The initial concept was to create a playing environment for each of us that was as stable as possible but also flexible enough for each of us to improvise or rearrange the structure of the original tracks on the fly. “Our first live setup was more 'band' orientated, featuring the vocals of Cornelia and our front of house engineer Nigel Glasgow. What was your first live setup and what was the ethos behind it? The concept of taking the listener on a journey through deconstructing and reimagining our own material live really inspired us.” We still love DJing but playing live is just a different buzz. Matt Benyayer: “It was a natural evolution for us after finishing our first album – we began thinking of ways to best present that body of work and a live show just seemed to work best. What drew you to performing live over just DJing? but as a hub it can be limited, unless you just use monosynths.Ahead of their Native Instruments Session panel and live set at AVA London on Friday 16th March, we caught up with Dark Sky to find out how their live show works, their inspiration behind the setup and why you should always have a plan B. The octa you should really think of as a sampler on steroids, it does shit the mpc or any other sampler won`t, with all the fun of elektron sequencing (and stereo files). So it is there to be the hub of your setup. It`s more than a sampler, in the same way that ableton is. Think of the MPC live as a DAW in a box, steered towards live performance. Then of course if you plug it in to your computer it becomes a control surface for the MPC software, and can also run as a plugin within your DAW of choice. Then of course you can drive external midi instruments (and use grid or step to do so, with unrestricted chords, unlike the octa which is not really chord friendly). So you get up to 128 (stereo or mono) tracks of samples or whatever, plus 4 synced stereo audio tracks (these can be recorded too or just used to play long stereo files or whatever), +lots of internal effects, and each channel can have separate and different effects like a DAW. However you do get the amazing MPC pads, which are just awesome for playing your own beats in (amongst other uses), and you can obviously sequence via the grid mode, which is like your typical DAW piano roll, and also via the step sequencers (if you prefer that way) which are incredibly flexible. The MPC sampling is more conventional, of course you have stretching, and the visual interface for sample editing etc is beautiful and easy to use, but it doesn`t do the same things as the octa. The Octa has it`s strength as a sample mangling performance tool, it`s something for really creative sample manipulation, and it`s great for going on discovery/experimentation journey`s. I would say don`t compare them as they serve very different purposes. I have both, kept my live octa, sold the studio one. Wouldn't even mind just grabbing an old MPC to make beats on for a while.Īnyway how does it go compared to the OT? Do you feel some overlap or do they both hold their own? I get a feeling the MPC Live offers an easier/more visual arrangement editor. There are some issues I have, but I think they will be ironed out once the beta goes final.īuffered wrote:Great looking forward to updates on your experience with the MPC. I'll keep reporting back as I get deeper in, but yeah, this thing is really a lovely bit of kit, for someone who is meh about hardware, I'm pretty hard to please. It's pretty easy to build a tune with this at the centre of your hardware doing the sequencing and sample duties. As I discover more stuff it keeps putting smiles on my face, which is a good sign.Īs a workstation setup I am seeing a lot of potential, with all the various sequencing options it makes composition quick but also quite fun and intuitive, even though the firmware is still beta. Effects and filters on anything you want, and they are going to implement vst's apparently (they will be specifically for the MPC line though to prevent comparability risks etc). I'm playing with it today, working my way through the manual (which is fucking huge), and it's just so much fun. It runs in legacy modes too, so you can replicate the sound character of old akais with it. I think it is one of the most exciting releases this year, waaaay more interesting than the Digitwat, much more "future" and no one seems to have noticed it on here.Įverywhere else there is a huge buzz, akai returning to form with a genuine MPC. ![]() I'll probably start a new thread about it. and let's not even talk about my wishes for an A4 and/or Rytm.or DFAM.or Sub37. ![]() ![]() Now I just have to hope I get a decent bonus from work this year, and more importantly, set some aside before the wife spends it all. Pretty big endorsement from someone who obviously knows what's what.
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