Akai Mpx8 Editor Software Download Mac Updated

Clifford Armare – April 15, 2022

Akai Mpx8 Editor Software Download Mac

Could Akai exist on to a winner with their cheap and compact sample player?

Akai'south MPX8 is a stylish sliver of hardware that combines pulsate pads with a potentially huge drove of samples stored on an SD card. The concept is simple, the toll lower than you'd expect and, in a short time, my biggest question changed from: 'could I use it for anything?' to 'why did nobody do this before?'

Slim Shady

At a casual glance, the MPX8 could be the removable front panel from an unreleased Akai sampler. Instead, information technology'south a slim, night and compact sample role player delivering eight simultaneous samples from prophylactic pads that are both velocity and aftertouch sensitive. These are tastefully lit to reflect their status, and then when a sample is loaded and set to play, the color is orange. When a sample is playing, the pad glows greenish and when 'selected', a brooding red. The 'selected' pad is only the last one to be hit but, more than chiefly, information technology's the one whose parameters make full the display.

The MPX8 is constructed of low-cal-but-rigid black plastic, with sound available from ii balanced outputs at the side, plus there'southward a (minijack) headphone socket conveniently at the front. Lack of individual outputs is hardly unexpected at this 'cheap as chips' price. The MIDI In and Out ports are slightly unconventional; they're accessed via short 3.5mm adapter cables, equally seen previously on Akai'due south MPC Studio. Computer-based users need simply connect the USB cable for bi-directional MIDI, positioning the MPX8 perfectly for on-the-move laptop work. Power tin can be drawn from USB, providing it'south a regular PC or Mac USB port, but in a reckoner-gratuitous surround,the same cable plugs into a conventional mains adapter and therefore covers pretty much all the bases except battery ability. Incidentally, the USB port isn't 1 of those tight connections found on the latest MPCs and it should therefore be treated with a little respect (or a hulk of Blu-Tac). In terms of connectivity, there'due south only the SD slot left to mention. I'm sure you've seen them earlier; this one will accommodate SD or SDHC cards of up to 32GB formatted to FAT32, which should be enough for most occasions.

The Glorious viii-ease

Few items of music technology, new or old, can rival the MPX8'due south ease of apply. With only a single page of parameters, four buttons and a data bicycle, getting lost is non an option. Each of the parameters has a fairly coarse resolution, which simply serves to remind u.s.a. it's all about loading prepared samples that already audio right. Don't expect to do radical transformations in the MPX8 itself. Other than the obvious dynamic control when a sample is triggered, yous can slap on a few dabs of generic (but notwithstanding usable) reverb and indulge in limited transposition, but that's about information technology. The maximum pitch shift in either management is iv semitones, and panning offers an equally express 9 positions in the stereo spectrum.

By far the most interesting parameter is 'TRIG', which determines how the sample is played. The options are Ane Shot, Hold and Loop. I Shot is well suited to drums; whack a pad and the sample plays to its end. If you choice Hold, the sample plays for as long as you go along in contact with the pad, leaving Loop, which works as you've probably guessed. Loops go on to play until y'all hit the pad once more or accept the 'stop all' option by property both volume buttons at once.

Before loading whatsoever samples, information technology's worth getting a experience for the MPX8 every bit a pulsate controller. Despite the plastic, it felt more than up to the chore and, while the pads didn't inspire the level of confidence of Akai'south MPC range, the response was definitely upward to scratch. Only the very lightest finger-strokes failed to get a reaction just I before long adjusted to it. On MIDI'southward seven-scrap scale, the lowest velocity I could accurately hitting was 5, rising to the maximum 127 over a reasonable spread of finger speeds. Each pad also transmits polyphonic aftertouch, making the MPX8 1 of the about affordable devices ever to practice and so. Whether information technology'south driving a software drum kit or a clamper of MIDI hardware, aftertouch tin can be brilliantly expressive on many types of percussion; for case, for pitch-bending tablas and talking drums. I should signal out right abroad that aftertouch has no effect on the MPX8's ain playback of samples, it's purely a MIDI thing.

There'south no fashion to adjust the velocity or aftertouch response, but the main screen does contain a field for the selected pad's MIDI note. Change this and you lot change the note transmitted and received for that pad. When triggering the MPX'south voices from an external controller or sequencer, the just other information you'll require is that the MIDI channel is fixed at 10.

Until you source an SD carte, the audio output will be express to the 21 internal samples. Bundled into eight kits, the samples are mostly drums, the bulk taken from Roland'due south TR808 and TR909 (inevitably). Several voice samples (of debatable value) are included as well, plus synths (as debatable) and sound furnishings. Percussion is the chief focus, however, and the samples are make clean, usable and hard to take exception to. A competent finger drummer could happily jam with but them. However, dig out an SD (or SDHC) carte du jour, plus a card reader, and the options increase exponentially. I'm even moved to cycle out that hackneyed but thoroughly applicable phrase: the only limit is your imagination. OK and possibly your patience as well, merely we'll come to that.

Wham Bam Sample RAM

For a sample to play, it must showtime exist loaded into RAM and at that place's 30MB to go at, divided amongst the eight pads whatsoever style you like. RAM management is fairly unsophisticated though, with sample sizes e'er rounded up to the adjacent MB. So if a sample is 10.1MB it'll consume upwardly 11MB of RAM. Not that this always felt like a major brake: 30MB of xvi-bit audio is quite a lot; information technology works out at around five minutes, or half that for stereo files.

Samples are grouped into kits, with the name of the current sample shown in larger text. With a quick turn of the data wheel information technology tin exist replaced past some other sample and you can salvage this updated kit directly from hardware. This is fine when auditioning a few drum hits, simply it'south far nicer to perform tasks of this nature from a reckoner, The MPX8'southward quarter-inch stereo outputs. At the other end of the unit of measurement are the MIDI sockets (on iii.5mm jacks) and the USB port. specially if y'all're making many kits (the card will hold up to 100). Fortunately, Akai supply 'MPX Editor', a obviously merely functional software retainer to get you fully kitted out. My Mac was suspicious of it at first but, after being reassured it wasn't an alien infestation, grudgingly allowed the installation to proceed.

Available for PC or Mac, the MPX Editor's sole purpose is to make kits and store them on your SD carte. Via its USB connectedness, the MPX8 functions as a class-compliant MIDI device, but apparently is not capable of being a card reader. Therefore you need to manually copy all the samples you programme to use to the SD card's root directory. Having located the carte within the editor, it'southward and then as straightforward every bit selecting a pad and picking a sample. When you've made your choice(southward) and whatever adjustments (to panning or trigger types, for instance), you lot save the completed kit. There'south no way to audition it at this stage and you need to keep an eye on file sizes so the 8 samples don't breach the 30MB limit. Nor is at that place whatever way to proper noun kits, they're e'er just numbers, only the real rub is this: there'southward no guarantee, having fabricated a batch of new kits, that they'll actually work! To find out, y'all eject the carte from its reader, pop it into the MPX8 and select a kit. Only then are any problems highlighted because the samples are simply verified on loading into RAM.

Akai'due south advertising blurb (perchance due an update) lured me in with: "Load virtually any sample" and I confess I didn't read far across that. I understood there was a firmware update to exist practical and then stereo files could exist handled, but was surprised 24-bit samples remained a no-no. Actually, the majority of my first efforts ended in miserable failure, so I did some digging to establish the guidelines for pain-gratuitous construction.

The MPX8 Editor software: 'no frills' doesn't really embrace information technology...

Here goes: the MPX8 can load 16-bit stereo and mono WAV files, with supported sample rates of 48, 44.1, 32, 22.05 or 11.205 kHz. Anyone intending to fill a menu with samples should too exist aware of the following naming recommendations: if possible, filenames should be eight characters. Spaces should be avoided, as should any of the post-obit special characters: " * / \ : < > ? |. Even knowing all that you're still not out of the woods. This is because non all WAVs are created equal. Some applications (for example Logic 10) consign them with a BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) chunk of added metadata. Unfortunately this renders the WAV unreadable by the MPX8. When I finally realised this was the source of my bug, I was able to quickly sort them out past having Steinberg's Wavelab eliminate the metadata. I couldn't help thinking how nice it would have been if Akai'south own kit-making software had done this.

Once over those hurdles, everything became much brighter. After edifice a dozen regular drum kits, I went on to assign more diverse material to those handy pads. It was merely later on I began to introduce longer samples that the smoothen faded a bit. If I tell you that a two-minute sixteen-bit sample takes approximately iii and a half minutes to become from SD card into RAM, you'll probably concord this rates as 'leisurely'. Should you accidentally select a kit containing a long sample, this could be a potentially embarrassing silence and then, maybe in recognition of this, an 'abort' selection has been included. Loading kits is a manual process and yous may need to think nearly arranging them in the order they'll be needed, or use a piece of paper to record names for your kits. If you mainly concentrate on shorter samples, such as drums and loops, loading speed shouldn't be an issue.

What a sample player like this tin do for each of us is going to vary wildly. In many cases it will be an ideal repository for favourite drum hits, loops, spot effects or NASA samples. But why non fill it with exotic drones to accompany you whennose-flute busking? For fun, I chopped upwards some prime Stephen Hawking and spread his synthesized words across the pads before triggering them with random notes from a hardware sequencer. Information technology's true I don't get out much.

Should you be in any way embarrassed by the size of your personal sample hoard, Akai offer a costless 300MB Loop Library download, and a second library — Drum & Percussion — to give it a shot in the arm. I downloaded them and, having listened to a cross section, would gladly exercise so again.

Determination

Akai take hit on a neat idea: that of producing a portable, affordable drum controller with on-board samples. Since SD or SDHC cards are generally inexpensive and available, the prospect of carrying 32GB of your favourite textile must be appealing for many jobbing musicians. Whether every bit MIDI module or controller, the MPX8 is a prime candidate to slot into minimal laptop setups. With so many desirable attributes, it would be a shame if Akai didn't use the finishing touches. Specifically: life would be so much easier if whatever WAV file could be played, or if the MPX8 Editor consistently built working kits.

It'south mildly inconvenient to keep swapping the SD card between card reader and MPX8, but the but genuine operational niggle remains the slow loading of large samples. However, at the cost, what's amazing is that there aren't more shortcomings or grumbles. I wouldn't ordinarily suggest this, but if longer samples are important, the possible solution of 'purchase another' isn't totally crazy. Ultimately, every bit a controller and carry-anywhere box of samples, the MPX8 could be an impulse purchase for many of u.s..

Pros

A compact sample player for a potentially massive collection of samples loaded from SD menu.
A drum controller that outputs non just velocity but polyphonic aftertouch too.
The toll is right.

Cons

Tin can exist fussy about the samples it plays.
Editor software blissfully unaware of fussiness.
Slothful loading of long samples.

Summary

A portable sample histrion that's a pulsate controller and a MIDI module. Excellent value for money.

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