Akai MPC X - any good as an Audio Interface and sketching guitar songs?

lukedlb

There is a part of me that wants to write songs in the vein of Koyaanisqatsi (especially The Grid with its glorious arpeggios) or The theme from S-Express, and do my own messing with James Brown along the lines of The Payback mix or Blue Note sampling like the Beastie Boys' Root down.

And at the same time play and record Hendrix and Beatles songs.

So with both heads open, I began looking at audio interfaces, DAWs and drum machine/sampler/sequencers.

Rather than do the DAW route (audio interface, beat pad, DAW), would the Akai MPC X cover all the grounds? On one hand, it looks like some of the MPC X is way beyond me as a way to manage sequencers. On the other hand, it does seem to cover most of what I'm after. Used prices seem to be dropping with the launch of the MPC Live II. 

Requirements:

Scratch vocals
Internal audio interface (for recording Line in Keyboard, Line in Electric guitar, XLR Mic'd guitar amp, XLR Mic'd vocals)
External audio interface (in the sense of using the MPC X as an audio interface between a microphone and the computer's DAW)
Drum machine
Sampler
Dawless standalone.
DAW controller

It isn't clear how good an audio interface / ADDA the X is. Please bear in mind that I have no idea what I'm talking about as soon as the words Digital or Midi come up. On top of that my experience of DAWs go as far as Garageband, and that was rather limited. I'd dare say that I have more experience with a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder.

Yes, I have a top spec 2019 iMac and I could just spend the same money on a great audio interface, a beat pad, ableton Live. The idea of having a standalone equipment would help combat the distractions associated with working on a desktop (tFB, email, youtube, etc.).

Strangefan

I would say no, for sample and midi  based music it's brillaint, (I had thr mpc live) however as an audio interface for recording guitar, it's not intuitive at all and lacks some of the fundamental editing I would want for wav manipulation. (all my opinion) 

lukedlb

Strangefan said:

I would say no, for sample and midi  based music it's brillaint, (I had thr mpc live) however as an audio interface for recording guitar, it's not intuitive at all and lacks some of the fundamental editing I would want for wav manipulation. (all my opinion) 

Would you recommend separate equipment, perhaps the MPC Live just for beat making and sampling, then running that into Ableton alongside a guitar into an audio interface? I just wished there was an all-inclusive solution.

Strangefan

lukedlb said:

Strangefan said:

I would say no, for sample and midi  based music it's brillaint, (I had thr mpc live) however as an audio interface for recording guitar, it's not intuitive at all and lacks some of the fundamental editing I would want for wav manipulation. (all my opinion) 

Would you recommend separate equipment, perhaps the MPC Live just for beat making and sampling, then running that into Ableton alongside a guitar into an audio interface? I just wished there was an all-inclusive solution.

That's what I did, as I produce drum and bass it's perfect for that as long as you get along with the work flow, for me Cubase 10.5 is the best I have used for recording in, and just found the mpc like a true ball ache for external recording.. How'ver if you want to play back the guitar parts as samples the mpc is brilliant 

lukedlb

Strangefan said:

lukedlb said:

Strangefan said:

I would say no, for sample and midi  based music it's brillaint, (I had thr mpc live) however as an audio interface for recording guitar, it's not intuitive at all and lacks some of the fundamental editing I would want for wav manipulation. (all my opinion) 

Would you recommend separate equipment, perhaps the MPC Live just for beat making and sampling, then running that into Ableton alongside a guitar into an audio interface? I just wished there was an all-inclusive solution.

That's what I did, as I produce drum and bass it's perfect for that as long as you get along with the work flow, for me Cubase 10.5 is the best I have used for recording in, and just found the mpc like a true ball ache for external recording.. How'ver if you want to play back the guitar parts as samples the mpc is brilliant 

May I ask what equipment you are using now? Or are you still using the Live?
I have a Presonus Firestudio Mobile and I'm pretty disappointing by the monitoring: nothing like the actual recording. I wonder whether I set it up wrong. The headphone monitoring is pretty dull and I detect latency, and this was with Voice over work. Granted I was running it into a 2008 Macbook Pro. Perhaps a UA apollo X twin duo/quad core would eliminate these issues. A look at your set up/work flow might set me straight.

goldtop

The weakness of the MPC Live and X for DAW-like use is that they still do not stream audio from disk. Akai boasted the feature at launch, but still not delivered (three or four years?). I gave up waiting and sold my Live. (I have a Roland MV-8800 in the cupboard, and the Akai is not much better for DAW-like use.)

You'll get far better DAWing with an iPad and controllers.

At the moment, my home set-up is tiny:

• an iPad USBed directly into
• Yamaha MODX as the (class compliant) audio interface
• a small Mackie 4-channel mixer for Hi-Z and XLR mic

The Mackie outputs feed the MODX's audio inputs, which send the digitised signal into the iPad for recording. The monitors plug directly into the MODX outputs. Softsynths are controlled by the MODX keyboard. All effortless and ready to go 15s from power-up.

A side-benefit is that a different app on the iPad instantly changes your workflow if you're in a rut. So I can use Group the Looper if I want to get away from linear DAWing. Then there are the drum-based workflows of GR-16 (Electribe E2S clone).

Lodious

Personally, I'd go with Ableton Live and a Push controller. You can operate it without using the screen to give you that feeling of playing an instrument and have all the functionality of a computer with a large monitor. It's really inspiring to work with if you are working solo.

Strangefan

I gave up on portable production, I found what ever I made just stayed on the device it was produced on, so I just use this set up at home korg wavestate, roland tr8s  arturia spark, and Cubase 10.5 

goldtop

^ That's an odd-looking DAW!

Strangefan

goldtop said:

^ That's an odd-looking DAW!

Heheheh that's my other vice..... Terrible pc games:D 

goldtop

If I had games available on any machine I was using to make/record music, I'd get nothing at all done.

Strangefan

goldtop said:

If I had games available on any machine I was using to make/record music, I'd get nothing at all done.

I agree, if I was making music for work it would be very different how'ver music and games are my past times so I only get creative when inspiration hits.