4 ms·

> I’ve always found Roland user interface designs to be inscrutable banks of deep menus, arbitrary buttons, tiny screens, and “wizard” style branching between w

> I’ve always found Roland user interface designs to be inscrutable banks of deep menus, arbitrary buttons, tiny screens, and “wizard” style branching between wholly disparate aesthetic presets This also describes the Akai MPC world. I suspect it describes any system that has accumulated sufficient lineage to always be in tension between new features, existing technology, standard practice and legacy user expectations. Synthesizer manufacturers are expert at repackaging modules, hardware and software - their business model can't handle the costs of blank slate development for each new product... Baffling UX often results.

brudgers 2y ago
I’ve been thinking about buying an MPC 1, so I have been thinking about the MPC workflow and what it would take to learn it. A few years I figure to get started. That’s unreasonable for a fart app and entirely reasonable for a musical instrument. Pianos and cellos require time to learn and so do MPC’s. The MPC UX is clearly designed for musicians committed to the instrument. Sure you can play on-pitch notes more easily than with a violin, but you will need just as much practice to get to Carnegie Hall. At its core, the MPC is a B2B product. The UX is designed with a full understanding it is not for everyone. No musical instrument is.
- liotier 2y ago
  Legacy warts aside (16 Levels, the underdeveloped step sequencer) and incomprehensible omissions notwithstanding (tons of quality of life improvements, easily within the device's ability but neglected), the MPC sequence-based workflow was fine for me because I learnt it without prior knowledge of any other workflow... But now that I have tasted a scene-based structure with Roland ZenBeats, I understand why scene-based structure is currently dominant among DAWs... But still, having an instrument that feels like an instrument is so nice that I'm still happy to do without the open-ended complexity of DAWs... And there is usually always a MPC hack to do anything !
  - brudgers 2y ago
    The main reason I am planning to buy an MPC 1 is to use it as a sampler. Over the years, maybe it will become the center of my contraption. Maybe it won't. Theoretically, a hardware DAW that is happy not connected to the internet is something I want and the MPC's are well-sorted. Well-sorted is what I want more than easy to use. Like a racecar. As an aside, I realize I can think about my MC-303 and MC-505 in terms of a scene based workflow.

brudgers 2y ago

I’ve been thinking about buying an MPC 1, so I have been thinking about the MPC workflow and what it would take to learn it. A few years I figure to get started. That’s unreasonable for a fart app and entirely reasonable for a musical instrument. Pianos and cellos require time to learn and so do MPC’s. The MPC UX is clearly designed for musicians committed to the instrument. Sure you can play on-pitch notes more easily than with a violin, but you will need just as much practice to get to Carnegie Hall. At its core, the MPC is a B2B product. The UX is designed with a full understanding it is not for everyone. No musical instrument is.

liotier 2y ago
Legacy warts aside (16 Levels, the underdeveloped step sequencer) and incomprehensible omissions notwithstanding (tons of quality of life improvements, easily within the device's ability but neglected), the MPC sequence-based workflow was fine for me because I learnt it without prior knowledge of any other workflow... But now that I have tasted a scene-based structure with Roland ZenBeats, I understand why scene-based structure is currently dominant among DAWs... But still, having an instrument that feels like an instrument is so nice that I'm still happy to do without the open-ended complexity of DAWs... And there is usually always a MPC hack to do anything !
- brudgers 2y ago
  The main reason I am planning to buy an MPC 1 is to use it as a sampler. Over the years, maybe it will become the center of my contraption. Maybe it won't. Theoretically, a hardware DAW that is happy not connected to the internet is something I want and the MPC's are well-sorted. Well-sorted is what I want more than easy to use. Like a racecar. As an aside, I realize I can think about my MC-303 and MC-505 in terms of a scene based workflow.