elektron and Akai, plus a lot of other devices make their way around New York and Brooklyn and other parts of the world. Ableton I think figured into editing the video clips in time — thank you, Live, for video. I could point out individual devices, but then I’d ruin your fun, wouldn’t I?

Of course, this could be both emulated and expanded. We could perform a single rhythm, played by MPC and Machinedrum owners around the planet. (You could even get that laptop running on battery.)

I can see it now. Internets, go!

And yes, this does demonstrate where puremagnetik gets all those beats for their line of sampled things. Micah gets his hands on a lot of gear.

Updated: Replaced with a Vimeo link. Google seems to be having a bad week. We like Vimeo better for videos, anyway.

If you could have an ideal drum machine and sample-slicing workstation, taking the physical control of hardware but the flexibility of software, what would it look like? We talk a lot about hardware control of software, but hardware usually comes second – software gets designed first, and then either you have to figure out how to map hardware to it, or someone else comes along and designs gear. That means there’s usually a disconnect in the design and workflow of the two, and most of the time, you have to reach for the mouse to make up the difference.

Maschine (pronounced as the German, mah-SCHEE-neh) was developed at Native Instruments with the goal to design the hardware and software simultaneously, not separately. That’s not an easy goal, and I don’t expect Maschine to be perfect or please everyone. But I got to visit the prototype at NI while I was in Berlin in October and see it in action, and I can say at the very least, the folks who created feel the way many of us do – they love software, they love hardware drum machines like the Elektron, and this is an attempt to be a real hybrid.

So, while contrary to rumors, NI does not have a box that does any audio generation in the hardware, this is a real attempt to fuse the controller and software in terms of design and workflow. The idea is to use the screen for visual feedback (you do have this big, pretty monitor on your desk or notebook), but to be able to work without a mouse.

Maschine can also work as a plug-in as well as a standalone app, depending on how you like to work (or how you want to play live). That means if you’re already in love with something like Ableton Live, you ought to theoretically be able to put the two together. Unfortunately, you can’t yet use it as a sequencer to drive other software, which would be an ideal next step; sequencing is as big a part of what Maschine does as sampling and sample manipulation. (No official statement on MIDI output has been made yet.)

Maschine’s hardware also works as a controller. So, for those keeping score, you could put Maschine next to the just-announced Akai APC40 and use them both to control Live – or Maschine could compete with the APC for your Live-controlling dollar – even before you touch the Maschine drum machine software.

Here’s NI’s intro video, which gives you a sense of how this stuff ties together (and we are officially the first to post it).

We’ll naturally be looking more closely at Maschine soon (I’m going to buy a new espresso maker and not sleep for the next few months). Here’s a quick overview:

• 16 pressure-sensitive pads, which light up for visual feedback
• Step sequencing
• Polyphonic recording (so it is a real sequencer, too)
• All software features are available quickly “on the surface,” so not only do you not need the mouse, but unlike a lot of hardware and even controllers, you don’t have a bunch of submenus and buttons to press to do stuff. That includes tasks like automation editing and even sound editing
• Automatic sample mapping, beat slicing, note repeat
• Real-time audio recording and resampling – so you can not only record, but resample what you’re working on, MPC style
• Effects sends “from conventional to experimental” (basically, you can enjoy the kind of sound mangling goodness we’ve had on Kore and Reaktor lately)
• Kore-style sound browsing, with a multi-gig library to get you started

Availability: April 1

Pricing: US$669 list (EUR 599)

The hardware has a top-notch feel and metal casing; at least from what I could judge from the prototype, this should look and feel absolutely fantastic. My only real disappointment was that there’s no synth engine, but that’s just because I love drum synths. Then again, I love the simplicity of Maschine, so perhaps the best fix would be to add the ability to either host plug-ins, as Kore does, or to provide MIDI output capability to other software, so that you could drive synths and other creations. (Heck, you could even sequence visuals in that case.)

What’s unique to me about Maschine is that it isn’t simply an emulation of an MPC; it still takes a software approach to sequencing, it still supports plug-ins and the things you like about software, and it still has NI-style effects. By virtue of being software, in fact, you can really change how you use it relative to hardware. You can drop it in Live or even in a tracker like Renoise. You can use it not as a drum machine but a pattern-based effects unit and insert it after your voice or an instrument. Then you can switch to a VJ set, ignore the Maschine software, and use it as an intelligent plug-in for running live visuals for your friend’s band. None of this is nearly as practical with a conventional hardware drum machine – and this is a whole lot cheaper.

Also, unlike some attempts to unify hardware and software in the past, the visual relationship isn’t slavish. You see something that looks like it makes sense on a screen when you’re editing; it looks like software, but you can easily control it with hardware and not the mouse. (Nothing against the mouse – it’s fantastic for many jobs; sample slicing and music editing just happens not to be one of them.) When you’re ready to perform, the displays on the device mean you don’t have to look at the screen at all.

It’s also worth noting that this is very different from today’s Akai APC announcement. The Akai is clearly better suited to mixing and clip triggering, but the Maschine has velocity-sensitive pads the Akai lacks, and is better suited to hardware control of beat slicing and editing operations. (That said, someone may decide to use Max for Live to turn Maschine into a hybrid machine that also controls and edits Live itself, so everything is suddenly wide open.) And the APC is all about a host (Live), whereas Maschine is all about adding a drum machine / workstation to a host (which could be Live, or Renoise, or Pro Tools, or something else altogether).

In fact, to me, the real competition is Ableton Live’s Drum Racks, groove extract, and slice to rack features. It’s mouse-based, but it also integrates with a host and can host plug-ins itself. I’m personally excited about using both, so it’ll be interested to see which I wind up preferring for which tasks. And you can meanwhile bend your brain around the idea of Maschine instances running inside Ableton Live Drum Racks and other odd combinations.

If there’s any criticism of Maschine, my guess it that it’s likely to be criticized for over-simplicity: as opposed to the first release of Kore, the approach here is really minimalism; NI did less in the hopes that you’d get more out of hardware integration, and the rest you can make up by working with your favorite existing tools and plug-ins. That’s not to say it’s dumbed-down, from what I can see, though I just have to use it.

Whether NI has nailed this one is another question, of course, and one I’ll want to test vigorously. But I love the idea. Mainly, I just want to get my hands on one so we can try this out. You’ll definitely want to stay tuned.

http://www.native-instruments.com/maschine.info

Corrections: In the first draft of this story, I suggested that Maschine could output MIDI to other software instruments or host plug-ins; at least as of version 1.0, the software can’t. You can use it as a controller, though, and output MIDI to other hardware (so you could sequence hardware synths or even other drum machines). The thing I’d like to see there is MIDI output to other software; we certainly have enough hosts (NI’s Kore being one of those hosts). I also overstated the connection to Kore (which is why I was confused about plug-ins). Like Kore, Maschine is integrated hardware and software, it shares the Kore browser, and it shares some of the other design features of the current generation of NI software. But Maschine is its own creature – and honestly, that’s a good thing. Stay tuned for more details.

It’s been eight years since Ableton Live introduced its signature screen layout for live performance: clips, scenes, sends, tracks, and devices. For the first time, a single controller combines all the basic elements of that Live set in a single hardware layout. Akai’s APC40 is a plug-and-play, driver-free hardware controller developed with Ableton.

The APC has certainly got enough buttons and knobs and faders to cover those Live features, but it also raises a couple of questions. One is, does one-size-fits-all work for Ableton Live? The other is, will Ableton open up the “exclusive bidirectional communication” used for clip status to other hardware – for those people who decide the APC40 isn’t perfect? (My guess on that: yes, it will, but no, Live still doesn’t make everything you want available available, APC aside.)

There’s plenty of reason to go dance in the streets on this announcement, but it’s worth asking those questions, too. Here’s a look at what I’ve been able to pick apart on the APC40 so far. Hopefully this will generate some more questions and thoughts, which I’ll take to my first hands-on experience with the device.

Note: This is one of three announcements we’re watching from Ableton; I’ll have the big picture (including one CDM-y bit of info regarding the APC40) at 3:30pm Eastern time, about six hours from now. No, I’m not especially thrilled about embargoes, either, but the folks going to that press conference are watching us on their iPhones as I write this, so it’d be a bit like me telling everyone that Bruce Willis’ character is already dead.

What it is:

• Controllers for just about everything as far as clip launching and mixing
• A dynamic interface for manipulating tracks and devices (controls assigned on the fly to what you need)
• A plug-and-play device you don’t have to manually map or configure
• Hackable with Max
• Something every Live user will want to at least test drive

What it isn’t:

• A velocity-sensitive sample playing device – you’ll probably still want a drum pad (and one would fit next to this very nicely!)
• A tool for manipulating the insides of samples – there are still reasons to go beyond just triggering clips
• Something with any kind of screen – you’ll need to use the Live screen for some visual feedback as to what you’re doing, as opposed to Novation’s Automap-equipped controllers and others (and it is possible to get that feedback from Live)

Predictions:

• This device will become ubiquitous as long as the price is within reach
• You’ll see open-source monome patches adapted to the APC40
• People will use the APC40 for software other than Live (VJs?)

Basic Specs

Akai doesn’t actually list these yet, but I can count! The controls:

• 72 controllers
• Clip launch section: 8 x 5 = 40 clip slots, plus 5 scene launch buttons, with dedicated clip stop and stop all clip buttons. Scroll and shift for more than 40 clips; dedicated bank select and shift buttons.
• Faders: 8 faders, 1 master fader, 1 horizontal crossfader
• Dedicated track buttons: Record arm, solo/cue, and something called “activator” (Andreas Wetterberg suggests this just a track enable/disable, though I think it could also be related to what the Track Controls are controlling)
• Headphone cue level encoder
• 8 track control encoders: Switchable via dedicated buttons to pan, send A/B/C
• 8 device control encoders: Control those Drum Racks, Instrument Racks, effects, plug-ins and the like with dedicated buttons to select and toggle devices, turn MIDI overdub on and off and toggle record quantization (thank you), toggle the metronome, switch between clip and track tabs, select detail view
• Tap Tempo, Transport, Nudge +/- (note that it’s missing forward/reverse transport buttons, which could be inconvenient for conventional tracking, though that’s about the only thing I don’t see on this)
• Interactive feedback: Buttons light up via a color scheme to show play status and record enable, and the encoders have rings of light around them to give you feedback. (Oddly, though, Akai says this means you can see the controller in the dark, except they didn’t light the crossfader or faders.)

You don’t map these controls. They’re set up to use right out of the box. Plug it in, and you’re ready to go – no drivers required. (I assume you do may to open the Preferences dialog to enable the device, but beyond that, Akai says you’re good to go.) Don’t like any one of the mappings? You can edit them – though Akai and Ableton haven’t yet revealed how that editing will work, and it may not be as interactive as these default mappings; that’s another detail I’m looking into.

The device itself:

• Metal chassis
• “Slip-proof” rubber detailing
• Assignable footswitch inputs
• Power supply (I’m hoping that it’s still bus-powered, though)
• Optional “beer-proof” slip slipcovers and Burning Man Extreme Desert Protection Kit (okay, I made those last ones up – there’s an opportunity there for someone)

Pricing/availability: Unknown at this point. We’ve heard from multiple sources that a very reasonable US$399 is expected to be the Akai list price, but that hasn’t been made public officially.

By the way, having just said I don’t think “one size fits all,” I do love that Akai is being completely agnostic on genre. From their press release: “for electronic-music performance artists, DJs, hip-hop producers and traditional musicians.” Amen.

Playing It: Even 72 Controls Isn’t Enough

Now, you know that even though this thing is bestrewn with controls, it won’t be enough. But Akai and Ableton did make this device pretty dynamic, effectively allowing three kinds of play:

Clip control

Without a doubt, this looks like the best interface for controlling clips yet, if that’s your style of play. If your Live sets tend to have a bunch of clips for triggering loaded into Session View, you can finally trigger those from the same controller that you use for adjusting mixing and parameters.

You have access to forty clips at a time, and the bank select and shift controls appear to be the facility that allows you to move to other ones. The boutique Faderfox line had previously come the closest to this mark with the LX2, a little box just for triggering clips, which – while Akai says this is “exclusive” – also had the ability to show clip status so you knew what was switched on. But I suspect people may prefer these pads, and it appears to also show record status, which is important.

The problem with all of this is the problem with using clips as your main performance method. It’s tough to keep track of which clips are where. I wonder what kind of visual feedback the Live software will give you. Triggering clips means triggering them from the beginning, which can get a little musically stale. And you don’t have velocity control – for that, you’re better off with Live’s Drum Rack.

So while this is great, I think I’d still want a conventional set of drum pads with velocity control; in fact, the two together could be a fantastic combination. The Korg padKONTROL is already popular with Live users; you could use it in place of Akai’s own MPD24, because with the controls on the APC40, the MPD24’s faders and knobs are overkill. Akai, of course, hopes you still use an MPC for this purpose, and I’ve seen people do that, but I’m happier in Liveland myself.

Track control

This part is pretty easy: you know what you want. You need the ability to adjust mix levels, the crossfader, effects levels, and pan, and trigger each track for cueing and recording. Where other controllers have usually fallen apart for Live is the effects sends and pan, because you would need a whole bunch of knobs. The solution from Akai: dynamically assign eight encoders. Since a lot of Live artists use effects sends for creative purposes, this should be just fantastic.

Note that the one device that came closest to the arrangement of the MPC40 had exactly this problem. The Livid Ohm is a beautiful device – in fact, I might even argue the layout is more intuitive than on the MPC40. But it has only eight encoders for everything, which means there’s no easy way to get at multiple send levels.

Device control

This, though, is actually my favorite part of the device. Because Live Devices can all be mapped to eight macros, these eight encoders are actually the part of the device you may use the most. If you have samples loaded into Drum Racks, if you use Racks for effects extensively, if you use Racks for instruments, you can access all of that here. (And you can still play on a keyboard, pads, or whatever on your existing controller of choice, or a keytar.)

It appears that in addition to the usual dynamic assignment from Live (that is, click the mouse and select a device), you can also use the buttons on the Akai to select devices. Since the US Ableton offices are around the corner from me, this will call for a hands-on – stay tuned.

You can tell Ableton had a hand in designing this, because they knew that dedicated access to record quantization, MIDI overdub, and switching between views in Live was critical.

What About Other Controllers? (No, it’s not a monome…)

Live’s been around about eight years – that’s enough time for it to go to high school and college – and I don’t think there’s ever been a controller that’s been the bombshell this one has. So everything is perfect and every Live user will go get this, right? Not so fast.

In those eight years, of course, Live users have prided themselves on being different from one another. And I don’t think the APC40 comes close to being the most beautiful Live controller. That honor, in my book, at least, would have to go to William Logo’s device, seen below. The APC may actual more functional, but it doesn’t have fantastic arcade buttons, and it’s aesthetically no match.

Naturally, some of the alternative controllers that come to mind:

• Pad controllers from M-Audio, Korg, and even Akai (and some, ahem, new options today at NAMM)
• The Faderfox line, which can be combined as tiny portable modules
• Little controller’s like Korg’s new nano line
• Novation’s Automap-equipped ReMOTE line of keyboards/controllers
• Livid’s Ohm, which has its own open-source, Max-based software for sample manipulation (pictured above)
• monome
• Many, many, many DIY controllers

In various ways, none of these does what the APC does. But the love of variety may mean that even APC users look at these controllers as alternatives – and if the APC becomes ubiquitous, you score extra points bringing something unusual to a gig.

Even as the APC was still a rumor on message forums and the like, I heard people claiming this would be a monome killer, which to me utterly misses the point. Physically, they’re totally different. The monome has no logo on it. The Akai has faders and encoders and dynamic assignment and does mix control, while the monome is almost religiously minimalist. The Akai has 40 clip buttons the monome has 64, or 128, or 256. The Akai is a conventional commodity piece of gear; the monome is a case study in eco-friendly, labor-friendly small production. Can’t actually get a monome? Well, that’s the point: it’s designed to be scarce. And the because the monome is open source, I expect that in 2009 it’ll actually be easy for the first time to just get a cloned piece of hardware you build yourself.

That also doesn’t get to the fundamental difference between an APC and a monome, which is the software. The APC is designed to work effectively in one way – even if you customize it, the idea is still one control per function. The monome is more like a software screen: its minimalism allows it to be a blank canvas that can do anything, and you can even configure software to switch between pages of different functions. In fact, I don’t think people really “get” the monome until they see the software side, and the extraordinary patches assembled in Max/MSP.

Now, I don’t think the APC40 is really designed as a blank canvas. But we do know that hacking it with Max is part of the plan – at least for Ableton and Cycling ‘74; see a brief mention of that in Akai’s interview with Ableton’s CEO Gerhard Behles and more on this later today.

[I get to finally talk about the Ableton – Cycling ‘74 relationship in six hours, which will happen in this space.]

So here’s my big, fundamental question. Akai claims that this is “exclusive bidirectional control.” As near as I can figure, that’s not actually true. The only instance appears to be bidirectional communication about clip status, which I haven’t seen in other devices. Even that would be a disastrous choice for “exclusivity” – I would hope that, once exposed for the Akai, other hardware could use this information, too. And I know that remains of utmost importance to Live performers.

My guess is, that data actually is exposed to other devices and isn’t exclusive to the Akai, but – as always – Live users will find other parts of the tool that they’ll want to be able to control with hardware but can’t (yet).

The desire to make Live into the “sequencing instrument” it wants to be (Ableton’s original tagline) is all about getting away from the screen and exposing the wonderful things Live does live to gear. The APC already looks to be the closest we’ve gotten that to a product. If, under the hood, Live is exposing more functionality to hardware, this is a perfect announcement. Either way, I don’t think the Live community will ever lose their hunger for getting more control, even with a shiny, new APC box at their ready.

We’ll be looking more at the APC; I hope to get additional details from Ableton and Akai during NAMM, but expect really in-depth coverage and a hands-on after the show – and without the roar of a show floor in the background.

Akai APC40 Product Page

Interview with Gerhard Behles [suffice to say, we have some other questions!]

What do you say when it’s all been said? We felt it was time for a fresh perspective on the MPC phenomenon — one a normal review couldn’t provide. So we got the opinion of our friend, samplist/producer and Segue member Dave Dri. And the verdict: there’s still something about an MPC — even if it suggests why there’s also something about software, too. But it involves dust. Here’s his op-ed:

Recently I had the task of reviewing an MPC5000 for a local street press magazine. The MPC part of it was fine — the word limit was trickier. Over the last decade I have reviewed the MPC2000XL and the MPC1000, with a lot of time and gigs passing between them. From early days in a live breaks act to my current progressive house act, an MPC has been right under hand. In the week that I reluctantly handed the 5000 back to Musiclab, the drummer that guested in my band at the Big Day Out festival asked me to play keys and samples in his band at a local festival. [Ed.: Our own Jaymis filmed the Big Day Out gig if you want to check it out.] I found myself in a chance conversation with a friend from the live breaks act Bitrok and the very next day, somehow, I’m on stage with his MPC2500 — a unit which I have since bought. So why did reviewing an MPC5000 lead to me buying an MPC2500 after years of happy service from an invincible MPC2000XL?

If you’re reading this, you probably know what an MPC is, and you can readily review any number of link-bait Google results for the product mentioned in the title of this post. [Ed. Hmmmm, link-baiting MPC's, huh? "10 Ways an MPC is Like a Cupcake"? "15 of the Best MPC YouTube Videos Featuring Hot Women MPCers?" perhaps? -PK]

What you probably want to know is what it’s really like. So I will tell you.

Changes, Rants, and Internet Haters

It’s big. Really big. In fact, it’s so large that it couldn’t fit on the Jerker desk that forms the core of my studio rig, and spent its review loan period on a keyboard stand. In a particularly amusing moment I happened to glance at a nearby MacBook with an Akai MPD-16 controller plugged in to it and formed an unfounded suspicion that the sheer size was simply a ploy by Akai to appeal to some demographic that might use the MPC5000 as the core, if not entirety, of their studio. Would Akai deliberately oversize their hardware to appeal to bling-savvy producers?

It’s got a new screen. Getting past the size, the next comment is usually on the screen. Long-time MPC users with older models are delighted with the display being adjustable in both position and contrast. As one might imagine, navigation and editing benefits immediately, and the old Shift+Number menu system is replaced with context-sensitive Mode and Window buttons. By this point things are getting off to a great start. All the basics work as they should, and getting around the unit is old hat to anyone who has touched an MPC.

It’s a synth – but will it replace other synths? Then we find ourselves exploring the onboard synthesizer emulation that Akai claim “eliminates need for external analog synth modules or buggy software based synthesizers.” We will touch on the concept of buggy software in a minute, but I think we can safely ground the private fantasy jet that Akai seem to be flying around in with the notion that their VA emulation is somehow a replacement for external analog synth modules. As you would expect, the preset patches have a liberal use of the word “Moog” and sound nothing like one. Even worse, it soon becomes clear that you need to load a patch into memory to even preview it. As Just Blaze says on his MPC5000 rant, this is 2008. Having to spend studio time loading a synth patch just to preview to it is ridiculous, and was something that Yamaha seemed to avoid with their RM1X back in the mid to late 1990’s.

As to the marketing claims of “avoiding buggy software”, this is, of course, a point of instant ridicule for anyone who has owned first-generation Akai hardware. If there is any company deserving of an award for consistently disappointing software programming it would be Akai. Optimists like to say that 1.0 OS implementations are likely to have a few issues that soon get fixed, but that kind of logic in the automotive industry would cost lives. In the same sense, broken functionality or crashing operating systems can limit creative output. For a device that costs as staggering an amount as the MPC5000 (MSRP US$3500), it is inexcusable to release such a flagship product without appropriate testing and debugging. It’s not like the world was clamouring for a massive, heavy, expensive hardware sequencer with onboard virtual analog synth emulation. Again I will point to hip-hop producer Just Blaze and his rant at Akai for the state they released the MPC5000. [Ed.: This is not an official CDM comment or my comment on Akai's reliability, because, frankly, I haven't used one. So if anyone wants to add to the rants here or question them -- and perhaps comment on how firmware updates have settled -- I'm all ears; please do so in comments! -PK]

In Australia right now, for the same price as the MPC5000, one is able to purchase a rig such as an Asus laptop, Motu Ultralite audio interface (site | on CDM), Ableton 7 and an MPD drum pad MIDI controller interface. Then again, you couldn’t simply turn it on and start making music out of the box. Despite the need for hardware that simply works, Akai simply cannot afford to rely on Roger Linn’s (on CDM) clever idea from the 1980’s any longer without actually following through on their product promises. Akai commentary aside, this isn’t an outright attack on the MPC5000. Not by any means. The parent company may attract comments on internet forums like “they be smoking crack mangz”, but their products do have a place in the market. This is where anyone left reading can take a deep breath and bask in some hints of genius.

MPC5000’s Brilliant Bits

The MPC5000 does indeed have enough promise to warrant its place on the shelves of your favourite music store or in the database of your choice of online retailer. For a start, the filters and Q-link faders are stunning. Noticing the in-built pre-amp (that Akai have finally copied from their competitors) included in the MPC, I hooked my trusty Vestax turntable and randomly grabbed a record – in this case, one of those James Last records you can’t but trip over in Australian record stores. With it spinning, I pushed record, grabbed a good 20 seconds, mapped the sample to a pad and the pad to a program. Going into sample edit mode, I enjoyed the large screen and multiple faders for adjusting start and end points without the 2000XL style scrolling or shift fader. On a whim, I bumped the resonance on the filter. It took about 5 seconds for me to fall in love with the potential of these filters. Sweeping low, I turned Tijuana trumpets into a resonant sub bass that swept up with my fader movements into the kind of pitched build-up that is still all over progressive house. Sample transformed.

Grabbing other samples from sources less dubious, I began to simply enjoy the hands-on creativity that sampling so effectively enables. Whether you’re a fan of the Sonalksis TBK filter or run your samples through an old Korg MS-20, there is something to be said for the creative aesthetic that comes with a simple sampler, some records and some decent filters. Do I see some heads nodding in agreement over in the French House corner?

Conclusion: Dusty Fingers

So, after a lengthy rant, I managed to say some nice things about the filters and the aesthetic of the MPC. Unfortunately, all specifications and feature sheets aside, the legacy of the MPC series is and always will be the elusive concept of feel, aesthetic, and groove. Once upon a time, this might have been currency to spend on lengthy, impassioned essays to enraptured audiences. These days, the proponents of the tradition of MPC groove tend to get short thrift amongst their contemporaries, who program the same boom bap beats in Fruity Loops, on Roland Grooveboxes and — lest we forget — Madlib’s infamous Roland SP303. There’s a certain element of buying an MPC that’s just down to being down with the MPC format. Plenty of internet forum arguments are waged over hardware versus software, Akai versus Roland, this versus that, purple versus magenta.

Ignoring the actual conflict, it’s obvious that there is something passionate about the range. For me, the MPC5000 reignited a passion that had fallen behind with the 2000XL’s user experience, compared to my workflow in Ableton and Battery. Despite relying on the old grey box for live shows, I had forgotten the unique outcomes of dusty fingers, hands on vinyl, samples on sampler. And it managed to do that in spite of its size, cost, weight and bugs. Once Akai iron out the last of the issues, there is no doubt that this will be a success amongst those producers who are set on hardware sequencing in the box with all the trimmings. For me, the MPC range has been an extension of DAW workflow more than an alternative. In that light, I am content in the MPC2500 bringing crate digging and sampling enjoyment back into my studio and replacing my trusty 2000XL in the flight case at gigs. If the idea of the MPC5000 appeals to you, then I would urge you to test it out for yourself. If you already have then let us know how you found it in the comments below!

Dave Dri is an MPC-wielding Samplist and Producer from Brisbane, Australia. He has been involved with a variety electronic acts running the gamut from Breaks to Jungle. His current project is Segue.

The LinnDrum II (once the BoomChik) has become a somewhat mystical beast, looming over the horizon and taunting fans of synth and beat hardware. The collaboration between beat machine guru Roger Linn (of LinnDrum and MPC fame) and synth guru Dave Smith (of Dave Smith fame), the box has gone through various design revisions, each leaked and dissected by, well, people like me. Saturday brought a new set of news, as spotted by Tony Mission on Gearslutz.

Here’s what we know now:

We know that the LinnDrum will be a combination of Dave’s synthesis know-how and Roger’s approach to real-time sequencing and beatmaking. We know it’ll have digital and analog synth voices. We know it’ll do MPC-style real-time and 808-style step sequencing. It’s almost certain to retain onboard sampling, too. In fact, presumably the specs on Dave Smith’s site are still reasonably applicable.

What we don’t know is what the design will look like, or when it’ll ship. It won’t ship in 2008, so … 2009? The image above is not what the new LinnDrum II will look like. Roger released these images over the weekend, but they’ve already hit the wastebasket in favor a new design. On the design elements:

We’d prefer not to release details of the new design because it’s so cool that I don’t want to show our cards to the competition. However, I do want to thank all those who wrote in with suggestions because this interactive design process has very much helped to change what we thought the product originally should be into what we now know you really want.

Roger does tip his hand a bit in regards to what the philosophy of the new design is:

For those of you who are new to LinnDrum II, its new subtitle is “Beat-Centric Digital Audio Workstation with Integrated Analog Synthesis”. Inspired by how the MPC product line that I (Roger) originally created for Akai has evolved a new genre of musical instrument, LinnDrum II aspires to raise the bar beyond the current crop of high-end pad-oriented music production station products in order to enable musicians around the world to better realize the next wave of beat-oriented music.

“Beat-Centric Digital Audio Workstation with Integrated Analog Synthesis” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but I like the philosophy here. It sounds a bit like the feedback people sent was that they want the finished design to stand on its own. (The passionate audience for the MachineDrum certainly suggests there’s a market out there for something different from the Akai and Roland units for all-in-one production.) I’ll certainly be the first to defend the delays. We can’t judge the LinnDrum II itself until it’s in our hands, but it is clear to me that if you want something different than what’s already available, you do have to be prepared to wait.

While you wait, you can sign up for updates:

Request for LinnDrum II or AdrenaLinn III Product News

LinnDrum II Product Page / News

Previously:
Dave Smith/Linn LinnDrum II Pre-order List Now; Specs

LinnDrum II: Former BoomChik Gets More Delayed But More Mature

Current’s Parisa Vahdatinia describes it thusly:

I’d like to share with you a short piece we recently produced here at Current TV all about the MPC–a brief history, how it was created by Roger Linn, and how it’s effected contemporary music, followed with some interviews with Damu The Fudgemunk, P-Fritz, K-Murdock who share their sentiments on how the MPC has shaped their music.

I’m just going to have to imagine how great this piece is as I’m stuck on a train with only phone-as-modem access, so you get to sort of scoop me. As I wait, there are some great comments up there already, haiku-like:

“I mistook them for drum machines….”

“mpc is the hip hop guitar!”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. But it raises the question, given the endless variety of even pre-digital musical instruments, what’s next? That’s a question I know Roger cares about, which is why he helped us judge a design challenge last spring. I’m personally excited by the idea that some designs are already here, and more are likely to come out of someone’s studio, without the major product maker label on it.

Okay, now I’ve seen it. Good to be back off the train and able to download videos. It does come off strangely as an ad for Akai, but there’s another way to look at it — as an executive summary of how MPC users describe their axe. Talk to any MPC user, and you get a case study in why the design of integrated hardware matters to people. I believe those principles are absolutely applicable to the design of software, as well. And the immediacy of the monome is entirely related, as a computer-based instrument, to the MPC as a hardware instrument. It’s easy to get hung up on the philosophy of instruments, but what really matters to people is (surprise) sound and how they manipulate it.

Intua is the first to get a full-fledged music creation app on the iTunes App Store, with an MPC-style sampler and step sequencer, plus effects, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This isn’t just a toy for triggering sounds or a useful utility like a guitar tuner; it’s an actual music app on which you can produce whole songs. As with any mobile app, there are tradeoffs versus a desktop tool – but its simplicity is likely to be part of its appeal. US$19.99.

Most importantly, it’s available now.

The basic features:

• 16-pad sample triggering. Drum kits and other samples, with “auto chop,” pitch, tuning, reverse, mute, and even a nice wave editor for touch-selecting where you want sample start and end points.
• Step and song sequencer: Create patterns with a touchable step sequencer, then arrange them into bigger songs using a multitrack editor.
• Live performance support: Pattern triggering and recording is live, so you could use this as a performance tool.
• 2 effects channels: Synchronized delay, 3-band EQ, bit-crusher capabilities
• Pre-loaded kits and samples
• Sync with desktop audio: Apple doesn’t provide music apps with easy ways of getting files in and out, so Intua has built one: a synchronization tool that lets you load in new audio kits and samples, and export audio back to your machine.

We can certainly see some of the strengths of the platform. The app looks absolutely gorgeous in screen shots; elements are big and friendly and don’t appear to strain the eyes. The touch capability works beautifully for pad triggering and step sequencing – there’s even a nice, draggable velocity and “groove” graph for the step sequencer.

So how does BeatMaker stand up to the competition, at least on paper?

On the upside, you get a fast, friendly, fun interface, and one that has looks befitting Apple’s beautiful gadget. And, notably, this is an official app you can use without hacking your device. But some power users may still opt for gaming devices for more advanced mobile editing and synthesis. BeatMaker lacks any synthesis features, as on tools like PSPSeq or the upcoming Korg DS-10. (Perhaps we will see some in the future, though, since they got effects working – a bassline synth, perhaps?) You also don’t get wireless MIDI control and sequencing, as on the Nintendo DS’ DSMIDIWiFi, so you can’t connect BeatMaker to a computer studio in the way you can with NitroTracker on DS or the touch controllers aka.iphone and i3L on the iPhone/Touch.

BeatMaker’s real nearest rival may be PSP Rhythm on the PSP. I’ll be interested to hear whether BeatMaker’s audio engine stands up to PSP Rhythm’s on quality. BeatMaker has its lovely interface and touch capabilities, but PSP Rhythm has a synth (bassline and a general purpose wave synth) and a hardware-style interface some may prefer.

These aren’t criticisms – on the contrary, I think differentiation is a good thing. I’ve been having a number of conversations with developers, and part of what I’m hearing is that certain platform features continue to direct developers to different mobile platforms. Not everyone is migrating to Apple – meaning Intua has a chance to stake out a real niche here.

BeatMaker is the serious music creation app the platform has been waiting for, and it app gives you way more power for your dollar than a lot of what I’ve seen on the iPhone. It’s real, worthy, powerful app. If you’ve got an iPod Touch or iPhone and would like to test drive the app for CDM and write up a review / video a review, let me know!

Intua BeatMaker

Direct iTunes Link

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in! That’s always a good indication there’s excitement in the digital musician community around the device and this specific app.)

Update:

Mathieu has some more details: MIDI export is coming very soon. (Mic recording could be possible if there’s a better input solution.)

And one site already has a video hands-on (though CDMers, I’m sure you can do even better – we’ll have one or two of you on this soon).

BeatMaker for iPhone: Upcoming Features Q&A, Video Review

Previously:

Big Updates for Handheld Homebrew Music: NitroTracker 0.4, PSPSeq 3, PSP Rhythm 8

Beyond Mobile Music Making: Organizational Musical Uses for iPhone, Other Smart Devices