MPC KEY 61 WTF!! Only 8 Instruments Tracks!?!?!

[@Mopantsu]

The limitations are there for a reason. Cost. If you want unlimited channels you are going to have to go full DAW and using a computer with decent hardware specs. Or add more external gear where you can use more channels. These workstations are built for quick creative workflow and some live performance situations. Yes they can be used as an all-in-one 'DAWLESS' setup, but within certain limitations and boundaries. If you want more you have to pay bigger bucks to chain stuff together or go full DAW. Considering what you get with the MODX keyboard 61 for under 1500 bucks you are getting a LOT of kit for your money. BTW as someone who used to do 8 track tape bouncing and splicinmg and making creative use of an Akai S700 (because I was on a tight budget) this all makes perfect sense to me. I even had trouble with note dropout on a Yamaha DX11 when I got over enthusiastic with MIDI data. Rough times lol.

[@Mopantsu]

EDIT: *Akai Key 61 not MODX obviously.

[@sooesoss6063]

You can hit the plus in the white box to add Plugin Progam...which gives you tracks...

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Awesome! Thanks for supporting

[@joonglegamer9898]

Great instructional video and really good explanations! What a lot of people often forget with the MPC universe is that there's also 128 tracks to play with, these can hold samples as well as the 8 instruments you are mentioning, so if we use 128 tracks with samples, we can easily have 128 (for exaggeration example) different instruments but just use them as samples with filter effects if we need modulation changes to them as well, so we can have a pretty decent amount of polyphony in here. It's very rare for anyone to use all 128 instruments at the same time, but it should handle it afaik.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

And the fact that each 128 tracks can hold samples loops and layers, its pretty limitless.

[@villenium]

Great video. I’d worked out about bouncing instruments to samples myself after I hit the 8 instrument limit. It’s also very useful for having multiple instances of a plug-in but with and without FX applied (there’s probably a baked in way of doing that but I haven’t found it). In all honesty, 8 plug-ins is actually fine for most applications but it’s nice to have scope for more if you want fills & transitions I think.

[@CupofCloud]

totally, heck im glad it at least handles 8. bbut yeah many benefits in bouncing anyway especially creative reasons like going on to chop and resequence previously rendered bouncees. people need to use their mpc

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

The one thing I love, and has now become a routine even in studio one and ableton, is committing MIDI to audio. Printing to commit to the idea. I used to leave everything in midi "just in case" but now, its just commit. Especially in Studio One when you render to audio, you can always transfer back to midi.

[@tcibeatrecords4707]

Even in a computer Daw its always a good practice to bounce your midi tracks to audio for final mixing.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Fully agreed!

[@Rob-E-Lee]

In '99 we made an entire kit with bass and vocal samples along with midi tracks work with an mpc60 that came with a 1.44 mb floppy disk!!

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Those restrictions were some of the best creative tools in music. I used to have the Akai S 2000 which had really limited sampling but I made some of my favorite songs because you had to figure it out and make it work. Now there’s so I spend more time searching through random sounds and things instead of being creative and thinking outside of the box.

[@7vinylsuite]

Yessir, this channel is my go to for on target MPC tutorials. Like every single one hits home. The way you explain and demonstrate the concepts just clicks with my brain. Thank you! Do you have product out? I'm ready to pay. Salute!

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Amazing!! Thanks! I’m developing a MPC boot camp. Would you be interested?

[@7vinylsuite]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE If it's a product I can purchase and reference, that'd be a hell yes for me!

[@TheOwlHead]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE I’m in

[@drewhjava]

I'm sorry, but what have you done with this layer thing? Alternatives: Bounce Track to Audio Track (Quickest as sample is already at correct tempo) Bounce to Sample -> Sample Edit -> Chop -> Regions or BPM -> Convert to Program Bounce to Sample -> Assign sample to pad 1 on Program 1 -> Record Pad 1 Bounce to Sample -> Assign sample to Clip

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

With sample cycling, you are layering 4 samples on a pad and playing through each layer each time you hit the pad. Cycling through all 4 layers. Hope that helps.

[@Reyescult]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE Why would you use sample cycling for something like this when you can just chop the sample to pads,? That would also allow you to rearrange the chord progression and not worry about the cycle getting out of order.

[@drindy5166]

Subbed... killer channel and great vid brother. Loved the topic... endless solutions all just waiting to be utilized. 👊🧡👍

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks!! More on the way my friend

[@drindy5166]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE definitely looking forward to it boss. First MPC ever and the X is a beast. Always up for new learning curves.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

@@drindy5166 congrats. That screen is amazing. Really dive into it. I’ve seen some MPC masters just fly through making tracks on the X cause it has all the buttons and knobs you could ever want

[@drindy5166]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE Q links are especially bad ass. Had it three months and now I am 5 albums deep lol. Cheer brother!

[@marcusholder495]

Stay blessed brother 🙏

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

You too

[@Kinglex-gg6vb]

Wow, great video. 👏👏

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks for supporting!!

[@MrBootsauceTV]

Creativity through limitation. My dude knows what’s up.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Yup. Someday we will all just make some tunes

[@MrBootsauceTV]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE Yeah, everything will just end up in Live...on a hard drive...along with other projects.

[@2good2beuntrue]

I find the limitation silly as well but you can have 8 sounds that you like and then macro the tweaks on the knobs which once turned gives you a different sound as altered and that will seem like a new synth - and you can use it like pretty much in ways that feel infinite nearly - that is the hack that I found

[@taylorstep8135]

For that amount of money there should be unlimited tracks.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

That would be amazing!!! But for now, we work around

[@damonbennett5911]

At this point with technology, there is no such thing as unlimited tracks. What unlimited tracks actually means is that there is no exact number of tracks that you can have. It just depends on what plugins you’re running and the specs of your computer. Every hardware workstation has track and polyphony limits; even the ones that are twice the price of the MPC Key 61.

[@fakinlunatik3553]

My sympathy for using this fast and fun technique constantly

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks for watching.

[@marcus268]

For a live set - is there a workaround to switch the plugin preset on the next sequence ?

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Unfortunately no, the best would be to bounce the plugins to samples that are on a pad, triggered with the sequence.

[@jacquesmertens3369]

Subscribers = subscribers + 1 Very useful info. Thanks. I nearly bought that damn machine. What were they thinking at Akai? Not having midi 2.0 is also a terrible disadvantage. Same for the missing XLR outputs and the small, low quality keybed.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Had the Keys.... Sold the Keys... use the MPC One 99% of the time.

[@JNo-sk5mz]

Broke my heart when that message came up the first time. Don't understand why they can't be one instance, and then 16 "midi tracks each". But whatever I can always hook it up to my computer if I need more, and it does force you to get creative. Seems like they cheaped out on the processor and ram. And of course they don't make it expandable, so you have to buy the next iteration 👎🏾

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

yup, workarounds are always a thing with everything.

[@JonDisnard]

I'm new to the MPC, and so my take away here is the MPC is a sampler, not a synth. So I guess I'll be bouncing to samples, all the things. 🤪

[@andremiller1566]

Not necessarily. It's up to you to use it in funky and unique ways. The mixer section for example has much to offer that lots of people rarely take advantage of. You witnessed sample bounce and audio bounce but you can also self sample via routing which opens up some interesting possibilities. If you are familiar with cycle synthesis then the mpc is especially capable. I see very few demos online about this but it's pretty cool and when you add the granular effect you get some unique results. In my experience most folks are using their mpc's in slightly different ways. I personally have never sampled from vinyl, yet for others that's all they do. I hope you discover a unique and groovy workflow of your own so people have to ask you how did you do that.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Like Andre said, it’s really comes down to how you want to use it. I would say it’s the most versatile stand alone sequencer on the market

[@jerzboybeats]

Good stuff as always. So this would also free up the polyphony. Do you happen to know the polyphony

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

It’s funny, I’ve been trying to get a response from Akai regarding Polifhony, but since all the instruments are a hybrid sample based and synthesizer, the Polyphany changes depending on the size of the memory that the patch is taking up. Sometimes I’ve been fine with eight instruments, other times I get dropouts when I’m only using three or four. Bouncing everything down to samples, or audio tracks always helps free up some of the unknown polyphony questions

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

So this applies to the MPC Key 61, too?

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

This is ALL MPC in stand alone. I’m controller mode you do not have the limitation

[@shamrockbo4957]

It has 128 midi tracks, and 8 vocal tracks & 8 instrument tracks?

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Yup, but each midi track can hold 128 pads, and each pad can have 4 samples, so the math adds up to a LOT of sounds you can trigger for playback.

[@CharlesBronsun]

Mind blown 🤯

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks for the support!! More on the way

[@coolmancam1032]

I'm old school. So let me understand this correctly from a hardware perspective. I currently use a MPC 2000 with a Roland Integra and Motif rack. 8 tracks on the MPC 61 Keys is the equivalent of me having 8 sound modules (or plugins) hooked up to my MPC 2000. Within each of my two sound module racks I have over 8,000 patches to choose from. With the MPC 61 Keys, that would equate to tens of thousands of sounds via the 8 plugins or 8 sound module racks correct in the hardware world correct? If that's the case how is that a bad thing?

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Had the keys but sold it... staying with the MPC One

[@illumnnati_nyc3diavolotheg995]

8 instrument Trax that’s some bullshit I was just about to buy one to replace my mpc live 2 but now I’m never getting it that’s robbery for 2000$

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Its not for everyone forsure. Its interesting how the Keys for some is revolutionary and for other its a waste of money.

[@MIKAELAMONET]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks for watching and supporting the channel, many more videos to come. I feel so blessed to have such an awesome support network and community watching the videos

[@frankr7239]

Is that 8tracks or 8 instruments they have surely if it's that they would give you more through computer

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

It’s unlimited in the computer

[@skooliganwtf5592]

The BOSS.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Really appreciate all the support!

[@HighlandStudio91]

Wow...128 midi tracks...but only 8 plugin tracks(Roland pulled the same bullshit with their Fantom-G series)...however, at Akai's price point, the MPC Key 61 is a much better workstation than any of Roland's workstations ever were.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

I agree, the Key 61 is a beast, even at the cost. I've been having a blast being creative with it. Im about to hook up some analog synth and give it a shot.

[@bigcdub]

Lmao, workflow is better, sounds on the MPC 61 are definitely not as good, and I own the Live2 with Fabric XL…

[@damonbennett5911]

The Fantom G is like 13 years old! Hopefully the workstation that was just released a couple months ago is better! But in actuality, the Fantom G is better at some things. If you’re being spontaneous while performing live and need to switch sounds seamlessly, the Roland is definitely better. The pads on the Roland aren’t tied to the current patch. So you can switch from a piano to a synth pad to horns to organ and the same drum patch or whatever will be on the pads. You don’t have to create split points and all that like on the Key 61. And once again, the patch switching on the Roland is seamless. The Key 61 has better sounds, sampler and sequencer. For me, the Fantom G, even being 13 years old is better for me playing live, and the Key 61 is better for production.

[@bigcdub]

@@damonbennett5911 Lmao, I own both the Fantom G8, Live2 with all the same Plug-Ins as the Keys-61, also own Montage 6, Kronos2, with that said, Fantom-G sound quality is still far superior to Keys-61, the keys has more up to date sounds, but falls short in quality and richness, also let's not forget the 24 audio tracks that can be recorded straight to the sequencer... Sequences, beat patterns, and sounds for dub step, techno, is where the Keys-61 shines, wouldn't use it for any serious composition work...

[@damonbennett5911]

@@bigcdub looks like we own a lot of the same gear. When it comes to things like what sounds better, what has better sound equality and how you would use apiece of gear is subjective. When I got my G6 years ago, someone told me that I couldn’t do any serious production with that. In my 1st day with the Key 61, I made a Lofi track, a soulful house track, a smooth jazz track and a track that’s sounds like D-Train and Roger Troutman had a baby. I don’t know what you consider serious composition, but I write pretty much every genre and I’m sure I can do what I need to do with the Key 61. But once again, there isnt any right or wrong. It’s subjective.

[@streetiife9111]

That beat 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks!! Free projects coming up in future videos

[@mrguitar5051]

The problem with this keyboard is all it sounds are hip hop and r&b. You cannot add new sounds because there's no options to do so even though texsport tells you otherwise

[@MrAntonioTech]

Can you please elaborate a bit more on this as I am about to buy the Kork Nautilis, or Akai Keys 61? I was told that you can add sounds in Korg but not in AKAI. What if you recorded each track back to FL Studio where you can add more sounds?

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

@MrAntonioTech the Korg would be more versatile in the long run. The MPC is still a sampler first, synth workstation second.. far second

[@MrAntonioTech]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIREThank you for clarifying!

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

@MrAntonioTech anytime. I would also consider the Yamaha motif

[@alphabeets]

Version 3.0 will have 16 instruments.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

hopefully,,,, the question is when 3 will ever come out.

[@FranciscoDiazMusic]

8 instruments at a time? I don’t get it. I thought it has unlimited tracks…

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Nope. Only 8 in standalone, if you run in controller mode then you have unlimited

[@MrAntonioTech]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE So in controller mode we can record each AKAI instrument in the DAW of our choice, right?

[@davidbazomusic]

​@MrAntonioTNice question. Do we @CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE?

[@SuperQuater]

Is it true you can only record 5 minutes of audio!?

[@Chyuuch]

When you bounced the midi to a sample you could’ve just triggered the pad once. It was already tempo sync. All that other shit was unnecessary lol

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks for the feedback.

[@Chyuuch]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE no doubt. with that said, thats a great way to create and chop your own samples in the MPC. But if its for the purpose of just turning midi into audio and triggering the pass, the other steps are kinda unnecessary

[@MegaTechnoteacher]

Try 256 tracks

[@mh22xv]

I’m sorry, but seriously only 8 midiinstruments? The MODX sequencer can record 16 instruments without any workarounds for “almost” half the price.

[@christianthompson1473]

16 plug in instruments? Or 16 pcm sample based voices?

[@jsutton241]

Yeah but MODX can’t sample and the software is shit. And remember he talking about 8 plug-ins. In all the mpc sequencer can have up to 128 tracks per sequence and you can also have up to 128 sequences per project. It can also sync and control up 32 hardware devices and synths via usb. It’s also has audio interface support we’re you can have as many ins and out as you want to have a complete recording experience in standalone . Yeah it should cost more.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

I wish they made a MODX desktop, I love Yamaha sounds but using MPC for sequencing

[@christianthompson1473]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE get a yamaha ex5 rackmount unit. It is basically the same sounds.

[@darrickkeels6387]

Currently in the USA from Sweetwater the MODX6 is 1399.99. The Akai MPC Key 61 is 1899.99. So $950 is half the price. The MODX is $450 more than that. So to me that is not "almost" half the price. The MODX is capable of having 16 PCM sampled instruments (or FM) in a performance. That is quite a bit different from 8 VSTs that come with their own unique set of effects, oscillators, and GUI. Furthermore, you can only play 8 instruments from the keyboard itself on the MODX. The other 8 would have to be triggered via an external device. Only 12 of your instruments can have insert effects on them not 16. Lastly, many of the "flagship" sounds you hear on the MODX actually take up more than one channel. For example the CFX Stage Piano takes up 4 of the 8 available channels that can be played from the keybed itself. The same is true for many of the string sounds, orchestral sounds and so on. Many of them take up all 8 available channels. So yes, the Akai has its limitations. But so does the MODX. Yes technically it is capable of 16 instruments at once. But upon looking closer at its architecture you will find it suffers from some pretty big limitations as well. In many ways more than the Akai.

[@SouthernEmperor]

Or......you should just invest into purchasing the MPC X. Too many workarounds that's time consuming. The exact reason I asked my rep at Sweetwater to move my order from the MPC 61 to the MPC X and I just added more money and made that purchase while waiting for this board to come in. The X is the truth.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

The X is amazing. I’ve been emails akai to just sell the 16 knobs with the little displays as an add on piece

[@SouthernEmperor]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE That’s really a great idea!!!

[@Johnnybananass-_]

8 tracks are a bad thing and it’s down to a measely 8gb ram and a slow cpu.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

honestly, using it in controller mode unlocked all the limitations.. but then you can argue that an 1800 midi controller is crazy...

[@northwestcoast]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE An £1800 Midi controller IS crazy. I'm using my MPC as a sound module to make use of the 4GB onboard RAM alongside Logic and the 8GB RAM on my computer..(I remember when 512k was decent 😆 A really sweet way of working

[@loginman2000]

Dafuq? It's like the stupid Ableton Live Lite I got with my launchpad, but like $2000 plus more cause Lite was practically free.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Ya, the limitations will force you to find ways around them.

[@loginman2000]

@@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE Yea. The creativity boost one can receive from limitations can be rather surprising.

[@frankr7239]

Sax .drums.guitars.and every other instruments should be in it otherwise it's not worth it if it only has 8 instruments

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Agreed, if it could play Kontakt libraries in standalone

[@tigerboy4516]

Buy a Korg Yamaha or Roland. 16 tracks, great sounds, job done. Making a track is just that, don't wanna turn it to mixing down time. I didn't heard a single sound that can not be found on the big 3 synth workstations. This is sooooo far removed from the creative "in the moment" flow. This is nonsense.

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Had the keys... sold the keys.... MPC One with a MODx is amazing.

[@sebastianswigon762]

Sorry! You didn't understand the concept of mpc key...

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

Thanks for watching.

[@cardinalmontresor4502]

I took that shit back. The software sucks.

[@mmsoulmm]

Damn foreal

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

I’m trying to make a master class for the software but shit… it’s soo frustrating using it. Like the main window doesn’t respond to trackpad pitch to zoom but the controller screen does????

[@alphabeets]

Damn. This is BS. I’m gonna go back to my Commodore 64.

[@damonbennett5911]

So the Key 61 has thousands of presets, 8 audio tracks, 4 gigs of RAM and like 10 or so gigs of content and some people are complaining that you can only load 8 plugins. I’m cracking up! I mean an MPC is loading plugins now!! Maybe it’s just that I’m an old head that remembers when hit records were being made with a single drum machine with only 10 seconds of sampling time. If I could have had just one instance of Fabric on my MPC-60 in 1992!

[@CREATEEDUCATEINSPIRE]

I has an S3000 rack back in the day. its insane how far technology has come.

[@northwestcoast]

I know right, an embarrassment of riches and still people complain.