I Tried Expensive Grooveboxes So You Don't Have To

previously on gabe miller music i am on a quest for a daw in a box are you sure about that thanks to your support and some contacts with gear companies i've been able to actually test this hypothesis and now i can let you know what i've learned so far and to be clear i have more groov boxes than anyone reasonably needs and some of them are completely overkill in terms of price and features i tried all these so you don't have to hopefully this helps you decide whether pulling the trigger on a pricey groove box is actually worth it and if so what to watch out for for this video i'm setting the cutoff price for expense of anything over 500 bucks so far i've tried the op1 the machine plus the roland vs lab mv1 the roland mc707 and the mpc one there are a couple of others that are highly requested that i haven't had a chance to get to yet so there will probably be a part two to this eventually with what i have tried so far i've noticed some consistent features that require trade-offs you have a streamlined user interface daw-like features and daw-like power you only get to pick two so let's get into the individual devices to see how this plays out [Music] the op1 is the first expensive groov box i ever got i did a dedicated video on what makes it unique so i won't rehash too much of it here but i'll link it at the end of this video it's kind of the odd device out in this video because it definitely sacrifices sound quality when sampling and has the tape machine angle once you've recorded something in the tape machine that's it you can't go back and edit it but what you gain is something that's fast easy to pick up and pretty flexible and has a weird but very capable synth if you want something that sounds kind of old school and dusty but also cold and digital at the same time you're gonna have a good time with this thing i was able to get mine for 800 long before the price gouging and i don't know if i'd necessarily buy it again especially because i don't use it as much as i thought i would but it is a cool device for people committed to learning it and it is by far the smallest and most portable device on this list the next one isn't [Music] [Music] i had the machine plus on loan and i liked it so much that after i sent it back i got a machine micro that i now use all the time this is probably the closest thing to a daw in the box on this list in terms of user experience it makes really good use of the screen to keep the interface intuitive it's super hands-on and it can run a bunch of sampling effects and synth plugins like massive and fm8 you've already heard the sound engine all over electronic music and hip-hop although you don't get a ton of control over the sound design on the device itself aside from that this thing is basically a laptop but you never feel like you're using a laptop it's super flexible allowing you to set up groups and tracks pretty much however you want but this does introduce a trade-off this thing's a bit underpowered sure it has the potential to have a mind-boggling amount of layering but you'll probably hit your cpu limit long before you fill the available groups up depending on which virtual instruments you're using so you have all this power but it gets kneecapped faster than you'd expect for a device that costs this much also it's absolutely gigantic and has to be plugged into a wall like most of the stuff on this list does so portability is pretty much out of the question i know i sound like i'm criticizing it non-stop but i'm still hella tempted to just get rid of a bunch of stuff and make it the permanent centerpiece of my studio and its extensive ins and outs make it even a more powerful self-contained music production station if they ever release a more optimized machine plus mark ii i would probably be first in line at least i would have been before a different device came along foreshadowing [Music] i also had the roland for lab mv1 on loan and it's quite a bit less expensive than the machine plus it also wants to be a daw in a box when it grows up but it takes a very different approach it's got a fixed number of tracks to work with one main synthesis engine and a less flexible interface but the track count is more than enough to make something that sounds full and interesting and the synth engine is really good i'll get back to that in the section about the mc707 one of the major features the verselab adds is a proper song mode which its cousins the mc101 and mc707 don't have it also has the unique feature of a dedicated vocal or instrument track which can only play in song mode the workflow is kinda janky especially for dealing with the vocal track and sample chopping but it's okay the first lab mv1 is a weird device to try to review because i do like it and i've made a bunch of music with it but it also kind of fails to justify its own existence as it turns out roland seems to have the habit of coming up with a bunch of cool tech and then cramming it into a ton of different interfaces whether or not it actually makes sense in an effort to squeeze as much profit as they can out of this cool stuff they've designed if i've learned anything from watching too much bad gear i've learned that and that helps explain why the mp1 is the way that it is if you compare the verse lab to something like an npc one it does seem a bit underpowered but i'd much rather approach it like it's a decked out mc101 same sound engine and features but more tracks inputs and capabilities roland sent the mc707 to me and to be honest i probably wouldn't have bought it for myself it's completely overkill in terms of price and size but it is really cool it chooses to go the more traditional groov box route in terms of the interface but at the highest possible level the physical knobs and sliders make it feel very fancy although they're not completely necessary and it's got similar ins and outs to the verse lab but no mic in this is a performance and sound design instrument to its core with full access to roland's zen core sound engine if you're willing to menu dive that's not necessarily unique to this device when it comes to synthesizers though so i'll forgive it for that i really like using it as a virtual analog poly synth that then turns into a workstation once i've hit upon a cool idea it can sound vintage and warm or super clean and pristine and you've got plenty of effects and tracks to make something that sounds really nice and you can easily load in samples that can behave like synth tracks be arranged into kits or launched as clips same goes for the mv1 if you like the roland sound work well with the rigid structure of the device and have some cash to burn and some space the mc707 will be right up your alley [Music] the mpc one was by far the most requested device for me to cover on this channel so i finally bought one and i can definitely see why this thing is astonishingly powerful especially for the price it leans hard into the daw in a box approach with a ton of tracks that can function pretty much however you want you can load in one shots into one gigantic kit load the built-in plugins onto tracks and have access to layering and shaping sounds at multiple levels in a lot of ways the mpc one manages to out machine the machine plus while costing significantly less the only thing it's missing is a flagship synth like massive or fm8 just kidding there is a flagship synth now in the mpc it's the main synth from the akai force hype which is not quite as capable as massive or fm8 but it's definitely a big step in the right direction i had filmed this original part before the amazing 2.10 update released anyway back to the video flagship synth like massive or fm8 but it does have some decent synth plugins built in and a whole lot more hands-on control and besides we get into npcs for the sample mangling the biggest drawback is that the workflow can be kind of janky at times it's actually pretty intuitive to me now but the steep learning curve often feels like it could have been reduced by better ui design there are multiple occasions where i'll run into a problem or limitation that turned out to be completely solvable but the solution was needlessly hard to find but once i did get my head around this thing it's become one of my go-to's even though i still like the machine workflow better this is the best iteration of a daw in a box i've seen so far oh yeah and the ins and outs are pretty extensive as well it's a great self-contained unit or studio centerpiece with plenty of physical controls and the most competitive price of anything on this list this thing was hyped to me pretty hard and i'm almost reluctant to give in to the hype but i can't deny that akai has built something special here so here are the main things i've learned so far first i don't recommend any of these to beginners either because of the price or the learning curve and second spending more than you would for a budget groov box generally gets you more tracks more sound capabilities and more flexibility but it's not one-to-one you don't necessarily spend x dollars and get exactly x more power in return for instance the versalab mv1 and mpc1 are around the same price but have wildly different approaches and capabilities the op1 might seem more limited than both of these but it might be worth it for the super portable design and unique interface the machine plus is almost perfect for me but it's not even close to portable and it's hard to recommend when it tries so hard to be a computer and then falls short the mc707 is way less flexible than the mpc one but it has a much stronger synth engine and is better set up for a more linear performance based interface ultimately trying to cram a ton of musical functionality into a device will always involve trade-offs even at the upper echelon of pricey devices which trade-offs are worth it is up to you hopefully this gives you at least some idea of what those trade-offs are if you'd like to go much deeper down this rabbit hole you might want to check out this playlist of dedicated reviews i've done for some of the devices i've talked about in this video and if you'd like to check out some more budget devices you can click or tap up over here thank you so much for watching and i'll be back with a new video in a little bit

Channel: Gabe Miller Music

Views: 47,669

Keywords: gabemiller1, Gabe Miller, Gabe Miller Music, EDM, Electronic music, electronic dance music, electro, MPC One vs Maschine Plus, MPC One vs MC-707, OP-1 vs MPC, MPC One, Maschine Plus, MC-707 vs Verselab MV-1, Verselab Mv-1, Roland, Akai, Native Instruments, MC-707, mc707, OP1, Op-1, grooveboxes, best groovebox

Id: 5N-Kb5lu3GU

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 16 2021