blackbox 1.4.0 update and aka mpc one

[totalvoyage]

Hello 1010 music , would like to start thanking for the grid KEYS mode added in this update , this is a first step on implementing the BB as a live performance tool .

But dear 1010music friends i will be the devils advocate also and point out that just yesterday you have a direct competitor of the BB , similar price tag , less outputs than BB but much more live performance friendly , with note repeat , scale mode , automations , live recording , 3 synthesisers plug ins etc ....
1010music you should step up your game and listen to the users as Akai did there is a series competitor here.

here it is a video with some crucial KEY POINTS and BASIC FEATURES that make the Akai MPC one much more performative and fast tool than BB , those are basic things that could easily be implemented by 1010music but that would make a huge difference for the users that perform live.

this is the video where you can get inspired to do some basic implements for BB --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0A-db-eUn0

1. min 4:09 and 4 :33 --> NOTE REPEAT ( it is a night mare to do drum rolling or note repeat live on the BB even this is a crucial basic tool in electronic music and should be a must )
2. min 10:00 changing velocity levels on the touch screen to add more movement to the patterns
3. Akai automatically detect the pitch of a sample and distribute it correctly along the keyboard ( bb can't do this automatically and is a true nightmare to play samples correctly through an octave)
and live recording , chord mode hopefully .

Dear Aaron we are not asking for LFOs or deep modulations or VST nd plug in like the aka one but cmon can we have a basic note repeat 1/8th 1/16 1/32 and the automatic pitch detection of a sample so to play notes correctly through an octave , this is not asking to much !!

I want to hope that this time 1010music will listen .

thnx and wish you all a happy day

[ohthepain]

Will it stream from an SD card?

[BlkBx Beater]

no it don't , the BB is a BEAST for that

[kraftf]

Certainly mpc one is a much different thing than Bbox! They cannot really compare with each other. Just think of their size only!

[TonyLB]

Cool feature for sure and implementation would be nice
But i've feel always unconfortable with those kind of interpellation. 1010 is a small company, Aaron and Christine are very dedicated to the community but they are not here to execute what customers want.
I mean, u can buy a MPC, but i doubt you will adress to AKAI's boss to have new feature like this. 1010 has a constant message "buy a product for the current feature and not for hypothetic udpate" and i respect that. no aggressivity though but wanted to share my thoughts about the udpate wishes
Peace

[Suspect Frequencies]

The idea of using the new MPc One instead of the BB is a nice idea except for one glaring problem that hasn’t been addressed yet - you’d be buying and purchasing a piece of Akai equipment... who would do such a silly thing?

[Zapman]

Hahahaha ... you're absolutely right
At least MPC Live's will be available for cheap in the near future.

[Guest]

can you have a mpc in your pocket?

[pieter3d]

Looks like it's about 4 times the size, has a much less intuitive interface, doesn't have the multiple outputs, probably won't play very long samples ...

I wouldn't be surprised if it had a ton of bugs upon release either.

I don't see how it's even remotely similar.

[jonesybb]

Just accept what they give you, I have give up with requests.

Regarding the MPC - take a look at the SP2400 coming out next month

[totalvoyage]

I understand that badroom jamming or the modular "blink blink world" don't care about performative tools and that they are fine to spend 8 hours with a banal drone modulated with "20" LFO but there is also the standard Dance music (techno and house) and there are some pretty basic features like the NOTE REPEAT that is a shame to be missing really , is more fast to put drum rolling or HH note repeat on the computer than on BB !!

BB has huge possibility for success among professional performers who really make a living with their music and 1010music instead of lossing time with youtube reviewers that really counts nothing when it comes to influence the market ( i say it respectfully but is the sad truth ) , Aaron should think more of someone like Chris Liebing , Dubfire etc that need and use similar boxes to trigger samples on every show , those will help influence big numbers (techno and house dj/live performance spend big money in gears ) and also those seasoned proper artists would give a serious feedback how to make an amazing concept like BB a serious performative tool.

Talking about AKAI , being a fan boy warrior of BB is pointless and will not help 1010music sell more gears , what will help is to give a honest feedback so they will enlarge their market .
I m not a fan of the new AKAI mpcs neither because are not focused machines ( while i love the vintage AKAI s612 and own 3 of them ) but the truth is that AKAI MPC ONE is having a huge resonance not because of the big touch screen or the internal vst but only because of the NEW PERFORMATIVE BUTTONS they have added and the fast workflow , i wrote this to trigger 1010music to learn from competitors move and that more than everything else users need a clever performative workflow, i want to remember that Cirklon Cequentix is just an advanced midi controller that costs 1400 euro and the waiting list is 1,5 year to have it ( I just placed the order) , all because of the fast clever workflow !

In every interview of Andy from Akai he points out that they have listen to the users and have focused everything on those small buttons that make the work flow fast and performative !

So to be repetitive dear AARON before the lovely granular synthesis is necessary the basics :

-Note Repeat
-Automatic Pitch detection of the samples and correct distribution through the keybad
-Chord mode ( the new scale mode is a great first step tho)
give us this and i ll send you some good Italian wine

my dear friends of the forum don't get offended so easily those are just tools and I love BB as you love it , lets confront and help 1010music to make them better some things are so simple and so easy

cheers

[Saulstokes]

I think people keep forgetting about one major thing with the Black Box. It’s tiny!!!! The new MPC is still 3 times as big and fat too. Also it’s designed to impress newbies with glitzy graphics and premade musical components. The mpc1000 is the heart of my studio and they are fabulous pieces of equipment. I love Akai actually especially the old stuff. But to me the new stuff focuses on glitz to attract dabblers. I travel constantly and the bb goes with me everywhere. I still look at it and think omg this is the first true portable composing tool that got it right. Plus people stare at it on planes. The hardest part of using it flying is that everyone starts asking me questions.

To me, these are very different instruments designed for different musicians.

Aaron add some LFO’s and be done with it!

[pieter3d]

The people talking to you part is very recognizable. I use it on the train sometimes, and about 50 percent of the time the person next to me asks me what I'm doing, sometimes they even want to listen! I've started bringing a headphone splitter basically just for that, haha.

[Bitcat]

They are very different products somehow, designed with a different concept I guess. I've had the mpc live before the blackbox and can't complain, it worked great and they've always been listening to suggestions and updating the firmware with the features we wanted (minus a couple like disk streaming and multitimbral midi input, which doesn't make any sense considering all the inputs and pads the mpc has). Twice the price and muuuch bigger than the blackbox, you should excpect more features, but I sold it as I fell in love with the bb due to its form factor and concept.

Let's not forget Akai released their new line of products with the software still in beta about 3 years ago, and their big (I guess) team kept working on fixing bugs and introducing new features, while the blackbox has been around since maybe May 2019 (?) and relesed some great updates.

I didn't really get the point of the mpc one: it's basically as big as the Live, just a different shape. It has less features but almost the same price, I would get a used Live for less money.

My rant aside, yes, I also hope and I'm sure 1010music is going to add more and more features asap. Some of the basics are still missing.

[darenager]

I guess if I wanted an MPC then I’d have bought one rather than buying a Blackbox, or in addition to it?

Personally I think too many features crammed in don’t make a better product, I’d rather have a solid reliable set of tools than a constantly updated jack of all trades.

That said a few refinements such as the last update are very nice, and yes note repeat would be nice too, as well as some of the other suggestions on the forum, but I think comparing the BB to an MPC isn’t really necessary.

[ohthepain]

I have had MPC Live and a JJOS MPC 1000. Very long learning curve. I was never able to get a comfortable workflow on either. I was having fun on Blackbox almost right away.

Of course MPC Live doesn't come with that Boom Bap preset

[ohthepain]

Also MPC One does NOT stream from SD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhSmq4WDMU. The Sonic Lab dude asked the AKAI dude about about it and he fudged. So you are stuck loading your samples into memory. That's almost a dealbreaker for me at it radically changes the feel of a machine. SD streaming is a key blackbox feature. And can't have been that difficult ?!?!?

[robertdryer]

You just saved me spending money on another device I don’t need ha. I was going to buy one but that’s a deal breaker. Think I’ll get the MPX X instead. I think the Blackbox of more like a place to have true portable song making and sequencing. I don’t think of it as a production device though. When I want to doll up songs and produce it into something at another level I don’t see how one avoids a computer and a VST heavy DAW. But the One and MPX are on the right path for that. Completely different beast than the Black box which is for the musician who likes to tinker with samples. The producer end of things will have to end up on A DAW I think. Thanks for the info though. Saved me money but probably end up spending more in the long run lol

[Adhrast]

No sample streaming, no internal battery, 3 or 4 times the size of a BB, the list goes on. They’re obviously very different beasts, each with their own pros and cons and aimed at different people, but I think for features/price and portability the BB is basically unbeatable.