The think is… for the price of lpd8 and old iPhone (5s so you get lightnint connector for cck3usb) plus koala sampler you got an sp… why to hurt a coder with that brain surgery? If almost akai did release the og code or whatever… but probably the cpu was crap so not much possiblities to go further.
@@thelabby9998 I'm not a coder but I know that a lot of em find it fun to try and squeeze something cool out of terrible hardware, see all the examples of getting doom to run on refrigerators and pregnancy tests
@@AudioPilz modern mcu design tends to make it a bit more difficult to brick a bit of gear with a dodgy firmware, although that may not be a plus in this instance
I've reached a point where I realize I've been watching gear videos because I've become obsessed with perfection. As a result, I haven't made any music in three months. I've been re-tooling and upgrading and it's driving me insane. I long for the days when I made music with whatever gear I had around--and I was happy about it. The days of innocence. That should be the name of my next album! Thanks, Bad Gear!
Thats why everyone uses computers with cracked vsts if you have gotten to the point to distribute your music then you will find making music is a waist of time anyway.
don't bother with this thing, you'd get better use out of a cheap reverb pedal. I had one and it constantly had issues triggering no matter what kind of velocity I was hitting with it. and the midi input dropped about 80% of notes sent to it.
"You wouldn't steal a note!" Dude, you are so funny. You genuinely brought me a lot of happiness and laughs since the first episode, it's very much appreciated. And the content is amazing too, perfect humor/info ratio.
While everybody craps on this (for all the right reasons) it was perfect for what I purchased it for and still use it to this day. When playing in a live band and need to trigger random samples (sound effects, song intros, etc) this is perfect. I never used it for drums.
Grrr, got one of these, Bad Gear review hits the nail on the head, the MPX8 has to be the most frustrating piece of 'studio' gear I own (Roland VP-03 a close second). Great upload as per usual Florian.
Yeah, I returned mine within two days. I thought it would be really cool to have a portable finger drum machine to practice on and sometimes connect with my DAW to make beats. However it dropped so many notes it wasn't worth it.
2013 body with a 1993 operating system. First time in a while that a piece of bad gear mangled your intro tune so much lol. The drums doubling up were rough.
I bought it to plug into the AUX port of my car stereo so passengers could jam out while we ride around town. For that purpose, it's pretty great if you just use the default sample library. Otherwise, its only other saving grace is the pads themselves. Compared to the LPD8, the pads are wonderful. The LPD8 feels like you're mashing your fingers into the walls of a prison. The MPX8 feels more like poking silicone orbs. Squishy and sensitive.
-Wall of comments trash-talking the gear -Baffling list of limitations -Casual invention of a new genre from whole cloth -Totally deserved cheap shot at the Digitakt Oh yeah, it's a classic Bad Gear episode
MPX8 = Epic fail! Love your show! A machine I've used and loved for almost 2 decades is considered bad by many people, but for me its awesome and it would be great to see you review it: Zoom Sampletrak 224! Cheers!
I appreciate visual humor of your English accident it makes your videos so entertaining in the non music parts. Keep up the good work! How many devices do you think you have left to go through?
I almost got this back when I got my Volca Sample, and for some time now thought I had made the wrong decision. Thanks for setting me straight, the ol' Volca looks much better now.
Florian, I really enjoy these videos! Of course, I always know it is you because your voice always sounds like it has been put through a flanger in a very subtle-ish way.
And I find this video as a UA-cam recommendation tonight / this morning, as I realize I have an MPX8 that I received as a going-away gift from a friend who was, himself, moving away out of town. I've not yet even turned it on, but I miiiight just fold it into part of an upcoming gig on 8 October.
You have this really great way of making fun of gear while also being inspiring to just use whatever you manage to get your paws on to, like. Make some jams, man. And that's fantastic as always, cheers!
God, Akai really did go through a terrible decade. As I got into music production gear during that time I still don't see them in a positive light despite their newer gear being well liked.
I started in the MPC2000 era and the era where Maschine briefly ate the computer connected MPC’s lunch was so bad it took me awhile to believe their new stuff could be any good. Now I’m eyeballing a force pretty strongly.
I'm using the Akai Force. I LOVE the thing and have made a simplified setup based around it. That being said, it is buggy, customer service and community relations are nearly nonexistent, and I highly doubt they would have updated it over the last year if it weren't for Maschine+ being released.
Strangely enough, I actually really liked the sound of that Rhythm Wolf snare! It sounds like it's got some punch, unless you had to do some post-processing magic.
This used to be the only "drum machine" I had for a while. I remember finger drumming everything to tape since the midi was so sketch. Let's just say quantization wasn't in my mind at the time...
actually same here. couldn't believe what I'd bought - still crap for 20€ - but it turned out to be an ok make shift fingerdrumset and ambiance sample player going into heavy processing and looping pedals.
Have one here for quickly firing off some Twitch sound clips and this job it's doing fine. Then I tried to sequence it via several grooveboxes but only one of them worked without random note drops. It was the good old Electribe R. All other devices caused the MPX8 to drop notes due to it's firmware bug not supporting the f***ing dreaded MIDI running status. The only workaround I could find to control it with a Novation Circuit Tracks was to put a MIDI DIN to USB host converter in between because USB MIDI doesn't use running status. Then it worked like a charm as an additional sample track for the Circuit Tracks ;) :D Never had any problems with samples not playing or the device being picky with SD cards though...
I had to rewind “..the build quality is rugged..” several times because I thought I was seeing things- is that RA the Rugged Man? It sure is! Well played, your videos are top notch 👌🏽
2:56 Why are you showing a screenshot from the US Version of "Funny Games" instead of the excellent original Austrian one? That being said, the video editing this time is absolutely superb, even better than the excellent previous ones!
yeah this one has issues as I can attest, but I found the perfect way to use it, similar to what you did in one part I use it with my OP-1 or OP-Z since they lack proper pads and velocity, and with certain one shots and loops it makes a great companion (no MIDI needed) and being small and portable (add a small USB power bank) it travels well with the small gear like OP-Z and/or OP-1 the slow load time is the biggest annoyance but it you plan your banks you only have to change between songs - the transpose thing sucks too but again planning ahead (using Audacity or whatever) helps that I wonder if the MPX-16 is any better or faster, seems nicer at least and price never goes down great vid and jams as usual
Almost bought one of these as needed a sample player for a live hardware gig. Bought the 1010 Music Blackbox instead, but I often wonder what might have been had I plumped for the MPX. I totally lie, I didn't give the Akai a single thought again 😆😜💁
I bought one of these for a beatmaking workshop with teens many years ago. First kid that hit the pads instantly broke the whole circuit board. Last Akai product I ever bought.
I'm wondering if the MPX-16 just skated me past all the horror described in this episode... I mean the MPX-16 does have the 8.3 DOS filename issue and the slow load times (on steroids as it has twice the pads.) The MPX-16 does have choke groups and Amp, Pitch, and Filter Envelopes... the pitch envelopes are nicely comedic with negative envelope amounts. I don't have any real hate for it other than load times from SD to RAM. I compare it to the Volca Sample and in that scenario it doesn't seem awful for the price. The MPX-16 also has a line input and a built-in mic (my Casio SK-1 nostalgia kicks in here.) Sadly the MPX-16 is not battery powered. The pads can be setup as trigger on and trigger off continuous loops (16 of them) which is fun when appropriate sounds are loaded. I always wished it had some sort of primitive sequencer, so I used mine with a Groovesizer MB setup with the Drum Sequencer (Golf Firmware) the MIDI always worked fine even when running flams and ratcheted triggers. Oddly the screen would go nuts as it would update to show the currently triggered pad's settings.
I had the MPX16-it's just as bad! Popping noises on my own samples, and it would sound different when editing the sound vs playing the saved sound. Also can only receive on channel 10. Wtf?
Yeeup. That is pretty much the most concrete example of a piece of gear I literally would never own - and a solid argument for '***k it and just use the daws built in sampler already'.
I sold both of my Boss SP's before buying this MPX8 thinking it was a simpler way to do things. Big mistake. Bugs and loading times are really annoying. However i use it just to trigger some voices in a band situation and it does the job. That being said, I would sold it in a second if I knew i can have my SP 303 back.
Excellent verdict, with all the experience AKAI acquired making current MPC line up they could make entry level updated version of MPX-8 and sale a boatload of those.
I have one of these and I pretty much just use it for triggering dialog samples live. Doesn't get much use and I think that's probably all I would use it for. I never had any issues with SD card formatting though, which is very strange.
I get that it's more of a DJ tool for dropping tagz than studio gear. The big brother MPX16 has live sampling which is a saving grace maybe. Or maybe an MPX16 episode too? Akai should release some new affordable samplers to compete in the 'Volca unit' price range and get these 'dark-age' MPX off the shelves. Oh yeah - Super cool funky intro music make me laugh genre creating episode!
Great review once again. Perhaps Akai is one of those companies that was too diversified. My first stereo radio/tape player was made by Akai. It was great.
Florian is coming for everything I own 🤣😂 I have used one of these for one shots live, just some vocal samples to match a. Track to its recording, or long-ish ambience to fill space between songs. (but i wish I was using anything else😂)
Now *that* is a piece of gear that is desperately crying for a hacker to "adopt" it. Wish my assembler skills hadn't atrophied a quarter century ago...
I am failing at step zero. Allegedly Medeli A2 chip - what is it, datasheet, can you find it? I also don't have one and it's kind of not entirely cheap enough to just throw money away at it.
@@thelabby9998 Mhm yeah i actually would have a LOT more fun developing a travel sampler addon for the LPD8 which i already have anyway. Time much better spent!
@@SianaGearz if you decide to build something please notify me. I will go the koala sampler route for sure before anything else but I love to see these kind of projects and try to contribute somehow if I can (as dirty hardware hacker myself)
I love your videos! It always makes for an interesting Friday! Even though I love them, I'm excited to see more roland bashing. The abandon products soo fast.
Yessssss I saw one of these at a local place, and that cheap price tag was mighty attractive. Then I asked myself, hey, why IS this thing so affordable?
This is the only channel that I click thumbs up before I saw the whole video. Because I know already, it will be awesome! Thanks for producing and uploading here!
Hah I used to use my mpx8 years ago a lot, I actually got some good stuff (for 16 year old standard) from it and actually didn’t hav to many issues with my own samples in it (even tho a lot of the time I stuck to the built in sounds), I never even used the midi though (didn’t have anything that went to midi channel 11 hah).
@@AudioPilz hah yeah, I think it does a fine job doing simple things but it’s certainly limited and there is reasons why I haven’t used it in 4 years now. I think I would still defend it slightly... which I guess is easier said if u haven’t used it in 4 years lol.
Yay, yet another of my sugestions. I have been thinking about picking this one up a few times, so it is superinteresting to see what you think. Next sugestion is the Akai synthstation25, that looks absolutly trash, and I have seen them for like 15$.
@@thelabby9998 I toght it was trash because you need a working gen 1 Iphone or G4 Ipod touch or whatever it uses, but you can probebly get a replacement battery for cheaps on ebay.
All these abominations eventually brought us to the modern APC and MPC boxes. Technology works in mysterious ways. Somewhere there's a squat full of unemployable designers who met at the Akai midi R&D watercooler circa MPX8 and the Wolfpack. It's almost guaranteed that someone will claim you're bad, wicked, and evil for slagging off the greatest instrument ever built, but they probably live in that squat.
@@secretelitemusic I don't know. It has been an American company for a very, VERY long time. It doesn't seem like inMusic is in the habit of leaving much of the companies they acquire intact over the long term.
@@secretelitemusic One of their recent acquisitions is Rane - they were promised they'd get "taken care of" and "needn't worry". By now, nothing left of the office. Where are the people? Nobody quite knows. So i'd say whatever they do, they also do so to successful gear designers, not only failed ones.
Great episode - the mpc 500 is pretty close to where Akai should have tried to land with this unit. I guess they just missed the mark completely trying to make it cheap. Seems like they learned the lesson as the new Akai gear is great. Thanks for another great episode!
@@AudioPilz Even the Ensoniq Mirage? 🤔 By the way, you really should do a Mirage episode, if you haven't already. Instead of ticking all the boxes, it's a box with all the tics. 😁
@@Eleni_Be The Mirage isn't an EPS. I used to professionally service both when they were still in production, and I happen to own 1.5 Mirages currently. They're adorable in a way, but they definitely have no shortage of quirks. 😉
@@GlenBerry I've used both on stage and in studio (in fact i had one of the earliest imported to AT). of course the M isn't and E - both have their place in history. i still use the EPS albeit its PSU will need a fresh up soon...
I love these so much. Not just for the "why DOES that get so much hate?" aspect, and a lot of it is understandable.. but also your dedication to making tracks and solid examples of what the gear actually sounds like and how it performs. More often than not I listen to the demo tracks in these and like a lot of the sounds I hear. Reminds me to tell myself that most of the time it's not the fault of the gear if a track is bad, get back to work and make something cool you muppet
oh that was the kid screaming that the Akai Wolf was so terrible lol.... I seen that video many years ago good for you to bring him up while you were flaming Akai. LOL!
Thanks for another insightful and funny video. I still have an mpx-8 that's in the box and I've used it for maybe a couple hours. I paid $50 US for it new a year after it was released. It's not always terrible but it's not great either. It's really just so slow and basic. Funny enough, while looking at the gear shown in this vid I realized I still own the mpx-8, DSI Mopho, Digitakt, a Korg MicroSampler and a Roland D2. Time for a mashup.
I had to use one of these for a tv/theater production. After around 5 hours of fiddling with different SD cards and sample errors we figured out that the official converter corrupts your samples if you overwrite them during the conversion process. The other software that lets you save user kits was also not much better as it kept crashing as soon as I saved anything. I also found it odd that a machine this small isn't battery powered so we had to duct tape a power bank to it, quite inconvenient.
I would day the only redeeming quality of it would be for a radio shock jock, or podcaster to play the air horn, or FX when they get excited at a caller.
The intro is priceless, and so is that Oldboy clip. Perfectly captures the mpx-8's essence 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Thank you!!!
what? I missed the oldboy clip? where?!
It’s “Plan 9”, Baby,
That oldboy clip could easily be used in every video on this channel 😁
I know a dude who does a whole live show with a rickenbacker bass, an mpx 8 and a looper pedal, *and it's freaking amazing*
Some people just beat the system!
the mpx-8 feels like it desperately wants some enterprising genius to write a whole new firmware for it that fully overhauls it into something great
The think is… for the price of lpd8 and old iPhone (5s so you get lightnint connector for cck3usb) plus koala sampler you got an sp… why to hurt a coder with that brain surgery? If almost akai did release the og code or whatever… but probably the cpu was crap so not much possiblities to go further.
@@thelabby9998 I'm not a coder but I know that a lot of em find it fun to try and squeeze something cool out of terrible hardware, see all the examples of getting doom to run on refrigerators and pregnancy tests
@@famitory I think it will be easy make a proper sampler with a pregnancy test than this.
I would love to risk turning it into a brick in the process;)
@@AudioPilz modern mcu design tends to make it a bit more difficult to brick a bit of gear with a dodgy firmware, although that may not be a plus in this instance
I've reached a point where I realize I've been watching gear videos because I've become obsessed with perfection. As a result, I haven't made any music in three months. I've been re-tooling and upgrading and it's driving me insane. I long for the days when I made music with whatever gear I had around--and I was happy about it. The days of innocence. That should be the name of my next album! Thanks, Bad Gear!
Thank you so much!!!
Thats why everyone uses computers with cracked vsts if you have gotten to the point to distribute your music then you will find making music is a waist of time anyway.
Get off youtube, might help haha! Altho then you'd miss amazing content such as this 😆
i swear to god in like 20 years somebody is going to get famous using this thing and it will skyrocket in value
I'd like to see that too!
Hasn't happened yet? Still $50 on Reverb? Guess I'll have to buy one ahead of the curve.
I need to follow up on Reverb; this might be the first Bad Gear episode that doesn’t start a buying spree!
I feel you!!!
That crappy reverb made for a good robot voice at least
don't bother with this thing, you'd get better use out of a cheap reverb pedal. I had one and it constantly had issues triggering no matter what kind of velocity I was hitting with it. and the midi input dropped about 80% of notes sent to it.
Lol same here. Usually a bad gear video costs me a fortune :D :D
@@vjreimedia a lot of music stores still carry these new because they haven't been able to get rid of them
When it comes to my Fridays, your videos always tick all of my boxes.
Happy to hear that, thanks!
"You wouldn't steal a note!" Dude, you are so funny. You genuinely brought me a lot of happiness and laughs since the first episode, it's very much appreciated. And the content is amazing too, perfect humor/info ratio.
While everybody craps on this (for all the right reasons) it was perfect for what I purchased it for and still use it to this day. When playing in a live band and need to trigger random samples (sound effects, song intros, etc) this is perfect. I never used it for drums.
👍
Have you experienced any bad glitch noises at the end of the samples you created? I have some issues with mine.
Grrr, got one of these, Bad Gear review hits the nail on the head, the MPX8 has to be the most frustrating piece of 'studio' gear I own (Roland VP-03 a close second). Great upload as per usual Florian.
Thanks! More Boutiques to come!
Yeah, I returned mine within two days. I thought it would be really cool to have a portable finger drum machine to practice on and sometimes connect with my DAW to make beats. However it dropped so many notes it wasn't worth it.
Best gear show I ever seen. Also like your ability to produce music, not just "sound demo"
Thank you so much!
2013 body with a 1993 operating system.
First time in a while that a piece of bad gear mangled your intro tune so much lol. The drums doubling up were rough.
Samplers in 1993 usually worked;)
I bought it to plug into the AUX port of my car stereo so passengers could jam out while we ride around town. For that purpose, it's pretty great if you just use the default sample library.
Otherwise, its only other saving grace is the pads themselves. Compared to the LPD8, the pads are wonderful. The LPD8 feels like you're mashing your fingers into the walls of a prison. The MPX8 feels more like poking silicone orbs. Squishy and sensitive.
👍
Always astounded at the final track you produce with each piece of "bad gear". Astounded. Your skills are tops!
Sitting at my synths, phones vibrating, it's a new bad gear video, stop the sequence cause I need a coffee anyway and watch immediately ❤️
❤️❤️❤️
-Wall of comments trash-talking the gear
-Baffling list of limitations
-Casual invention of a new genre from whole cloth
-Totally deserved cheap shot at the Digitakt
Oh yeah, it's a classic Bad Gear episode
Let's call it a tradition❤️
@@AudioPilz Ticking all the boxes!
You are wrong. There are indeed no mute groups on the 8.
@@kimwilliamjustice6945 not this time only some of the boxes were being ticked
I'm just glad that today's Akai is really delivering big time.
Yup, faith in humanity restored;)
@@AudioPilz :)
I found your channel by mistake about a year ago. It's fast become one of my favorites.
MPX8 = Epic fail! Love your show! A machine I've used and loved for almost 2 decades is considered bad by many people, but for me its awesome and it would be great to see you review it: Zoom Sampletrak 224! Cheers!
I appreciate visual humor of your English accident it makes your videos so entertaining in the non music parts. Keep up the good work! How many devices do you think you have left to go through?
Thanks! I don't thing I'll ever run out of Bad Gear;)
I have to admit that the "The unit is very picky" joke connected with me on a deep level.
When you know you know;)
I almost got this back when I got my Volca Sample, and for some time now thought I had made the wrong decision. Thanks for setting me straight, the ol' Volca looks much better now.
Volca Sample is actually great!
@@AudioPilz It really is, especially after the Pajen update. Mahalo to you for the tip on that one.
@@haolekoa737 Pajen is a must, on the FM too! 😴👍
I’ve got the massive MPC-X, and that latest firmware update is incredible. Cheers to Akai for upping their game.
True, highly appreciated!
Florian, I really enjoy these videos! Of course, I always know it is you because your voice always sounds like it has been put through a flanger in a very subtle-ish way.
Are you saying he was born with a Flange?! ;O))
Thanks! I'm the OG Univibe man;)
I actually like this unit and it performs well for me. No issues whatsoever. It does exactly what it’s designed to do.
Happy to hear that! I'd love a working version of that unit
That's good to read!
And I find this video as a UA-cam recommendation tonight / this morning, as I realize I have an MPX8 that I received as a going-away gift from a friend who was, himself, moving away out of town. I've not yet even turned it on, but I miiiight just fold it into part of an upcoming gig on 8 October.
Nice! You might wanna use a phone app tho. That thing is not exactly fit for gigging
watching for the second time just to appreciate the memes and well thought texts ♥
Thank you!!!
You have this really great way of making fun of gear while also being inspiring to just use whatever you manage to get your paws on to, like. Make some jams, man. And that's fantastic as always, cheers!
Thank you so much!
God, Akai really did go through a terrible decade. As I got into music production gear during that time I still don't see them in a positive light despite their newer gear being well liked.
Let's hope for the best!!!
I started in the MPC2000 era and the era where Maschine briefly ate the computer connected MPC’s lunch was so bad it took me awhile to believe their new stuff could be any good. Now I’m eyeballing a force pretty strongly.
I'm using the Akai Force. I LOVE the thing and have made a simplified setup based around it. That being said, it is buggy, customer service and community relations are nearly nonexistent, and I highly doubt they would have updated it over the last year if it weren't for Maschine+ being released.
Mpc is definetly back! 2.10 update is sooooo good. I use the MPC live as a brain for my dawless jams.
@@FaraceChannel kinda hard to call it a dawless jam when the MPC is literally just a DAW lol
That end music video was so chaotic it was amazing.
Thanks! (Microhouse usually is;)
Strangely enough, I actually really liked the sound of that Rhythm Wolf snare! It sounds like it's got some punch, unless you had to do some post-processing magic.
The RW snare is actually really great. It works great when processed but you can use it in its original form as well
Lol exactly what I was thinking
I love seeing the gear I've had on this channel - had an MPX8, sold an MPX8!
This used to be the only "drum machine" I had for a while. I remember finger drumming everything to tape since the midi was so sketch. Let's just say quantization wasn't in my mind at the time...
Wow, that's quite a skill!
actually same here. couldn't believe what I'd bought - still crap for 20€ - but it turned out to be an ok make shift fingerdrumset and ambiance sample player going into heavy processing and looping pedals.
@@Eleni_Be yep, using mine for the same thing. It's still a piece of garbage, but kinda works for that purpose.
Love this! This was one of the first electronic instruments I purchased and I have actually used it in a live set. It was, interesting 😂
Have one here for quickly firing off some Twitch sound clips and this job it's doing fine. Then I tried to sequence it via several grooveboxes but only one of them worked without random note drops. It was the good old Electribe R. All other devices caused the MPX8 to drop notes due to it's firmware bug not supporting the f***ing dreaded MIDI running status. The only workaround I could find to control it with a Novation Circuit Tracks was to put a MIDI DIN to USB host converter in between because USB MIDI doesn't use running status. Then it worked like a charm as an additional sample track for the Circuit Tracks ;) :D Never had any problems with samples not playing or the device being picky with SD cards though...
Good to know about the Electribe R!
Try pressing more than 3 pads at once. If it doesn't trigger a random other pad then it's better than an MPX-16.
Btw I am such a fan of you! Every aspect of your content is inspirational to me. Thank you!
I wanted one of these bad boys. I’m glad I didn’t buy one. Awesome videos and rad jams!!
Thanks!
Now that really was a totally genuine bit of authentically BAD gear - you saved me from a 2nd hand disaster!
Bought one of these because I thought I could big brain my way around it’s limitations. It now just sits in its box somewhere in the basement.
I assume that's the way of the MPX
I had to rewind “..the build quality is rugged..” several times because I thought I was seeing things- is that RA the Rugged Man? It sure is! Well played, your videos are top notch 👌🏽
Thanks! Big RA fan for decades!
2:56 Why are you showing a screenshot from the US Version of "Funny Games" instead of the excellent original Austrian one? That being said, the video editing this time is absolutely superb, even better than the excellent previous ones!
Thanks! I LOVE the original version but the short sequence of the US version fit perfectly
2:35 I can hear Mr Krabs asking the Yamaha SU-10 if it's READY TO PARTYYYY
Yeah, that's the loop! Nice!
yeah this one has issues as I can attest, but I found the perfect way to use it, similar to what you did in one part
I use it with my OP-1 or OP-Z since they lack proper pads and velocity, and with certain one shots and loops it makes a great companion (no MIDI needed) and being small and portable (add a small USB power bank) it travels well with the small gear like OP-Z and/or OP-1
the slow load time is the biggest annoyance but it you plan your banks you only have to change between songs - the transpose thing sucks too but again planning ahead (using Audacity or whatever) helps that
I wonder if the MPX-16 is any better or faster, seems nicer at least and price never goes down
great vid and jams as usual
I have mpx8 and mpc16. You are right about being companion to other units.
I really liked the pads too!
2:48 omg mlp clip. i love you audiopilz
Thanks!🥰🥰🥰
8.3 filenaming limitations…. Classic! Back in the days you had to be creative with abbreviating words in order to create your filenames.
AuPiBadG.ear
I’ve been binging your content. And damn you can make a great track out of any piece of gear!
Almost bought one of these as needed a sample player for a live hardware gig. Bought the 1010 Music Blackbox instead, but I often wonder what might have been had I plumped for the MPX. I totally lie, I didn't give the Akai a single thought again 😆😜💁
Lol, you might have bought the 1010 12h later and with a higher blood pressure level;)
I bought one of these for a beatmaking workshop with teens many years ago. First kid that hit the pads instantly broke the whole circuit board. Last Akai product I ever bought.
I'm wondering if the MPX-16 just skated me past all the horror described in this episode... I mean the MPX-16 does have the 8.3 DOS filename issue and the slow load times (on steroids as it has twice the pads.) The MPX-16 does have choke groups and Amp, Pitch, and Filter Envelopes... the pitch envelopes are nicely comedic with negative envelope amounts. I don't have any real hate for it other than load times from SD to RAM. I compare it to the Volca Sample and in that scenario it doesn't seem awful for the price. The MPX-16 also has a line input and a built-in mic (my Casio SK-1 nostalgia kicks in here.) Sadly the MPX-16 is not battery powered. The pads can be setup as trigger on and trigger off continuous loops (16 of them) which is fun when appropriate sounds are loaded. I always wished it had some sort of primitive sequencer, so I used mine with a Groovesizer MB setup with the Drum Sequencer (Golf Firmware) the MIDI always worked fine even when running flams and ratcheted triggers. Oddly the screen would go nuts as it would update to show the currently triggered pad's settings.
Thanks for posting. I'll take a closer look!
I had the MPX16-it's just as bad! Popping noises on my own samples, and it would sound different when editing the sound vs playing the saved sound. Also can only receive on channel 10. Wtf?
Yeeup. That is pretty much the most concrete example of a piece of gear I literally would never own - and a solid argument for '***k it and just use the daws built in sampler already'.
Yeah, it let's you curse your DAWless vows;)
I sold both of my Boss SP's before buying this MPX8 thinking it was a simpler way to do things. Big mistake. Bugs and loading times are really annoying. However i use it just to trigger some voices in a band situation and it does the job. That being said, I would sold it in a second if I knew i can have my SP 303 back.
SMH. I use my MPX8 as a companion to my SP’s. Definitely was a bad move to trade SP’s for MPX8
That really hurts. I feel you!!!
Excellent verdict, with all the experience AKAI acquired making current MPC line up they could make entry level updated version of MPX-8 and sale a boatload of those.
I have one of these and I pretty much just use it for triggering dialog samples live. Doesn't get much use and I think that's probably all I would use it for. I never had any issues with SD card formatting though, which is very strange.
Formatting usually works fine, getting the files ready was a real issue
I have The Meg on pause rn, so I love your use of shark images to represent memory. Well done.
I get that it's more of a DJ tool for dropping tagz than studio gear. The big brother MPX16 has live sampling which is a saving grace maybe. Or maybe an MPX16 episode too? Akai should release some new affordable samplers to compete in the 'Volca unit' price range and get these 'dark-age' MPX off the shelves. Oh yeah - Super cool funky intro music make me laugh genre creating episode!
Thank you!!! It would be great to have Volca-style instruments from Akai
I have both MPX8 & MPX16. You’re right it more of a DJ tool. I use it to trigger samples and loops. You get what you pay for.
Great review once again. Perhaps Akai is one of those companies that was too diversified. My first stereo radio/tape player was made by Akai. It was great.
Florian is coming for everything I own 🤣😂
I have used one of these for one shots live, just some vocal samples to match a. Track to its recording, or long-ish ambience to fill space between songs. (but i wish I was using anything else😂)
Nothing personal;) maybe use a phone...
@@AudioPilz 😳
I used to use it for the same thing but I switch to an SP-404 and then a 1010 BitBox
@@ncapone87 I should just buy a 404 for the culture anyway 😂
@@JorbLovesGear Or if you need a small, but reaally good sampler, take a look at the 1010 Blackbox. I hear only good things about it.
gear video again, love how you show a clip of Cyberpunk 2077 when you said buggy. GOLD!
Thank you!!!
Now *that* is a piece of gear that is desperately crying for a hacker to "adopt" it.
Wish my assembler skills hadn't atrophied a quarter century ago...
I am failing at step zero. Allegedly Medeli A2 chip - what is it, datasheet, can you find it?
I also don't have one and it's kind of not entirely cheap enough to just throw money away at it.
Doesn’t worth the effort. Lpd8 are superior and cheaper… just tie it to an iPhone/koala app or raspi…
@@thelabby9998 Mhm yeah i actually would have a LOT more fun developing a travel sampler addon for the LPD8 which i already have anyway. Time much better spent!
@@SianaGearz if you decide to build something please notify me. I will go the koala sampler route for sure before anything else but I love to see these kind of projects and try to contribute somehow if I can (as dirty hardware hacker myself)
Super interesting, keep me posted!!!
I love your videos! It always makes for an interesting Friday!
Even though I love them, I'm excited to see more roland bashing. The abandon products soo fast.
Thanks! Don't worry, more Roland to come!
Yessssss I saw one of these at a local place, and that cheap price tag was mighty attractive. Then I asked myself, hey, why IS this thing so affordable?
It's like they deliberately made it bad
This is the only channel that I click thumbs up before I saw the whole video. Because I know already, it will be awesome! Thanks for producing and uploading here!
Thank you so much for watching!
Hah I used to use my mpx8 years ago a lot, I actually got some good stuff (for 16 year old standard) from it and actually didn’t hav to many issues with my own samples in it (even tho a lot of the time I stuck to the built in sounds), I never even used the midi though (didn’t have anything that went to midi channel 11 hah).
Made this song with the mpx8 (last time I record anything with it I think) ua-cam.com/video/TWK7ylSKcaA/v-deo.html
I think that I would have accepted its flaws as a teenager as well...
@@AudioPilz hah yeah, I think it does a fine job doing simple things but it’s certainly limited and there is reasons why I haven’t used it in 4 years now. I think I would still defend it slightly... which I guess is easier said if u haven’t used it in 4 years lol.
@@AudioPilz only real issue I remember I had at the time was the god damn sd card formatting, that stunk.
"More Rover". - Very nice.
😀
Ticks the following boxes: [x] is a box
Wise words;)
I remember wanting this one back in the day. Glad i never had the money to waste
You dodged that bullet;)
Yay, yet another of my sugestions. I have been thinking about picking this one up a few times, so it is superinteresting to see what you think. Next sugestion is the Akai synthstation25, that looks absolutly trash, and I have seen them for like 15$.
Always a pleasure!!!
It’s trash since 30 pin connector and the akai app get broken afair…
@@thelabby9998 I toght it was trash because you need a working gen 1 Iphone or G4 Ipod touch or whatever it uses, but you can probebly get a replacement battery for cheaps on ebay.
Those video clips during the, erm, microhouse track were just beautiful
There's some pretty stank drums happening in today's intro...
Yeah, epic fail is to be taken seriously;)
Man what a legend bro you got the deep cuts on these jokes. David lopan and tubby got me so happy
Thanks! David LoPan!!!
All these abominations eventually brought us to the modern APC and MPC boxes. Technology works in mysterious ways. Somewhere there's a squat full of unemployable designers who met at the Akai midi R&D watercooler circa MPX8 and the Wolfpack.
It's almost guaranteed that someone will claim you're bad, wicked, and evil for slagging off the greatest instrument ever built, but they probably live in that squat.
TBH, I'd really love to hang out with those guys because I assume things went wrong at C level
@@AudioPilz They probably have some good sake.
@@secretelitemusic I don't know. It has been an American company for a very, VERY long time. It doesn't seem like inMusic is in the habit of leaving much of the companies they acquire intact over the long term.
@@SianaGearz Are you suggesting that InMusic bury failed gizmo designers in landfill? Sounds a bit too Cosa Nostra, even for an American company..
@@secretelitemusic One of their recent acquisitions is Rane - they were promised they'd get "taken care of" and "needn't worry". By now, nothing left of the office. Where are the people? Nobody quite knows. So i'd say whatever they do, they also do so to successful gear designers, not only failed ones.
Oh hell yes, I knew you were going to pull out the Rhythm Wolf for this one
"pull out the Rhythm Wolf" sounds kinda wrong😂
@@AudioPilz or... Does it...😂
Truly bad gear... Makes m-audio support look good
Yeah, M-Audio stuff does have some redeeming qualities
"More Rover" love it!
Thanks!
Completely unfinished, extremely buggy software then
Yeah, it's a PITA
Great episode - the mpc 500 is pretty close to where Akai should have tried to land with this unit. I guess they just missed the mark completely trying to make it cheap. Seems like they learned the lesson as the new Akai gear is great. Thanks for another great episode!
Thanks! I have to admit that the MPC500 isn't my thing either;)
OMG, i have better results with a ensonic eps from the stone age with 2mb's of ram in it.
At least it loads in new programs dynamicly.
EVERY old school sampler is better than this
@@AudioPilz Even the Ensoniq Mirage? 🤔
By the way, you really should do a Mirage episode, if you haven't already. Instead of ticking all the boxes, it's a box with all the tics. 😁
don't EVER talk down an EPS. how dare you ;)
@@Eleni_Be The Mirage isn't an EPS. I used to professionally service both when they were still in production, and I happen to own 1.5 Mirages currently. They're adorable in a way, but they definitely have no shortage of quirks. 😉
@@GlenBerry I've used both on stage and in studio (in fact i had one of the earliest imported to AT).
of course the M isn't and E - both have their place in history.
i still use the EPS albeit its PSU will need a fresh up soon...
Even with this the end product sounded good! Kudos!
Truly the worst hardware since you started doing these...
...and it can't even sample
@@AudioPilz I NOW get the "Plan 9" reference, lol.
I love these so much. Not just for the "why DOES that get so much hate?" aspect, and a lot of it is understandable.. but also your dedication to making tracks and solid examples of what the gear actually sounds like and how it performs. More often than not I listen to the demo tracks in these and like a lot of the sounds I hear. Reminds me to tell myself that most of the time it's not the fault of the gear if a track is bad, get back to work and make something cool you muppet
Thank you so much!!!
oh that was the kid screaming that the Akai Wolf was so terrible lol.... I seen that video many years ago good for you to bring him up while you were flaming Akai. LOL!
He is actually a quite prolific Psytrance producer!
That Oldboy cut....nice...and Funny Games....flawless vids man.
Thanks!!!
Wow that shot at Roland at the end. Zing. Love it.
Thanks!
Nice timing - my MPX16 arrived just a few days ago.
Nice! Is it bad too?
@@AudioPilz Well it's omni midi...
Wow, Puddles cameo! Also nice to see the Mopho again too.
A musical genius (both puddles an DS;)
Bro the finale "work prank" bloopers at the end 08:27! Comedy
Ouch! Never heard of this one before - good to see/know that AKAI have redeemed themselves since (proud owner of the MPC One).
You really turned the memes up to 11 on this one 😂🤣
Thanks! It was necessary;)
Holy shit was that a quick clip from ”big trouble in little china”? My childhood massive!
One of the weirdest, cheesiest and greatest movies of all time!
@@AudioPilz gotta love pre-ghost kurt russell.
I have so many things from this show.... I love it all. I bought this unit strictly for the air horn.
That's the best use case
AudioPilz to his theme song:
(Crying) "Look what they did to my boy!!"
They will pay...
Thanks for another insightful and funny video. I still have an mpx-8 that's in the box and I've used it for maybe a couple hours. I paid $50 US for it new a year after it was released. It's not always terrible but it's not great either. It's really just so slow and basic. Funny enough, while looking at the gear shown in this vid I realized I still own the mpx-8, DSI Mopho, Digitakt, a Korg MicroSampler and a Roland D2. Time for a mashup.
I‘ve had one but traded it for an PO-12 on craigslist.
Best decision, and Worth every penny
Nice trade!
Wow you still have Rhythm Wolf... respect!!
A future classic;)
7:17 Love that Terence Fletcher reference. Need to watch the movie again!
Thanks! That movie was so cruel!
I had to use one of these for a tv/theater production. After around 5 hours of fiddling with different SD cards and sample errors we figured out that the official converter corrupts your samples if you overwrite them during the conversion process. The other software that lets you save user kits was also not much better as it kept crashing as soon as I saved anything.
I also found it odd that a machine this small isn't battery powered so we had to duct tape a power bank to it, quite inconvenient.
I would day the only redeeming quality of it would be for a radio shock jock, or podcaster to play the air horn, or FX when they get excited at a caller.
The velocity sensitivity can be an issue here but you're basically right
Glitch jams would do some bangers with this one...
Great finger drummers would certainly get great stuff out of it
I always love your videos
Thank you!!!
Haha good lord the text overlays, one of the happiest thumbnails I could see while pressing my coffee