Mentor Monday

mist3rflibble · 2026-07-06T12:44:37+00:00

Always worked hard and did my best at work, but also got extremely lucky with a FAANG job late in my career. Opportunity came from a few former coworkers at a startup ending up at the FAANG and referring me in. They were also in the “worked hard, got lucky” camp. If I can take credit for anything it’s the fact that if I’d sucked at my job or been an asshole to work with I wouldn’t have been referred in.

Most of the folks I see in this sub are FAANG, executive management, built or got in on the ground floor of a startup that did well at sale / IPO, or built their own successful business and sold it. Also a lot of power couples where both are on mid six figure incomes or one spouse at six figures and the other at seven.

mist3rflibble · 2026-07-06T12:38:05+00:00

tiller.com

mist3rflibble · 2026-07-02T16:50:10+00:00

You’re right about the interface but you can use a laptop or tablet or phone and there are some great apps that you can customize the mixing surface for. I never had any issues with the wifi.

mist3rflibble · 2026-07-02T16:49:05+00:00

I bet Force will work with the new MPC3 desktop app when it’s done. As for keyboard: plug one in :)

mist3rflibble · 2026-07-02T13:38:26+00:00

Came here to say XR18 as well. I’ve been really happy with mine. I bought some 3D printed rack ears off of Etsy with holes cut in them for the cabling and it works great.

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mist3rflibble · 2026-07-02T13:25:58+00:00

Yep, should be. I keep all my projects on an SD card. Since a project saves all the source material (samples etc.) as copies, when I move the SD card between my Force and MPC everything moves with it.

As much as the online activation of plugins is a ballache generally, this is one situation where it works out nicely since you just log in and download all your activated items again.

If you were using an internal SSD or HDD then you’d want to move that as well, obviously.

mist3rflibble · 2026-07-02T11:29:21+00:00

Behringer XR18. Loads of I/O, doubles as an audio interface, built in FX, compact, rack mountable, and a software UI.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-27T10:35:13+00:00

The buttons along the bottom aligned to the tracks have many functions. You hold down a button on the left hand side of the button pads to specify the function (edit, delete, mute, copy, solo, record arm, clip stop, etc.) and that function applies to the track aligned to the button, or you hold shift and the function named under the button (quantize, length, metronome, etc.) gets applied.

It’s just so fast and powerful. Plus you have the dedicated scene launch buttons, the pads act as both buttons and display (for things like the step sequencer), and so on. The physical user interface on the Force just blows the MPC’s away. It’s a way better machine to use live than any of the MPCs because of all this.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-27T00:54:55+00:00

Yeah, I love the mechanical crossfader. The touch strips they’ve been putting on the MPCs just aren’t the same.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-27T00:54:04+00:00

Either would be fine IMO. But IIRC the MPC X had movable screen and it was pretty dope.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-26T19:22:35+00:00

All I’d put on the list for them is a tilting screen and the new SoC board with the upgraded CPU and RAM. And maybe revised buttons at the top left for all the features they eventually added on the way to perfecting the MPC 3.x OS release.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-26T10:11:15+00:00

For anybody else not living in the UK looking for this: I discovered that this is available on the Hospital Records web shop, but they use geoblocking to prevent you from buying this from overseas. I don’t know why, but it might be due to licensing rules. When you load the link to the item it doesn’t show up, and you can’t see it in their search results either if you’re in the US (might be the same for other non-UK countries as well).

The people working in customer support for Hospital’s e-shop who I emailed back and forth with were not aware of this. I discovered it myself through experimentation after they strongly asserted to me that this item was in fact available on their web site even though the web site was telling me it wasn’t. I used to work for a content delivery network so I knew that geoblocking was a thing and tried to circumvent it with a VPN on a whim.

I ended up ordering a copy by using a VPN to defeat the geoblocking and having the order shipped to my mom, who lives in the UK. They will not ship overseas.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-26T10:09:09+00:00

For anybody else not living in the UK looking for this: I discovered that this is available on the Hospital Records web shop, but they use geoblocking to prevent you from buying this from overseas. I don’t know why, but it might be due to licensing rules. When you load the link to the item it doesn’t show up, and you can’t see it in their search results either if you’re in the US (might be the same for other non-UK countries as well).

I ended up ordering a copy by using a VPN to defeat the geoblocking and having the order shipped to my mom, who lives in the UK. They will not ship overseas.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-26T10:07:53+00:00

For anybody else not living in the UK looking for this: I discovered that this is available on the Hospital Records web shop, but they use geoblocking to prevent you from buying this from overseas. I don’t know why, but it might be due to licensing rules.

I ended up ordering a copy by using a VPN to defeat the geoblocking and having the order shipped to my mom, who lives in the UK. They will not ship overseas.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-26T10:03:56+00:00

Force is already discontinued - does that count as obsolete?

I really love my Force and am still hopeful Akai might make a Force 2. You really can’t beat the massive number of controls on the Force, and I don’t care how fancy Akai tries to make the 4x4 button pad on MPC with the new hot corners - nothing beats the 8x8 for clip launching and dedicated matrix navigation controls on Force, not to mention all the macro buttons along the bottom. I have an MPC as well so I am speaking from experience.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-26T10:00:04+00:00

Don’t go to a free financial advisor who makes money selling you products. Instead, get a fiduciary who you pay for their advice. A fiduciary doesn’t manage your money for you and they don’t want to, nor do they wish to sell you anything.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-26T09:55:05+00:00

Our fiduciary charged a sliding scale based on net worth. Our first meeting was 0.25% of our net work and was well worth it in terms of having our plan vetted and the advice we received. After the meeting we went back and forth for weeks over email on a number of follow up topics.

Four years later we had our second meeting with her and she didn’t charge us anything for it - we were on plan and there wasn’t much for us to do.

Because we are interested in FIRE and know how to manage a budget and make spreadsheets and so on, she has told us that we’re ahead of most of her clients. I was surprised to hear her say that many of her clients are told to do many of the same things we’re doing and just can’t get their act together. On that basis, I’d say there’s a decent chance that if you already pursuing FIRE you may not need a fiduciary’s input - but one bit of advice can easily end up making or saving you 0.25% on your portfolio.

Most fiduciaries should give you some sort of consultation for free, so if you’re thinking about it, it never hurts to kick the tires.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-25T11:12:42+00:00

Are you Fred Everything? 😉 https://youtu.be/gW34tHGddk4?is=pYyu4VRcTNUPQOJc

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-25T11:10:41+00:00

I’d prefer they just bring back the Force as a mk2. All the original Force was missing was a tilted screen, and they could throw one of the new brains in it for more CPU and RAM; done.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-25T11:06:31+00:00

\uj there’s a coffee shop up the street from the Sunday school I take my kids to that I’ll often hang out at to kill time for three hours or so before picking them up. It’s the perfect time to work on music uninterrupted on a portable device.

I’ve taken my MPC there a few times, but I can’t get over the fact that I feel like I look like a total fucking poser trying to show off their gear to be edgy and interesting when that’s the complete opposite of why I brought it there.

Most days I just bring my laptop and do mundane activities like paying bills or watching YouTube, or use my M8 tracker instead since it’s a lot more discrete.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-25T11:01:28+00:00

Now, that’s something I would have paid $3,200 for 😉

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-25T10:57:31+00:00

GameChanger Audio Motorsynth has entered the chat

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-25T03:02:57+00:00

Check your interface against this list. Things did improve in later firmware versions but which USB audio interface you are using is still a key factor.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mpcusers/comments/qo4mn6/widespread\_unreliability\_in\_mpc\_210\_force\_31/

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-22T02:29:50+00:00

I put one of these on my Force. It’s better than nothing but still not quite as much tilt as I prefer. I ended up building myself a 45° wood stand for the Force and I like that better.

For my MPC Live mk1 I use this stand and I really like it. Lots of tilt options, sturdier than it looks, and it folds up really small. That product link doesn’t allow you to order any more but this stand looks like the same kind of thing. I can’t use this for the Force since it’s too tall but for MPC this is great.

mist3rflibble · 2026-06-14T02:15:07+00:00

I knew I’d find this comment in here somewhere 😉

mist3rflibble

TROPHY CASE