Akai Professional MPC Live II – Battery Powered Drum Machine and Sampler With Built in Speakers, Beat Pads, Synth Engines and Touch Display

Product Information

To recap, the software is available to use in two ways – standalone on the machine itself, or as a desktop application using the MPC as a controller.

Full-size MPC pads give you the ultimate in drum performance and the expanded function buttons allow for quick editing on-the-fly so you never miss a beat. I know the topic is MPC Live 2 vs Push 3, but if you are currently working in Reason 10, try the 30 day Ableton trial and see if you like working in it. Regardless of which groovebox I’m using, there’s always a point where I go from exploring and sketching, to transitioning into mixing and working on the final arrangement of a track. Explore the new AIR collection including AIR Hype, covering everything from hard-hitting plucks to sultry melodic leads, AIR Solina, recreating the classic string machine and AIR Mellotron, a recreation of the famous tape keyboard.

Hybrid Standalone Hardware DAW with Software Integration, 16 Velocity-/Pressure-sensitive Pads, 7" Multitouch Display, Built-in Speakers, CV/Gate Outputs, MIDI Multi Capability, 16GB Internal Storage, SD Card Slot, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Connectivity, and MPC 2. For me, while I prefer how Akai Pro's Force works in stand-alone mode, it's a difficult choice as the MPC has a killer solution for progressing a song on your computer. MPE pads - maybe a marketing buzzword, but the Push 3 is arguably an instrument in its own right and I’m attracted to the idea of mastering how to play harmonies and melodies on those expressive pads.

The ' MPC Bible' from MPC-Tutor is the complete guide to using the latest standalone MPCs from Akai, packed with practical, 'hands-on' beat making projects that teach you everything from core beginner's concepts all the way up to advanced power-user techniques! It’s like going from windows 95 to windows 10 - bit challenging finding what you’re looking for at first (being used to old ways) but it can do it all and more (way more). Crucially, the Live II’s speaker actually sounds good, offering decent volume, a surprisingly good stereo image and – crucially – a fair amount of low-end presence. It is like a jack of all trades, especially you are into a more mobile / constantly changing setup person.

But I am a bit more interested in the feel of the hardware workflow than the comparison between Reason and Live (that would be a separate thread, probably). Something I've criticised about the MPC is the sometimes disjointed nature of its various views and modes. We’ve waxed lyrical on multiple occasions about our scepticism of the need for companies to keep adding speakers to their synths and grooveboxes – they rarely sound decent, offering no substitute for headphones or proper monitoring and – in the case of Volcas, POs, etc, – have more capacity to annoy those around you than aid your music-making.