IS os2 WORTH IT? (yes, this is why)

the question is budding in the forums: is it worth it to buy os2 when you already have os1, which is already much, much better than the akai os? i hope to answer that question. first, these are my favorite OS2 functions that will prove to be incredibly useful.

1 - we are now able to specify sequence LOOP start/stop. say you have a 16 bar loop. we are now able to set the sequence to loop between say bar 4 and 8, or 9-12, or any number. this is WILD. i can now have a song that i've rendered to 1 long, 60 bar sequence and still have it loop on the bars that once were originally sequence 4. this is a big deal.

2- start time accessible from MAIN screen. when MTC synced to daw, say you're working on the 7th eight bar sequence in your song. if you were to just hit playstart, your DAW would start from the beginning of your DAW project, while your mpc would be playing the 7th sequence. now, you can set the start time per sequence, so that it corresponds to your synced DAW. this is great.

3- global track mixer (GTM). in main screen, hit window over the track name. you now have single-screen, GPE style access to all of your tracks. you can rename them quickly without actually moving from track to track in the main screen. you can turn them from DRUM to MIDI (something i do frequently since i ONLY program in MIDI grid edit but sometimes need to view NOTE ON qlink values. you can change programs from GTM, and PC and MIDI params... finally, and most importantly, the actual TRACK mixer. this was available before on a per-pad basis through GPE, but GTM is MUCH faster: 1 value instead of 64 values. level, pan, out, fx, send. fantastic.

4- Aftertouch to Crossfade 1-2. in a drum program, enter New Program Mode and set a sine wave to layer 1 and 2. tune the first layer to -12, tune the 2nd layer to 0. set aftertouch to crossfade1-2 to 50. press with alternating pressure, note the crossfade between sample layers. this has a LOT of potential, both in terms of melody and percussive elements, as welll as with long chopped samples. i haven't even begun to think about the potential of this function - expect further tips from me in the future.

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the downside of os2: it's still in a relatively early stage of development. there are still bugs that hinder a user's workflow. however, i am actively reporting them and i believe they will disappear very soon.

that being said, the tools available in os2 make it already 2x as powerful as os1. i still use os1 for various tracks that i started in os1, but i no longer start new projects in os1.

so why buy os2? first, os2 is worth it already. INST programs turn the MPC1000 into a very capable rompler/synthesizer/preset playing device. drum shaping using ADSR is more powerful than ever before. 2 simulted kick pads, each shaped specifically w/ ADSR on AMP and FILTER = extraordinary control.

2nd, future functions. the programmer has a bunch of plans, hence the "no feature request til march." the programmer's plans have been wonderful so far, and i expect they will continue. not to mention, after march comes and the programmer starts choosing from the countless requests that users send to him, we will see further positive developments.

3rd, for the MPC2500 users... jj has mentioned that os2 may not be made for the mpc2500 unless os2 sells well for the mpc1000. out of personal interest and community, it's only fair that the 2500 users get access to os2 after it has been tentatively completed for the MPC1000 in march. personally, i would feel very sad for the 2500 users if they never got to taste ADSR and other os2 functions just because not enough mpc1000 users bought os2.

4th - necessity of these functions. some people say "for all these functions, i would rather use a DAW." to be honest, i think this is spoken from inexperience. there are no DAW functions on the MPC1000 os2 that i would rather use in a DAW (EXCLUDING AUDIO TRACKS). it's plain and simple - stuff like ADSR and INST tracks are absolutely ESSENTIAL once you've used them a couple of times. you won't want to go back.

is os2 worth it? hell yes. should you get it now? depends on whether or not you enjoy the bughunt. personally, i love the bughunt. however, there's also this option: buy os2 now to show your interest and support. install it, update it every now and then - but don't use it until you're comfortable with it (and maybe until i give you the thumbs up for work unhindered by bugs!) os2 is still young, but i recommend that you buy it early for the above reasons.

don't settle for less. os1 is great, os2 is god.

nym

Antonym wrote:1 - we are now able to specify sequence LOOP start/stop. say you have a 16 bar loop. we are now able to set the sequence to loop between say bar 4 and 8, or 9-12, or any number. this is WILD. i can now have a song that i've rendered to 1 long, 60 bar sequence and still have it loop on the bars that once were originally sequence 4. this is a big deal.

that is a huge deal, I was trying to find that feature in OS1 the other day and was amazed that it wasn't included

I was sceptical at first, bought it , and already workflow feels better. I am totally of the understanding that this is a pre-release and not to expect it working properly till march, but having said that-
last night i was trying to finish a project using os2 the first time and found the transpose feature did'nt work at all, and when i switched back to os1 i found i had to manually re-set the envelopes for each of the pads which set me back time-wise. so , as of os2.71, be aware of this - if you need to finish something in a hurry, probably better off in os1 for the time being.
I'd like to ask jj if it were possible to render a stable enough version of os2 (with the features of os1 plus the adsr of os2, which is so far the main plus of os2 and, as nym said, indispensible)to hold us over till march?
I'd like to ask him myself, but the language barrier, i'm afraid since i don't understand their translations they in turn won't undrstand mine. But the adsr is essential to me, and i need to finish this project by mid jan. think they'd get the jist if i e-mail that request them?

i think it'll happen without us having to ask for it. that is, after all, the goal. the difference in stability between os2 .68 and os2 .71 is very large.

meanwhile, there is always the option of using a soft sampler like the free short circuit for adsr for your pressing project.

could you describe more of the transpose troubles you had? i'll look into it and report it. i just successfully transposed a track +12 semitones, and spent some more time transposing and it all seemed to work ok...

yeah, it was basicly moving a track from, say , pad B6 to A3, i'd check after on the step edit for that track to check it had moved ,and all the notes would still be at B6. i've got os1 up now so i can't really do a step by step just now, but i can do one later if it helps.
as for the envelopes, my trick for doubling a kik drum up till now has been to record, say , a 2 bar kik drum into the daw, make a midi groove template, use that template to trigger , for example, a sine wave, and use battery's incredibly brilliant envelopes to carve it into the perfect shape to make the kik awesome, but keep it out of the way of the bass, or the kik's klik.it works incredibly well javascript:emoticon(':lol:') ,but is real time consuming, cause you have to get the groove template just right.
sorry to be a bore about this, but i'm really certain that native instrument's BATTERY 's envelopes are what jj's should be modelled after, they really warrant a check out. you can get incredible contours that for layering will ensure you get the attack of one drum, the body of the 2nd, and the tail of the 3rd. they have to be experienced to really get how good/usefull they are.
Laughing

thedvs01 wrote:

Antonym wrote:1 - we are now able to specify sequence LOOP start/stop. say you have a 16 bar loop. we are now able to set the sequence to loop between say bar 4 and 8, or 9-12, or any number. this is WILD. i can now have a song that i've rendered to 1 long, 60 bar sequence and still have it loop on the bars that once were originally sequence 4. this is a big deal.

that is a huge deal, I was trying to find that feature in OS1 the other day and was amazed that it wasn't included

I'm amazed too. I'm amazed that you guys can't find that feature in OS 1 because I am using it in the latest version as I type this. It's in the same place as OS 2. Just go to LOOP in main screen and hit window.

That's been there awhile. Unless you're talking about something else?

elektrik_muz wrote:

thedvs01 wrote:

Antonym wrote:1 - we are now able to specify sequence LOOP start/stop. say you have a 16 bar loop. we are now able to set the sequence to loop between say bar 4 and 8, or 9-12, or any number. this is WILD. i can now have a song that i've rendered to 1 long, 60 bar sequence and still have it loop on the bars that once were originally sequence 4. this is a big deal.

that is a huge deal, I was trying to find that feature in OS1 the other day and was amazed that it wasn't included

I'm amazed too. I'm amazed that you guys can't find that feature in OS 1 because I am using it in the latest version as I type this. It's in the same place as OS 2. Just go to LOOP in main screen and hit window.

That's been there awhile. Unless you're talking about something else?

could some one explain why this is such a huge feature, why is it so useful if this was something like being able to have different lenths on different tracks in a sequence I could understand but I don't get how you guys are making good use of this soooo, spill the beans.

So can you do everything with 0s2 that you can do with Os1? Theres an interview with justblaze on youtube where he's says that when he first got the triton he was going crazy and just adding in a bunch of stuff. He said that he was doing like almost 30tracks in protools with just the beat. no vocals.

Anyway he said that he had to stop and ask himself why is he doing that.
Is this or that necessary and why? how is it adding to the track?
Im all for more if the more is going to be dynamic and a must have but at the end of the day, how does this make the product better?

elektrik_muz wrote:

thedvs01 wrote:

Antonym wrote:1 - we are now able to specify sequence LOOP start/stop. say you have a 16 bar loop. we are now able to set the sequence to loop between say bar 4 and 8, or 9-12, or any number. this is WILD. i can now have a song that i've rendered to 1 long, 60 bar sequence and still have it loop on the bars that once were originally sequence 4. this is a big deal.

that is a huge deal, I was trying to find that feature in OS1 the other day and was amazed that it wasn't included

I'm amazed too. I'm amazed that you guys can't find that feature in OS 1 because I am using it in the latest version as I type this. It's in the same place as OS 2. Just go to LOOP in main screen and hit window.

That's been there awhile. Unless you're talking about something else?

I tried that before and it doesn't work

say you have a 4 bar sequence and you hit WINDOW and set first bar to 3 and last bar t 4. When you press play all it will do is loop those 2 bars, it won't play the first 2.

in other words, you press play and it goes: 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4 ...

it makes bars 1 and 2 pretty much useless

the way Nym says it does it in OS2 (which is the way that is actually handy) is that it will go

1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4 ...

sure there are alternatives (like making two sequences) but its a convenience to have the feature


EDIT:

hmm, interesting -- turns out it works that way in OS1 as well, but only if you press PLAY from bar 1.

if you press PLAY START it only plays the loop that you set.

I'm amazed too. I'm amazed that you guys can't find that feature in OS 1 because I am using it in the latest version as I type this. It's in the same place as OS 2. Just go to LOOP in main screen and hit window.

That's been there awhile. Unless you're talking about something else?

he's right, it is in os1. was it put there recently, or was this just a massive oversight on my part? either way, i'm very glad i found it.

Antonym wrote:

I'm amazed too. I'm amazed that you guys can't find that feature in OS 1 because I am using it in the latest version as I type this. It's in the same place as OS 2. Just go to LOOP in main screen and hit window.

That's been there awhile. Unless you're talking about something else?

he's right, it is in os1. was it put there recently, or was this just a massive oversight on my part? either way, i'm very glad i found it.

I noticed the feature before but like I said above, I thought it was either broken or not implemented correctly, but that's because I was pressing PLAY START, which for some reason interprets the START as the loop start and not the sequence start

you have to use PLAY for it to work -- does do the same thing in OS2?

does the INST program feature bear any resemblance to keygroup programs for the 4k?

ok, I get it now.
hmm.

yes, it does. i don't know the subtle differences, but it's similar.
you're able to create instrument programs from multisampled patches. full adsr support on pitch, amp, and filter. the nice thing is that the community can share their INST programs...i plan to put up a public website folder with all my INST programs all zipped up for community access.

haven you heard anything of different track lengths that are loopable in the os 2 Nym?
so that you could loop a 2 bar bassline with a 8bar drum track.