I could listen to you geek out about gear all day.

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

That’s so nice of you to say! Thanks for watching and thanks for the kindness!

For a live setting you really need to go the workstation route, fantoms, montage, etc.

Great stuff! I was dawless on mpc for a long time (got the OG MPC Live on release and stuck with it for several years). I still return to it for a few songs every year. What's great is you can do everything on board (including mastering) or export to a daw or run it's outs through hardware or even just use it as a sampler or a drum machine. Anyway, it's a great! I also play guitar and keys so great for sampling those. Honestly, before I got one... never imagined being a sampler guy... but now love it! All that said, I did get into Elektron gear in the last 2 years and now days I like to attach several boxes and stream record them to my zoom l-12 and then chop it in a daw and do overdubs there. Anyway, definitely recommend mpc... and you nailed it... u got a spend about 1-3 weeks getting that workflow down... which can be different depend on what you want from it :)

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

Appreciate the insight and the kind words! There’s so many ways to use this type of gear it’s awesome to hear how others are doing it

Great review ❤

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Nice review! One comment: it’s quick and easy to hook up the MPC 61 to a desktop running MPC 2. This opens up MPC to VSTs and IMO the MPC plugs seem to sound a bit better. And you can still keep your eyes and hands on the MPC hardware. I don’t do it most of the time,but it’s worthwhile when I do.

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

Totally! I don’t use controller mode much but it’s cool it’s an option!

Funny thing. When I first got my X I found it to be the easiest platform to learn and I came from 10 years of Ableton Live back in 2019. I finished my first song within a week of owning it and got comments that the mixing sounded as if made with a PC DAW. On contrary to your opinion I find that the MPCs sound nice and warm compared to other devices. The sound has character imho.

@DylanParisMusic

6 ай бұрын

This is a great point! Everyone learns differently and different UIs will be more or less intuitive per person! Thanks for sharing 🙏

What pushed me over the edge to buy the Keys 61 was finding out that I could use the same license to install FabricXL on my MPC Live2

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

It is nice to be able to use the licenses across mpcs!

Roland Fantom, Fantom 0, Yamaha MODX, Montage, Korg Nautilus, Kurzweil K2700, etc are live performance devices. The MPC Key 61 is a studio piece. Jordan had MPC experience and should've known from the start it is what it is.

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

In he and I’s defense, Akai is absolutely pitching this as a workstation contender

@timweakley6565

3 ай бұрын

When I see 61 keys I automatically think performance.

Thanks for your review. Really helpful. I am wracking my brain on the push vs MPC key options, and I am tending towards the MPC key. Only thing I don't know so far is how easy is it to move projects quickly and easily into and out of Ableton. I want that to be efficient

@DylanParisMusic

4 ай бұрын

Honestly if that’s your primary goal the push is a much better option

@owlmuso

4 ай бұрын

@@DylanParisMusic thanks. Well it's ONE of my main goals. The other is to be able to be productive and writing songs away from the computer. I am also a keyboard guy, and the mpc key seems better suited to producing "traditional" songs than the push . When I watch push videos the music always seems to be focused on electronica and beats rather than songwriting. So I need to way up those two priorities. If you don't mind me asking ... When tout take a track from mpc keys to ableton do you have to live record the midi, or can you export the project in a way that ableton can import it? Thanks

@DylanParisMusic

4 ай бұрын

Fair enough! When taking an MPC song into Ableton I export the stems into audio and then finish on the computer. I have not ever tried to take an Ableton track back into an MPC, it would likely be a headache. I would say to finish a full song and have built in keys, the MPC is probably a good option but if you ever intend to send songs back and forth or already use Ableton and want to leverage that knowledge and workflow, a push with a midi keyboard plugged in could be the move

@owlmuso

4 ай бұрын

@@DylanParisMusic Thanks, Dylan, for your well considered reply. I think I will do exactly that, and weigh up the pros and cons of a push with a midi keyboard hooked up, vs the mpc keys. I think the journey of taking a full project from keyboard to ableton is more important that vice versa as I would more likely be using the keyboard or push to play back backing tracks than each individual instrument - when it comes to a planned live set. I assume it wouldn't be too much effort to get a stereo stem into mpc key rather than a whole project. Anyway, great video. Keep up the good work

@DylanParisMusic

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching! Let me know how it goes!

I have the MPC and one of the other platforms you mentioned and frankly sound wise I think the MPC is as good if not better than anything I’ve used, Fabric, Hype and OPx4 are phenomenal with so many useable presets. The expansion packs available are exceptional particularly for many of the popular styles of music such as Trap, EDM, etc. Compare a demo from the MPC Key 61 to just about anything out there and the MPC just sounds more polished and complete imo. Some of the other platforms and software I’ve used can also be great but I have to sift through a lot of less great material to find the gems. So many of the MPC sounds are so usable straight out the box. As a standalone there’s nothing better imo. Hopefully Akai will upgrade the software to make it a more comprehensive DAW. It is in controller mode where some of the other platforms outperform the MPC, afaic.

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

Fair! Sound is definitely a subjective thing too. I don’t think the MPC sounds bad but I do think the Ableton push standalone with suite sounds better, but is less fun to work with especially for sound design

@dracul74

7 ай бұрын

imo... I think the trick with samplers in general is to get your kit sounding right before you do any patterns. I've heard a lot of mpc beats and kits that sounds, sloppyish... compared to maschine or something else... and I love my mpc.... just sayin.

@tylerdurden9765

7 ай бұрын

Btw, Great review Dylan, and I definitely agree with your assessment that the MPC is a very capable stand alone device. I primarily bought the Key61 for a modern day ASR-10 sampler sequencer keyboard and I have not been disappointed. While I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the quality of some of the instrument plugins, some of the fx, particularly the compressors are lacking imho. A good CL1b or 1176 with side chaining would really up the game. flexbeat is pretty awesome though so hoping Akai gives us a killer in the box compressor@@DylanParisMusic

What if you already have a keyboard/workstation,😊 or midi controller.

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

Hmmm, definitely a big variable! If you still wanted the MPC workflow a One or Live 2 would be good, but if you wanted the maschine workflow and didn’t need a battery then the maschine plus is solid too (although a little overdue an update in my opinion)

@dracul74

7 ай бұрын

you can plug a keyboard into most MPCs (midi or usb)... so I'd look at the One or Live unless money doesn't matter... and so u get the X :)

@timweakley6565

3 ай бұрын

I track my motif into mine via audio.

The MPC Key looks indeed a great hardware platform, but the absence of an arranger and the impossibility of recording audio (guitar/vocal/external synth…) outside the loop (aka sequence) context makes it unusable for songwriting for me. Like, the Maschine+, it doesn’t support VSTs, but that isn’t a major issue in my view. The instruments available on both devices are good enough (although Maschine+ could use a compressor) and because it’s easy to transfer and elaborate projects (including midi) on a Mac/Pc, you can easily finish tracks there. The only advantages that the MPC key has over Maschine+ are its better I/O and the fact that it has a keyboard. Important advantages, but Maschine has workarounds for those: audio interface, external keyboard. Unfortunately there is no workaround for the lack of arrangement functionality in the MPC architecture. As for live performance: MPC takes too much time to load instruments. I don’t think it was designed for live performance.

@MusicWizard85

7 ай бұрын

Huh? The MPCs have an arranger in them: Song Mode. And I record audio all the time of my guitar playing, vocals, synths, etc. I'll sometimes use 1 sequence to linear record the song. (Example: 3min of acoustic guitar then 3 min of electric guitar then 3 min of bass guitar then 3 min of drums then 3 min vocals). If you're having trouble perhaps watch more YT vids on tutorials or ask for help in MPC groups.

@timweakley6565

3 ай бұрын

All valid points bit tell me what device does all the things you mentioned outside of roland fantom.

I don't get this, why people want MPC or Maschine to be live playable with seamless sound switching. Those things are toys for music production. They where never meant to be tools for the live musician. Why not just get tools, that professionals use? Like a Yamaha Montage or a Roland Fantom? Even when you're on a budget, the cheaper Fantom-O or MODX costs like roughly the same as the MPC keys.

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

I want the production tools and sounds of the MPC and Maschine with the ability to play live. It’s not that wild of a request just because workstation keyboards that can load a preset list exist

@youtubevideos415

7 ай бұрын

@@DylanParisMusic But it's not so easy. There is a lot of DSP involved to implement seamless sound switching. You need some custom ICs. Those cheap Atom CPUs in Maschine and the likes are not able to do it. They would have to completely redesign the hardware of those products.

I have a solution for you : get MAC MINI PRO : put your favorite DAW on it and Boom standalone device ...... stop wasting time and money : cheers 🥂

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

Lolll classic comment 🤣

@EBMZEQUENZER

7 ай бұрын

@@DylanParisMusic but its true : assemble nice setup and be done : Cheers 🥂

@DylanParisMusic

7 ай бұрын

Yeah I just mean I think most people who like standalone music gear are aware that computers exist

@EBMZEQUENZER

7 ай бұрын

@@DylanParisMusic I Hear you : and if this is wat you like than this is what you like Cheers 🥂