Every time I think about how I’ve been making music for 16 years, it blows my mind. I’ve messed around with hardware and software, gathered machines to gather dust, and seen the evolution of Logic Pro and Ableton throughout that time.
But one thing has always remained: making music (except a weird period between 2015–2017; we don’t talk about that). So when Akai released the MPC Sample, my eyes lit up and likely so did theirs albeit with currency signs. It was most of what you’d have expected in a MPC at that size and at that price point and sales reflected that enthusiasm. After a weeks of waiting for them to go back in stock, I snapped one up on Amazon and… I’ve not touched it. If I’m not careful, more weeks will have passed as an owner than as a wistful bystander and that’s no good.
Now in my defence, I’ve had some major life stuff happen. My dad passed away and I was flying between countries to support and in the midst of that, I was told that the house I was renting was going on the market. For me at least, it wasn’t conducive to creativity but things are settling in my head. I just have to get over one hurdle: FOMU (fear of messing up).
It’s something I’ve battled with for years and all it takes is doing the thing, whatever that may be. I just need to use the damn MPC. I own a MPC1000 and made a few albums with it earlier in my career and I briefly used an MPC Touch in 2018 until my laptop stopped supporting the touchscreen software. I’m not a newbie but I get scared of new ways of working. Initially. It’s what stopped me making the switch from Logic Pro to Ableton until I finally did it in 2020. Now it’s a breeze.
What will help is easing that fear. If the workflow is a concern, I can shift how I see the device. You could make whole beats in this thing but if rather not tinker in the box with such a small screen. That’s why it’s better to see the MPC Sample as a beat idea machine. I can “sketch” the building blocks and then put them in Ableton to sort out the arrangements, mixing, mastering, dynamic range, add vocal skits etc. It can complement rather than be the omega.
And with the growing sub-500 market, it’s a good perspective to have. You’re gonna hear the same naysayers lamenting missing features and suggesting that you pay 100 more for something better. But then if you had that much, you’re not the target audience because these are budget devices. Also, they’re not competing with more expensive machines. If you want to make the whole album on these samplers, you can. But if you want to have it as the canvas, that may be where it truly excels the most.