The competition - Akai

I never thought this thread would grow as much as it did lol... I just like posting what the competition is up to. I am Maschine 4 life though

 

Maschine 4's out??!!!!??????

 

$18.50

 

$1850 is too much. You can have it for $500.

 

yanno if you took amazon gift cards and boxtops for school supplies Id take you up on it...cant believe these are dropping at this price now, surely its superior to Touch???

 

It is superior to Touch if you want it to be superior to Touch.

The MPC Ren has more knobs and buttons than most products on the market. It doesn't mean it is superior.

 

well I got a chance to play around with the touch today. It's not for me. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

 

I would be interested in hearing specifics.

 

what did u like about the touch also how did u find the screen response?

 

And what didn't you like?

 

I wasn't crazy about the fx at all, but the real issue for me is the layout, I don't like tapping on the screen with my right hand and would prefer to do all of the screen work with my left. for a second I contemplated having it all taken apart and put back together how I like it but then decided against it, although in the future if I can cop one on the super cheap I will definitely look into doing that. I've had almost every hardware beat machine and keyboard sampler and have appreciated all of their individual strengths, but now I believe we should be living in the age that everyone claims software has created for us, the age of whatever you want being possible and I've been modding all of my equipment where necessary for the precise workflow I need......unapologetically.

I turned the unit upside down and it immediately felt better, I need the qlinks, on the left of the screen or between the screen and the pads, and I need the screen to the left of the pads, it's pretty much simple as that. I'm not willing to spend money anymore for something that doesn't fit what I need from that particular experience. I think they made a cool little box, when I can get one for 2-$300, I'll put things where I want and probably love it.

 

I have heard similar feedback from some others. It is not too different than the feedback given about MPCs over the years. Like when Akai moved the MPC's pads from the left (MPC 3000) to the right (MPC 2000). Then to directly center like the MPC 5000 and Ren.

The layout of the Touch takes me back to the MPC 3000 where all the controls are to the left of the pads.

 

yeah, it's really an interesting time though right now. I'm grateful that companies have seen fit to put out new beat machines, after dealing with maschine for so long it's easy to feel like devs didn't have much interest in this stuff but there is quite a resurgence right now from the beat machines to the mini boutique synths and I really think that the two streams have inspired/ pushed one another, it's even going to reach back and pull maschine's butt out of the frying pan so these are good times, just wish they'd move a little faster. I think the iPad development helped with this too, hell vinyl is up, cassette is growing and growing.... we will get some good **** out of this pendulum swing next year.

 

I personally don't want anything inspired by the iPad in my MPC.

 

I did look at the Touch to compliment my Ableton/Push2 combo. I had Maschine Studio, but too many headaches getting it to work with ableton properly the way I wanted, so I gave up with it.. How does the Touch & mpc software integrate within a DAw?

 

You may have given up too early. I know people that use the Maschine Studio with Live. They like that combo so much they have no desire to get a Push2.

I never use the MPC software within a DAW. It just doesn't make sense to me to use a DAW within a DAW. Yes, I am fully aware that most people will not call the MPC a DAW. But I will not stop calling it one nonetheless....

 

I spent a long time trying to get it all setup, routed properly, to no avail. so yes I sold Maschine, got nearly all my money back on it, so all good Happy with Push2...

 

imho they really don't compliment each other very well. lots of overlap. i've tried many different setups using maschine stand alone, and hosted as a plugin in live, triggering scenes via midi, etc. all of it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. i could make it work for the sake of it but it didn't make any significant improvements to projects.

i'm still keeping maschine because i enjoy playing with it on occasion but as far as projects go i don't use it for anything other than creating loops that i might use in live or traktor.