I’ve previously reviewed my MPC Live – first as an updated AKAI Sampler just not white like the old ones but still with a big wheel. Then as a tool to perform a live set at a small venue (with non synchronised video). It’s been useful for five or so years now – laptops come and go in this amount of time, so that’s a recommendation right there. I originally bought it back in 2019 for international touring which has started up again – well, if you consider two shows ‘a tour’. Still enough grunt in the machine to run the latest MPC3 operating system … which now becomes the subject of today’s sermon.
The New
Although less idiosyncratic than before, the MPC3 operating system isn’t a DAW like Logic or Cubase although it can talk to Ableton Live. The main conceptual change is that ‘tracks’ and ‘programs’ are now just ‘tracks’ of different kinds. Drum tracks are the remnant of the old Roger Linn style MPC. There are still modes to direct each drum pad to effects and mix channels. A new Project always starts with one Drum track (until I delete the damn thing, and add a Keygroup track).
Keygroups
Keygroups are now deeper. Each keygroup can mix/switch between eight(!) sample layers. There can be up to 128 keygroups on a single track, so all up 1024 samples. Allocation of samples is mostly about how the sound will be sent to the mixer and effects – you may still choose to populate multiple tracks for different mix chains. An Advanced Keygroup Synthesis Engine provides a screen for overall control of the eight layers so that you can for example add chorus, drift and harmonies.
Audio tracks can now record and play back from hard drives (previously it all had to be held in RAM). That’s a big change of identity. You could now use it as a multi-track recorder to which MIDI events can be appended.
Plugin tracks use instruments installed in the machine. These are AKAI’s own format, mostly made by AIR. Some come with the machine and others are available at extra cost. I had some trouble when I updated to the MPC3 beta – the paid instruments were phoning home to activate every time I booted my MPC Live, which obviously you don’t want on stage. It required me to go back to AKAI’s website and re-enter the serial numbers. They locked to the hardware, without WiFi needed.
Some of these instruments can take a while to load up – notably the Fabric series have a very large sample library attached. All of them are actually pretty good.
MIDI tracks control external equipment plugged into the MPC’s MIDI out ports. Similarly CV tracks send out control voltages – if your hardware has CV outs, which the Live does not. I’m also unlikely to control MIDI instruments to be honest but you might find this a great way to run a MIDI stack from one keyboard on stage.
The Looks
There is now a Main mode which attempts to show you all of the action on one screen, although I still find myself jumping around the place, tucking here and fussing there. Partly because I still think in MPC2 terms.
A Sounds mode presents all the installed instruments and samples as if on a shop shelf. I don’t like using presets so I haven’t looked at this in much detail – but it probably helps break the ice at parties. It does set lists as well, which I really should try.
The Linear Arranger (the DAW part) looks much more like Ableton Live – and less like FLStudio. Well it still looks a bit FLStudio. MPC3 is also set up to sequence Ableton projects. I’m not currently sequencing with the MPC Live when performing, so I’ll come back to that in a later update. The older Grid view is available if you’re used to that.
The Wins
Does all of this make the MPC easier to understand? Well I think so – I have to say that because I hadn’t used my machine for at least a year and felt as befuddled as I was the last time I tried to get my Nuendo brain wrapped around MPC2. The thing is – you are trying to learn a system which spans both instruments and sequencing. Like learning Live and Kontakt as if a single entity. To put a sample on a track means keygroups, and you will have to think first whether you are needing eight layers or eight tracks to get your results.
But it feels easier then it did years ago, certainly the tide has turned from ‘pads with a bit of keys’ to ‘keys with a bit of pads’. Although I haven’t sequenced much yet, I don’t need to sort things out on the PC software version like I used to. And if you just like to dial up presets from Native Instruments, well you’re in pig heaven given the two companies are now in cahoots.
I have a Roland 404. There is no comparison – the 404 is a bumped up drum machine/ DJ tool. I have also owned an Octotrack. Again there is no comparison – the Octotrack has a single minded purpose and very little to offer outside of that, like a violin it is one colour, not a palette. I have a Zoom 24 track recorder – do I need to say it again – the virtue of the MPC is that it is a superset of these kinds of things.