Making Beats on the MPC
Lately, I've been playing with the MPC Live. It's a beat-making drum machine, sequencer, and music production workstation from Akai Professional, and it's very portable.
For a long time, I've been making music in FL Studio, my primary D.A.W. (Digital Audio Workstation) of choice. I'm most familiar with it, but I have a problem of getting distracted when making music on my desktop computer at home. I couldn't use my laptop, which is a MacBook Pro, because FL Studio had only been available for PC. I also wanted a portable unit that I can take with me anywhere, and NOT have to connect it to a laptop. So when I found out about this standalone unit that is the MPC Live, I just had to get it.
All I need is the MPC Live with a pair of headphones, and I'm ready to start cooking up some beats. There's no need for a laptop nor an external audio interface. I can take the MPC Live with me anywhere, and because it's not a laptop, that means no distractions from browsing YouTube or social media. Just making music, and that's it.
I spent these last couple of weeks reading the user manual to familiarize myself with the workflow of the MPC Live. It's very different from FL Studio. At first, it was frustrating to learn its different approach to making music, and I was ready to get rid of it because I had no idea how things worked on the darn thing. When I finally got through the manual though, and had a better grasp of what I was doing, I actually really like it. Of course, there are some limitations because you can't do certain things on the MPC that you can do in FL Studio, but I think the technical restrictions can be helpful in forcing you to be more creative. The tactile experience of hitting pads, pressing buttons, turning knobs, and using the touch screen also makes the experience a lot more fun. It feels like I'm actually playing with a really cool toy.
I'm looking forward to playing with this thing a lot more, and hope to get lots of music out before the end of the year. So let's get cooking and start making beats on the MPC!
For a long time, I've been making music in FL Studio, my primary D.A.W. (Digital Audio Workstation) of choice. I'm most familiar with it, but I have a problem of getting distracted when making music on my desktop computer at home. I couldn't use my laptop, which is a MacBook Pro, because FL Studio had only been available for PC. I also wanted a portable unit that I can take with me anywhere, and NOT have to connect it to a laptop. So when I found out about this standalone unit that is the MPC Live, I just had to get it.All I need is the MPC Live with a pair of headphones, and I'm ready to start cooking up some beats. There's no need for a laptop nor an external audio interface. I can take the MPC Live with me anywhere, and because it's not a laptop, that means no distractions from browsing YouTube or social media. Just making music, and that's it.
I spent these last couple of weeks reading the user manual to familiarize myself with the workflow of the MPC Live. It's very different from FL Studio. At first, it was frustrating to learn its different approach to making music, and I was ready to get rid of it because I had no idea how things worked on the darn thing. When I finally got through the manual though, and had a better grasp of what I was doing, I actually really like it. Of course, there are some limitations because you can't do certain things on the MPC that you can do in FL Studio, but I think the technical restrictions can be helpful in forcing you to be more creative. The tactile experience of hitting pads, pressing buttons, turning knobs, and using the touch screen also makes the experience a lot more fun. It feels like I'm actually playing with a really cool toy.
I'm looking forward to playing with this thing a lot more, and hope to get lots of music out before the end of the year. So let's get cooking and start making beats on the MPC!
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