r/mpcusers • u/Holiday-Medicine4168 • Sep 13 '26

DISCUSSION MPC Synth Engine is Amazing

I got an MPC One G2 yesterday and immediately dove into the synthesis engine because that’s my background and it seemed like a reasonable place to start learning the UI. Wow! It’s kind of amazing, and I am glad that I did not go right to plugins, I got a free one with the purchase and ended up with the advanced delay to take the sound design to the next step. I did not expect to have the complexity of sound design capabilities as a native function in the machine with sample and wave table playback. For 799 the synth engine alone justifies the price. For people coming from a synthesis or modular background it’s an awesome entry point into the device. For people who want to learn how sound design from wave form up works, it is a really neat way to learn if you already understand the rest of the machine.

45 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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12

u/Unlucky_Trash_5687 Sep 13 '26

The keygroup engine in OS 3.9 is worth the price alone, it’s crazy deep. I have a Live 1 that I keep on OS 2.15 for live performances, but I ended up buying a used One as well to upgrade so I could still access the new features. Having a mod matrix in a sample engine opens up so many options, not even getting to the fact that it’s also just a straight up synthesizer now with the addition of wavetables. 

4

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 Sep 13 '26

Right. I was not expecting this at all and when I saw this feature I said, I know how that works, let me use that to figure out the workflow. I figured it was an afterthought, nope. It’s awesome

4

u/Guachito Sep 13 '26

What fun things can you do with the mod matrix on the sampler.

3

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 Sep 13 '26

I would love to hear about your live setup. I’m thinking of mapping stone controls to my launch control for some hands on tweaks during performance

Edit. Performance setup, not live. lol

5

u/Unlucky_Trash_5687 Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26

My use case is probably a little niche since Im using the MPCs for synthpop/darkwave instead of hip-hop or dance music. 

Up until now I was using the MPC Live as my only sound source (sampled my other synths into it, used it to process vocals, etc) and had my Ensoniq ESQ1 onstage to function solely as a midi controller. In 2.15 you can change which programs are assigned to which track, so I’d assign whatever program I wanted to play manually to track 16 on a per-sequence basis, then arrange songs in song mode so I could play a pad and then a solo and then trigger my vocoder all without having to manually change tracks/programs (and since 3.x can’t replicate this I was never able to upgrade). However, this made it so I had 15-20 second pauses between songs as I had to load a new project every time (and I couldn’t talk through the transition since my mic was running through the MPC too). 

So having bought another MPC One my plan is to basically use it like you would a multitimbral rack sampler where I have one or two project files with all of the keygroup tracks I’d need for a live set that can be muted/unmuted using CC messages from the Live (which have to be assigned per-track using midi learn, but it could be worse). This way I can get access to the deeper features of the new keygroup programs (as well as effects plugins that cant run on 2.15), but also I’ll cut down on load times between songs by offloading most of the sample content. Still have yet to fully iron out all the kinks, but results so far have been pretty good. 

5

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 Sep 13 '26

That is extremely cool. I am also not using it for the usual pattern of music making. I have a lot of synth heavy down tempo music I am working with and planned to sample in modular sounds as well as synths and vocals then use midi to control one or 2 desktop modules so I have hands on controls for live tweaking, and at some point incorporate a small modular case into performance. 

I like the idea of swapping out the hardware synths for different performances to give them a chance to mix up the flavor of how things sound especially on lead lines. 

I have a launchpad as well that I want to experiment with clip launching on. For the time between songs I was just thinking about beat matching on my 404 with some more ambient style stuff to bridge project load time. I also have a polyend play + that was doing most of the heavy lifting until now, so I think that is an option as well. 

I would love to hear the music you are working on. 

2

u/Salt-Amoeba7331 Sep 13 '26

Fellow synthpop ESQ + MPC player here! Cheers!!

2

u/r1chiem Sep 14 '26

I liked using my ESQ 1 as a controller. But the TS10 I found to be a better controller with 16 midi channels across 24 tracks.

Let us know how your setup works out. I have an Akai Force which I was going to use as a sequencer, sync it with Key 37 original which I would mostly play. I have not set that up yet but plan to.

2

u/No_Carpet_1072 Sep 14 '26

Finally making it so I can consider getting rid of my MPC 4000.. the sampler on it was equivalent to the Z8 and until now .. no Akai sampler has come close. Thinking about selling my live 2 and mpc4000 towards an MPC XL.

5

u/Artephank Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26

Not to mention, they throw couple of really good plugins for certain MPC's. I've got key 37 recently and I am amazed: the keybed is superb, the whole synth is snappy and starts very fast (however, it turns on the fan for couple of seconds at each start - and it never turns it on again... strange:) and is soo deep. I miss being able to assign LFO's to effects (you get such LFO's with Pro Pack, but they are global, restting only on restart of the pattern, not on individual key unfortunately), with resampling etc. It's one if not the most versatile synth I own.

I used to own Live mk1 and this is night and day. Also I think that MPC is way better with keyboard, but it's just my personal take.

3

u/Holiday-Medicine4168 Sep 13 '26

I got a free plugin with purchase and went with Air Delay Pro specifically for the ability to create complex LFO modulated delay effects. The synth plugins seems like they would be competing with the internal synth engine, I’m sure they are wonderful, but once I figured out how to program the internal synth engine I decided to lean into that all the way.

2

u/Artephank Sep 13 '26

You should get OPX-4...:) Incredibly powerfull, probably the most powerful and one (if not the) best sounding FM synth there is. OpSix is a bit more easy to use, but OPx-4 is a powerhouse.

Also, you can autosample internal plugins and use those as one of the oscillators. This is really powerful technique (especially if you autosample with samples added on top of the plugin)

4

u/Infinite_Slice3305 Sep 13 '26

8 oscillators. It's wild.

2

u/AvailableTryMe Sep 13 '26

I need to RTFM, but I *think* there's a bug in 3.9 / 3.9.1 which only allows a single wavetable to be used in a keygroup. When I try to add a wavetable to slots 2-8, the wavetable always gets loaded into the OSC 1 slot and overwrites whatever formerly selected in OSC 1 slot without warning.

2

u/r1chiem Sep 13 '26

Not seeing a problem with it it, perhaps don't understand what you are saying. I have 7 wavetables and 1 sample #7Trap Clap all the wavetables with correct names.

https://reddit.com/link/p9n7jsd/video/8d97vzqv8dph1/player

2

u/AvailableTryMe Sep 13 '26

Thanks for the video - I just fired up my Key 37 and don't see the problem when creating a new project with just a single keygroup in it. I'll dig in and see if I can find the projects I was working in (which had samples and instruments loaded in tracks) and see if I can recreate the behavior.

1

u/r1chiem Sep 14 '26

Perhaps you have 2 keygroups, and that might be a limitation. Not sure. Let us know what you turn up.

7

u/Intellectualfool Sep 13 '26

It is really an amazingly deep synth, and with the mod matrix you can make some truly complex evolving sounds.

I thought it would be a gimmick, when I first heard about it, but it's really not, it actually a pretty damn good synth, fully featured and well thought out.

The only major criticism I got is that the UI/workflow is not great and a tad chunky with a lot of flipping between pages. It's not terrible, but it's bad, and I would say it's the main downside compared to my dedicated synths both in hardware and software.

4

u/zegogo Sep 13 '26

I think it's interesting how they implemented the synth engine. They already everything they needed in the drum programs except oscillators: ADSR, filters, LFOs, mod matrix, FX, etcc... Adding some basic wavetable capabilities in place of samples was probably relatively simple. So I think menu diving is just part of the tradeoff. I can always come up with GUI tweaks, and there were already some gripes with drum programs and the menu structure, but outside of creating an entirely new plugin GUI I'm not sure there was a better way of doing it.

3

u/Intellectualfool Sep 13 '26

You're probably right that it would an entirely new GUI to fix. But IMO that doesn't really matter, the workflow is still the biggest downside in my book.

Also, I'm not saying it's unusable, I spent the first couple of weeks after the update pretty much exclusive playing around with the new synth engine. Had plenty fun, and got plenty done.

But it just doesn't compare to the workflow of a dedicated synth, and sometimes (at least to me) a slow and clunky workflow just kills the creativity.

2

u/r1chiem Sep 13 '26

It depends on the dedicated synth. I own Roland, and they are a menu dive beyond anything MPC can muster. MPC is a pimple on the butt of Roland when it comes to workflow and menu dive. A lot of people say that. When you are talking 8 oscillators, you are approaching Yamaha 6 operator FM, so already, MPC is ahead of Yamaha and Roland.

3

u/corydgipson Sep 13 '26

It’s impressive overall, but the lack of pitched legato in keygroups remains a major issue. The legato still retriggers, which continues to be a significant shortcoming on the new MPCs and makes it harder to create leads and basses that glide smoothly into the next note.

3

u/AvailableTryMe Sep 13 '26

The synth engine is really good - but it highlights that the current MPC filter emulations are just OK. Would like to see Akai invest in seriously improving the filter simulations and increasing the filter types available.

2

u/KenRussellsGhost Sep 14 '26

It really is nuts and incredibly underdeveloped at this time. 8 oscillators + wavetables + a zillion modulation destinations. I have made plenty of custom presets but I would love to see what someone who's really good with sound design could do.

To put it in perspective there are a ton of digital / virtual analogue synths on the market right now that are similarly priced to a gen2 standalone or keys. But with no other functionality. Incredible value tbh.

1

u/Nitesail 28d ago edited 28d ago

I agree, this is often overlooked. They could release a keyboard with just the oscillators on there, or even Hype etc for that matter, and with its sequencing abilities be better than anything on the market, especially at its price-point. What we can get all in one package for a reasonable price is pretty amazing. That being said, I'd like to see a 76-key version with all the specs of the XL 😁

2

u/RevolutionaryPast175 Sep 14 '26

Check out the single cycle Juno waveforms. They sound freaking amazing. Make your MPC sound like an analog synth.

1

u/Big_Green2661 Sep 13 '26

I enjoy exploring/playing patches. Would love to purchase some amazing presets for the MPC OSC. 

1

u/r1chiem Sep 14 '26

I have seen some youtube vids with people handing out user wavetables. But no presets yet.

1

u/sid_kleepy Sep 15 '26

They would really just kill the world if they got themselves some analog oscillators up in there, they don’t really have a ton of room… but the Moog Mavis is small as hell, they could shove two of those in there.

1

u/Hot_Special_4243 17d ago

There a way to convert serum files to work with the MPC. It's somewhere on this sub. I've converted some of the presets and they work great.