below is a copy of the mail sent to Akai, and if you
agree with this list, please mail Sascha or me, or the
Akai themselves to pull the machine to its max.
added 27-04-99:
At last! I got a reply from Akai directly!
the following e-mail was sent to info@emi.akai.co.jp
,and
forwarded to the MPC2000 development team.
the guy, ( only identified as an 'MPC2000 developer' in the mail )
replied to the mail 'as much as he could' Although most of
which was 'fixed in ver 1.70'. damn Akai....
anyways, I translated his reply and inserted into appropriate sections
of the list below. not much to be delighted thou.
and another thing, at the end of the mail was a few lines
that made me climb up the trees (well, almost)
However, there is currently no plans for further MPC2000 OS updates.
Please consent to our dicision.
The mail (presumably the list) received is greatly appreciated
as important customer suggestions and will be refered to in future
product development.
We wish that our product will continue to be your
favorite in the future.
AKAI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
SALES & MARKETING AKAI EMI
http://www.akai.com/akaipro
e-mail : info@emi.akai.co.jp
TEL : 81-45(476)6941
FAX : 81-45(476)6936
... does that mean the 1.74beta floating around the net is the final
version
for MPC2000? NO WAY!
If there's gonna be another MPC, I'd probably want one.
but knowing that they can't even ship their flag-ship samplers S5000/6000
with working OS, there's no way we'll get another 'usable' MPC before
the next century. (the latest os 1.10a as of today, has a critical
fault in the
system that any 'dance' drum sound played will sound crap. I hope
somebody's notified them about that already in Japanese.
I don't know if it's a software issue or a hardware issue, but if it's
the later,
they can't build a new MPC with that sound engine. damn DAMN Akai...)
well, and I got so many of you sending me a signature after the
list was sent to Akai. What I suggest you lot do is send them the
signature yourself! I believe that's the only way to make
them realise how many of us MPC headz really want these things.
or even call them on the number above, if you can afford the
International call.
and another wild GUESS I have is that the MPC2000 development
team
could have been broken up already. if that's the case, adding those
ever wanted features can be quite a difficult thing.
well, let's hope that's not the case and MAKE AKAI DO SOMETHING
while there's still the programer who coded the MPC2000.
Reminder: But NEVER mail bomb Akai or do anything net-terrorists
do.
Keep on sending 'em mails like a good consumer with extreme
patience.
Just repeat patiently with a good manner until you get
a reply.
(since January '99, I'd been sending them the mail every
month
saying 'probably due to a server error, the mails do
not seem to be
getting through to you. so here's the mail again')
---
Dear Akai Software Engineers,
the following is a large list of improvement suggestions and bug-reports
from different users on the Akai Mailing List (at akai@cloudfactory.org).
The reason for this is simple: We want a new OS for the MPC2000!
And perhaps a ROM update (if required). Much users suggested to give
up
1 or 2 megs of sample-mem for a better OS, i think this is a good idea,
if it is technically possible.
Some points are ideas, wich (i guess) are rather difficult to comply,
but
some others are very needed, because they are simply standard or it's
circuitous to work with that flaws.
Please recognize this as a request from the following users who provided
this list ...
sascha.balkau@kiel.netsurf.de
laice06@wgn.net
elden@btinternet.com
tr-909@technologist.com
abel@eurecom.fr
robj@mpx.com.au
rpfries@interaccess.com
jing@spacelab.net
sean@audiox.com
--- cut ---
-- DISK OPERATION --
1. Program-/Sound loading from different partitions. To prevent
to
long directories, i part my Zip's into four partitions.
Now not
every sound is on each partition and it would be
great if the
disk-OS looks for not found sounds on all other
available
partitions. It's a pain in the butt to load all
needed sounds
manually from different partitions and then reload
the program.
2. In case point 1 isn't possible: improvement of the 'sound not
found'
requester. Three other buttons: CANCEL to interrupt
the whole
loading-procedure; SKIP ALL SOUNDS to skip all sounds
that aren't
found, *but load all other anyway*; SKIP SOUND to
only skip the
single sound that isn't found.
3. Support loading multiple samples at once. Loading many samples
into a
program is a pain the way it is now. The MPC2K does
not import foreign
program formats, so when browsing a sampling CD
to prepare a program for
the MPC, one has to load sample by sample manually.
This consumes too
much time of attention one has to pay until all
samples are loaded.
4. Support deleting multiple files at one or at least get rid
of the fancy
"filename is dropped to the wastepaper basket" animation
and make the
deletion fast. Have you ever had to delete a bunch
of samples
accidentially saved to the wrong partition? You'll
hate that animation
afterwards!
5. Improvement in file managing: I have my own sample library
which is
categorized in lots of sub-sub-folders (e.g. samples\drums\analog
\tr-909\bd.wav etc.). Even just reading-support
for disks like this
would be very much appreciated.
6. Saving of samples also possible in WAV and/or AIFF format 16
bit.
Added in version 1.7
7. Read raw PCM data - 16/8 bit, intel & motorola words, varying
frequency, mono/stereo etc.
8. SCSI Sample Dump support (against akai policy?)
SCSI controler on MPC2000 can only act as the initiater, making
communication to another initiater (the PC) via SCSI impossible.
most SCSI controlers for PCs are not desgined to function with another
initiater on the same SCSI chain and doing so may damage data
being sent. Akai will not support SCSI sample tranmission for that
reason.
please beware that we cannot guarantee the MPC2000's functionality
while it's connected to a SCSI chain shared with a computer.
9. It will wake up my Jaz drive when booting the O.S. but upon
loading
or saving sounds etc. I have to do this manually.
(Annoying!) Can't
you implement a wake up call at least for when switching
drives. My
S1100 does this.
JAZ drives automatically 'wakes up' on receiving data transmission
command. and there is no such thing as 'SCSI wake up command' to
send.
The JAZ drive was fully functional in our compatibility test.
- - SAMPLING --
10. Ability to sample/resample at 22kHz and lower.
11. Ability to sample at less than 16 bits and an option to turn of
anti-aliasing when sampling.
12. Abilitly to sample from audio-cd's on a connected SCSI-CDROM
directly through the SCSI-Bus.
sound being transimit through SCSI cannot be monitored on MPC2k.
we believe such inconvinient feature is not worth to be implemented.
13. Input threshold not as supple as say my S1100 which always preserves
attack. I sometimes have to turn the input threshold
off to make sure
I get it all on the 2k.
- - TRIM MODE/SAMPLE EDIT --
14. The MPC2000 uses the same sound engine as the S2000. So how about
implementing the sample edit functions from the
S2000 like there
are: loop crossfade, normalize, fade in/out, timestretch
and
especially resampling of individual sounds and sequences
to make
drumloops with usage of the effect board, filters
and all other
depending options (attack/delay, pitch etc.)
Also a de-noise option would be very cool to get
sweeps out of
bad quality samples. We need this functions!
This whole bunch of functions could be placed good
at Trim-Mode/
znEdit/Edit or else on an individual page.
15. Ping Pong Loop: the sound loops forward and then backwards again.
Can not be implemented due to hardware limitation
16. A position-locator that moves through the graphical display while
playing the sound to see, where exactly a postition
is.
17. Find-Function in Trim-Mode/Loop to find a good loop-point (as like
in other Akai samplers).
18. In sample trimming screen, position of the cursor and decimal place
should be held after going through different screens
(or at least
within the trim mode), this would be useful when
adjusting loop
length of known bpm referring to bpm display in
the param. screen.
since MPC2000 ver. 1.00 the cursol position is held in memory,
however, due to the memory allocation of the OS, decimal place
can not be stored in the memory.
- - MIXER PAGE/EFFECTS --
19. In Mixer-page: selecting several different channels by pressing
Shift+F6 (for example), to change velocity, effects
etc. Not only
one or all channels per pad-bank. That could work
like multiple
choice: selecting the first channel by highlight
it and then
press shift-F6 then the next channel etc.
Implemented in ver 1.7. press a pad while holding shift.
20. External access to effects.
21. External source (carrier or modulator or both) for the 'ring
modulator' effect.
22. Ability to route the outputs from the four fx units in the EB16
out
of the seperate outputs.
implemented in ver. 1.7
23. How about an arpeggiator? I can`t believe Akai didn`t include one
as
every other manufacturer seems to be including them.
- - NOTE VARIATION SLIDER --
24. Calling the Note Variation Assignment function in play- (and
recording) mode to change the assigned sound in
realtime.
25. The Note Variation Slider could be assigned to more than one pad
at once and to different parameters for each pad.
26. Velocity-control via the note variation slider.
27. Ability to use the note variation slider to record/transmit
MIDI control change's.
28. Resonance that can be tweeked continuously with NV slider rather
than just once at the begining of the sample.
29. More assignable MIDI CC control of parameters to get past that one
NV slider parameter modulation per pad limitation.
30. NV slider able to be routed to a midi function of any outgoing channel
(not just internal drums).
- - MAIN SCREEN --
31. Ability to make the 'NOTE REPEAT' key be lockable, maybe by pressing
it together with the 'SHIFT' key. This would double
the free hands
during this wonderful realtime function. A message
at the bottom
display could point out that the note repeat key
is locked.
implemented in ver. 1.7. press shift key while holding 'note repeat'.
32. Ability to make changes to track parameters (MIDI port, channel,
MIDI/DRUM, prog. no. etc.) and note quantisation
while the sequencer
is running.
33. In step recording - entering values of velocity/note delaytion
directly from numeric keys and changing note quantisation
without
quitting the step rec. screen (e.g. shift&numeric
keys)
34. One `free-running` track that could loop over the top of the other
sequences regardless of its length. E.g. the free
running track
has two bars with a drum-pattern and the other new
recorded tracks
are longer but the drum-pattern will continue to
play.
Implemented in ver 1.7. 'TC' on F1 key will show up timing
change screen
35. Set different length to individual tracks. This might confuse users
who are new to sequencing, but this is really useful
as I experienced
on my old trusty Q-80 (Kawai). With that, you can
make a bar hihat
phrase repeating underneath 8-bars long improvisional
drumming, and
play 133bar long piano solo above all right till
the end etc etc.
I know cut and paste can do somethings like this
in song mode, but it
doesn't leave me much space for me to mess around
when doing live or jam.
36. Ability to edit a range of sounds at once. E.g. select all your
sounds, then anything you set the filter to, will
affect all
other sounds you selected to the same value.
37. Grouping of tracks: This one sounds rather complicated, but it isn't
as complicated as one might think. I always found
it irritating when
you are pressing "pad bank" key to switch between
tracks in real-time
mute screen, and you press the key too many times.
Then you have to
press the key 3 times more to come back to where
you originally wanted.
This problem becomes worth when only tracks more
than 16 and less than
32 are used. There's no point going through bank
C/D when there are no
tracks at all. Also, I need some way of muting separate
drum instrument
tracks/channels instantly for those big breakdowns.
I have 2 ideas
which might solve both these problems:
a) Grouping of tracks: use pads 9-16 to select
track group 1-8
(or A-H), and use pads 1-8
to mute individual tracks in the chosen
group. So for example, when
pad 9 is pressed, group 1 (or A) is
selected and pads 1-8 correspond
to tracks 1-8. When pad 11 is
pressed, track group 3 (or
C) is selected and pads 1-8 now
correspond to tracks 17-24.
Then shift & pad 9-16 to deactivate
the group. It is ideal if
individual setting of tracks within the
group can be held &
edited while the group is not active. It would
also be useful if each groups
could be named but this may be
difficult as it requires
new data structure - compatibility problem
between older versions.
Possibility of this extension is very much
depending on how flexible
seq. data are designed in the system,
but even though it is difficult
to change the data structure, this
extension can be implemented
in the following way that should not
cause any compatibility
problems:
i) Display group
names just as numbers 1-8 or use the name of the
first track in each group as the group name.
ii) "deactivate group"
combination of keys&pads pressed when more
than 1 track is active in the group; mute all the tracks in
the group that were playing.
iii) "deactivate group"
combi when no tracks are playing: activate
all the track within the group.
iv) activate a track
in the group that is deactivated: group
status back to active.
b) Scene memory: not sure exactly how this
should be implemented, but
some way of storing different
track settings and being able to
recall them by simple push
of keys would be handy.
38. When using the quantize or other editing functions on a sequence,
the
MPC's bar range page needs to default to the entire
length of the
selected sequence. I waste alot of time having to
double check and
change those parameters to fit my current seq every
time I want to edit
something. The old MPC defaulted to length of sequence!!
- - MIDI --
39. Sending MIDI control changes (filter, pitch etc.), so that they
can
be recorded with a software-sequencer. (Don't know
if this is possible)
40. Enable MIDI clock for both outputs at once. Almost any new device
can
use MIDI clock to synchronize LFOs, delay times
or internal sequencers.
Implemented in ver. 1.7
41. Option to choose whether to wait for MIDI play or not. - To use
with
equipment that only sends continuous MIDI clock
such as the MDM-X4 MD
multitracker. This would be useful for live/remixing
too.
(Suggestion: how about press "play" to wait for
MIDI play, and press
"Play start" to start playing to the MIDI clock?)
Pressing a pad once will start the sequence while waiting for MIDI
clock.
Also, in ver. 1.7, 'count on/off' switch controls the 'wait for
MIDI play' function.
42. I used to be able to leave the mpc-60II in smpte sync mode and still
be able to play from internal clock by hitting play.
(It would go
external when it saw smpte) Now everytime I want
to edit a sequence
(not synced) I have to turn off smpte sync mode.
Doesn't sound like much,
but try working on a piece while synced to smpte
and have to stop and
edit offline continually. I turn that damn smpte
function on and off a
thousand times a day sometimes.
Implementled in ver. 1.7.
43. MIDI bulk librarian function. This suite the name Midi Production
Centre
perfectly, why wasn't this implemented when the
machine was designed in
a way that requires lots of memory and storage space?
- - DIFFERENT --
44. A function in the 'Others' page wich clears all sounds from memory
with the option to only clear sounds wich aren't
used in the current
sequence/or all used sequences. It's a waste of
disk-space to save
all sounds within the program even that sounds that
aren't needed.
And it is nerving to clear unused samples manually
from the program.
'PURGE' function is added in the PROGRAM screen since ver. 1.7.
45. More than 128 sounds in the sound directory! If I have 32 mb and
want to stuff it with millions of samples - why
can`t I???
(there should be 3x128 = 384 sounds)
46. Long sound's are interrupted when leaving the program-page. That's
a catastrophe when playing live. Same thing with
the EB-16 effect
board: Sounds with reverb/delay effect are often
interrupted just
by changing some effect-parameters.
47. Ability to view the MPC-display on a computer screen instead of
that LCD screen as it was done for the MPC3000 as
an option and
currently is used in the digital recorders eg. DR8
& DR16.
48. Note priority problem: when (particularly when using long phrase
samples of few bars length) a note is entered with
delaytion longer
than the length of the sequence, The note only plays
once at the
beginning and you hear a short glitch of the sample
every time the
seq. loops. This is occurred by the note off command
at the beginning
of the bar left from the previous bar.
49. Graphical drum grid editing - like in Cubase
50. Multi-timbral operation!
51. Ability to spread a sound over the keyboard range. Regardless of
the quality of transposition. To make this worth
while it would need
at least a 2 way multi-timbral machine.
52. The muting assignments are totally inadequate. They need to (A.)
switch
to a letter based muting system like Roland or (B.)
Make it multitimbral!
And allow you to set the number of voices allocated
per part so you could
make a one voice program for each set of sounds
that need to mute each
other (i.e. a series of drum loops or bass loops).
This function was merely designed to be used for sounds such as
open/close hi hats and not for loops.
53. Basic editing tools - velocity fades up and down/random velocity
etc.
instead of using the note variation slider afterwards.
54. Since they've done away with the Lo-Med-Hi input gain switch, how
about
at least a 10db pad accessible through software??
55. I'd really like to see a feature that allowed loops to be auto tuned
to tempo. Having the bpm calculation features are
close but this would
be much better. A finer tuning resolution for more
exact matching would
also be welcome.
56. Update-Addendum also available in HTML or ASCII, not only in
PDF-format.
- - BUGS IN OS 1.5 --
57. Track-Move: this function didn't work correctly in OS 1.5 anymore.
I tried to sort some tracks, but only the track-names
are moved
and not the notes.
Fixed in ver 1.7
58. The undo-function didn't works safe! In some cases the last change
can't be get back.
59. Formatting 720Kb disks did'nt work.
Confirmed to function on ver 1.7.
ensure in format screen that the type is set to 2DD.
60. In Trim-Mode/Loop: The length-value can't be set in the fine-loop
window.
Length can only be displayed on MPC2000.
61. In 1.31 the event CONTROL CHANGE- ALL NOTE OFF worked in order to
stop sounds wich are being played in one track.
The only solution
found in OS 1.5 is to use CONTROL CHANGE- ALL SOUND
OFF ... but it
stops all sounds on all tracks. (Don't know if this
is a bug).
62. While have TRACK MUTE window open, note's from an external
sequencer aren't received. I remember this was'nt
the case in
OS 1.31.
MPC2000.html
63. looped sounds (pad-sounds e.g.) with long decay aren't played as
long
with less velocity as the same sounds with full
velocity.
The amplitude envelope on MPC2000 changes as to different values
of
velocity. This is to ensure maximum compatibility to previous MPCs
and to ensure natural sounding of drum samples.
loop function was implemented since MPC2000, but to make the
sound engine as close to MPC3000 implementation was made in such
a way.
64. the smpte function bugs & crashes while synced to tape and recording
midi simultaeously! It just doesn't work!! I have
to use an MPC-60II
to fly in vocals!
fixed in ver. 1.7.
--- cut ---
... we think, with this list you have enough suggestions and ideas
for the next time to improve the MPC2000 a bit. So please reward us
for the efforts on writing this list.
Many thanks in advance
Sascha Balkau (representing all users listed above)
List maintained and sorted by Sascha Balkau
Special thanks to Taiyo Nakashima for the translation.