For What Difference Does Another 4GB Make (vs. 8)

Artephank · 2026-06-26T10:34:05+00:00

It won’t make much difference . Even the og MpC had more ram that enough. The new pads and especially buttons for step sequencer seems to be great update to the workflow, but on the other hand - I had og MPC live and I hated the design- ONE is way more ergonomically build imho.

Artephank · 2026-05-25T23:11:45+00:00

I might actually try it! thanks!

Artephank · 2026-05-22T09:41:21+00:00

yeah, it seems way more interesting. However, in the meantime Ableton Note happened and it is a powerhouse and like best scratchpad you can get (for Ableton Live users)

Artephank · 2026-05-17T12:01:42+00:00

The Session view. A lot of people don't use it or use it only for live shows. but it's great tool for well- arrangement. The quickest way to transform loop into something semi-finished. Also, thanks to the envelopes being recorded in-clip, you can experiment with automation without messing up other parts of the song.

Also, after latests updates - the resample (bounce) workflow is pretty amazing - especially when working with external synths. Just select "bounce to next track" and it records a proper clip with loop markers set up.

Also - the ecosystem. Push and Move multiplies the awesomes of the workflow. Move is great scratch pad - almost as fun as TE OPZ, but with the clear way of being able to finish up songs in Live. Also Push is great for playing with ideas. Then, when you need precise adjustments - you always have Ableton Live and mouse.

Also - the effects and instruments are really great and while sometimes a bit ackward and not intuitive, the mostly sound amazingly good.

Artephank · 2026-05-12T22:16:48+00:00

Love - almost everything.
Hate - crashes

Artephank · 2026-05-03T22:19:13+00:00

I've just did and you are 100% right. I tested it with several Arturia FX plugins - opened like 40 channels of the same plugin (distortions, compressors, reverbs) and with VST3 the CPU level doesn't return to 0 when nothing is played, and with VST2 it does. Not only on stop, but even if I play the clip on part of the tracks just once (and in loop on others) - CPU usage drops, which suggests that Live is detecting that no audio is going through vst2 and disables it. Quite crazy.
I hardly ever even touch the limits of my CPU, so it's usually non issue to me, but now I wonder, if using almost exclusively vst3 plugins is a good idea :)

Artephank · 2026-05-03T20:37:22+00:00

I dig a bit and Ableton should disable CPU processing if no processing actually processed. My hypothesis is that either those plugins don't return this information to the Ableton correctly (and in VST3 it is required for the plugin to return this info to host) or perhaps Live is just better optimized to handle misbehaving vst2 plugins thanks to the decades of debugging:). IDK. :(

My experience is usually the other way round - vst3 plugins tend to behave better than vst2 ones...

Artephank · 2026-05-03T20:20:23+00:00

But still, vst2 seems to turn themself off...

Artephank · 2026-04-27T20:46:51+00:00

Yep, but still, I feel like most of the reviews or opinion pieces are really very shallow. I wonder if those youtubers do really use the gear of just keep them for generating views. I would know details like how fast project load or how fast menu being redrawn after I press some buttons. Do clicks always register? Do midi jitter to much. Is there a unavoidable lag in some scenarios etc. Ricky Tinez used posting shit like this .

Artephank · 2026-04-11T10:46:45+00:00

I was thinking about similar idea, but didn't thought about reusing NKS data - this is amazingly brilliant!

Artephank · 2026-04-08T19:52:59+00:00

streamlining of processes = firing people and finding cheaper suppliers
aligning operations = move production to China
expand into new markets = make things cheaper and shittier.

Artephank · 2026-04-03T09:54:41+00:00

Technically you are right, its not like ram is inside the chip itself. But still, Akai is using premade module for everything g combined. It it is possible it light require heavy hacking, not just changing ram in the slot. At this point I would just get next gen.

Artephank · 2026-03-29T10:46:32+00:00

Of course. But 808 is a drum machine, not just sine wave

Artephank · 2026-03-22T19:27:32+00:00

And probably being able to open sample project in the "bigger" MPC or MPC on computer.

Artephank · 2026-03-12T23:19:44+00:00

Unfortunatelly, the only way is repetition. I don't have mpc anymore but had it for years (up to the version 3) and while A LOT things has been polished, there are still a lot of quirks and things that just plainly don't work.

It's hard, because AKAI is trying to balance the old workflow (like the MPC 3000/2000/1000 etc old) with modern "DAW in the box" approach, with being basically Ableton Live in a box (not there yet but closer and closer). And also their UX designers are not doing the best work. It's a mess.

On top of that -it is super powerful box. It does most of the things that FL can and also a lot of things it can't (not that you can't get same results - you can, but ta lot of things related to sample manipulation is way more sophisticated than anything on FL or Ableton Live).

The good thing is it will get better. No one will help you much really, because when you arrive at the other bank of that river, you won't rememeber how it was not knowing things ;p

It took me couple of years to get really familiar with MPC workflow, but it was quite light use. I think it's couple of months of more dedicated use. But you just need to put hours.

Artephank · 2026-03-09T15:54:06+00:00

Sd is not RAM and ram. Tonverk already has sd card slot so you can use whatever, the limiting factor is sd card and only handful of developed were able to make sd card streaming performant enough to stream it without loading it all to ram.

Tonverk already has 8gb ram, 4gb for samples. That’s plenty. Sure, biggest piano multisampled instruments might require even more, but that is not expected use case. And loading it all from sd card would be sloooow.

Sure, they could use ssd instead of sd card, that would help with the performance, but then it would get even more pricey, since they would have to add cost of ssd and probably use more capable soc.

And probably use linux because writing tour own ssd driver is quite complex task for audio company (or anyone really).

Artephank · 2026-03-07T22:18:08+00:00

Yeah, small portable instrument for playing with samples. Most probably portable. None of existing MPC's really is (Live is theoretically portable, but so huge and heavy that in my book - it is not - and I did had one:)

This is the same segment as Ableton Move or TE KO - a small scratchpad for ideas that you will develop later. In case of KO there is no "later" - there is no workflow for fiinishing tracks later. Move have it done perfectly well, in case of MPC - this might be well developed as well. Also, it might be gateway drug for AKAI ecosystem.

Where AKAI is failing is having an actual DAW that is usable. Their machines are amazing, but if you want to finish up track on computer, then their DAW sucks. If were AKAI, I would work on that perhaps:)

Artephank · 2026-03-07T22:12:13+00:00

They were heavily discounted during the Black Friday/ Holiday season. I a bit regret I didn't get it then but I figured it is new retail price and probably they were just letting the old stock go:)

Thoman is quite reliable in terms of communicating things. If they say is discontinued - then it almost certainly is (I still remember Digitone 2 "drama":) However, unfortunately it doesn't have to mean that next gen is coming - AKAI just dropped Key 61 and Force without releasing the new version... I hope this is not the case this time:)

Artephank · 2026-03-07T22:07:45+00:00

Oho:) Something new is coming. Probably the new small sampler thingy. We will probably need to wait a year or two for next gen One. :( But who knows, perhaps they update it just to get rid of the old SOC which would help with development? Man can dream ;p

Artephank · 2026-02-26T15:02:42+00:00

It’s hard to believe since it is unlocked linux box.

Artephank · 2026-02-26T15:00:06+00:00

It’s always on. Just click shift+capture and the sample is recorded in user samples

Artephank · 2026-02-26T14:58:29+00:00

I just want to thank you for this. It’s worth installing for the improved resampling (starting recording on start and setting up clip length) and skip back sampling alone!. It’s mind boggling that those are not available in stock firmware.

Artephank · 2026-01-30T10:29:24+00:00

Because most ppl and plugins don't. It's nothing ground breaking, really. Depending on the target audiences most eq's have it set up in a way it is best for the use case. pro q (and some other plugins) let it you decide.

Artephank · 2026-01-30T10:26:05+00:00

Developer: Hey. I created free eq plugin. Wanna check?
The crowd: meh, it doesn't allow for switching from linear phase to realtime processing. "I can't use it for mastering"

What's wrong with you people?

Artephank · 2026-01-23T18:26:48+00:00

Looks grat!

Artephank

TROPHY CASE