What Up MM? Hope ya’ll are good. Who was excited to see the new software update from Akai? Probably not NI Fans, but I for one, I have been looking forward to this and all I can say is “well done” to all the people that worked on the development of this software. Dope Job! The 1.8 update sparked me writing this blog and I feel we are very lucky to have advanced into the software world, if for one reason only, updates.

I cannot sit hear and preach about machines that are solely hardware based. I haven’t been lucky enough to play with one, but I respect them and I appreciate that the guys with a lot of experience love them. That’s dope, but as a new generation kid, I cannot fault the advancements into the digital world. When I say digital world, I’m talking about software based music production, not mp3’s over vinyl, that’s another can of worms!! We all must appreciate our history and where we come from. Our history and potentially our future, is hardware based. Having said that, it’s not only where you’ve been, but where you’re going, right?

With software updates the MPC feels new, it has been given a refreshing new set of features. Whether you’re using MPC, Maschine, Ableton Push, the manufacturer is working behind the scenes to fix bugs, increase workflow and make the machine the dopest thing out there. This drives a competitive edge with the manufacturers, as they all want to beat each other and have the best Music Production niche on the market. Us, as consumers, can only benefit from this, sometimes for free and sometimes at a small cost, but with a series of minor “x.1 updates”. Don’t forget, the developers, programmers, and quality assurance testers plugging away behind the scenes working hard to provide us with the tools we desire.

As an MPC guy I have to dig a little deeper into the 1.8 update and let everyone reading this know my best feature, which is the “Slice +” feature. This has significantly increased my workflow when chopping. I know Maschine has a similar option as you can duplicate the sound. Although I really struggled to get to grips with Maschine 2.0, the change was too dramatic and I really didn’t like the convoluted process of adding images to my kits.  I’m a bit of a freak and I want everything organized to the max. Since I have a lot of kits, I wound up spending quite a bit of time organizing the images and spending less time actually producing music. Something I didn’t want. New features in software should stimulate workflow, not slow it to a crawl. Although even with that said, I know many people felt as though being able to add your own images to your kits in Maschine felt refreshing. Just as features like Slice+, and NDC in the MPC 1.8 update felt new and inspiring to me.

SO, in my opinion, software updates work in our favor. We are essentially purchasing a device with more options and additions than we may realize at the actual time of purchase. And while in some cases, the updates do not come nearly as quickly as we would like, I for one am glad we have them.

What are some of your thoughts on software updates MM? Good, Bad? Would you prefer to transition back into the hardware world? Or do you feel refreshed and inspired once again?

Let me know your thoughts and be sure to catch me @UKAntSmith

Peace