Too all the people saying “you skipped the part where it crashes!”. Fam, I’ve made beats live on my channel for 1-2 hrs without a single crash. That’s why I skipped it.
Just because you are fortunate enough to have not experienced the same bugs that he has, doesn't mean that the bugs don't exist. Come on Ave. I thought you were better than this. Akai comes out with a new product and a new OS. The people are having issues with it, and you come out and defend Akai?!?!?!??? Bruh, I thought you were a man of the people.
That’s a bit of a cop out on your part. If we’re keeping things fair, you really should have showed the bugs he was having. I get it that you didn’t encounter the same issues, but you’re sort of painting Benn in a very skewed light by doing that. It’s sort of unfair as those bugs are what made his experience in terms of laying out a track.
That's the worst excuse for a lazy video I've seen. Just because it didn't happen to you means it negates his experience? You just negated any half baked point you were attempting to make.
That's stupid Ave. Do you also tell people who have iPhone problems that your iphone has no problems therefore they are making it up? The entire point of his video is it's trash because it locks up for him. Not locking up for you isn't proof it's good.
I watched his review, and it really seemed to me like he was saying "this is amazing but it crashes all the time right now and I don't know when that will be fixed so for now it's unusable". ... I don't get it. Is him knowing more about the MPC workflow supposed to make the MPC Keys magically not crash?
Exactly. And if you’re going to use this for a performance, you need 100% confidence that it’s not going to crash or require you to restart it. I have an MPC-X and a Force and love them both, but I don’t use them for live performances on a stage in front of people. I can edit my UA-cam video if something goes wrong. :)
Its very hard to take this video seriously when you ignore all the critiques of the device and chock it up to user error, when the user is someone who's used multiple MPC devices, has a multi-decade music career and a history of using and mastering music hardware on a regular basis. Never mind that user error has nothing to do with the crashing, the bugs, and the high CPU usage. The more productive way to dispute his critiques is to go through them one by one and test them, try to replicate them. Show everyone how you don't get the same issues that he's getting, then at least people know Benn just has a lemon unit. It would still be Akai's fault, but its not nearly as bad as the unit as a whole being an unfinished mess.
Yep, this comes off as a reactive video response. So many ppl on Gearspace (a bit less so on MPCForums) take this same stance. I think the Akai team is doing great things, and that they have a lot to bring to the MPC line. But it needs major fixing. InMusic doesn’t seem like a cool company by any means. I don’t blame Akai.
@@Ancaja123 While not an excuse the problem is that customer expectations are that Akai will release amazing update after amazing update and that has created an environment where each update is a house of cards precariously teetering under the weight of new code on top of underlying bugs that have been there for a very long time. The Qlinks functionality literally breaks with each new version and that has been the case since at least 2.4. They need to take a step back and just focus on bugs and fixes. However if they did that fans would be upset and they have competitors nipping at their heels (Roland and NI).
I for one am actually glad Ben made the video. After Akai sends out tons of units to influencers that then only talk about the good while ignoring the numerous bugs and issues that Akai lets fester for way too long. I love my MPC Live II and Force but there are still so many things that need to be addressed. There is a difference between wish list (why on my Force am I limited to 8 audio channels when I only hit 20% CPU) and bugs that affect usability that Akai pushes as working and markets them (USB Audio Interface support still a known issue almost a year later without any update or even word that it will be fixed) . Wish list items are things we would like to see added that are not there. Bugs are items that Akai is selling that don't work. HIs gripes were about bugs that affect the usability of the machine for him and they are things that should be working. My wish list for the Akai Force is long, but my biggest Wish List item is just that it works as it is supposed to and eliminate the bugs. I still love the Force and use it daily, but it is frustrating by the lack of focus from Akai to fix known bugs. His complaint about Splice integration is another perfect example. It simply doesn't work, only about half of the samples I download from Splice direct to the unit using the integration will actually play on the unit. 100% of the same samples work fine when I download outside the unit and transfer them via SD card as .wav files. This is all related to the .flac files that just don't work 50% of the time. Akai has done nothing to address this, but yet still markets Splice Integration as a feature.
The Splice issue is on them. They have to update stuff. IDK about bugs on the Force. Plenty of people who like the Force more than the MPC. Plenty of videos of people enjoy the machine.
@@AveMcree and just like the typical influencer, adress only the one issue that is not the fault of the brand, ignore anything else lmao this is ludicrous not to mention, the actual main issues brought up in the video, were not mentioned here hahaha as if loading times are the main problem
I agree with you, and actually these companies should be careful because promising functionality that it doesn't have is potential grounds for a lawsuit. Most individuals aren't going to go to court over one machine, but I could see it happening in say an educational environment where an institution might purchase a few dozen units. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened yet
I watched the original video in question and I think his complaints are completely valid bro. It seems like you’re not really listening to him bro. You’re saying it’ll have bugs and it’ll get fixed, but he needs it to work NOW
Let me add to the chorus of voices calling this a very misguided video, in both tone and content. It comes across as snide and needlessly confrontational. It also ignores most of the issues he's raising under the banner of "he doesn't know what he's doing". I get you have a relationship with Akai and that it's an easy clickbait video to piggy back on his larger channel to get some views yourself. But passive aggressive digs at another UA-camr isn't what I watch your channel for. I hope this is the last of these types of videos.
Don't I know it. It sucked to wait a yeah and half without knowing if Akai abandoned the unit. To see the price drop dramatically to bargain bin levels as people were selling and dumping their units. It was unfinished and while Akai did address the issue, why did they release such an unfinished product to begin with? I remember the demo rep (before Andy Mack took over for Force as well) struggling to try to find a use for the thing. He was basically stuck showing workflows that would work pretty much on any 64 pad controller (Push, Launchpad). There was a beta sitting in the queue for months that he ended up sharing with folks probably out of frustration.
Nah, I'm with Benn in this one. They're are charging too much for an incomplete product. Just because you don't explore your gear deep enough, it doesn't mean that there are not some meaningful bugs in it. Like come on, Benn explores sound by its own in and out. It's unfair to invalidate his claims when all you do is slice samples and play them.
He gave it full marks where it worked, and didn't lock up and freeze. How would you feel if you were going to play this thing LIVE at a gig and it froze up on you?
I would love to know one serious keyboard player that would choose this over any other keyboard on the market. This has its purpose but not go to keys like a Yamaha, nord, or korg etc. Also Ave has stated multiple times he's never had it freeze up. One man's word over another.
@@venericanone For 2 stax it’s gotta be ready to handle whatever you’re throwing at it. There’s nothing else out there > 2 stax that’s gonna peak memory using a piano preset.
@@waggabutt4655 I can name multiple 3 to 5k synths that don't play any kind of grand piano or Rhodes sounds. Every type of gear has its purpose. A serious keyboarder wouldn't be looking to buy this for live gigs and Akai knows that.
@@venericanone I'm a serious piano player and so is Ben. If a company is gonna install piano samples on its product, for 2 stax that shit better work thats all Im sayin.
Was left with a bad taste in my mouth after this. Benn goes out of his way to be fair and objective and Ave’s reaction is the exact opposite. Snarky, unspecific and tries to cast doubt on Benn’s competence with the MPC instead of addressing the very legitimate complaints.
Dude are you trolling? Did you watch the video? The thing crashed like crazy! Not acceptible for a professional musician. He didn't lie. He showed clearly the issues.
@@AveMcree no I'm not. You have tried to call someone out without good reason and with what looks like "bad faith" arguements. You never addressed his real issues or showed the parts of his video where it crashed a bunch of times. It's like saying what happened didn't happen. Except that you didn't even go that far. You just conveniently didn't show the parts of the video that invalidate your arguements.
Thanks mccree this video was a great showcase on how to invalidate other people's experiences, how to act arrogant in one' own conviction and employ extensive sophistry! Another amazing tutorial 👌😩
Thank you for articulating my thoughts, thereby saving me having to spend the time or waste any more mental energy on the matter. And for reminding how great the word ‘sophistry’ is :-D
His gripes are valid. It’s not the device for everyone. It’s got some unique great features competitors don’t have but also lacks some that others do. His gripe about keys and semi weighted might not matter to most people but the competitively priced fantom 0 series has those options. Loading slow, freezing and other bugs will ideally be fixed but it is a bad taste in the mouth of investors if your first model comes out feeling like a beta. Bugs and design imply this isn’t the workstation for Benn, but that the disappointment comes from the concepts being solid and the execution falling short.
@@rui5421 okay, but you mentioned semi-weighted, which this keyboard does have. Hammer weighted keys would be silly for synth parts for most pianists, but obviously Jordan has his preferences.
You mislead your viewers here, a lot. Benn is an extremely qualified professional, sharing a legitimate negative experience with a piece of gear. Your reaction sort of implies you think he's stupid, or a liar. Your audience deserves better from you.
I'm an Akai fan who uses an Akai Force for almost everything. I was honestly kind of upset to hear a MPC called "unusable". Despite that though, this reaction video seems ... off. Like, needlessly defensive and misleading. Benn brought up some pretty valid issues, but this reaction video leaves those parts out... while making assumptions which don't seem to be true. That's going to make it hard to trust Ave's videos in the future.
I wouldn't go that far. Very good piano samples are in a different league and after you add effects processing, depending on whether you're stroking 6 keys or 10, that could easily be 8GB ram right there. Ave's streams never took it there.
Oh come on. Are you sure you don't have an MPC bias here (or an Akai affiliation bias)?? You don't show the parts of Ben's video where the MPC just straight up locks up and crashes on him, which he says happened like half a dozen times. You keep emphasizing that he only had it for 1 day, but in that one day the $2000 dollar, clearly under-powered, workstation froze and crashed over and over. This is a rip off, and this seems like a lazy response not even addressing the serious flaws he experienced. I mean $2,000 with 4 gb RAM and many users reporting crashes? That' a joke.
@@AveMcree lemme introduce you to a very important concept my guy: Anecdotal evidence =/= real evidence. Just because YOU haven’t experienced these issues doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t, and judging from your comments a lot of your own watchers have had problems with this and other Akai devices
@@fuckinzell I mean it's old, but I was using an MPC 1000 for awhile. I still love the thing, but one evening before my show, all of my samples and all of my tracks were erased randomly on the flash. I certainly blame myself for not having a back up of it all but cest la vie. The thing has never really been the same since, and I kinda lost a lot of will to retrieve the work by recreating it. The MPC one looks like it'd do what I want like polyphonic playing of samples, and cv/gate outs, but I've had a difficult time pulling the trigger for an MPC since.
@@AveMcree Are you really in the position to give him any kind of advice, given the obvious differences in knowledge between the two of you? He’s a pro musician, clearly very technically advanced when it comes to gear and production. You’re not at all at that same level. You’re a decent youtuber. Knowing your place and having a little humility regarding one’s own position goes a long way Ave.
Why didn't you demonstrate all of the bugs that Benn showed not existing/happening for you? You're not disproving what he demonstrated. Also the music I've seen you make on the MPC Key 61 is extremely simplistic and kind of amateurish compared to what I saw Benn make. I'm not a big fan of the music either of you make but Benn was objectively pushing the device harder than you have been. For a professional musician (and for the price of the device) this really matters. Fanboying is easier than disproving someone else's criticism. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but you basically did nothing to demonstrate Benn was wrong about the bugs.
@@AveMcree Your beats are way simpler than Benn’s music! Your simple beats are way less taxing on the Keys. You cannot honestly compare it like that. It is dishonest.
Yeah, he is the brother that does all of the live shows, so he knows how long he has to switch piano sounds between pieces. He didn't say that the Keys was crap, he said that it was crap for his needs. Not the same thing. Everyone is talking about the bugs. Whether you hit them or not depends on your specific workflows.
The MPC keys 61 switches sounds and patches in the blink of an eye. literally a millisecond. People who complain about loading times and that you can't use it on stage because of loading times is just plain dumb. They don't know how to use it. You load every sound and patch before you go on stage. Then just switch however you want. Blink of an eye, mate... You can load every instrument beforehand. You don't build the chair while you are in a hurry to sit. You build it beforehand, then sit on it when you need to... Easy...
@@INeedsMoneys Tbh, being fair to the MPC, I don't think the MPC was designed for proper live use. However, for live use, even a small break in the sound when you switch patches, is not acceptable live, especially when moving from one song to another or moving from a set of patches to another in the same song, without any break. If the sound breaks the audience hears the interruption. Look at something like the Fantom or any other keyboard workstation, and they have 'patch remain', where you can smoothly fade between patches. The last sound you played before switching the patch will continue to have any tails or held notes sound even after the next patch is loaded. The next note played after the switch will trigger the new patch. This is a feature on pretty much all live keyboards, and that is probably what he meant.
“Corny ass” may be accurate but you forgot shill. Anyone who currently owns an MPC knows the current firmware is trash and crash city. I have used my Live since 2017 and make full track on it, not just some beat loops. I was stoked for probability in the latest updates and now it’s locking up ALL THE TIME since the update. Don’t be duping newcomers to get kickbacks, it’s not helping the community. You didn’t even address the concerns in the video. You showed your hand and it’s sketchy as hell.
Really glad to see very well done critique and in-depth reviews, also really glad to see thoughtless "well it didn't happen to me sooooo the mpc's kinda perfect" reaction content so I know who to unsubscribe to
I don’t know, dude. I only have and MPC live so I can’t speak to the Keys but he’s right that the software isn’t as stable as it should be. Especially for the price.
He literally says he loves it and sees tons of potential and will even buy it a year down the road when the issues are ironed out, at certain parts he's visibly excited about some of the features, his entire gripe with the product is that for 2,000$ he's upset that very fundamental bugs for the basic use of the keyboard inhibit his ability to use it. I don't think that's an unreasonable criticism. I'm all for holding companies like Akai to a higher standard. PREMIUM prices should be met with PREMIUM products with PREMIUM performance.
I dont blame him as an original mpc live owner it has bugs and if akai is pushing out products with bugs still is a problem then akai is playing dirty and theyre not addressing the problems that most users have
He does have a point. Lately, we are paying thousands of dollars just to be beta testers. It's not just Akai. Every brand does this. They should have a warning label. BETA release
@@apoclypse Not really. Is it worth the price? No. But it’s nota mess. At launch yea, definitely. Now, it’s definitely not. Mpc live 2 is still better in my opinion (I’m a long time NI user and love their stuff) but the plus is pretty awesome.
@@heffe4257 Yes really. I own the MPC Live and the Maschine+. If you want Maschine do yourself a favor and just buy a MK3 and save yourself the grief and the money. As a controller for the software, amazing. As a standalone device, not so great.
@@AveMcree I understand everyone needs a bag. But remember integrity, authenticity, morals etc. people buy these flawed product’s foolishly based off UA-cam reviews. Just be honest with the consumer.
@@AveMcree mayb youre try to play chess. And hoping one day they will because of vids like this you put out. I enjoy your content from time to time. But you have to keep it 100 bruh. Right now you ain't doing that.
Love your video's Ave, but I gotta side with Benn on this one. I know the MPC hardware line inside and out, and man alive, there's a lot of dumb shit in Akai firmware. There are a lot of people complaining about the latest firmwares. As for your comments that "almost every piece of gear, and even software has bugs" yeah that's true, but not the way it is now. It is *unacceptable* to expect consumers to tolerate workflow breaking bugs, glitches that cause full on crashes, basic functionality getting busted with no rhyme or reason to when those bugs activate. My sample edit view glitches out all the time with no real understanding to why that happens. Your argument that "he's only had it for 2 days" as a defense for the issues with the MPC61 doesn't hold water. He's a professional musician who knows how to make music, and isn't exactly a dummy. Bugs have nothing to do with experience. Bugs are bugs. If they are so broken that you can't get what the tool promises to do, out of the gate, then it should have been baked in the oven longer before being released to consumers. Your argument reads more like "you've only had it 2 days, so you don't know how to avoid that kind of bug occurring" The latest firmwares from Akai have been total bullshit. My MPC live 2 has arguably gotten *worse* with the last firmware than better. This isn't unique to Akai, but that's what we're talking about today I guess.
I like his review. I returned mine in 24 hours. I didn’t find it awful but definitely not worth the price to me. Oh and I’m not that new to the MPC workflow. I love the MPC for what it does best. Drums and Sampling.
24 hours is def not enough time to come to grips with everything the Key 61 is capable of. It's a complex beast. Do you flip gear that quickly often? If so, you're missing out on a lot of cool shit.
bens feedback was valid and i think having it crash on someone isnt invalidated just cause you didnt have it crash yourself. if anything that means quality control isnt great and theres no guarantee itll work flawlessly which is an even bigger problem. defending a product from the potential of getting better is a mistake on your part. no hard feelings just saying what i think
I'm good with continuing to hear from you and from Benn. As a newbie MPC user I will keep enjoying the Key 61. His struggles and feedback were real. And he was truly impressed at times with the Key 61. Most of us are out there by ourselves with our gear, and expect a good, stable product to keep us in our workflow once it's started. Let's see if Benn has any updates. I also listen to Poli Popo, who had a bad rant on the Key 61. Then Akai reached out to him and he made another video on things being OK.
@@AveMcree he owned a Live years ago. There’s a video of him sampling remotely with Richard Devine. Just stop bro, It’s the same OS on all the other MPC units and it’s trash right now.
@@AveMcree he has also been a professional musician for twenty years. We aren’t watching a noob struggle take his first steps on the MPC. It wasn’t the workflow Benn really struggled with as we actually saw him make a track and he was able to do that but he had to continuously battle the machine to do it. It was the stability of the platform, the janky software and the hardware issues that he was struggling with, not writing music. Admittedly if he had gone for a simple trap beat using samples or something he might not have run into the same issues as trying to use the top end, CPU heavy piano plug in but the point is you shouldn’t have to inhibit yourself musically due to the inherent flaws in something you paid a LOT of $ for especially when that product has professional literally in the name. Maybe it is Benn’s unit, who knows but given complaints on the Akai forum that’s unlikely. You could disprove it, do a video where you load up 4 or 5 of the same piano plugin’s Benn was struggling to use and do a note heavy piano track then log the cpu usage and we might get an idea of what’s going on🤷
Gotta stand with Benn on this one dude. This is by no means the first keyboard from AKAI. We are all getting unfinished products from major vendors these days. If it only takes 2 days to determine that a product is buggy and unreliable than so be it. I feel the same way about some NI products I recently bought. We have to start calling manufacturers out when they roll out a product that still needs work. You can love a brand and still be honest about it when they screw up. Thankfully it seems like this will be a wake-up call for them and they'll likely put some more work into it.
It's underpowered with an extremely whack slow ARM processor - set up WITH ONLY FOUR GIGS OF RAM? My two year old Smartphone has way more processing power than the MPC 61. Loading up projects also shouldn't take several seconds either. For a two thousand dollar workstation keyboard, the processing power is totally underwhelming. The MPC 61 hardware configuration might be enough to work with samples and use of one or two models + effects but overall when you're adding samples, effects & synth models to the mix, then the hardware requirements should support the MPC OS that Akai wants to establish as a platform which I think the software running on a Mac or PC proves that yes, it can be a very sucessful platform for music creation but again, if you slap the OS on a underpowered keyboard, the viability as an expanding platform then becomes greatly diminished. I do think it's great that they allowed expandiblilty of storage via the internal SATA port. But if they allowed that, why didn't Akai allow the ability to increase memory from say four gigs to 8 or 16gigs of memory? Akai wouldn't need to provide the memory modules. Just provide the expansion bay to give the userbase the option to do so. With the current specs, the Akai MPC 61 should be a $1,500 keyboard. Otherwise, it's laughable that they can take $400 of processing hardware and expect to command $2,000 for a underpowered keyboard. The Korg Kronos four year old Intel 1.8ghz Atom Processor is more responsive than the MPC 61. 😂 Come on now.
Due to the system board Akai is using (a Radxa Rock2 SoM from 2014), it can't have more than 4GiB of RAM. However, Akai really shouldn't be using that old board on a brand new flagship music production device. It is, as you said, less powerful than an average phone. It was a low-power budget board even when it was new, 8 years ago. Akai really needs to do a core hardware upgrade before making any new devices in the MPC or Force product lines.
TBF he's just being honest about his experience with the device and I really appreciate that. I'd never seen any of his videos before, but I'll definitely be watching more of his stuff. Even with a device thats constantly crashing he managed to make a track 10x better than anything i've heard any other youtuber make with an MPC, and I've watched hundreds if not thousands of MPC videos. Thanks for putting me onto his stuff.
I rock with you Ave. But, there are bugs on my X now that should not have been missed. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out problems. I’ve been using MPCs since the 90’s, so I’m not a newbie by any means. We need more real an objectionable reviews, rather than people just praising and pushing a product.
We need people to get out of the comments and into submitting support tickets so they company actually knows what they have to fix. They not reading aves comments
@@antismap that doesn't help all the people that bought it day one and helped it sell out. Like complaining on YT doesn't help them either. But actually reaching out to the company directly let's them know what they need to work on.
@@Craftmaster3 sure, but akai already knows that their product has issues. It's not like their don't have testers. Management probably let that slide to save time/money, they think customers are dumb enough to buy the product anyway after seeing a few youtube videos from fanboy youtubers that got the product for free to do some tv shopping style videos. It's really funny to observe what happens at the launch of a new product. On launch day you have a bunch of youtube "reviews" appearing at the same time, those are the ones that got their product for free. After a month you start to get reviews from people that actually bought it and explain the issues. Another example is the roland mc 404 mk2 double trigger issue.
Hmm, so the ridiculously high CPU usage, random crashes and freezing as well as the poor patch build (hard panning to one side) are all symptoms of Ben’s lack of knowledge? Nah, I think the guy knows what he’s doing. Maybe you’re a touch biased because the MPC is kind of the basis of your channel?
Polyphony difference - The amount of notes played by you in your entire tiktok video may equal the amount of notes played by Ben in just one riff. That was an unfair comparison. Had you really played major chords on any of your tracks you would have had a problem with system resources. I bought an MPC Key 61 and yes, I too would like more keys because I play. This thing is really built for sample choppers. Please don't compare it to a synth workstation because it is not there yet.
I got to be honest this seems to boil down to ‘as long as you stick to making basic ass tracks that you could knock out on an iPad, u will be fine’. That’s fair enough, MPC is going to attract folks making a certain genre of music but for the best part of 2k the damn thing should at least have the capability of going beyond ten tracks ( for 2k I want to be able to run more than 8 plugins, my basic ass iPad can run about six without issue...) This thing should also at least have with the ability to handle more complex styles of music with complex layered patches for the kind of money they asking. Also none of the actual bugs seen in Benn’s video were actually addressed nor were the 22 pages of bug reports on the Akai forum itself which is just odd. This felt horribly like running interference for a corporate sponsor that didn’t address the bugs that were brought up, kinda icky ...🤷
workflow: if my cpu gets toasted running too many heavy plugin on my iMac and logic i just bounce the track in question to audio and disable the plugin for the moment or re assign it to a low cpu instrument and mute it for now. you can do the same on stand alone MPC. not exactly rocket science is it?
Yes when I was watching Ben complain about vst CPU usage I was thinking the same shit lol like you can bounce to audio after you have rendered the track flattened with the plugins. I do the same shit in Reaper DAW so that I have a stem with effects and, without. I have also done this same thing on the MPC One.
@@BeastlyAnteater I've yet to use a single audio track on my MPC i use the looper page export put my playing (guitar, bass, vocals or drum kit) to be triggered off 'kits' like vocal kit, guitar kit etc. it's not a terrible workaround...it's what people do all the time when they make songs longer than 4 bars ands 2 tracks! I't also a standard workflow on computer DAW's too. FAR from terrible in my opinion.
@@BeastlyAnteater you can split hairs until the cows come home, the result is the same - reduced cpu/ram load workflow. track (plugin instrument) - bounce to sample track (plugin instrument) - bounce to audio track also looper - exports to a sample.. same idea as the first example as it creates a kit with the pad associated from the export or flattening of the music. Q. have you used an MPC?
I don't really see the point of this video. You addressed zero of Benn's valid points and tried to blame everything on your assumption that he doesn't know how to use it.
Ben took quite a while to say "it crashes a lot" - which was also true of the Force and did make it unusable for me.. Yeah.. I coulda used it as a one track drum machine.. but it was meant to be a workstation. A few years of updates and the Force is pretty rad now.. but still crashes.. reasonably often, most times I use it. I'm still tempted to get a MPC One for its lovely little form factor.. nice and compact.
I think what he's saying is valid. they need to increase the cpu and memory for the asking price they pitch. i own the mpc live 2 and i think the same thing. Great video
LMAO imagine being so upset that a fellow musician doesn't like a piece of gear for very legitimate reasons that you go like "uh should have wasted more time on this and also bought my book", you sound personally offended as if AKAI was going to give you some stock. But wait! You do have a relationship with AKAI so nevermind. Also a reel recorded in your room does not equate a real live situation playing in a festival so let's not compare, you can always start recording again but the thing freezes up on stage and consequences are different ;)
You are way, way out of pocket on this one. You are outright dogging someone for using a product and having repeatable, documentable bugs. Does Akai pay your rent? Does your dad work there? Why you mad bro? 🤡
I tested out the Stage Piano bug yesterday and didn't get one crazy. That was on this live stream so you can see it yourself and on a full beat too! ua-cam.com/video/XMytYdJgJJ4/v-deo.html
The honesty is appreciated for sure , but for me i am truly enjoying this product . I’m going from FL Studio+Sp404sx to MPC Key 61 . It’s a learning curve but that’s what I like, the journey of learning a new way to make music . May be too early for me to notice any bugs within it but from what I have seen thus far it is a powerful piece of equipment
From the limited time I've spent with the MPC Keys 61, it does some things well that other workstations like the Kronos, etc. struggle with. Sampling and sequencing are strong points on the MPC and while you can do those things on other gear, it's not the same easy workflow. Of course Akai kills it with the MPC legacy and experience. However, there are some things that these other workstations do quite well, like being able to switch between patches and multitimbral setups (Combis, Performances, etc.) very well. Korg in particular has had 16 part Combis since the M3 back in 2006. As a live performer, I find these features valuable. The other manufacturers also have excellent synthesis tools and in some cases multiple engines under the hood. Akai has made great strides in this area in the last few years. A Korg Kronos can have multiple engines, 16 part multitimbrality, disk streaming, etc. However, let's not forget that a new Kronos is close to $4k (at least in Canada). The MPC can do a lot of incredible stuff - and some things better - at half the cost. Also their touch screen is the best on any musical product I've seen so far. I'm not convinced that an MPC61 is a direct competitor or replacement for a traditional workstation keyboard like a Montage, Kronos, or Fantom yet. However, I AM excited about the direction they are going in and their take on the workstation is fresh and unique because of their background in sampling and sequencing.
Proper title: "Benn Jordan used the MPC 61 which crashed and had a few bugs and slow plugin load times and complained about it and I dont like him complaining cause mines works so im a talk trash and act lke its all gravy". Kinda long but legit.
Worth remembering MPCs are feature packed devices, I doubt any of us use all the features available, and many of us use it differently depending on the style of music we make, studio setups, and workflow preferences. Point is, it’s perfectly possible for somebody like Benn to experience bugs that you personally have not experienced. Also, those plugins do seem very resource heavy, glad I used my MPC plug-in money for an Opsix and Poly-800.
Ave I'm new to synths and subscribe to quite a few channels. I think your criticism is unfair. Benn gave credit for a lot of features and also there were things that were just buggy. He needed it for a live set and if you purchased equipment with this many questions I doubt you would use it and risk your reputation. FYI my first purchase was a Korg Wavestate and it had a bug that meant upgrades couldn't be loaded on Windows 10 and then 11. I ultimately gave up and got a different synth.
I’m a big ave McRee fan but everybody don’t like mpc or akia products. Mpc has its problems like every other daw or keyboard. It’s ok to criticize a product. I’m fl gang we get it all the time. Software vs hardware always gonna beef. All I’m saying is for the price for akia products we want better i see both sides
Ave, you know I love ya man. But Benn's right. From the Force being a doorstop to the whole 55% CPU usage with the pianos... the MPC can do a lot of things, but it isn't a one-stop-shop like a lot of people think, especially for the complexity of Benn's music. While setting up tons of pieces of hardware might be a pain in the ass.... it's the way to go, for live performance, because each unit is dedicated to a certain job / sound, etc. I know all these MPC Key videos are made ultimately FOR the algorithm (including yours, haha!) But seriously... he's right. Akai stuff has been buggy forever, and they have rarely fixed bugs in a timely manner, if at all. We should not be beta-testers. Release a finished product, and then quickly fix the bugs. Akai can learn a lot from Novation and other companies who actually give a damn about their customers.
It's called making a set list and you don't have to worry about deal with half that stuff you talking about.. Andy Mac does live sets too. Why you think so many people actually like the MPC Key 61?
It's a one stop shop for people who do certain things. We can't hate on their happiness. And to call his music 'more complex' because it glitches or he edits it more is inaccurate. Sound selection is one of the most complex and important decisions producers make. With that said, if a grand piano takes 55% but still plays properly what's the big deal? Who puts 3 grand pianos in one beat? That's overkill. And if you wanna play different parts on that same grand piano you can pull it up on a new track without loading it again. And this hilarious world where no software or hardware has bugs is somewhere I gotta go. I say just use the MPC for what it's for and don't feel resentment if it's perfect for others but not perfect for you. This is a good time in tech for producers. Let's enjoy it bro
@@AveMcree Bro. I'm not knocking on the device at all. I'm pointing out Akai's lack of acknowledging or fixing bugs. Remember when Akai blocked all comments on their product videos from like 2009-2019 or so?
Having watched the full video prior, Benn makes a lot of valid points. This video is pretty unnecessary in my book. I don't think you're adding much to the conversation. You do you, but doing a negative video of a negative video seems pretty pointless.
Sadly, this is the new UA-cam trend. When a content creator doesn't have anything new or good to talk about many get toxic & make a response video of a response video to appease the algorithm gods...🤑
It's not fair to minimized his concerns because he only had one day to review the system. For the enviroment he works in his assessment was fair and he did demonstrated concrete examples of his concerns (it crashed, more than ones).
Benn is right on some counts. of course the mpc Key 61 is a great instrument. but a live workstation used live shouldn't crash as often when playing or programming a setlist. despite reset and attempting another SSD there are internal errors, black screens, reboot. out of sheer fear I save every 5 minutes. my workflow was simple. I wanted to make 50 performance patches for an acoustic project (pop), without loading times, i.e. 50 sequences, I limited myself to 8 plugins, 4 drum sets, and 8 key groups. one sequence for each song. the MPC shows 85% memory. the warnings come quite early, i don't think the CPU is the problem. no dropouts. I load a new keygroup sound - boom - black screen while a drumloop is running. There is a bug with the four effect sends, there is no select all, no free assignment of controllers. piano footswitch sustain, organ Leslie on/off or via aftertouch??? Load times suck. the Sounds effect Overloaded. a lot can be solved with an MPC OS update. the plugins and samples are amazing. an infinite playground. only acoustic natural instruments are somewhat scarce. Accordion, Flute, Trumpet. can be submitted later with expansion. Due F9 expansion is strong. I'm not a hip hop fan. In my opinion, the MPC can be used for many styles of music. A Nordstage has much bigger limitations, but it does what it's supposed to do with flying colors. no bugs no crashes. Curse and blessing, an MPC key can do much more and will reach technical limits faster. I think you should at least install a diskstream variant for the plugins. With my 50songs/sequencer programming, I can't even save small changes like the delay percentage for the piano per song sequence. when I switch to the next sequence, the delay is turned up. the selection of sounds with pads is not that easy either. pad 1 piano , pad 2 piano/string , pad 3 organ, pad 4 organ split with lead. As I said, Akai is talking about a live keyboard. If it were all just a studio production tool, I wouldn't waste so many words. each of the major manufacturers has pitfalls built into the operation of their synthesizer workstations. why don't they just let the workflow of normal musicians flow into their developments. Despite everything, with the right updates, the MPC Key will hopefully soon be a reliable tool. be nice to each other.
It is bizarre. I wonder if Ave might be going through a difficult time in his personal life. Hopefully not. I prefer to think it's just because he has a financial interest in promoting the MPC.
I don't think it's a good thing to criticise people that have issues with new music technology, unless you're just looking for an excuse to make new content. All sides need a voice.
I have had my MPC one crash loads of times , I don’t make 4 bar loops I make full pieces of music that are pretty long , it does not have enough ram that’s the issue , I’m with Benn on this , he knows his gear and he is an excellent musician who plays multiple instruments
Yeah so... I've been an iPhone guy forever, let's imagine I buy a new android phone, I boot it up, try to take a picture and the phone locks, I have to reboot it. I reboot and it does that again. I'm not at all familiar with the Android system but I sure as hell know it should not freeze when I open the camera app... You can criticise Benn's approach to the video all you want but it there is something that cannot fail in a product like this is the operating system.
what are you? a childish fan boy? where's the whole rest of the test? you know? when it bugs... but let's be honest here, this video is just your attempt to get some of Ben's fame. Good or you...
Unsubscribed! While Ave's videos have always lacked analytical clarity, I watched them for his personable charm. But this video, and Ave's responses in the comments, stray into illogical and childish territory.
Hi Ave I’m considering buying a force to use alongside my Roland Fantom 8. I would mostly be using it as my main sequencer and routing a few other synths too and some modular gear. I would love to hear your input and advice and anyone else’s comments too in this regard. Must be said that I have narrowed my choice down to the two products. I’m looking to choose between AKAI’s Force and Also Synthstrom’s Deluge. Would love to hear your thoughts👍
Dude, I know the question is directed to Ave but I own the Force & I think it's the future & beyond of music production. I'm getting the MPC Key61 and am strongly considering the Wavestate or Phantom06 for an additional synth. That will complete my setup. Personally, I don't need more than that.
@@Th3rdFloor I can't comment about the Deluge because I don't own one and never used it. I did consider it thought when looking at the Force, but I went with the Force. I think the Force is amazing for use with external hardware. As a midi controller there is nothing that even comes really close in my opinion. Just the ease of setting up program changes to all your external gear per clip is a godsend on its own. Very deep midi mapping also to your gear. It is a complicated machine but that is because it can do so much. I don't even us its internal instrument plugins at all. Just midi, audio clips, effects, and drum tracks. The key will be to setting up and saving midi tracks for each piece of gear so that you can just load them up after. This takes a bit of time, but worth it in the long run. If your looking for a unit to work with external hardware that isn't a computer based DAW I don't think you will be disappointed with it. The in-unit instruments are okay, but nothing super special. So it also depends on how important that aspect is. The effects plugins are also just mediocre, and glaringly lacking on EQ side. It has EQ plugins but again, they are "meh".
@@Th3rdFloor The Force and Deluge technically have a similar design, with clips and an arranger... but nearly all the Deluge owners I know have sold it because the interface is so complex and difficult to remember, so they end up spending a lot of time reading manuals instead of making music. Meanwhile, the Force is quite a bit more powerful, while also being much easier to use, and can be obtained for about the same price. So I got myself a Force instead of a Deluge, and I've been very happy with it.
I love the MPC, and have been using it for most of my music for years, but let's be real the MPC user-experience is bad, and the bugs are ridiculously bad compared to other gear. Everything Benn says is true, especially about the software, and we need more people calling out the negatives of the MPC family so we can petition Akai to fix these.
So I feel like you’re already copping a fair bit of heat: You have some good points!!! I also loved the parts of you integrating it working, but I do think overall it is a little bit of cherry picked! While i wouldn’t say I’m a Benn Jordan fanboy (defo watched a fair share of his videos), or an akai fanboy- he has a lot of really valid points about things that I’ve related to in general- especially with new software. I 100% get the frustration of something crashing all the time; it absolutely kills my workflow, and my even sometimes my inspiration. I also 100% get his frustration about CPU usage…to me it is a big deal cause I’ve had bad CPUs before and found it extremely limiting, especially as piano is my main instrument and when I’ve had to bake things in it’s been very stop-start & just kills flow. So yes he was negative but tbh so am I 😅 when I have those issues!! Furthermore; I think he does say what he does like about the keyboard! I was thinking about going dawless and was looking at some of the polyend stuff, but this review doesn’t tell me to “not buy the keyboard” rather, maybe just wait for a better iteration or some of the bugs to be fixed. Unlike Benn- I can’t spend 2k on a whim but I absolutely can wait until somethings a little bit more fixed. I also trust if the issues do get fixed that he’d do an update! If it were me, I’d be a little heartbroken spending all that money to just be frustrated! His video is while largely negative, is good for consumers like me, and actually add the MPC to the list of maybe potentials when I finally save up the 2k. Anyway I hope you can take this feedback where maybe showing a little more nuance can help the discussion forward! I’ll definitely check out some of your videos on the Akai! :) Good on you for wanting some healthy discussion! And I think that he should have definitely made more points about the innovation esp now I’ve heard your points. I think you have some nuance but it’s pretty off putting with the dunk reactions tbh!
Can't wait for your reaction to Benn's reaction to your reaction to his video. Then there's gonna be his reaction to your reaction to his reaction to your reaction to his video. This is all so rewarding and cool. You're so cool.
I didn't watch Benn's video. Did he say what he did to trouble shoot the issues? Might be worth doing a factory reset, or firmware update if there is one.
What’s good brother Ave, I’ve taken my sweet time to get to this whole situation I wanted to take the time to understand it fully before commenting and “picking sides”… to be fair Benn’s review was pretty honest (ill-informed in some parts but pretty genuine to any customer on day one trying to go it alone), your reaction video however was a bit heavy handed and I’ll explain why I think this to be the case, the stance you took was like the mpc key was your product that you made and he was negatively criticising your creation… that’s where the shill comments are coming from. Nothing Benn said discredits any of your work or what you have contributed to the mpc digital environment. Don’t come to the defence of these companies regardless of your relationship or affinity for them, on the one hand they pay people to do that and on the other Akai need to fix up a lot of things to do with the mpc workflow and products generally anyway (I was apart of the software beta program and I have been in those forum’s they have work to do!) and when they deliver better products that more naturally achieve their claims they won’t have to worry about disgruntled customers.
My brand new MPC key stopped sounding for 35 seconds, while only "playing sounds" as a piano... just to resume afterwards. I can only imagine if this glitch happens to me in a Live Gig. Also, the knobs turn, you can hear the effect... but it does not reflect on screen. As Ben says... unfinished product. Ave, thanks for your comments, but I know how to listen to Ben's video, and what to pay attention to.
I feel like this video is just clout chasing stemming from Benn’s video, this video feels disingenuous, Benn literally said he WANTS to enjoy this piece of hardware and wants there to be updates so he can use it in the future, idk man this video didn’t hit me right, feels like you did this just to be argumentative and to get more views 🤷🏻♂️ edit: just read the comments after commenting myself, damn bro you’re getting dragged 😂
Maybe Ben should have waited before making his video and consulted someone that had the MPC Key for longer, as you have. But here you skipped all the parts of his video where he actually showed the MPC crashing. I mean, those were real bugs, not rookie user mistakes.
@@AveMcree Sorry, but that's misleading. You start your video contesting his claim that the MPC key is buggy, but never address the actual bugs he's talking about (and shows) in his video. To be clear, I'm not some Benn Jordan fanboy, I watch both your channels. I just mean what I say, without any agenda.
@@AveMcree But let's be fair - you're not showing his full experience here. You keep saying it hasn't crashed on you - so that makes the crashes someone else experiences acceptable? As @Marcelo Castro said above, those were real bugs. I just don't understand your angle here...
Too all the people saying “you skipped the part where it crashes!”. Fam, I’ve made beats live on my channel for 1-2 hrs without a single crash. That’s why I skipped it.
You not having the same issue doesn't make the issues he experienced invalid or un-happen.
Just because you are fortunate enough to have not experienced the same bugs that he has, doesn't mean that the bugs don't exist. Come on Ave. I thought you were better than this. Akai comes out with a new product and a new OS. The people are having issues with it, and you come out and defend Akai?!?!?!??? Bruh, I thought you were a man of the people.
That’s a bit of a cop out on your part. If we’re keeping things fair, you really should have showed the bugs he was having. I get it that you didn’t encounter the same issues, but you’re sort of painting Benn in a very skewed light by doing that. It’s sort of unfair as those bugs are what made his experience in terms of laying out a track.
That's the worst excuse for a lazy video I've seen. Just because it didn't happen to you means it negates his experience? You just negated any half baked point you were attempting to make.
That's stupid Ave. Do you also tell people who have iPhone problems that your iphone has no problems therefore they are making it up? The entire point of his video is it's trash because it locks up for him. Not locking up for you isn't proof it's good.
I watched his review, and it really seemed to me like he was saying "this is amazing but it crashes all the time right now and I don't know when that will be fixed so for now it's unusable". ... I don't get it. Is him knowing more about the MPC workflow supposed to make the MPC Keys magically not crash?
Exactly!
Exactly!!
Egg Sackly!
Exactly. And if you’re going to use this for a performance, you need 100% confidence that it’s not going to crash or require you to restart it. I have an MPC-X and a Force and love them both, but I don’t use them for live performances on a stage in front of people. I can edit my UA-cam video if something goes wrong. :)
He's made an update on his channel now because of this bs lol
Its very hard to take this video seriously when you ignore all the critiques of the device and chock it up to user error, when the user is someone who's used multiple MPC devices, has a multi-decade music career and a history of using and mastering music hardware on a regular basis. Never mind that user error has nothing to do with the crashing, the bugs, and the high CPU usage.
The more productive way to dispute his critiques is to go through them one by one and test them, try to replicate them. Show everyone how you don't get the same issues that he's getting, then at least people know Benn just has a lemon unit. It would still be Akai's fault, but its not nearly as bad as the unit as a whole being an unfinished mess.
Yep, this comes off as a reactive video response. So many ppl on Gearspace (a bit less so on MPCForums) take this same stance. I think the Akai team is doing great things, and that they have a lot to bring to the MPC line. But it needs major fixing. InMusic doesn’t seem like a cool company by any means. I don’t blame Akai.
I back you here 100%, my friend.
@@Ancaja123 While not an excuse the problem is that customer expectations are that Akai will release amazing update after amazing update and that has created an environment where each update is a house of cards precariously teetering under the weight of new code on top of underlying bugs that have been there for a very long time. The Qlinks functionality literally breaks with each new version and that has been the case since at least 2.4. They need to take a step back and just focus on bugs and fixes. However if they did that fans would be upset and they have competitors nipping at their heels (Roland and NI).
FACT is he didnt know what he was doing..PERIOD..
I for one am actually glad Ben made the video. After Akai sends out tons of units to influencers that then only talk about the good while ignoring the numerous bugs and issues that Akai lets fester for way too long. I love my MPC Live II and Force but there are still so many things that need to be addressed. There is a difference between wish list (why on my Force am I limited to 8 audio channels when I only hit 20% CPU) and bugs that affect usability that Akai pushes as working and markets them (USB Audio Interface support still a known issue almost a year later without any update or even word that it will be fixed) . Wish list items are things we would like to see added that are not there. Bugs are items that Akai is selling that don't work.
HIs gripes were about bugs that affect the usability of the machine for him and they are things that should be working. My wish list for the Akai Force is long, but my biggest Wish List item is just that it works as it is supposed to and eliminate the bugs. I still love the Force and use it daily, but it is frustrating by the lack of focus from Akai to fix known bugs.
His complaint about Splice integration is another perfect example. It simply doesn't work, only about half of the samples I download from Splice direct to the unit using the integration will actually play on the unit. 100% of the same samples work fine when I download outside the unit and transfer them via SD card as .wav files. This is all related to the .flac files that just don't work 50% of the time. Akai has done nothing to address this, but yet still markets Splice Integration as a feature.
The Splice issue is on them. They have to update stuff. IDK about bugs on the Force. Plenty of people who like the Force more than the MPC. Plenty of videos of people enjoy the machine.
@@AveMcree and just like the typical influencer, adress only the one issue that is not the fault of the brand, ignore anything else
lmao this is ludicrous
not to mention, the actual main issues brought up in the video, were not mentioned here hahaha as if loading times are the main problem
@@AveMcree The thing is that you say there are no bugs bcuz u didnt have any bro
just be happy that u dont have any
@woody forrest 999 euros is like double what a laptop costs. It isn't cheap
I agree with you, and actually these companies should be careful because promising functionality that it doesn't have is potential grounds for a lawsuit. Most individuals aren't going to go to court over one machine, but I could see it happening in say an educational environment where an institution might purchase a few dozen units. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened yet
I watched the original video in question and I think his complaints are completely valid bro. It seems like you’re not really listening to him bro. You’re saying it’ll have bugs and it’ll get fixed, but he needs it to work NOW
Stans will stan
Let me add to the chorus of voices calling this a very misguided video, in both tone and content. It comes across as snide and needlessly confrontational. It also ignores most of the issues he's raising under the banner of "he doesn't know what he's doing".
I get you have a relationship with Akai and that it's an easy clickbait video to piggy back on his larger channel to get some views yourself. But passive aggressive digs at another UA-camr isn't what I watch your channel for.
I hope this is the last of these types of videos.
Very well said
Hear hear.
thank you.
Benn’s analogy of the Force being unfinished for 18 months was spot on.
Don't I know it. It sucked to wait a yeah and half without knowing if Akai abandoned the unit. To see the price drop dramatically to bargain bin levels as people were selling and dumping their units. It was unfinished and while Akai did address the issue, why did they release such an unfinished product to begin with? I remember the demo rep (before Andy Mack took over for Force as well) struggling to try to find a use for the thing. He was basically stuck showing workflows that would work pretty much on any 64 pad controller (Push, Launchpad). There was a beta sitting in the queue for months that he ended up sharing with folks probably out of frustration.
Nah, I'm with Benn in this one. They're are charging too much for an incomplete product.
Just because you don't explore your gear deep enough, it doesn't mean that there are not some meaningful bugs in it. Like come on, Benn explores sound by its own in and out. It's unfair to invalidate his claims when all you do is slice samples and play them.
💀
Nail on the head haha
@@WavejumperUK Drexciya!
Yep.
what a dumb response. He didn't "explore in and out but a guy who had it and used it for less time did. Are you even trying? lol
He gave it full marks where it worked, and didn't lock up and freeze. How would you feel if you were going to play this thing LIVE at a gig and it froze up on you?
I would love to know one serious keyboard player that would choose this over any other keyboard on the market. This has its purpose but not go to keys like a Yamaha, nord, or korg etc. Also Ave has stated multiple times he's never had it freeze up. One man's word over another.
👆🏽accurate.
He’s only stating his personal experience and facts. 🤷🏽♂️
I save like hell in case these little bastards want to burn me. Hahaha.
@@venericanone For 2 stax it’s gotta be ready to handle whatever you’re throwing at it. There’s nothing else out there > 2 stax that’s gonna peak memory using a piano preset.
@@waggabutt4655 I can name multiple 3 to 5k synths that don't play any kind of grand piano or Rhodes sounds. Every type of gear has its purpose. A serious keyboarder wouldn't be looking to buy this for live gigs and Akai knows that.
@@venericanone I'm a serious piano player and so is Ben. If a company is gonna install piano samples on its product, for 2 stax that shit better work thats all Im sayin.
Was left with a bad taste in my mouth after this. Benn goes out of his way to be fair and objective and Ave’s reaction is the exact opposite. Snarky, unspecific and tries to cast doubt on Benn’s competence with the MPC instead of addressing the very legitimate complaints.
agreed
Word! Snarky indeed. This video is low class and just petty.
Seriously, this video screams damage control by AKAI. I wouldn't trust this guy anymore when it comes to any AKAI reviews in the future.
rip credibility
Yeah this kind of response and the way it was presented makes Ave look like a clown and a shill.
Dude are you trolling? Did you watch the video? The thing crashed like crazy! Not acceptible for a professional musician. He didn't lie. He showed clearly the issues.
Are you trolling? I've done several live streams w/o it crashing.
@@AveMcree no I'm not. You have tried to call someone out without good reason and with what looks like "bad faith" arguements. You never addressed his real issues or showed the parts of his video where it crashed a bunch of times.
It's like saying what happened didn't happen. Except that you didn't even go that far. You just conveniently didn't show the parts of the video that invalidate your arguements.
@@AveMcree ^^^^ I can't even understand you man. It didn't crash for YOU so it's good? (sigh)
@@AveMcree You’re a clown 🤡
@@WarrenPostma bro is willfully daft. Lol
Thanks mccree this video was a great showcase on how to invalidate other people's experiences, how to act arrogant in one' own conviction and employ extensive sophistry! Another amazing tutorial 👌😩
quite sad, my thoughts from the get-go.
Thank you for articulating my thoughts, thereby saving me having to spend the time or waste any more mental energy on the matter. And for reminding how great the word ‘sophistry’ is :-D
His gripes are valid. It’s not the device for everyone. It’s got some unique great features competitors don’t have but also lacks some that others do.
His gripe about keys and semi weighted might not matter to most people but the competitively priced fantom 0 series has those options.
Loading slow, freezing and other bugs will ideally be fixed but it is a bad taste in the mouth of investors if your first model comes out feeling like a beta. Bugs and design imply this isn’t the workstation for Benn, but that the disappointment comes from the concepts being solid and the execution falling short.
My 250€ alesis v161 got semi weighted keys
And it's alpha quality, not even beta.
The keys on this ARE semi-weighted. He wanted FULL weighted keys, which isn't appropriate for a device like this.
@@bryanburns9702 full weighted keys are an option on the larger fantom. Again, it’s not for everyone, but competition has offered those alternatives.
@@rui5421 okay, but you mentioned semi-weighted, which this keyboard does have. Hammer weighted keys would be silly for synth parts for most pianists, but obviously Jordan has his preferences.
You mislead your viewers here, a lot. Benn is an extremely qualified professional, sharing a legitimate negative experience with a piece of gear. Your reaction sort of implies you think he's stupid, or a liar. Your audience deserves better from you.
I'm an Akai fan who uses an Akai Force for almost everything. I was honestly kind of upset to hear a MPC called "unusable". Despite that though, this reaction video seems ... off. Like, needlessly defensive and misleading. Benn brought up some pretty valid issues, but this reaction video leaves those parts out... while making assumptions which don't seem to be true. That's going to make it hard to trust Ave's videos in the future.
I wouldn't go that far. Very good piano samples are in a different league and after you add effects processing, depending on whether you're stroking 6 keys or 10, that could easily be 8GB ram right there. Ave's streams never took it there.
You so extra bra lol 😆
Oh come on. Are you sure you don't have an MPC bias here (or an Akai affiliation bias)?? You don't show the parts of Ben's video where the MPC just straight up locks up and crashes on him, which he says happened like half a dozen times. You keep emphasizing that he only had it for 1 day, but in that one day the $2000 dollar, clearly under-powered, workstation froze and crashed over and over. This is a rip off, and this seems like a lazy response not even addressing the serious flaws he experienced.
I mean $2,000 with 4 gb RAM and many users reporting crashes? That' a joke.
Fr, Ave couldnt defend the worst parts of Benn's video... solution? dont 'react' to it! well played.
Fanboy?? Yes but that's where it ends. I've done like 3-4 live streams w/o it crashing once.
@@AveMcree lemme introduce you to a very important concept my guy: Anecdotal evidence =/= real evidence. Just because YOU haven’t experienced these issues doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t, and judging from your comments a lot of your own watchers have had problems with this and other Akai devices
@@fuckinzell I mean it's old, but I was using an MPC 1000 for awhile. I still love the thing, but one evening before my show, all of my samples and all of my tracks were erased randomly on the flash. I certainly blame myself for not having a back up of it all but cest la vie. The thing has never really been the same since, and I kinda lost a lot of will to retrieve the work by recreating it. The MPC one looks like it'd do what I want like polyphonic playing of samples, and cv/gate outs, but I've had a difficult time pulling the trigger for an MPC since.
@@roxyamused As long as you don't overwrite (or put new content) on the flashcard you can usually recover said files.
You should’ve sat on this one a little bit fam.
That was the same advice I gave him
@@AveMcree Are you really in the position to give him any kind of advice, given the obvious differences in knowledge between the two of you? He’s a pro musician, clearly very technically advanced when it comes to gear and production. You’re not at all at that same level. You’re a decent youtuber. Knowing your place and having a little humility regarding one’s own position goes a long way Ave.
@@jjs6558 a very long way bro. The arrogance on this guy is amazing I swear. I’m reading through the comments and yo…why he he shilling like this?
Why didn't you demonstrate all of the bugs that Benn showed not existing/happening for you? You're not disproving what he demonstrated.
Also the music I've seen you make on the MPC Key 61 is extremely simplistic and kind of amateurish compared to what I saw Benn make.
I'm not a big fan of the music either of you make but Benn was objectively pushing the device harder than you have been. For a professional musician (and for the price of the device) this really matters.
Fanboying is easier than disproving someone else's criticism. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but you basically did nothing to demonstrate Benn was wrong about the bugs.
YOU SKIPPED THE PARTS WHERE IT DIDN'T WORK IN BENN'S VIDEO 💀💀💀
You skipped my live streams where mine has crashed once.
@@AveMcree Your beats are way simpler than Benn’s music! Your simple beats are way less taxing on the Keys. You cannot honestly compare it like that. It is dishonest.
@@AveMcree
And that's your excuse for censorship?
@@AveMcree you’re operating at a 6th grade level of comprehension.
@@TheFakeMikeLWatts and he has a SUCCESSFUL CHANNEL?
Man this makes me KNOW I can do this lol because dude is daft
Yeah, he is the brother that does all of the live shows, so he knows how long he has to switch piano sounds between pieces.
He didn't say that the Keys was crap, he said that it was crap for his needs. Not the same thing.
Everyone is talking about the bugs. Whether you hit them or not depends on your specific workflows.
The MPC keys 61 switches sounds and patches in the blink of an eye. literally a millisecond. People who complain about loading times and that you can't use it on stage because of loading times is just plain dumb. They don't know how to use it. You load every sound and patch before you go on stage. Then just switch however you want. Blink of an eye, mate... You can load every instrument beforehand. You don't build the chair while you are in a hurry to sit. You build it beforehand, then sit on it when you need to... Easy...
@@INeedsMoneys thinking everyone can load everything they need with the limited ram is dumb...
@@jackbauer1805 thinking that you can't is even more dumb.
@@INeedsMoneys Tbh, being fair to the MPC, I don't think the MPC was designed for proper live use.
However, for live use, even a small break in the sound when you switch patches, is not acceptable live, especially when moving from one song to another or moving from a set of patches to another in the same song, without any break. If the sound breaks the audience hears the interruption.
Look at something like the Fantom or any other keyboard workstation, and they have 'patch remain', where you can smoothly fade between patches. The last sound you played before switching the patch will continue to have any tails or held notes sound even after the next patch is loaded. The next note played after the switch will trigger the new patch. This is a feature on pretty much all live keyboards, and that is probably what he meant.
@@anupjsebastian that feature is also available in the mpc key 61. It is the feature I'm talking about in my first comment
"Mine doesn't crash so it's fine."
What a hill to die on 😂
“Corny ass” may be accurate but you forgot shill. Anyone who currently owns an MPC knows the current firmware is trash and crash city. I have used my Live since 2017 and make full track on it, not just some beat loops. I was stoked for probability in the latest updates and now it’s locking up ALL THE TIME since the update. Don’t be duping newcomers to get kickbacks, it’s not helping the community. You didn’t even address the concerns in the video. You showed your hand and it’s sketchy as hell.
Really glad to see very well done critique and in-depth reviews, also really glad to see thoughtless "well it didn't happen to me sooooo the mpc's kinda perfect" reaction content so I know who to unsubscribe to
I don’t know, dude. I only have and MPC live so I can’t speak to the Keys but he’s right that the software isn’t as stable as it should be. Especially for the price.
He literally says he loves it and sees tons of potential and will even buy it a year down the road when the issues are ironed out, at certain parts he's visibly excited about some of the features, his entire gripe with the product is that for 2,000$ he's upset that very fundamental bugs for the basic use of the keyboard inhibit his ability to use it. I don't think that's an unreasonable criticism. I'm all for holding companies like Akai to a higher standard. PREMIUM prices should be met with PREMIUM products with PREMIUM performance.
I dont blame him as an original mpc live owner it has bugs and if akai is pushing out products with bugs still is a problem then akai is playing dirty and theyre not addressing the problems that most users have
He does have a point. Lately, we are paying thousands of dollars just to be beta testers. It's not just Akai. Every brand does this. They should have a warning label. BETA release
At least one brand do always label their firmwares as beta, the legendary SEQUENTIAL!
@@eonsfollower It's important although a nice cash grab is probably easier
Maschine+ is a prime example. That thing is a mess.
@@apoclypse Not really. Is it worth the price? No. But it’s nota mess. At launch yea, definitely. Now, it’s definitely not. Mpc live 2 is still better in my opinion (I’m a long time NI user and love their stuff) but the plus is pretty awesome.
@@heffe4257 Yes really. I own the MPC Live and the Maschine+. If you want Maschine do yourself a favor and just buy a MK3 and save yourself the grief and the money. As a controller for the software, amazing. As a standalone device, not so great.
Can’t trust Sponsored UA-camrs. Akai buying souls.
lol bro AKAI ain't gave me a dime... Knock it off
@@AveMcree I understand everyone needs a bag. But remember integrity, authenticity, morals etc. people buy these flawed product’s foolishly based off UA-cam reviews. Just be honest with the consumer.
@@AveMcree mayb youre try to play chess. And hoping one day they will because of vids like this you put out. I enjoy your content from time to time. But you have to keep it 100 bruh. Right now you ain't doing that.
Love your video's Ave, but I gotta side with Benn on this one. I know the MPC hardware line inside and out, and man alive, there's a lot of dumb shit in Akai firmware. There are a lot of people complaining about the latest firmwares.
As for your comments that "almost every piece of gear, and even software has bugs" yeah that's true, but not the way it is now. It is *unacceptable* to expect consumers to tolerate workflow breaking bugs, glitches that cause full on crashes, basic functionality getting busted with no rhyme or reason to when those bugs activate. My sample edit view glitches out all the time with no real understanding to why that happens.
Your argument that "he's only had it for 2 days" as a defense for the issues with the MPC61 doesn't hold water. He's a professional musician who knows how to make music, and isn't exactly a dummy. Bugs have nothing to do with experience. Bugs are bugs. If they are so broken that you can't get what the tool promises to do, out of the gate, then it should have been baked in the oven longer before being released to consumers. Your argument reads more like "you've only had it 2 days, so you don't know how to avoid that kind of bug occurring"
The latest firmwares from Akai have been total bullshit. My MPC live 2 has arguably gotten *worse* with the last firmware than better.
This isn't unique to Akai, but that's what we're talking about today I guess.
I am a software developer, and while lots of gear has bugs, how much gear actually locks up and freezes from just navigating its on screen menus?
How you love my video but your not subscribed?
@@WarrenPostma a crap ton!
@@AveMcree Replying from my work YT lol, I sub on my other account, Gouki87
Over here chillin with the mk2
The message I'm getting here is that if you make basic shit, the MPC 61 is fine.
Come on man, Benn is one of the most thoughtful, insightful music tech UA-camrs. Your snarky tone is so click-baity. You should know better
I like his review. I returned mine in 24 hours. I didn’t find it awful but definitely not worth the price to me. Oh and I’m not that new to the MPC workflow. I love the MPC for what it does best. Drums and Sampling.
24 hours is def not enough time to come to grips with everything the Key 61 is capable of. It's a complex beast. Do you flip gear that quickly often? If so, you're missing out on a lot of cool shit.
Maybe you should buy his Masterclass
Nasty piece.
bens feedback was valid and i think having it crash on someone isnt invalidated just cause you didnt have it crash yourself. if anything that means quality control isnt great and theres no guarantee itll work flawlessly which is an even bigger problem. defending a product from the potential of getting better is a mistake on your part. no hard feelings just saying what i think
I'm good with continuing to hear from you and from Benn. As a newbie MPC user I will keep enjoying the Key 61. His struggles and feedback were real. And he was truly impressed at times with the Key 61. Most of us are out there by ourselves with our gear, and expect a good, stable product to keep us in our workflow once it's started. Let's see if Benn has any updates. I also listen to Poli Popo, who had a bad rant on the Key 61. Then Akai reached out to him and he made another video on things being OK.
Benn
@@AveMcree benn what?
Dude is not brand new.
He’s not “misusing” it.
His unit must have just been jamming up.
Could just be a bad unit or multiple faulty OS installs.
He's new to the MPC's bro... The Force isn't like the MPC.
@@AveMcree he owned a Live years ago. There’s a video of him sampling remotely with Richard Devine. Just stop bro, It’s the same OS on all the other MPC units and it’s trash right now.
@@AveMcree he has also been a professional musician for twenty years. We aren’t watching a noob struggle take his first steps on the MPC. It wasn’t the workflow Benn really struggled with as we actually saw him make a track and he was able to do that but he had to continuously battle the machine to do it. It was the stability of the platform, the janky software and the hardware issues that he was struggling with, not writing music.
Admittedly if he had gone for a simple trap beat using samples or something he might not have run into the same issues as trying to use the top end, CPU heavy piano plug in but the point is you shouldn’t have to inhibit yourself musically due to the inherent flaws in something you paid a LOT of $ for especially when that product has professional literally in the name.
Maybe it is Benn’s unit, who knows but given complaints on the Akai forum that’s unlikely. You could disprove it, do a video where you load up 4 or 5 of the same piano plugin’s Benn was struggling to use and do a note heavy piano track then log the cpu usage and we might get an idea of what’s going on🤷
@@BeastlyAnteater this video backfired on Ave and showed his true intentions. Why do we allow money to control us? 🤦🏾♂️
@@AveMcree naw I just meant he’s a vet and the MPC’s are easy to use (IMO).
All love. People coming atcha pretty hard. Hahaha.
Stay up!
This is a super smooth brain take. Your actually incapable of comprehending his very clear and concise critique. How embarrassing
That Bass is hitting at 11:12! think I been sold, thank you for this review Ave!
ave just prooving how untrustworthy of a source he is by now
Gotta stand with Benn on this one dude. This is by no means the first keyboard from AKAI. We are all getting unfinished products from major vendors these days. If it only takes 2 days to determine that a product is buggy and unreliable than so be it. I feel the same way about some NI products I recently bought. We have to start calling manufacturers out when they roll out a product that still needs work. You can love a brand and still be honest about it when they screw up. Thankfully it seems like this will be a wake-up call for them and they'll likely put some more work into it.
This type of vid really takes advantage of the lack of a dislike count on yt
Its 1.6k diss to 511 like get return youtube dislike addon.
It's underpowered with an extremely whack slow ARM processor - set up WITH ONLY FOUR GIGS OF RAM? My two year old Smartphone has way more processing power than the MPC 61. Loading up projects also shouldn't take several seconds either. For a two thousand dollar workstation keyboard, the processing power is totally underwhelming.
The MPC 61 hardware configuration might be enough to work with samples and use of one or two models + effects but overall when you're adding samples, effects & synth models to the mix, then the hardware requirements should support the MPC OS that Akai wants to establish as a platform which I think the software running on a Mac or PC proves that yes, it can be a very sucessful platform for music creation but again, if you slap the OS on a underpowered keyboard, the viability as an expanding platform then becomes greatly diminished.
I do think it's great that they allowed expandiblilty of storage via the internal SATA port. But if they allowed that, why didn't Akai allow the ability to increase memory from say four gigs to 8 or 16gigs of memory? Akai wouldn't need to provide the memory modules. Just provide the expansion bay to give the userbase the option to do so.
With the current specs, the Akai MPC 61 should be a $1,500 keyboard.
Otherwise, it's laughable that they can take $400 of processing hardware and expect to command $2,000 for a underpowered keyboard.
The Korg Kronos four year old Intel 1.8ghz Atom Processor is more responsive than the MPC 61. 😂
Come on now.
4 gb ram like 50 usd chinese phones
Pure Facts bro. Well said.
I think its Maxx 600 it cheapy looking
Due to the system board Akai is using (a Radxa Rock2 SoM from 2014), it can't have more than 4GiB of RAM. However, Akai really shouldn't be using that old board on a brand new flagship music production device. It is, as you said, less powerful than an average phone. It was a low-power budget board even when it was new, 8 years ago. Akai really needs to do a core hardware upgrade before making any new devices in the MPC or Force product lines.
TBF he's just being honest about his experience with the device and I really appreciate that. I'd never seen any of his videos before, but I'll definitely be watching more of his stuff. Even with a device thats constantly crashing he managed to make a track 10x better than anything i've heard any other youtuber make with an MPC, and I've watched hundreds if not thousands of MPC videos. Thanks for putting me onto his stuff.
I rock with you Ave. But, there are bugs on my X now that should not have been missed. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out problems. I’ve been using MPCs since the 90’s, so I’m not a newbie by any means. We need more real an objectionable reviews, rather than people just praising and pushing a product.
This is what you get with youtubers getting products for free to make "honest reviews"...
We need people to get out of the comments and into submitting support tickets so they company actually knows what they have to fix. They not reading aves comments
@@Craftmaster3 Or just stop buying bad products?
@@antismap that doesn't help all the people that bought it day one and helped it sell out. Like complaining on YT doesn't help them either. But actually reaching out to the company directly let's them know what they need to work on.
@@Craftmaster3 sure, but akai already knows that their product has issues. It's not like their don't have testers. Management probably let that slide to save time/money, they think customers are dumb enough to buy the product anyway after seeing a few youtube videos from fanboy youtubers that got the product for free to do some tv shopping style videos.
It's really funny to observe what happens at the launch of a new product. On launch day you have a bunch of youtube "reviews" appearing at the same time, those are the ones that got their product for free.
After a month you start to get reviews from people that actually bought it and explain the issues. Another example is the roland mc 404 mk2 double trigger issue.
Hang on, what about the locking up and sound out of the left channel? You seem to have skipped that?
Gotta side with Ben on this one. It just wasn’t for him and for valid reasons.
I think this video shows who's paid by AKAI (or just blind fanatic) and who makes honest reviews
Hmm, so the ridiculously high CPU usage, random crashes and freezing as well as the poor patch build (hard panning to one side) are all symptoms of Ben’s lack of knowledge? Nah, I think the guy knows what he’s doing.
Maybe you’re a touch biased because the MPC is kind of the basis of your channel?
Polyphony difference - The amount of notes played by you in your entire tiktok video may equal the amount of notes played by Ben in just one riff. That was an unfair comparison. Had you really played major chords on any of your tracks you would have had a problem with system resources. I bought an MPC Key 61 and yes, I too would like more keys because I play. This thing is really built for sample choppers. Please don't compare it to a synth workstation because it is not there yet.
I got to be honest this seems to boil down to ‘as long as you stick to making basic ass tracks that you could knock out on an iPad, u will be fine’. That’s fair enough, MPC is going to attract folks making a certain genre of music but for the best part of 2k the damn thing should at least have the capability of going beyond ten tracks ( for 2k I want to be able to run more than 8 plugins, my basic ass iPad can run about six without issue...) This thing should also at least have with the ability to handle more complex styles of music with complex layered patches for the kind of money they asking. Also none of the actual bugs seen in Benn’s video were actually addressed nor were the 22 pages of bug reports on the Akai forum itself which is just odd. This felt horribly like running interference for a corporate sponsor that didn’t address the bugs that were brought up, kinda icky ...🤷
Mpc keys is such gimmick tool to monetize simple users who pay 2k for very much outdated hardware. It's disappointing
Benn is right, and deep down you know that you agree with him. Keepin' it 1K.
workflow:
if my cpu gets toasted running too many heavy plugin on my iMac and logic i just bounce the track in question to audio and disable the plugin for the moment or re assign it to a low cpu instrument and mute it for now.
you can do the same on stand alone MPC.
not exactly rocket science is it?
😂😂
Man, why must we make things so difficult. Producers are supposed to know this! 🤣🤣🤣
Yes when I was watching Ben complain about vst CPU usage I was thinking the same shit lol like you can bounce to audio after you have rendered the track flattened with the plugins. I do the same shit in Reaper DAW so that I have a stem with effects and, without. I have also done this same thing on the MPC One.
@@BeastlyAnteater I've yet to use a single audio track on my MPC
i use the looper page export put my playing (guitar, bass, vocals or drum kit) to be triggered off 'kits' like vocal kit, guitar kit etc.
it's not a terrible workaround...it's what people do all the time when they make songs longer than 4 bars ands 2 tracks!
I't also a standard workflow on computer DAW's too.
FAR from terrible in my opinion.
@@BeastlyAnteater you can split hairs until the cows come home, the result is the same - reduced cpu/ram load workflow.
track (plugin instrument) - bounce to sample
track (plugin instrument) - bounce to audio track
also looper - exports to a sample.. same idea as the first example as it creates a kit with the pad associated from the export or flattening of the music.
Q. have you used an MPC?
I don't really see the point of this video. You addressed zero of Benn's valid points and tried to blame everything on your assumption that he doesn't know how to use it.
Ben took quite a while to say "it crashes a lot" - which was also true of the Force and did make it unusable for me.. Yeah.. I coulda used it as a one track drum machine.. but it was meant to be a workstation.
A few years of updates and the Force is pretty rad now.. but still crashes.. reasonably often, most times I use it.
I'm still tempted to get a MPC One for its lovely little form factor.. nice and compact.
I think what he's saying is valid. they need to increase the cpu and memory for the asking price they pitch. i own the mpc live 2 and i think the same thing. Great video
LMAO imagine being so upset that a fellow musician doesn't like a piece of gear for very legitimate reasons that you go like "uh should have wasted more time on this and also bought my book", you sound personally offended as if AKAI was going to give you some stock.
But wait! You do have a relationship with AKAI so nevermind.
Also a reel recorded in your room does not equate a real live situation playing in a festival so let's not compare, you can always start recording again but the thing freezes up on stage and consequences are different ;)
You are way, way out of pocket on this one. You are outright dogging someone for using a product and having repeatable, documentable bugs. Does Akai pay your rent? Does your dad work there? Why you mad bro? 🤡
I tested out the Stage Piano bug yesterday and didn't get one crazy. That was on this live stream so you can see it yourself and on a full beat too! ua-cam.com/video/XMytYdJgJJ4/v-deo.html
The honesty is appreciated for sure , but for me i am truly enjoying this product . I’m going from FL Studio+Sp404sx to MPC Key 61 . It’s a learning curve but that’s what I like, the journey of learning a new way to make music . May be too early for me to notice any bugs within it but from what I have seen thus far it is a powerful piece of equipment
From the limited time I've spent with the MPC Keys 61, it does some things well that other workstations like the Kronos, etc. struggle with. Sampling and sequencing are strong points on the MPC and while you can do those things on other gear, it's not the same easy workflow. Of course Akai kills it with the MPC legacy and experience. However, there are some things that these other workstations do quite well, like being able to switch between patches and multitimbral setups (Combis, Performances, etc.) very well. Korg in particular has had 16 part Combis since the M3 back in 2006. As a live performer, I find these features valuable. The other manufacturers also have excellent synthesis tools and in some cases multiple engines under the hood. Akai has made great strides in this area in the last few years.
A Korg Kronos can have multiple engines, 16 part multitimbrality, disk streaming, etc. However, let's not forget that a new Kronos is close to $4k (at least in Canada). The MPC can do a lot of incredible stuff - and some things better - at half the cost. Also their touch screen is the best on any musical product I've seen so far.
I'm not convinced that an MPC61 is a direct competitor or replacement for a traditional workstation keyboard like a Montage, Kronos, or Fantom yet. However, I AM excited about the direction they are going in and their take on the workstation is fresh and unique because of their background in sampling and sequencing.
His rant was about the MPC key bugs, which you are avoiding here. Unsubscribed
You weren't subscribed to my channel ever. You know we can see who's been subbed right??.. lol
@@AveMcree this is showing even more how much of a liar you are
@@AveMcree Well, let me help you with that then. I will gladly unsubscribe from your channel on his behalf.
Proper title: "Benn Jordan used the MPC 61 which crashed and had a few bugs and slow plugin load times and complained about it and I dont like him complaining cause mines works so im a talk trash and act lke its all gravy". Kinda long but legit.
Worth remembering MPCs are feature packed devices, I doubt any of us use all the features available, and many of us use it differently depending on the style of music we make, studio setups, and workflow preferences. Point is, it’s perfectly possible for somebody like Benn to experience bugs that you personally have not experienced. Also, those plugins do seem very resource heavy, glad I used my MPC plug-in money for an Opsix and Poly-800.
Benn for the win
Ave looking cringe
yup
How much did you get paid from Akai to make this video.
Zero dollars but if you guys keep coming here and trolling me. I’ll be as rich as Benn.
@@AveMcree Aah, just say it - how much? Be honest.
Are you thinking he just made up the crashes? C’mon.
I'm still on 2.10 after all those bug reports. Stability is more important than features that were brought with 2.11 for now at least.
A GEAR/SOFTWARE REVIEWING UA-camr criticizing an actual musician. LOL!
His points are valid, your clip is just wasted time.
his video on brand loyalty is pretty amazing and speaks to a lot of the comments here
Ave I'm new to synths and subscribe to quite a few channels. I think your criticism is unfair. Benn gave credit for a lot of features and also there were things that were just buggy. He needed it for a live set and if you purchased equipment with this many questions I doubt you would use it and risk your reputation. FYI my first purchase was a Korg Wavestate and it had a bug that meant upgrades couldn't be loaded on Windows 10 and then 11. I ultimately gave up and got a different synth.
How much akai paying you??
I’m a big ave McRee fan but everybody don’t like mpc or akia products. Mpc has its problems like every other daw or keyboard. It’s ok to criticize a product. I’m fl gang we get it all the time. Software vs hardware always gonna beef. All I’m saying is for the price for akia products we want better i see both sides
This is embarrassing Ave...🤦
Ave, you know I love ya man. But Benn's right. From the Force being a doorstop to the whole 55% CPU usage with the pianos... the MPC can do a lot of things, but it isn't a one-stop-shop like a lot of people think, especially for the complexity of Benn's music. While setting up tons of pieces of hardware might be a pain in the ass.... it's the way to go, for live performance, because each unit is dedicated to a certain job / sound, etc. I know all these MPC Key videos are made ultimately FOR the algorithm (including yours, haha!) But seriously... he's right. Akai stuff has been buggy forever, and they have rarely fixed bugs in a timely manner, if at all. We should not be beta-testers. Release a finished product, and then quickly fix the bugs. Akai can learn a lot from Novation and other companies who actually give a damn about their customers.
It's called making a set list and you don't have to worry about deal with half that stuff you talking about.. Andy Mac does live sets too. Why you think so many people actually like the MPC Key 61?
@@AveMcree but Ave, most of us have never been to a live set before 🤐
It's a one stop shop for people who do certain things. We can't hate on their happiness. And to call his music 'more complex' because it glitches or he edits it more is inaccurate. Sound selection is one of the most complex and important decisions producers make. With that said, if a grand piano takes 55% but still plays properly what's the big deal? Who puts 3 grand pianos in one beat? That's overkill. And if you wanna play different parts on that same grand piano you can pull it up on a new track without loading it again. And this hilarious world where no software or hardware has bugs is somewhere I gotta go. I say just use the MPC for what it's for and don't feel resentment if it's perfect for others but not perfect for you. This is a good time in tech for producers. Let's enjoy it bro
@@iam607 I'm not saying to not enjoy it. I'm saying he's right, about bugs Akai has ignored for years, with the MK2 MPC line (Live, One, etc).
@@AveMcree Bro. I'm not knocking on the device at all. I'm pointing out Akai's lack of acknowledging or fixing bugs. Remember when Akai blocked all comments on their product videos from like 2009-2019 or so?
This vid feels like you got compensated for attacking Benn's opinion. Not insinuating you did, but it sure feels like it.
Having watched the full video prior, Benn makes a lot of valid points. This video is pretty unnecessary in my book. I don't think you're adding much to the conversation. You do you, but doing a negative video of a negative video seems pretty pointless.
Sadly, this is the new UA-cam trend.
When a content creator doesn't have anything new or good to talk about many get toxic & make a response video of a response video to appease the algorithm gods...🤑
It's not fair to minimized his concerns because he only had one day to review the system. For the enviroment he works in his assessment was fair and he did demonstrated concrete examples of his concerns (it crashed, more than ones).
One thing I have learned over the years dealing With Akai is never be first in line
Ben acutely uses the machine to do all kind of things, not only simple oldschool hip hop beats. Ben was right
Benn is right on some counts. of course the mpc Key 61 is a great instrument. but a live workstation used live shouldn't crash as often when playing or programming a setlist. despite reset and attempting another SSD there are internal errors, black screens, reboot. out of sheer fear I save every 5 minutes. my workflow was simple. I wanted to make 50 performance patches for an acoustic project (pop), without loading times, i.e. 50 sequences, I limited myself to 8 plugins, 4 drum sets, and 8 key groups. one sequence for each song. the MPC shows 85% memory. the warnings come quite early, i don't think the CPU is the problem. no dropouts. I load a new keygroup sound - boom - black screen while a drumloop is running. There is a bug with the four effect sends, there is no select all, no free assignment of controllers. piano footswitch sustain, organ Leslie on/off or via aftertouch??? Load times suck. the Sounds effect Overloaded. a lot can be solved with an MPC OS update. the plugins and samples are amazing. an infinite playground. only acoustic natural instruments are somewhat scarce. Accordion, Flute, Trumpet. can be submitted later with expansion. Due F9 expansion is strong. I'm not a hip hop fan. In my opinion, the MPC can be used for many styles of music. A Nordstage has much bigger limitations, but it does what it's supposed to do with flying colors. no bugs no crashes. Curse and blessing, an MPC key can do much more and will reach technical limits faster. I think you should at least install a diskstream variant for the plugins. With my 50songs/sequencer programming, I can't even save small changes like the delay percentage for the piano per song sequence. when I switch to the next sequence, the delay is turned up. the selection of sounds with pads is not that easy either. pad 1 piano , pad 2 piano/string , pad 3 organ, pad 4 organ split with lead. As I said, Akai is talking about a live keyboard. If it were all just a studio production tool, I wouldn't waste so many words. each of the major manufacturers has pitfalls built into the operation of their synthesizer workstations. why don't they just let the workflow of normal musicians flow into their developments. Despite everything, with the right updates, the MPC Key will hopefully soon be a reliable tool. be nice to each other.
This video is self-sabotage
It is bizarre. I wonder if Ave might be going through a difficult time in his personal life. Hopefully not. I prefer to think it's just because he has a financial interest in promoting the MPC.
I don't think it's a good thing to criticise people that have issues with new music technology, unless you're just looking for an excuse to make new content. All sides need a voice.
I have had my MPC one crash loads of times , I don’t make 4 bar loops I make full pieces of music that are pretty long , it does not have enough ram that’s the issue , I’m with Benn on this , he knows his gear and he is an excellent musician who plays multiple instruments
Yeah so... I've been an iPhone guy forever, let's imagine I buy a new android phone, I boot it up, try to take a picture and the phone locks, I have to reboot it. I reboot and it does that again. I'm not at all familiar with the Android system but I sure as hell know it should not freeze when I open the camera app...
You can criticise Benn's approach to the video all you want but it there is something that cannot fail in a product like this is the operating system.
what are you? a childish fan boy? where's the whole rest of the test? you know? when it bugs... but let's be honest here, this video is just your attempt to get some of Ben's fame. Good or you...
Sounds like you're in the vast minority looking at your comments my dude
Unsubscribed! While Ave's videos have always lacked analytical clarity, I watched them for his personable charm. But this video, and Ave's responses in the comments, stray into illogical and childish territory.
Akai Mcree, activated
Hi Ave
I’m considering buying a force to use alongside my Roland Fantom 8.
I would mostly be using it as my main sequencer and routing a few other synths too and some modular gear.
I would love to hear your input and advice and anyone else’s comments too in this regard.
Must be said that I have narrowed my choice down to the two products.
I’m looking to choose between AKAI’s Force and Also Synthstrom’s Deluge.
Would love to hear your thoughts👍
Dude, I know the question is directed to Ave but I own the Force & I think it's the future & beyond of music production. I'm getting the MPC Key61 and am strongly considering the Wavestate or Phantom06 for an additional synth. That will complete my setup. Personally, I don't need more than that.
@@th-wf3sz the question is open for Ave and also everyone who would like to add their input and opinion,,,thanks👍👍👍👍
@@Th3rdFloor I can't comment about the Deluge because I don't own one and never used it. I did consider it thought when looking at the Force, but I went with the Force. I think the Force is amazing for use with external hardware. As a midi controller there is nothing that even comes really close in my opinion. Just the ease of setting up program changes to all your external gear per clip is a godsend on its own. Very deep midi mapping also to your gear. It is a complicated machine but that is because it can do so much.
I don't even us its internal instrument plugins at all. Just midi, audio clips, effects, and drum tracks. The key will be to setting up and saving midi tracks for each piece of gear so that you can just load them up after. This takes a bit of time, but worth it in the long run. If your looking for a unit to work with external hardware that isn't a computer based DAW I don't think you will be disappointed with it. The in-unit instruments are okay, but nothing super special. So it also depends on how important that aspect is. The effects plugins are also just mediocre, and glaringly lacking on EQ side. It has EQ plugins but again, they are "meh".
@@Th3rdFloor The Force and Deluge technically have a similar design, with clips and an arranger... but nearly all the Deluge owners I know have sold it because the interface is so complex and difficult to remember, so they end up spending a lot of time reading manuals instead of making music. Meanwhile, the Force is quite a bit more powerful, while also being much easier to use, and can be obtained for about the same price. So I got myself a Force instead of a Deluge, and I've been very happy with it.
I love the MPC, and have been using it for most of my music for years, but let's be real the MPC user-experience is bad, and the bugs are ridiculously bad compared to other gear. Everything Benn says is true, especially about the software, and we need more people calling out the negatives of the MPC family so we can petition Akai to fix these.
Keep it going AVE! I got your back over here on the outskirts of Augusta.
So I feel like you’re already copping a fair bit of heat: You have some good points!!! I also loved the parts of you integrating it working, but I do think overall it is a little bit of cherry picked!
While i wouldn’t say I’m a Benn Jordan fanboy (defo watched a fair share of his videos), or an akai fanboy- he has a lot of really valid points about things that I’ve related to in general- especially with new software.
I 100% get the frustration of something crashing all the time; it absolutely kills my workflow, and my even sometimes my inspiration. I also 100% get his frustration about CPU usage…to me it is a big deal cause I’ve had bad CPUs before and found it extremely limiting, especially as piano is my main instrument and when I’ve had to bake things in it’s been very stop-start & just kills flow. So yes he was negative but tbh so am I 😅 when I have those issues!!
Furthermore; I think he does say what he does like about the keyboard! I was thinking about going dawless and was looking at some of the polyend stuff, but this review doesn’t tell me to “not buy the keyboard” rather, maybe just wait for a better iteration or some of the bugs to be fixed. Unlike Benn- I can’t spend 2k on a whim but I absolutely can wait until somethings a little bit more fixed. I also trust if the issues do get fixed that he’d do an update! If it were me, I’d be a little heartbroken spending all that money to just be frustrated!
His video is while largely negative, is good for consumers like me, and actually add the MPC to the list of maybe potentials when I finally save up the 2k. Anyway I hope you can take this feedback where maybe showing a little more nuance can help the discussion forward! I’ll definitely check out some of your videos on the Akai! :)
Good on you for wanting some healthy discussion! And I think that he should have definitely made more points about the innovation esp now I’ve heard your points. I think you have some nuance but it’s pretty off putting with the dunk reactions tbh!
Hello bro, could you please consider doing a video for drums and automations using the step sequencer? For us useless finger drummers🙏🏽😭
Can't wait for your reaction to Benn's reaction to your reaction to his video. Then there's gonna be his reaction to your reaction to his reaction to your reaction to his video.
This is all so rewarding and cool.
You're so cool.
I didn't watch Benn's video. Did he say what he did to trouble shoot the issues? Might be worth doing a factory reset, or firmware update if there is one.
What’s good brother Ave, I’ve taken my sweet time to get to this whole situation I wanted to take the time to understand it fully before commenting and “picking sides”… to be fair Benn’s review was pretty honest (ill-informed in some parts but pretty genuine to any customer on day one trying to go it alone), your reaction video however was a bit heavy handed and I’ll explain why I think this to be the case, the stance you took was like the mpc key was your product that you made and he was negatively criticising your creation… that’s where the shill comments are coming from. Nothing Benn said discredits any of your work or what you have contributed to the mpc digital environment. Don’t come to the defence of these companies regardless of your relationship or affinity for them, on the one hand they pay people to do that and on the other Akai need to fix up a lot of things to do with the mpc workflow and products generally anyway (I was apart of the software beta program and I have been in those forum’s they have work to do!) and when they deliver better products that more naturally achieve their claims they won’t have to worry about disgruntled customers.
My brand new MPC key stopped sounding for 35 seconds, while only "playing sounds" as a piano... just to resume afterwards. I can only imagine if this glitch happens to me in a Live Gig. Also, the knobs turn, you can hear the effect... but it does not reflect on screen. As Ben says... unfinished product. Ave, thanks for your comments, but I know how to listen to Ben's video, and what to pay attention to.
is there any reason to get this if i have an MPC One and USB keyboard??
I feel like this video is just clout chasing stemming from Benn’s video, this video feels disingenuous, Benn literally said he WANTS to enjoy this piece of hardware and wants there to be updates so he can use it in the future, idk man this video didn’t hit me right, feels like you did this just to be argumentative and to get more views 🤷🏻♂️
edit: just read the comments after commenting myself, damn bro you’re getting dragged 😂
It is not a question if software has bugs but if it are a few or just too many.
Maybe Ben should have waited before making his video and consulted someone that had the MPC Key for longer, as you have. But here you skipped all the parts of his video where he actually showed the MPC crashing. I mean, those were real bugs, not rookie user mistakes.
I contacted support early last week. Still no response.
Because people can watch that on his channel.
@@BennJordan The customer is always right - behind the value of our shareholders.
@@AveMcree Sorry, but that's misleading. You start your video contesting his claim that the MPC key is buggy, but never address the actual bugs he's talking about (and shows) in his video.
To be clear, I'm not some Benn Jordan fanboy, I watch both your channels. I just mean what I say, without any agenda.
@@AveMcree But let's be fair - you're not showing his full experience here. You keep saying it hasn't crashed on you - so that makes the crashes someone else experiences acceptable? As @Marcelo Castro said above, those were real bugs. I just don't understand your angle here...