Stick with it, though, and the fruits are there. It’s not Akai Pro’s fault, and to their credit they have excellent video tutorials covering every aspect of the use of the unit, but the number of button presses, screens, sequences and so on you need to learn to get even simple things done will frustrate you at first.
Imagine having to learn MacOS or Windows, at the same time as Ableton Live, just to get started – that’s what it’s like trying to learn to use an all-in-one unit like this if you haven’t used one before.Īnother analogy could be using a smartphone to do something creative for the first time, when you’ve never seen a smartphone before! This tool can super charge your music production workflow, but there’s a lot to wrap your head around! With everything charged and ready, I set about starting to make music with this… Learn to make dance music with Digital DJ Tips: Dance Music FormulaĪll the knobs and buttons feel like they’re in exactly the right place (with some notable improvements over the MPC Live), and of course the full RGB Akai Pro pads are bright and responsive. The battery is fantastic – using it constantly with the speakers gives you five to six hours of play time, which is one long session of beat-making on the beach!Īs you’re going to find out further on in this review, the MPC Live II is a fully fledged production centre, able to make music from first sample to finished track – so it’s good to see it’s got a slot for a SATA hard drive underneath. It’s well built but not too heavy, and you get the choice of using headphones or the built-in speakers, for which there’s a switch. So to start with, this unit immediately feels like a pro piece of kit. Killer features on the MPC Live II include excellent integrated speakers (which they call “studio monitors”), and a phono-level line input on the back, for sampling from vinyl – with a portable turntable, this could be the ultimate portablism producer set-up for making music on the go. In the same way that DJs love Denon DJ’s little Prime GO for DJing, so it is with the Akai Pro MPC Live II – it’s the same mix of portable and professional. The portability of Akai Pro’s MPC Live II lets you make music wherever and whenever inspiration strikes. With a unit like this, because you don’t have to use a laptop, you’re truly free to throw it in a bag and head off anywhere to make music – and yet you’ve got everything you need (sounds, samples, plugins and so on). Recently, though, the MPC Live II has upped Akai Pro’s game in this area. Maybe you’re a fan of J Dilla, MadLib or other boom bap hip-hop artists, famous for chopping their samples up on MPC apps and hardware, and you’ve always wanted to buy a unit like this to have a go yourself.Īfter all, MPC has been there since the early days of hip hop. Ever fancied buying an all-in-one music production centre to start making your own tracks?
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