After already being really, really naughty with the customers who bought MPC 2000s in the late 90s Akai lead the introduction of the MPC 2500 pretty much to a fantastic desaster again. Anyone recalls? The MPC 2000 was so buggy when released that it represented more of an option to a hardware then a finished product. It took months until it was really useable but the cult around the MPC Line (originating back to the superb Roger Linn's MPC 60 to 3000 models) was so strong that it had almost no influence on reviewers in audio magazines. So it seems history is repeating again - hey wait, don't fall asleep! this time the story ends up much more interesting...
The purchase of the shiny new black polished MPC 2500 soon brought headache and anger management problems to some users who bought the machine right after release: Twice a week the MPC would freeze while generating folders or destroy older work by overwriting existing data. Patterns and sounds with long filenames could be saved but when the machine was asked to reload them the filenames had already been shortened, therefore those programs where corrpupted too. But that wasn't all the pain: The menu of the MPC 2500 XL would erraticly jump inbetween menu-points and the keys & jogwheel would start to feel old within a few days of hardcore editing. When asked about refunds or repairs the shop where you bought the MPC would point to Akai service which in return would simply not answer your emails. The regularly updated new MPC 2500 OSs solved some of the problems but the erratic file-managment persisited. In one word: Horrfying.
But this time the minutious effort of the Akai engineers to drive the new MPC 2500 users into sheer madness has been destroyed by some humane japanese code warrioirs with reverse engineering abilities. Hey, its just a computer with a harddisk after all, so it can be hacked. The so called JJ OS is the effort of a japanese programer group called Japenese Jenius that already hacked the cute little MPC 1000 and gained extreme cult status in the electronic music world within short time. In an age where modifications and extreme circuit bending activities are a popular sport it is not so surprsing that someone modifies an existing OS of a hardware. Nevertheless its amazing that a private person can fulfill the task of what a complete development facility seems to be incapable of. Shame on you Mr. and Mrs. Akai. You can do better then that. Yes, we know that Akai has been sold to Numark and there has been changes. But so what? Are you people selling hardware or not? If the MPC is not finished why don't you simply make the OS open source and give the people an SDK at their disposition?
However. The JJ OS for the 2500er is based on the hack of the MPC 1000 OS, therefore some features of the 2500er are wiped out when you install it. But since you gain some other very valuable hot features which nobody thought would be implemented any day soon it is pretty much worthwile to try it out. A CD-burning option is anounced for 2007.
bob humid, digging deep for bobsonic
Fairlight, the inventor of the Fairlight CMI and the one and only company that feverishly insists on pushing the envelope regarding the development and manufacturing of high-end digital mxing consoles that could easily win any set decoration award for Sci-Fi Movies has (drrrrrumroll) ...well, pushed the envelope again. But this time its not about the looks, the sexy knobs and pulsating buttons or slick sliding futuristic foxy faders. No! Its about the heart of (your PC) machine and about making your CPU jealous as a jellyfish envying the strength of aerogel.
The Fairlght CC-1 is a PCI-Card that fits into most modern Windows XP-based PCs and enables the performance-hungry sound-engineer-of-today to evoke an unhealthy feeling of world-domination-super-powers within the deepest soul of the audio tweaking heart. The Card introduces a new FPGA-powered Multimedia-Engine-On-A-Chip developed by Altera Corporation promising a quantum leap in performance that is capable of "immediately obsolete DSP". Howzthat you ask?
According to Fairlight the Crystal Core CC-1 "enables two hundred plus channels of audio recording, editing, mixing, I/O and plug-ins, with extremely low latency and full processing capability on every channel. Dynamic Resolution Optimization (DRO) feature supports concurrent floating and fixed-point manipulations." This sounds indeed sexy, but what does it mean concretely? Let's look at the features: Those include 8 fully parametric EQs, 3 Dynamic-Stages for Compressor, Enhancer and Limiters, 72 Bit Resolution on every channel, ASIO compatibilty and the ability to connect VST- and Rewire-Environments into your CC-1. This comes pretty close to what would resemble the funcionality and sound of a Fairlight dream console but without the actual control surface. 
Anyone keen on mixing-down those supercool but somehow thinly sounding Reason tracks on a Fairlight CC-1? Pump the shit up. You'll need something around 5000.00 $ for a basic system which might just give you the ability to do large industry mix-downs at home. Needless to say that CC-1-equipped PCs are theoretically limitless cascadable and preserve their low latency behaviour. I don't have a necessity to mixdown 1000 audio channels at once but the word "Expandable" has never been more true.
The CC-1 might definetly "shake the digital media world to its core by delivering new standards and raw performance capabilities previously unattainable even with the most expensive DSP based solutions" as the Fairlight promotion department claims.. Whether or not it really "instantly enables powerful new business and production models that will open up new opportunities for everyone” will be proven by the future. At the end of the day every Hardware FPGA, CPU or DSP needs useful software and I am not yet ready to give away my two creamy and phatty Universal Audio UAD-1 DSP Cards and all the little Fairchilds 670s, LA-2As, Pultecs and Neves that live inside... But it seems Fairlight is very open to OEM-cooperations and stirring up all the aforementioned facts could lead to some incredibly scary new products for audio professionals. I am really anxious to know what happens next...
Oh, I almost forgot. Digidesign's fearful reaction on the CC-1 announcement can be traced here.
bob humid, from the technological warfront. over and out.
After already being really, really naughty with the customers who bought MPC 2000s in the late 90s Akai lead the introduction of the MPC 2500 pretty much to a fantastic desaster again. Anyone recalls? The MPC 2000 was so buggy when released that it represented more of an option to a hardware then a finished product. It took months until it was really useable but the cult around the MPC Line (originating back to the superb Roger Linn's MPC 60 to 3000 models) was so strong that it had almost no influence on reviewers in audio magazines. So it seems history is repeating again - hey wait, don't fall asleep! this time the story ends up much more interesting...
Posts
