MPC ONE and alternatives

[Wax On]

Yo,

I'm itchy for some sort of beatmaking setup (I'm away from my gear due to lockdown)

 

MPC ONE sounds good but not in uk at the mo it would appear - anyone got thoughts on them? Or any worthwhile alternative?

[JHouse]

Man, I'm absolutely loving my Maschine MK3, especially ever since I tethered it to a MacBook Pro instead of my PC laptop.

 

Maschine's pads are super sensitive and feel really frickin' nice, plus they're closer together now compared to the MK2. For the most part, the whole system and software is very user-friendly, and the large onboard screens are really helpful as well. Overall, it's pretty intuitive.

 

I copped it a couple years ago, but didn't use it much 'cause no matter how much I optimized my PC, it would still glitch out. The load was always redlining my resources in Maschine or Traktor, but once I switched to a 2012 MBP, that problem vanished. In fact, the load meter barely even gets an erection. And, as of a couple nights ago, I really got the latency dialed in and now it's super responsive (I use it specifically for finger drumming). Damn it's fun!!! All those years of finger drumming on tables, desks, and dashboards really paid off. But even more than that was the last 12 years I've been playing the tankdrum. Ironically, it's very similar, even to the touch.

 

Oh, and the sound library that comes with it is fyre. Not all of it of course, but there are certainly many gems. I've been collecting sounds for a drum machine for some time, however, I haven't used them yet 'cause I'm still really happy with the onboard collection.

 

It's worth noting that I had an MPC 2500 before Maschine, but even with changing out the pads so it would be more sensitive, it couldn't even remotely compare with Maschine. Native Instruments really knows what they're doing — I think they seriously listened to the MPC community bitching about stiff pads and shitty workflow, UI/UX, etc. My next purchase will be NI's s88 Keyboard with the same screens and workflow as Maschine. Essentially, I'm already learning how to use that keyboard before even purchasing it since they're so similar in workflow. Boom!

 

To wrap it up, I'm in constant awe when I play this thing. Every time I jam on Maschine, I want to share my joy with the DV community. I seriously think you guys would all kill it on this beast.

[Flexinoodle]

If you want something quick portable and powerful as fuck, get an iPad and Beatmaker 3 and Nanostudio 2, those will twist your mellons.

You dont get any better than sitting on the sofa and headphones plugged in.

[Wax On]

Cheers guys

How can you pull your own samples in on the iPad? I tried an iPhone app a while ago and that was one of the annoying things

[Flexinoodle]

Dropbox, or via WIFI or a USB flash drive, whatever you like, things changed a lot with files.app, iPad has a robust(ish) file system now.

Beatmaker has a built in Dropbox browser, Nanostudio has built in network drive support, will see any computer as a drive.

I have the 1tb dropbox, so i just use that and put teh samples direct on the iPad storage too.

 

Recording samples you will need an interface of some kind, if you have a PT01 or something you can USB that straight in too.

[Wax On]

So is files app something where you can drag and drop? I suppose you can get audio inputs for the ipad too

[Wax On]

Gonna give serato sample a go with garageband - seems pretty decent on first glance