THE RETRO KING | Akai MPCX Special Edition

this isn't a Specs video specs have a place and they matter in their own way but specs are boring fam you know what isn't boring story and this story starts with the company and a really creative guy who changed the way music was made 35 years ago that story led to others and soon that light colored box with the gray pads started showing up in a lot of other people's stories including mine for me it started in 1997 the Clinton years when a single mother from New Jersey took a 1200 tax refund check and took a chance on her oldest son who was starting to fall in with the wrong crowd but never stop dreaming about that light colored box that all his heroes are using ten years in when I jumped in but just like a lot of y'all it changed my path in life to something more fun something more creative there was nothing else that looked like it there were competitors but everyone had to admit the NPC was iconic the off-white the gray little touches of blue and that word that meant red in Japanese it's been 35 years after Decades of ups and downs and Innovation this iconic brand has brought us a celebration piece a toast to all the moments that make the NPC the cultural and creative legend that it is so while Akai has a history of shaking up the music world with breakout pieces and a strong history of upgrades this mpcx special edition is more of a re-crowning of their top tier offering the mpcx it's a familiar layout the same massive 10 inch screen the same healthy dose of Q links with the digital readouts the same luxurious wrist pad and feel the dedicated buttons and controls they did add a few enhancements to the flagship though double the Ram at four gigs to accommodate more of their ever-growing library of plugins and instruments many of which are included this mpcx special edition release it's not about being groundbreaking as much as it's about clarifying and reinforcing which unit is the alpha dog in this modern NPC lineup it's a re-crowning it's finally rounding out the Retro models that so many NPC users love and personally I knew if they dropped the Retro version of the X there was no way I was going to be able to resist it [Music] and that's because of where I am with my music career so let me explain why is it for me and who else is it for all right y'all so let's get down to brass tacks who is the mpcx special edition for well in my case you know I've reached a point in my career where I was perfectly happy with the rectangle NPCs but recently as I got more into sound design as I got more into controlling other pieces of gear and also just wanting a more comfortable environment to do my sound design work to do my production work I started really seeing the benefits of using an X now I actually lucked out and caught a great deal on the original mpcx Last Summer on my birthday of all times I caught it at a pawn shop for like a thousand bucks and I'm glad I got it for a couple reasons one I got to experience what all the hype was about about these full-size NPCs I really wanted a full-size NPC since I started producing back in 1997 I had the MPC 2000 and we always looked up to the guys with the three thousands right because it was kind of like a trophy piece it showed that you were actually productive with your work more importantly that you earned it there weren't a whole lot of people walking around with MPC 3000s and a lot of the bigger Flagship units that you saw come after that like the 4 000 and the five thousand they were much more rare than the 1000s and the 2500s and things like that so this isn't much different Akai has done this throughout their history they've released incrementally better units they did limited edition MPC 3000s which had spec bumps but long story short this is part of akai's History to do these limited edition pieces sometimes it's just a paint job in this case I'm really happy it's not just a paint job because I had an original X it would have been really hard for me to justify upgrading to this for a couple reasons it's not a Monumental spec bump right you're talking about two gigs of RAM it really helps if you use the MPC instruments a lot so I will say if you're bumping up against ram issues when you're using your MPC instruments with the original X this will definitely help with that you're definitely able to load up more of those plugins and really take advantage of the capabilities of this thing so again who I would recommend this for two different types of people guys like myself who've been working really hard really earning with their craft even if it's not with your craft and you've just been going hard working extra hard and you want to treat yourself this is a great way to do it again I love NPCs because it's one of those things where even if you use it as a hobby it's one of the few Hobbies where you actually really produce something that has worth afterwards right so when you create this music and you get better at it you really have pieces that you can publish and make money off in the future or just for entertainment and to look back at your work it's a beautiful thing so if you like me and you've been working super hard you feel like you've earned the top of the line the best money you can buy with this Akai MPC experience this is the one to get now if you already have it next I'm not going to tell you this is something that you need again it really depends how much you like those onboard instruments if you use them a lot this is definitely going to help they matched it with the MPC key 61 as far as the RAM and that just gives it more processing power so that's scenario number one the trophy piece scenario number two that I would recommend upgrading to this would be if you want a second NPC you're ready to upgrade you've been using the one you've been using the live or the live two and you're ready to really upgrade your experience you're sure NPC is your platform you have no doubt in your mind about it which as you can see in the beginning I totally love these things I'm committed to the MPC platform form because it's been something that's given me so much joy over the years I'm not going anywhere so if you know you love the platform you've been using an entry level NPC and you're ready to take the step up and you love this retro colorway I really can't think of many better reasons than to treat yourself and get yourself something that's productive but also very fun to use very comfortable to use again the wrist rest on it is just super comfortable you got the pad centered you've got all these dedicated buttons it's just a different experience you're reaching with your hands instead of just using your fingers it took a little getting used to coming from one of the rectangle NPCs but when I got the X I totally fell in love with the q-link workflow and then you start to really just appreciate how much these Q Links come in handy when you're on different screens you can hit all these different q-link modes one of my favorite ones is the pad parameter one and this one typically will put the levels on here so you can actually just mix from your Q links you have 16 pads of sounds you can just mix it right from the Q links very quickly even in six months I can't say I conquered everything that the ex had to offer there's still a ton of utility that can be had in these Q links that I still haven't learned yet but just off the little bit that I have learned man it's a lot of fun coming from one of the rectangle boxes so as far as upgrades go this thing is absolutely Monumental it's beautiful I think some people get caught up in the specs so much that they think these NPCs need way more processing and all these other upgrades and as a tech guy I get it right like we want everything to perform faster faster faster but if I'm going to be totally honest with you using NPCs and Standalone now with all these instruments with all these plugins they're very efficient you don't need anything else for producing music I'm making some of the best music of my life on this thing including that intro beat which you heard I do sound design on these so if you like the drums and the loop that you heard on the intro that's on my Standalone Soul Pack series which you can check out at standalonesoul.com I also have them on my website iamsite.com if you know anything about the X this thing is lights out when it comes to IO it's something that you're not going to need in the i o for a long time if ever so I can go on for days about this thing but if I had to recommend it to someone it would be those two scenarios now I've been super blessed because I knew I wouldn't be able to resist this when it came out even if it was just the colorway but I gotta shout out Andy Mack and the go folks under Kai who sent this over to me it's a very proud moment for me as a 25-year NPC user who really loves these devices who's built a whole Community around these devices shout out to the NPC gang and as a tip to the Hat you see they actually included a splash screen on this unit so it's a one of one it's really amazing it's a nice touch no but it's great that Akai has really come around and shown so much respect to the community they're really paying attention to what we want and while some people might say hey this is not what we asked for you got to remember the company also has their goals and it's been 35 years it's a major milestone for them and as a fan of the brand I was really grateful because they allow me to participate in this celebration with them by creating some new merch which I'm calling the retro King line and it includes the Retro pads along with the crown to symbolize the king of the MPC Retros it also symbolizes being a master of your craft with the NPC this classic colorway is something that we all love as NPC users so these hats aren't just for the owners of this beautiful thing it's for all of us who enjoy and love the Retro colorway and we've really taken our time to become Kings on these things in addition they allow me to emblaze in it with the official badge for the 35th Anniversary and as I showed you in the intro I'm super grateful for what these products have done for me throughout my life not just when I started my music career but also now 25 years later the fact that I'm in the position that I'm in being able to have such an amazing community of NPC users behind me it's very humbling and I'm very grateful and none of this would happen without you guys watching my channel and supporting the MPC gang as you do so with that said if you have more questions about this unit make sure you put it in the comments down below I'm going to answer as many comments and questions as I can and if I have to do a follow-up video I definitely will but you will be seeing this on my channel quite a bit I'm super excited to use it it's absolutely beautiful when I saw for the first time it brought me right back to 97 and uh and man what a long way we've all come right so salute to y'all for tuning in today catch you on the next one peace [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Lab & Legacy by @iamsight

Views: 19,256

Keywords: MPC One, Akai, MPC, akai, MPC Live Beatmaking, MPC X Tutorial, MPC X Sampling, MPC X Trap Beat, MPC Pad Perform, akai mpc x special edition, Akai MPC X, akai mpc xl, akai mpc x unboxing, akai mpc x review

Id: 7T2hVrMFAs8

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 27 2023