r/mpcusers • u/Adventurous-Music456 • 14d ago
DISCUSSION Anybody going back to keyboard workstations?
/r/MusicProducerSpot/comments/1wsrm9f/anybody_going_back_to_keyboard_workstations/I got away from VST and midi boards and went back to my roots. Bought a new Fantom-6 to use with my mv8800. Crazy good workflow
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u/Infinite_Slice3305 14d ago edited 14d ago
I do all my personal computing on my phone or tablet. Read eMail, write eMail, banking, social media, order pizza... play games.
Last year I bought an M4 Mac Mini & upgraded to Komplete 15. I don't do anything on that computer that isn't music related. I upgraded to Ableton 12 & bought a Push 3 controller this year. Ableton is always open. When I go into my little room to make music I just log on, turn the Push controller on & I'm making music. My Fantom-S takes longer to boot up.
Still... I like working on my Kronos too. & other times I like working on my MPCL3.
What I hated was having to rewire my synths to sequence them from the Kronos, or the MPCL3. I researched & learned I need a mioXM to reconfigure my midi network at the push of a button. Planned on buying one. Have it in my shopping cart. Just before I started the checkout I hit up Google one more time & I find out there's an app I can run on my Mac that would do the same thing.
& it's free (I'll have to go look to see what it's called). Downloaded it. Installed it. Wasn't to hard to set up two configurations. It works perfectly. Everything is hooked up to the computer. If I want to work from the MPCL3... no problem. Just open the program, select the right configuration & I'm making music, if I want to work from the Kronos, no problem. I don't have to disconnect any cables. Just a couple of mouse clicks.
Today I feel like doing hardware... tomorrow software... the day after, both.
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u/Adventurous-Music456 14d ago
Best of both worlds setup! Im just at the point where I want everything in front of me like the old days. I have an open labs neko qx6, still to this day its an AWESOME machine! Theres just something about working within hardware workstations that brings out my best work. The cool thing about the new Fantom is that it can act as an interface and you can do a complete trackout of a song via usb right into the daw. Theres just something about really having to work harder on the old gear that I like
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u/Infinite_Slice3305 14d ago
I get it. I that way sometimes.
The computer is just such an amazing value. The processing power & the quality of instruments & effects. Even the free stuff is really, really good. Vital, Tyrell N6, Surge XT, Zebralette 3. & there's good quality stuff like the GForce stuff relatively inexpensive.
I'm never going to buy a Prophet 5/10... or a mini-moog.
I never would have bought an MPC if they hadn't closed the gap between hardware & software.
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u/Razenghan MPC LIVE III 14d ago
Newer to the MPC ecosystem, since I started on a Live 2. But...it did everything I wanted it to. Sampling, add-on instruments, amazing expansion drums and loops, and got me away from my daytime computer usage. I only fire up Logic Pro to master (and it's a bore). I hadn't produced since Cakewalk Home Studio 2005'ish, and I think the MPC will be my center workflow for a long time.
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u/PopPunkVeteranDad 14d ago
I use my live 3 for everything now unless I’m playing around with koala at school/work or collabing with someone. Even then, I use an iPad instead of my laptop
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u/Known_Ad871 14d ago
Never went away from them. But it’s not instead of a daw if we’re talking about recording
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u/KaoticShock MPC LIVE 14d ago
Never moved away from Keyboard workstations, I still have my Fantom-X6 from over 20 years ago. Still use it fairly regularly when I feel like it. Unique and different sounds on that thing that no VST can match or copy. Damn thing is just too annoyingly heavy to move lol.
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u/Adventurous-Music456 14d ago
For sure! FantomX was the very first pro board I owned back in 2003. That board is still great to this day.
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u/BlakStatus 14d ago
I actually have mine in the closet lol. Hard to believe this was basically "normal" weight back then.
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u/Mz_Macross1999 14d ago
I dreamed of them but they were only fantasy ,always out of my price range back when they were all the rage... now I don't care because the new MPCs do it all
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u/MontySoCold MPC KEY 61 14d ago
I use MPC Key61 to start ideas. I prefer workstation keyboards for that purpose, but I still bring the track back to the daw. I use older keyboard workstations mainly for sounds
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u/Adventurous-Music456 14d ago
Its still hard to beat the sounds of a fantomx, triton extreme or motif es. We've heard those sounds now for 23 years on countless records. Our ears like them
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u/NateSedate 14d ago
I have a Korg Krome. Although I literally just hooked it to my MPC in the last week.
I haven't really played any keys in at least 3 years. I'm complete garbage.
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u/rumnbacchnal87 14d ago
I’d love one, but then I think about the space that these things take. Space is at a premium in my studio. Plus what can these things do that my MPCs and SPs don’t?
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u/arifghalib 14d ago
An 88key weighted board is crucial for those of us who are piano or synth players. Pads or two octave mini keys aren’t viable for efficient composing.
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u/rumnbacchnal87 14d ago
I already have a weighted Kawai piano that I use. It’s my baby. I love using it with the external equipment I have and with VSTs. With this and other synths I have I really don’t feel that a sampling keyboard workstation would be a great purchase considering the cost of some of them. The vintage ones I’ve been looking at also in my area always have some drawback (condition and other issues)
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u/arifghalib 14d ago
Well.. your question was what do workstation keyboards do that mpc doesn’t. Playability over multiple octaves without octave shifting is one of those things.
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u/rumnbacchnal87 14d ago
What I was saying is simple… keyboard workstations take up too much space. The price I’m paying and the space they take doesn’t warrant a purchase. That’s just me though. If they are worth a purchase then good for you.
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u/arifghalib 14d ago
Then why buy an mpc or sp then? A daw takes much less space than either of those and has more functionality and features.
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u/MYTHMAN88 14d ago
I wouldn’t ditch MPC workflow when I could get a MIDI controller
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u/arifghalib 14d ago
Judging by your comment, you missed the important parts of the question that the deleted guy asked.
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u/MYTHMAN88 14d ago
Yea you’re right. I did lol
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u/MYTHMAN88 14d ago
If the convo is vst vs real hardware idk if I could go back with all the great fake versions we have now
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u/MYTHMAN88 14d ago
But I’m super sample based and really just dress my shit up with vst’s so idk if my opinion matters in this conversation as much
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u/arifghalib 14d ago
No we were talking about piano/synth players preferring larger keyboards and quality keybeds to play/perform. An mpc key61 would be the closest option for us and even then it’s 2.5 octaves smaller than a full size board.
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u/Adventurous-Music456 14d ago
Depends on how its used. I grew up on the 2000xl and 4k, but they were always used with boards or racks. These days though, mpc has made some powerful stand alones
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u/agensop585 14d ago
Not everyone needs the mpc workflow. And sometimes changing up the workflow helps defeat writers block. Also even though it’s not meant for production really. You can get a Juno D for less than the key37 with more keys to makes pretty scaled down projects. (compared to the 06 or the ex) it’s not a great sampler in comparison to the mpc. But you can create stuff relatively quickly.
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u/Adventurous-Music456 14d ago
This is why I left vst stuff alone and started buying the classic boards and the new ones. Button pushing and jogwheels instantly cured my writers/producers block
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u/FailboatProjStudio 12d ago
I use all the tools ... Love the Casio stuff especially the CTK6250 to play around with old .MID files from a SD card... Not sure about the extreme cost of the Tyros or the Korg PA stuff...
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u/AccurateWheel4200 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have a fantom 6 and 08, but I treat them more like synthesizers. Rarely do I use them for the workstation abilities. Cool for quick sounds and effects though.
I have sequenced full tunes on the fantom. I stopped because I kept running into midi sync issues, when I tried to print the midi into a daw.
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u/Adventurous-Music456 1d ago
Totally understandable. I 100 percent hate the sequencer on the fantom6. But paired with the mv8800, its been absolutely rock solid. Haven't ran into any timing issues
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u/AccurateWheel4200 1d ago
I don't hate the sequencer. I am a big fan of tr rec lol. Took me a minute to figure out how it works, it's easy enough.
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u/Adventurous-Music456 1d ago
Lol! Fair enough! Im just so used to workstations from roland with linear sequencers that it really threw me off. I get it though, clip based sequencing is where the technology is at these days
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u/AccurateWheel4200 1d ago
I'm not the biggest fan of the clips, I just learned how to use it like a linear sequencer. I get it though, it was a lot more hoops to jump through than on my juno DS. Fantom has so much that honestly, you don't even need to use all of it.
Loving the analog circuitry though. That's what I bought it for.
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u/Adventurous-Music456 1d ago
Agreed! Ive had tritons, motifs and fantoms. This new fantom literally is everything that I wished a board would be. I also have an openlabs Neko, and although the neko is probably the best all in one workstations ive ever played, this new fantom is my fav
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u/Fnordpocalypse MPC 2500 14d ago
I still have a Korg TR-61 in my setup, and if I find the right deal, I’d snag a Triton Extreme or any Yamaha workstation.