Akai Touch for $150, questions

Discussion in 'Soundgear' started by littlewierdo, Jul 24, 2019.

  1. littlewierdo

    littlewierdo Kapellmeister

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    So, I just got my hands on an Akai Touch for $150, should be here tomorrow according to UPS. There seems to be mixed info on this device being discontinued, dunno...

    I have some questions about it. Understand that I come from the background of cinematic orchestration scoring (brass, strings, woodwinds, percussion), my main reason for picking this up is because the Motif XF8 that I am currently using (a $4000 workstation keyboard) is, well, terrible for percussion. In fact, Im thinking this Akai touchpad might be handy for key switches as well (changing articulations), having to search the keyboard for what changes articulations (it is different for every instrument), if I pre-program all the key switches, that would make this thing handy. However, I digress...

    I decided to download the software from Akai and thumb through the sounds they provide. Basically, you get a limited but functional DAW, and a handful of sounds & loops (the vault 1, an early version of the bank, essential instruments version 1, and a couple of others).

    This leads to question 1, they are of course upselling later versions of the sounds, the vault 2, essential instruments 2, etc. My first question is, in general, does the version 2 of these loop / sounds contain everything from the version 1 but more, or, are they new products? For example, does version 2 of the vault contain everything version 1 had plus more? This is more of a curious question, Im not looking to actually buy anything yet...

    My second question is, what are some well known companies I should look for quality sounds from? Like I said, Im familiar with orchestral sounds (eastwest, spitfire, orchestral tools, Vienna Symphonic Library, cinesamples, etc), but for sounds, I dont have the foggiest clue. Obviously, MVP Loops looks like one company to look into, but are there others? By the way, I dont care so much about genre, Im more curious about reputable companies and even specific sounds that you like to use, regardless of genre (Im thinking about branching out into other genres).

    My next question is perhaps a bizarre one, if I am looking for sounds that have pre-programmed presets to the pads in the MPC Daw software or to be more clear, show up in the MPC software as an expansion for easy browsing, what is this called? For example, Kontakt libraries, this is called nki, if there is nki support, you can add this library to kontakt and it will appear as an installed library. I generally prefer this to just having a bunch of wav / sample files because I often forget what I have if it doesnt appear in my library.

    My final questions are about the hardware specifically, does this device have built-in memory? Does it REQUIRE a PC to use or does it merely have limited functionality without being connected to a PC? I didnt see any way to add storage, my guess is that is why it needs a PC is because it is using the DAW software to host the sounds that it plays... Im also looking to see if there is firmware for this and how / where to get that, or does the DAW software handle the firmware update... There doesnt seem to be a download for firmware...

    The funny thing is, I think this device is going to be overkill for what I wanted originally, which is mostly just a grid of pads that had velocity sensitivity and supported being mapped to whatever MIDI function I wanted them to be mapped to...
     
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