5 ms·
I can't fathom how he thinks it's so intuitive. It's taken me months and years and lots of manual-reading, 3rd party manuals and numerous videos to understand
by chillingeffect 2y ago
I can't fathom how he thinks it's so intuitive. It's taken me months and years and lots of manual-reading, 3rd party manuals and numerous videos to understand what is basically just a daw.
Just start from the two buttons: "Main" and "Menu": Main should really be called "editor" and "menu" should be called "main." Good for you if you memorized what functions are behind which button. +5 pts if you can find the hidden multitrack level viewer. Hint: behind the tiny Autobot shield on the sampler page. Quick: what key combo gets you to the track mixer? I believe it depends on what screen you're coming from?
It's rarely clear what entity you're saving or loading... is it the effects patch or the song or project or drum program, etc?
And oof! How abt that onscreen keyboard?!?! somehow worse response than a 1999 cell phone keyboard?! Needs buddha-like patience. Numerous upgrades over the years and examples within the app of better response, but they can't get an intern to spend a sprint cleaning that up?!
Notice how Roger edits out all of the menu traversion...
Also the drum program is so massively flexible... high ceiling but also very high floor. The mix of pad/sample editor functions tucked behind menus is like an under water maze.
And the MPC Live swaps the drum pads to the left... whereas on the classic MPC 2k they're in the right. Great for lefties tho lol!
And the main/menu/record buttons are so big and need so much force it's hard to get the timing right. I don't even like pressing undo bc it feels like shifting my 88 Cabriolet with its worn synchro on 1st gear.
Switching between tools in the piano roll editor and sample editor is so tedious... It requires infinite patience compared to bandlab, cool edit pro, audacity, reaper, and flstudio. One mode for zoom, one for select, one for delete, one more to add notes...etc.
No page has both save and load on it. Save is actually a disk so it's not clear if it saves or loads. "Load" is actually labelled "browser."
The file system layout tries to be both abstract and literal with "Places" and probably useful shortcuts but i can't always see how to simply traverse up one folder... which I often need to do bc I go too low bc of the bad response time of the screen-to-folder traversal.
Randomly an annoying modal "save progress window" blocks my flow.
The hierarchy of "tracks," sequences, and programs is tricky to remember.
It took me weeks before I realized it will never simply show more than one audio track waveform at a time. So lining things up across tracks is way harder than necessary.
In short, I hate this machine even though I want to love it so badly. I think it rewards deep hyperfocus and committment over spontaneity and flexibility. I only use it for its excellent fx chain. Probably a good choice if you can only have one machine and dedicate a monk-like existence to it.
I find it sus that Roger mentions none of the above criticisms. We're conditioned to respect soft-spoken elderly heroes like him, but it reeks of submarining by the struggling InMusic organization. Just listen to him gush about the features...I mean what are the stakes here for Roger? Is he on any kind of time or monetary budget for studio customers? Or is he simply validating how well others have kept his original ideas intact? Plus he only records a few bars of a loop... no serious editing, song-making , or sample-editing.
Not to mention the role of reciprocity in persuasion. Sure he can say anything he pleases, but they gave him a nice fancy unit for free. He's psychologically bound to return the favor.
Anyway lots of people do love this machine, especially those fond of the rest of the series. It's just certainly not for me.
- sivers 2y agoFor what it's worth, it's not just you. I had the same experience with this same machine. I used Logic and other DAWs for many years, and used to be super-productive with them while running a professional recording studio in NYC. But even after all the AKAI MPC manuals, 3rd-party manual/"Bible", and videos, I just never could get used to the mindset of the AKAI MPC way. Sold it.
- hammyhavoc 2y agoSame experience for me. Nothing like the Roger Linn designed MPCs. Those things feel like instruments, even the workflow itself has a creative and artistic sensibility to it.
- 3lit3krew 2y agoHe pointed out that all the buttons and important controls are right where and how he designed them to be on his MPCs. He said they got the workflow and timing down perfectly. Did you watch the review? A lot of musicians think Ableton kind of sucks.
- hammyhavoc 2y agoFor starters, the pads are on the other side on the Live, so that's not actually true. The Live is also missing most of the buttons of the yesteryear MPCs. You can't muscle memory a touchscreen UX like this one. The reason to use an MPC in 2024 is to get away from the irritations of interacting with software via a keyboard and mouse—the touchscreen on the modern MPC isn't very responsive to use, a stark contrast to being able to muscle-memory your way around MPCs of yore. It's nowhere near as responsive as a smartphone screen and chopping samples on it frankly sucks due to it. It's more annoying than a keyboard and mouse by a long way, IMO, and keyboard and mouse is actually pretty efficient and accurate for most things. Linn's video also edits out navigating menus and other friction, so I would take the video with a very pinch of salt. Great dude, immensely talented, love what he does, but I am very sceptical of this video in terms of intent and honesty. Remember: Linn has had nothing to do with Akai Pro, and he didn't receive a bean from them in all these years. So, to suddenly be receiving anything from them, disclosing that he was given it, and the video having been doctored and his observations being not strictly true, I'm not too convinced by the intent of someone—perhaps not even at Linn's behest. A lot of musicians think each and every DAW sucks. Ask musicians about Pro Tools if you want an equally polarising "industry standard". I didn't say anything about Ableton Live anyway. Strange remark.