AKAI Professional MPC Studio

I returned MPC Live II and bought both Presonus ATOM SQ and this MPC Studio mk2 to decide.

First arrival was RMA for Thomann. MPC Studio mk2 is very low build quality and even I'm software developer and updated firmware several times, the lights did not work on MPC. But midi out did work, which was strange. I had to record a movie and send to Thomann and AKAI Pro. Which was time consuming.

Second unit works. But I run out of testing time and now cannot return in (it has been 3-4 months total). So I need to record another video and discuss possible RMA.

I found some bugs. AKAI support is not responding (I'm software developer, so I am very precise at providing tech details).

The main issue is that you buy MPC for their workflow, but MPC Studio is unfinished product with a lack of integration with MPC Software. Therefore, things such as changing bars via MPC controller do work on standalone, but they are not implemented in MPC Studio mk2 controller + MPC Software solution. The most ridiculous thing is that there is Global MIDI mapping in MPC Software and there is Sequence Current Step. If you map this one to ANY 3d party, even non Akai, midi controller, you get this integration and it works. But none of the buttons or knob on MPC Studio mk2 are able to do it. ALL other MPC hardware products CAN.

This is only a tip of an iceberg. Basically the integration is so bad and buggy that you have to use more than 50% times your mouse instead of hardware controller. But we buy MPC to get the famous MPC workflow, right? Why I need to use mouse after my daily software developer job?

So unhealthy, so uncreative.

I read whole manual, I ask on MPCForums, I post on Akai support, I mention this to Thomann, I try to comment on Youtube videos. There is more people having this issue.

This product is 1 year out and there have been no MPC Software update for Studio mk2. There has been only new plugins in MPC Software. But they don't focus on making the integration better or fix these bugs, so I guess they won't fix it.

I would like to exchange this product for something else. I still have original box and touched it maybe five times. More times I touch mouse, read manual and try to resolve issues.

On the other hand: Presonus ATOM SQ works out of the box. No issues, perfect integration, no mouse touching. And I've heard the same about Native Instruments Maschine.

Conclusion:
Buy MPC standalone or get something else (NI or Presonus)

Having almost 20 years of experience in my music making hobby, this product AKAI Studio 2 changed a lot of things for me. It is extremely portable with tons of PC-based features controllable with. Having lots of travels I realized that with MPC Studio 2 it is possible to shorten my luggage to hand luggage only, meaning that I carry only one bag pack not more than 8 kg in total weight with a lot of fun using this device and included software while out of home. And also thanks Thomann for the excellent shopping experience!