I use my Key 61 at church each week. Works great. I am still on MPC2, have not upgraded to the beta MPC 3 yet. I think if you could disable the unused plugins while not in use, that would help save some CPU as well. Just Muting the audio keeps the plugin active. Maybe they will give us the option to stop sending midi to the plugin if it is muted.
Terrific video and great tips for live performance. I'd get one of these in a heart beat if it came with 4gb of RAM. Be nice to have a SATA drive bay as well. But still, a great value as is.
Yeah I agree, I think you could use a small drive or even a pen drive for some samples but it would be a little fiddly to have to hanging off it. But I can't complain, the storage has been pretty reliable so far!
THX for this vid! I would never use this underpowered "PC in a box" for live use, which begin to fart when you push it to the limit - horrible! If you play ambient pads with long sustain/release time or fast piano notes/chords with the hold pedal, the processor will probably go to its knees much faster. That's why we have hardware synths/workstations, even with limitations but so much more solid. Overall it is a nice compact dawless solution, but this weakness puts me off.
I feel you, I think you could get a good workflow with a smaller/ more basic project file but overall I really enjoy the quality of the sounds and the size factor is a plus! But partnering it with a bigger keyboard does help which counters what I said about the size 🫢
Hello! Can this synthesizer be used as a full-fledged instrument at a concert with a band? In particular, I am wondering if it is possible to launch playback from it and separately display a click for the drummer?
You can launch playback from it but the synth only has 2 outputs so you might be a bit limited on separating the audio and the click. You could always have the playback be in mono but then you wouldn't be able to use the synth at the same time as it would take up the output channels too.
Ive seen all the 37 video from you, i got interested in the 37 because i do want a modern MPC in my set up, but the One and the One + might not do it...but with the 37 and its presets..i think you convinced me even more to get one 😭😭 i dont even play keyboard either, but its like why not learn right? Lol
Oooh Boy! I do really get a lot out of it, especially if you're coming from the guitar background you can always use the scale modes built in to help stick all the notes to a key. Personally I really enjoy all the different sounds available and am really utilising it in my workflow. And facts it's worth learning keys over for sure!!
@TheChrisVella I'm coming from the SP background, I just recently got it during the summer time and I've been enjoying it so far, I just wished it had keys to go with it, I use it with Koala Sampler from time to time as well, so I feel like the Key 37 can do it some more justice being best of both worlds. I also wanna try out the chocolate synth from fabric xl because it's soo good ugh 😩
Hi :) Thanks for the video and sorry if my question is naïve! What if you don't want to layer sounds (because, say, you use a boss looper), but you want to easily access a couple of synths, a bass, and drums sounds. One after the other, but without having to search for them forever. Is that possible without the MPC crushing?
Not naive at all! So you can actually save favourites to the MPC, so you can have a bank of all your favourite sounds in one place, this will make it a lot easier to find everything you're looking for. The only downside is you cant do this for the drum kits. But I would suggest you make a template to include all of this so you can open a fresh project loaded with all the sounds you'd use. Hope this helps!
Great stuff Chris! It's saying you got low memory there not low CPU (although I get there is a CPU issue at some point since it's cutting out), so you might be better off with the Key 61 given you want to use a 61 key keyboard anyway and it has double the ram! I think the CPU thing might be related to track mutes in 3.0 because mixer level mutes, rather than muting the midi to the program (which you can do in 2.x, i.e. the midi never makes it to program at all when a track is muted, so no processing to be done, rather than muting the audio at the mixer level). Hopefully they'll sort that out as an option by the time the beta ends.
That's a good point man! We'll have to check how the software evolves by the time it's available for everyone. I do think I wen't a bit overboard with the plugins which can also be avoided, but I think it's good to stress test this and see how far you can actually push it! And good point I was mixing up memory and CPU quite a lot 😂
Thats a good point, I'm hoping over time with a few updates the software will become a bit more efficient so the plugins can run smoother. But the 61 key defo triumphs the live performance side.
Thanks man, this is all I was asking for! 👍🏽 Is there any way to save the presets like performances? Like going to one song to another and having it already there? Thanks
Yeah you can definitely save patches! Just pick a sound, save the preset if you make any changes to it. Then theres a preset slot you can save it to in the sounds menu.
You have to use the keygroup sampled instruments. It's one of the track type options where you'd pick either drums, a plugin instrument, midi, etc. This will allow you to use a single wav across the whole keyboard.
I use my Key 61 at church each week. Works great. I am still on MPC2, have not upgraded to the beta MPC 3 yet. I think if you could disable the unused plugins while not in use, that would help save some CPU as well. Just Muting the audio keeps the plugin active. Maybe they will give us the option to stop sending midi to the plugin if it is muted.
Terrific video and great tips for live performance. I'd get one of these in a heart beat if it came with 4gb of RAM. Be nice to have a SATA drive bay as well. But still, a great value as is.
Yeah I agree, I think you could use a small drive or even a pen drive for some samples but it would be a little fiddly to have to hanging off it. But I can't complain, the storage has been pretty reliable so far!
THX for this vid! I would never use this underpowered "PC in a box" for live use, which begin to fart when you push it to the limit - horrible!
If you play ambient pads with long sustain/release time or fast piano notes/chords with the hold pedal, the processor will probably go to its knees much faster. That's why we have hardware synths/workstations, even with limitations but so much more solid.
Overall it is a nice compact dawless solution, but this weakness puts me off.
I feel you, I think you could get a good workflow with a smaller/ more basic project file but overall I really enjoy the quality of the sounds and the size factor is a plus! But partnering it with a bigger keyboard does help which counters what I said about the size 🫢
Great vid! Does the MPC Key 37 support realtime fx on the line input?
Great question, I'm not too sure on this, I'll have to try it out and get back to you!
Hello! Can this synthesizer be used as a full-fledged instrument at a concert with a band? In particular, I am wondering if it is possible to launch playback from it and separately display a click for the drummer?
You can launch playback from it but the synth only has 2 outputs so you might be a bit limited on separating the audio and the click. You could always have the playback be in mono but then you wouldn't be able to use the synth at the same time as it would take up the output channels too.
Ive seen all the 37 video from you, i got interested in the 37 because i do want a modern MPC in my set up, but the One and the One + might not do it...but with the 37 and its presets..i think you convinced me even more to get one 😭😭 i dont even play keyboard either, but its like why not learn right? Lol
Oooh Boy! I do really get a lot out of it, especially if you're coming from the guitar background you can always use the scale modes built in to help stick all the notes to a key. Personally I really enjoy all the different sounds available and am really utilising it in my workflow. And facts it's worth learning keys over for sure!!
@TheChrisVella I'm coming from the SP background, I just recently got it during the summer time and I've been enjoying it so far, I just wished it had keys to go with it, I use it with Koala Sampler from time to time as well, so I feel like the Key 37 can do it some more justice being best of both worlds. I also wanna try out the chocolate synth from fabric xl because it's soo good ugh 😩
Hi :) Thanks for the video and sorry if my question is naïve! What if you don't want to layer sounds (because, say, you use a boss looper), but you want to easily access a couple of synths, a bass, and drums sounds. One after the other, but without having to search for them forever. Is that possible without the MPC crushing?
Also curious of this!
Not naive at all! So you can actually save favourites to the MPC, so you can have a bank of all your favourite sounds in one place, this will make it a lot easier to find everything you're looking for. The only downside is you cant do this for the drum kits. But I would suggest you make a template to include all of this so you can open a fresh project loaded with all the sounds you'd use. Hope this helps!
Hope the response helps :)
Great stuff Chris! It's saying you got low memory there not low CPU (although I get there is a CPU issue at some point since it's cutting out), so you might be better off with the Key 61 given you want to use a 61 key keyboard anyway and it has double the ram!
I think the CPU thing might be related to track mutes in 3.0 because mixer level mutes, rather than muting the midi to the program (which you can do in 2.x, i.e. the midi never makes it to program at all when a track is muted, so no processing to be done, rather than muting the audio at the mixer level). Hopefully they'll sort that out as an option by the time the beta ends.
That's a good point man! We'll have to check how the software evolves by the time it's available for everyone. I do think I wen't a bit overboard with the plugins which can also be avoided, but I think it's good to stress test this and see how far you can actually push it! And good point I was mixing up memory and CPU quite a lot 😂
This is why MPC-61 is a better choice with 4 GB ram you won’t get into memory issues keep in mind 1 GB is being utilized by the operating system
Thats a good point, I'm hoping over time with a few updates the software will become a bit more efficient so the plugins can run smoother. But the 61 key defo triumphs the live performance side.
Thanks man, this is all I was asking for! 👍🏽
Is there any way to save the presets like performances? Like going to one song to another and having it already there? Thanks
Yeah you can definitely save patches! Just pick a sound, save the preset if you make any changes to it. Then theres a preset slot you can save it to in the sounds menu.
Great video. This should have came with 4gb of RAM 😢 RAM is cheap.
Facts right there! Would have defo solved the issue.
It needs a fanless Snapdragon x or Lunar Lake cpu
Im a fan of the MPC Key, but ive got the 61 key so it has morr power than the 37. Its not without its glitches though
The 61 key is great, the bump in power defo helps with the overall performance but I can imagine there's always a hiccup here or there.
I would pay for a RAM upgrade
Facts! Same here!!
I also have akai mpc keys 37 but I am very confused, how to map with keys from wav sampling that I input from pc file into akai mpc keys 37 browser ?
You have to use the keygroup sampled instruments. It's one of the track type options where you'd pick either drums, a plugin instrument, midi, etc. This will allow you to use a single wav across the whole keyboard.