My Maschine vs. MPC Renaissance review...

I wrote an unbiased Maschine vs. MPC Renaissance review and comparison:
http://spidouz.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/ni-maschine-vs-akai-mpc-renaissance/

It might help people to figure out what is the best for them to fit their needs...

Phil

 

I'm interested in reading your blog post, but it needs to be edited for grammatical correctness. It currently reads as though it was originally written in a language other than English and then translated.

I hope you don't take this as an attack on you or your blog, I'm just wanting to help.

 

Interesting, but not surprising, that where one fails the other excels...

Maschine does is exactly what i need it to do, when i have the desk space a version of the MPC will probably join it...im glad each have their strengths and weaknesses, keeps it interesting and companies developing their products, which in the end benefits the user

 

Nice little review thanks. I like to see people put thought and balance into a discussion as you have done.

Personally I am happy with Maschine enough to not want to try MPC Ren, but its nice to learn what competitors are doing in an objective way instead of a bunch of fanboy reports from either side.

 

Not taken, English ain't my first language... not even my second one thought

 

"- No easy way to “transpose” the 16 Pads when you’re in the Piano Roll Mode (such the Bank on the MPC-R)"

Not sure I understand this, on Maschine, you press the pad mode button and the top two left buttons cycle the transpose up and down by 12 steps. I found it by accident as I thought scrolling with the knob was horrible. The other buttons do different increments. Now, transposing is VERY easy for me.

 

i have a question, does the ren allow you to set customize the midi notes that are on each pad to your liking?

 

Yup, pad mode+buttons 5-8 to transpose. Other than that it was a very balanced review. Good summary of the strengths and weakness of both products.

To add, there seems to also be limitations with the Ren automation so many things can't be automated like plug-in insert parameters. You mentioned this but the issue with it adding another instance of your plug-in when copying sequences is ridiculous and a waste of resources. The Ren is at 1.1 now that fixes some bugs but there is still some crashing and issues.

Another important difference in favor of the MPC is it's dedicated song mode. Much easier to construct a song. Features like tempo per sequence, mute solo automation and the ability to record sequence changes with mutes live to a song are the MPC strong points.

 

WOW... you're right!

I was wasting time by using the knob every freaking time and that's actually one thing I always thought very annoying. Using the top 5-8 menu buttons change completely that. That's good to know... but that's also one of the thing that prove that's sometimes the LCD displays don't show properly important information. They could have save some space for the pads notes and have one more row for the semi-tone -/+ and octave -/+

@b-rightous:

I should have mentioned, but at the time of the test, I was using Maschine 1.8.1 and MPC-Ren 1.0.1 (something like that?). I haven't tried the new MPC-Ren 1.1 and I have no doubt with software update we will see improvement from both side.

I might edit and change some comment (mainly for the Pad Mode Button 5-8), but I will not redo the review for every fix bug updates.

I finally decided to not buy the MPC-Ren for myself (at home), for now. We have it at the studio, that's good enough. I prefer to keep Maschine at home where I use more software and I will use the MPC-Ren at the studio where we also have a bunch of hardware gear and where I need more than 16 Midi channels.

On a long run, NI might have a serious advantage because music will be more and more about software only. Today is a transition because we still have some old school hardware stuff. So if they would support multi-midi interface and multi-midi port in a future updates, they might fix what I think is the most annoying problem to me today, but will already be ready for the future that will mainly use software.

And if they add multi-core support, Mixer (with routing for sidechain) and even deeper integration with 3rd party plugins (to recall presets directly from the controller, etc...), they will serious be ahead of Akai that is really good for hardware and old school gear, but definitely behind in terms of software and therefor in terms of future.

My 2 cents,
Phil

PS: Thanks again for the tip for the quick and easy transpose... (not as quick that the dedicated "Bank buttons" on the MPC-Ren thought, but still way quicker than with the knob)

 

Yeah, not sure why it isn't labeled on the displays, but when I found it, I VERY MUCH appreciated them!

 

Indeed!

I wish I would have discovered earlier. Actually I had noticed the semi-tones, but I thought that I was just selecting the top notes or so... I didn't pay attention to the octave.

Another Maschine annoying thing is that I wish we would have way to turn it off. It is plugged to my iMac that is on 24/7, therefor Maschine stays always on. I have to unplug/replug it (but that's not a proper way to do).

I wish I could have a "Control+Shift+Mute" combination (or something like that) that would at least completely turn off the LCD displays. The controller would still be recognized as soon I would start Maschine Applications or plugin (or if I would press Shift+Control).

That would also save me a lot... I'm worry about the connector with so much plug/unplug.

Phil

 

I use mine in so many situations I have not had that problem yet, but I agree, a power off method would have been nice.

 

what he said

 

I don't have the MPC-Ren with me to confirm, but as far as I remember, it's similar than the Pad Mode on Maschine.

You can have 16 notes for each of the 8 Banks that allow you to access to the 128 midi notes.

But you can't have a C0 on Pad1 and F2# on Pad 2, etc... (or at least I haven't find when I tested it).

That's actually something I wish we could have on Maschine too, as well as having one plugin used on several pads. For instance a drumkit in Kontakt loaded on a Pad, but use the Pad 2 for another notes of the same drumkit in the same Kontakt, but routed in another audio out.

That would reduce some resources too...

I'm just thinking out loud...

Phil

 

Good unbiased review.
I've been tempted by Renaissance and have nearly been pulled-in by all the marketing hype but common sense is telling me to steer clear until it's a bit more mature and 64bit.

 

And maybe by the time Akai release a mature and 64 Bits software, NI will have a "Machine XXL" with audio interface and the version 2.0 software with the current missing features...

Software wise, I do like Maschine better. The software layout is clean, with just what you need to know... and even if I wasn't too sure about the colors stuff, I have to admit it's a really really good feature that I love in Maschine 1.8

 

I never really even tried to use Maschine out to more than one MIDI port, since I can do all sorts of routing inside my DAW, plus send sysex and other messages Maschine cannot support - but I think NI probably should pursue adding support for more than one MIDI device/port. This could be very useful in many situations with Maschine standalone.

 

Not only in standalone...

If you want to keep your entire sequence inside Maschine (in MIDI), you want Maschine to talk to your external gear, not only to your DAW.

For instance, if you have a Multi-timbral Workstation (let's say a Kronos), Expanders (Motif XS-Rack and Integra-7), a Moog Voyager, a Virus, a 808, a 909 and a 303... you will also appreciate to have more than 16 Midi channel inside Maschine using up to 8 Midi port of a MOTU Midi TimePiece... I'm just sayin'

 

well that is troubling because all of the mpcs can do that for longer than most of us have been alive, if the ren, and the studio are like that then that is a step backwards.

 

Don't take my words for that... as said, I don't have the MPC-Ren with me to confirm or deny.

There's perhaps a way to do it... I don't know all features of the MPC-Ren... or even Maschine, I still discover some very useful.

I will check the next time...