The competition - Akai

So you post here because you still appreciate NI. I rest my case.

 

Why not make a beat, and share your production process? You share more about features than what you bought it for. So what genre do you produce? If your going to buy the MPC Touch, how will that fit with the MPC/Maschine MK 1 set-up in your studio? I just bought a used Maschine Mikro from Guitar Center with a Two Year warranty. Next I'm getting a F1 to go with my Technic 1200's. When I go out of town I am taking the Mikro. When hitting studios locally, I will take Maschine Studio.

 

Interesting show...thanks.

 

This is an interesting point and there are two ways it could go down:

1. N.I. want to do their own thing (as exemplified by Traktor Controllers) and distinguish themselves from the market with where they think things should go, and they will stick to their guns and hope for the best because they're 'all in' with their particular vision and roadmap. Plot a line of how things have gone down for their various products and verticals and extrapolate this to Maschine to draw your own conclusions.

2. N.I. have decided that the market is evolving quicker than anticipated and that they need to adjust course. So they're right now in the middle of planning releases to bring them up to speed and even surpass what's currently on offer (and emerging).

I'm not privy to their decision making process. Depending on who you'd ask here, that could mean a lot of things:

-coloured touch screens (and the software to best utilize it) asap
-a standalone Maschine
-jog wheels and touch screens for Traktor
-developing a useful tablet app for controlling anything that can load in Maschine or Komplete Kontrol (like Logic Pro X already has)
-etc.

Sometimes, we get a sense of what they're working on via their Job section, but mostly it remains a mystery.

And of course, the one comment that I see time and time again here is that none of the above matters until they fix the Maschine software (!)
Which is (perhaps), a reflection of the pressure N.I. has put themselves under by putting out new product lines and an accelerated release schedule.

The competition is definitely good for everyone as that's how the market evolves, and right now Akai is leading the way. Next year it could be N.I. They are the masters of their own destiny if they're willing to embrace the challenge of remaining agile and responsive.

In closing, the focus should always be on helping us make better music and eliminating any barriers between the technology and our creativity, and not on inventing solutions to a problem that we don't have.

 

good stuff, that last paragraph especially. I hope they frame that one and keep it on the wall in developers hall !!!

 

Thanks man...it's good to keep things in perspective!

 

Think about all the functions of maschine software, and then think about how that works with the hardware. You have maschine mk1, mk2, mikro and studio. Plus adding the new features. The changes made to the sequencer have to tie into not only the mk3's, but the old controllers. That's alot of damn work to do that. I am not surprised it has taken them so long personally. What would you need a tablet app for in respects to maschine or komplete kontrol?

 

Dont you know? you need a tablet because tablets are cool, everything is going to have touchscreens now, your toilet, your light switch, the water tap, everything is going to have touch interfaces! IS THE FUTURE!

 

Well, technically, they are the future.

It's amazing how many people own tablets and have no clue of the music production capabilities.

Sweetwater has an entire section devoted to instruments and peripherals for iOS.

I personally own an Alesis iO Dock, Miselu C.24 and a KMI Quneo (some of which can be seen in my profile pic). This setup which fits in a laptop bag is an entire production studio (with the addition of apps, of course).

 

u have no case; its possible to appreciate more than one company at a time; currently I like korg, Akai & NI for the type of way I like to work they are the closest to my preferred workflow.

but I am not beholden to anyone company I like to switch up every 5 years at least; so after 5 years the workflow got stale (for me personally) so flipped to MPC

 

Just gotta say, this thread is awesome.

Soooo much activity, it's great!!

#CoupleMoreWeeks

 

zooming and moving thru waveforms would actually be something that would make sense to do via touch screen, but other tasks could be more fiddly so hopefully there is an option to do some hardware tasks and manipulation using q links and the data knob.

as locking peeps into the touch screen may be counter productive in some areas.

 

this is a flawed argument.. there is a large number of things that can be improved in the sequencer that have nothing to do with the hardware, or are massive improvements over things that are already there, and already have the control structures for..

 

...and fwiw, any and all issues with Maschine, its popularity (or lack thereof) its sales success (or current lack thereof) and customer appreciation (or lack thereof) are 100% associated with the SOFTWARE, and cannot now, or ever be fixed, by simply bringing out a new controller...

I am not saying never bring out a new controller, but bringing out a new controller without some solid and fundamental (fixes and) improvements in the sequencer, compositional tools, arranging, track management and other areas is simply putting lipstick on a pig.

 

That's the reason lot of people is figuring out that next big announcement is going to be about software+hardware.

 

someone put these pics up hypin da touch as direct opposition to maschine studio

 

I still fell that I need more close frames of the box letters.

 

I like the idea of a touchscreen controller, but still think they could've done this with an improved iPad app and an improved MPC Fly/Element.

The gearheads will pick this up just to have it, but I don't think this will sell well. Just a hunch.

 

The biggest flaw in the mpc touch for me is the fact it's flat, and doesn't have any method of raising it to point towards the user.

 

Same with the Maschine Studio, that's why I have one of these to sit it in on:



http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002GOHCTA

It could catch on you know?