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

£9.9£99Clearance
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A wide array of connections, including a SATA port to have your samples library and project everywhere. New Chord Progressions: MPC now contains five extra chord progressions that can be used in Pad Perform > Progressions mode.

The most notable addition to the MPC Live unit, though, is the speakers. They’re hard to miss, and have proven somewhat controversial among MPC users on forums and social media. The speakers were certainly a bold step. Aside from the Korg Volcas and the Novation Circuit, there are few other hardware synths with built-in speakers. Their inclusion on a professionally built MPC unit is certainly novel – and we couldn’t wait to try them. Finally there’s also the ‘beats on the go’ factor – whether it’s banging out a tune on the train or in the park, or lounging around chopping breaks on your couch, these smaller MPCs again have the MPC X nailed. But with its internal battery and built in speaker, the MPC Live II is of course the ‘out of the box’ winner here – just pull it out, turn it on and make beats anywhere (but you might want to use headphones if you’re sitting on a train!). Storage & ConnectivityOut the box MPC Live II Retro ships with 16GB of internal Micro SD storage. For producers looking to add a personal touch to their production, MPC Live II Retro features a built-in SD Card slot, a user-expandable 2.5-inch SATA drive bay for connecting SSD or HDD drives and USB thumb input for immediate access to your own sample libraries.Vocal Harmonizer - Note parameter value increments made from control surface hardware are now correct Solution home Akai Pro | MPC Series MPC Series | Maintenance and Care Akai Pro MPC | Firmware Update Walkthrough On top of all this functionality, the MPC Live II features native support for Splice and tight integration with Ableton Live - it comes pre-mapped to Live and can also control the DAW wirelessly via Wi-Fi - in addition to expandable memory options (SD Card, USB thumb drive and a 2.5 inch SATA bay) that give you the ability upload your own sample libraries. Akai ’s MPC Live II is a refined and improved version of the original Live, which raised the bar for truly portable production workstations. Retaining its predecessor’s stylish looks and robust build-quality, the Live II expands upon it with an even smoother workflow, additional controls on the front panel, lighter form factor, CV connections and a punchy built-in stereo speaker - the Akai Live II is a more than worthy successor to its first iteration. If you use it in studio with lots of midi devices, you can make it the brain for midi too, no need to buy stuff like Bome box or MRCC. ( of cuz they are great if you need one in your setup ).

Enjoy over 100 plugins from award-winning AIR Music Tech., including the AIR Vocal Insert Effects Suite, delivering the power to record and mix the perfect vocals. In addition to its stable of standard dynamic audio processors, MPC2 features numerous time-based Insert Effects for creative remixing and production like Half Speed and Stutter. Ableton Link 3 Support: Ableton & MPC are now able to sync start/stop from a single transport control The Force does not interact with the MPC software, though it’s entirely possible that Akai is going to bring all of its hardware products into line with a future software update. The Live has a song mode and a selection of software instruments but, at heart, it’s always been more about the sampling and the beats – you can probably tell that by looking at it. The Force is more of an Ableton-in-a-box concept, which is something that many users have wanted for years. The Live boasts more ways of connecting with the outside world – more audio inputs, full-size MIDI ports, and the CV/gate outputs – than the Force too. In terms of quality, you can’t really go wrong with either. Akai’s hardware prowess is second to none. That's why the Akao MPC Live II features three stereo 1/4" TRS outputs (six mono) along with phone/line-level inputs, USB, MIDI, four TRS CV/Gate Outputs and even Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.Firmware 2.10 introduces 14 new plug-ins: 4 instruments (Hype, Solina, Odyssey, and Mellotron), 7 insert effects (Half Speed, Diode Clipper, Stutter, Diffuser Delay, Sample Delay, Limiter, and Granulator), and AIR Vocal Insert Effect Suite (Vocal Tuner, Vocal Doubler, and Vocal Harmonizer) All in all, the MPC range is at the most appealing right now that it’s been in the 21st century. In terms of its balance of capabilities and convenience, there isn’t anything on the market to rival the MPC Live when it comes to realising the dream of wireless, go-anywhere music production. The hardware updates for v2 are subtle, but both speaker and CV ports add genuine usability. A big strength of the MPCs is their ability to directly host USB MIDI devices. Now you can connect and use USB MIDI interfaces, and also connect devices via a USB hub. I connected the Retrokits RK006 interface that I have on test, and boom: 10 new MIDI output ports on my MPC! The port manager lets you name ports, choose whether they output sync, and whether they are for notes or control, or both. The MPC 2.11 desktop software includes MIDI maps for popular Ableton, Arturia, Korg, M-Audio and Native Instruments controllers. I find it hard to justify paying roughly the same price as a brand new fully warrantied ONE for a used Live but I do like the idea of the battery and phono inputs.

The most recommended USB interface for the MPC (and the one used by Akai in their promo videos) is actually a complete mixer and recording solution, the Tascam Model 12, which effectively provides your MPC with 12 inputs, 10 outputs, hands on dials, knobs, EQ, FX, mic preamps and a host of other features. So if you’re happy ‘outsourcing’ these tasks to an additional device like this, even the MPC One Plus could be used as a studio ‘hub’. Ergonomics The Akai Professional MPC Live II is the second iteration of the hugely popular and powerful music production centre with fantastic new features and upgrades. Ready When Inspiration Strikes Ableton Live Control Mode is a special MPC mode that allows you to directly control a running installation of Ableton Live, so you can launch clips and scenes, mixer parameters and a variety of other functions. It effectively turns the MPC into a very basic Ableton Push. Currently the MPC Key does not support Ableton Live Control (it has not been confirmed why). Comparison: Portability & Size MPC 2.9 Firmware Update: now includes 8 all-new synth engines, powering 9 incredible DrymSynth pluginsAbleton mode provides a clip launcher, mixer and device control. The launcher view is your typical 8x8 grid of tappable clip slots, complete with animated loop progress bars in each clip. The pads also work as a tactile launcher, though of course showing a smaller window into the Session view. Scenes can be launched, and you can initiate recording into clips or into the Arrangement. On the buttons you get transport control and some other basic options. This release is for MPC One+, MPC X Special Edition, MPC Key 61, MPC One, MPC Live II, MPC X and MPC Live hardware. TRS outputs (3 stereo pairs) (1) 1/4" (6.35mm) stereo headphone output (2) RCA inputs (1 stereo pair) If the display layout of the MPC Live II ever feels cramped, you can simply transpose your project into the MPC software and view it via a computer display, which is an awesome ace in the hole. Though Akai received many requests to feature a monitor output on this new model, for now, this is as good as it gets. Software version 2.8’s new retrospective-record feature is as welcome as Capture was to Ableton Live 10, and a brilliant bit of insurance if you ever forget to hit record or didn’t expect yourself to play so well. All you have to do is press Shift+Rec to print the last MIDI part you played in.

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