Akai MPCKEY 61

[AnotherScott]

On 6/23/2022 at 5:32 PM, GovernorSilver said:

I have the same Roland boxes of course.  Love most of the ZenCore sounds.  Among the exceptions are the pianos and organs - they're usable, but not I prefer the acoustic and electric piano samples featured on other manufacturer's products, and the organ sounds on any decent clonewheel over the sampled organs in ZenCore.  

 

I'd been thinking about getting a Yamaha YC-61 for the clonewheel and FM organs, but this thing also has clonewheel and FM plugins... and oh btw it has aftertouch.  Touchscreen drawbars vs. physical ones are not an issue for me.

While the YC organ noticeably better than Fantom-0, I don't think the latter is bad... I'm not sure where the MPC's organ falls, is it necessarily better than Roland's? Also, Roland's integration of external MIDI sources is pretty good, you could add VB3m from your smartphone, which could also change the Fantom-vs.MPC organ equation.

 

On 6/27/2022 at 11:59 PM, Sean M. H. said:

As of right now, nothing I've heard has changed my initial thought that this will end up being a producer's best friend...moreso than a gigging keyboardist's main axe.  That could change though.  If, for example, an update allowed for seamless sound switching

Patch changing could be the biggest limitation of the board for live performance. A while back, I asked about it on another forum, and someone replied, "The sound will always be cut off when switching to a new patch. This complete cut off in sound can be anywhere from miliseconds to way way over 5 seconds, even over 10 in some cases. It all depends on what sound engine you are using and their arrangement. The big delays will come when using Favourites." Hmmm.

 

He also said that, while you can create programs out of your own samples, you can't add those programs to your favorites. Not having any experience with MPC sound navigation myself, I'm not sure how severe the ramifications of that are. He also said that the split/layer functionality was not as extensive as on a 16-timbre Korg combi, I don't know what the actual limits are. I never need 16, personally. I have not been limited by the 8 parts on a MODX or Fantom-0 (the latter drops from 16 to 8 if you enable seamless switching). For live gigs, actually, I'm not sure I've ever split/layered more than 4 sounds, so I'm guessing I wouldn't find an MPC too limiting in this respect, but I don't know what its limits are, and other people may need more of that functionality than I do.

[GovernorSilver]

9 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

I'm not sure where the MPC's organ falls, is it necessarily better than Roland's?

 

This is one question that can best be answered by a few min. with your hands on the instrument, and using your ears to evaluate.  

 

[Doerfler]

 

[AnotherScott]

 

On 8/20/2022 at 1:18 PM, GovernorSilver said:

On 8/20/2022 at 7:42 AM, AnotherScott said:

I'm not sure where the MPC's organ falls, is it necessarily better than Roland's?

This is one question that can best be answered by a few min. with your hands on the instrument, and using your ears to evaluate.  

I wasn't clear in my comment, and I missed that you were talking about the 707 and 101, sorry. I had been thinking in terms of comparing to the Fantom/Fantom-0, which add the better-than-ZEN-Core (non-sampled) "VTW" organs, making it more of an open question as to whether the tonewheel organ engine of the MPC would be an improvement.

 

Though if you're thinking of MPC vs. YC61, from an organ perspective, a similar question applies, i.e. how the clonewheel plugin of the MPC compares to the organ of the YC... though if the important thing here is just that it's "good enough" for your usage (i.e. a real step up from the sampled organs in the 707/101), then as long as it's met that threshold, whether or not it's as good as the YC may not be relevant.

 

  

 

[GovernorSilver]

12 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

 

I wasn't clear in my comment, and I missed that you were talking about the 707 and 101, sorry. I had been thinking in terms of comparing to the Fantom/Fantom-0, which add the better-than-ZEN-Core (non-sampled) "VTW" organs, making it more of an open question as to whether the tonewheel organ engine of the MPC would be an improvement.

 

Though if you're thinking of MPC vs. YC61, from an organ perspective, a similar question applies, i.e. how the clonewheel plugin of the MPC compares to the organ of the YC... though if the important thing here is just that it's "good enough" for your usage (i.e. a real step up from the sampled organs in the 707/101), then as long as it's met that threshold, whether or not it's as good as the YC may not be relevant.

 

  

 

 

Well, a lot has changed for me since I was last active in this conversation, least of which is losing interest in the Fantom family.

 

In the intervening time period, I recorded myself and a buddy playing synths, through 6 channels of audio.  My computer really struggled despite the low channel count.  

 

Thus, I realized that I need a new computer more than I need an MPC anything or YC anything.   So I am not in the market for either of those product families as well.    This renders the clonewheel question irrelevant for me.   Computer discussion is off topic of course.

[Doerfler]

more from Benn. He got hit with a ton of shite about the video I recently posted. Explanation from him follows for anyone interested

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

I like the generative ambient part of Benn's video.

 

As the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity.  Benn wins if the MPC drama attracted more eyeballs to his channel.

[AUSSIEKEYS]

All a bit like childish "tattle" to me. 

 

Bit over all these utube stars now.