I’m using MPC studio black (but using the LCD on it only) when i’m making beats, and when i’m out or mpc is out of reach, i fire up Renoise.
I love mpc because i’m sick of looking at the laptop as i work as sysadmin and sometimes it’s overwhelming when looking everyday blablabla, so MPC makes unique experience to me.
I use it as Pete Rock would, Grap Luva, or Damu the Fudgemunk… For that (boombap sampled) hip hop it’s awesome! yet you can do everything waaay faster in any kind of DAW, specially in renoise…
I have a dream maybe of using renoise as mpc (i know, just a dream :P). I see that some of you use Emulator x2, well i’ve used X3, made a lot of beats with it, but as i’m off windows, i dont use it anymore, but that software is the best software sampler ever, PERIOD!
Effects are just amazing. Did you hear that reverb? maaaan. It has “delay” per layer (zone), as you have on mpc for example, which makes easy layering drum hits, and delaying them in between, but still acting as one “key/pad”…
@JBL ~ MPC is not about finger drumming, the most important is using it “standalone” as not touching mouse, keyboard or anything at all. People often mistake hierarchy of MPC as it is simple midi controller…
Cheers! 
MPC had granular pitch shift which renoise does not - you could change the pitch of a sample without speeding it up / slowing it down.
MPC had toggle looped sample on / off by hitting a pad which renoise lacks. It good for starting a loop, playing drums over it, then pressing two pads at once to toggle off one loop and toggle on another, while keeping the beat going.
MPC also had some other features renoise doesnt have like ‘note repeat’.
I totally agree that the pads were shit though. Having to hit them too hard. You want to practise quietly as possible sometimes. Not really possible to practise quietly with the MPC1000. Newer MPC pads are better…MPC live, MPC touch etc.
The buttons were shitty and loud clicky, easily breakable after repeated presses.
The screen was too small on MPC500, the RAM upgrades were stupidly expensive.
They all took shitty compact flashcards.
The original sequencer before JJOS was nice and quite similar to renoise way of doing things. It worked at 96 ticks per quarter note or ‘beat’, so you can set renoise up in that way too.
They should have made an MPC that you could hold between your knees to play like a djembe. People were getting good with finger drumming on MPC500 in spite of the shitty pads which needed ‘corking’ or ‘thick and fat’ pad upgrades.
MPC500 could have been cool as a portable device but you had to put your knees together and rest the MPC500 ontop…that was no good. It would have been much better if it had rubber on both sides so that you could hold it locked between your knees to play it.
Ableton push 2 has the best, most sensitive pads these days. Wide enough to play rolls with one finger of each hand…sensitive enough to play rolls with two fingers of one hand. I wish they would sell it as only the pads, none of the ableton controls.
The possibilities for live drumming and clip launching / loop triggering with 64 pads are awesome…launchpad pro has shitty pads unfortunately. It would be nice if new pads come out that are ‘conductive’ as well as velocity and pressure sensitive, so that they could sense even the lightest touch like a touchscreen can ( for quiet practise or subtle dynamics ).
They need to bring out MPC stands, for playing standing up. They dont fit well in a snare stand. Mixer stands arent designed to be drummed on. Its a difficult problem to get it at the right height to play with ‘fixed’ table heights
When buying pad controllers there arent too many places where you can try before you buy to check the pad sensitivity which is the main thing to think about before actually paying for them. Most of the pad controllers out there are just not sensitive enough. There are even ‘crosstalk’ issues on some (when another pad triggers when it isnt supposed to).
The best ones are ableton push 2, the pads on the MPC live and MPC touch…
I have heard korg padkontrol has great pads although never got a chance to try one.
I have heard zendrum laptop has great pads although never got a chance to try…thats an interesting one.
The best options on a budget are probably korg padkontrol and Akai MPD218, both about 70 euro
The mpc sequencer is great, turn it on beat it up and done
Something I have been missing for years on the pc
sell my Mpc2500 because build cheap quality (the new models are better) and awkward file management
my setup these days
Pattering IOS (programming) with Clock or Midi to Yamaha Ry30 (Drumming) to Renoise/Redux (File Management, Sample Editing)
Not sure if anyone here has seen this but this YouTube video of a person using Renoise with an MPC was my first glimpse at the power of this platform:
Now I mostly use the pattern editor to compose but I just got the Roli Lightpad Block and can already tell it’s an amazing drum pad controller, FWIW.
where is mpc? that’s only MPK midi controller with keys and drum pads…
Korg PadKontrol, alhtough old…everyone has said its very sensitive and playable as a musical instrument…plus value for money, great price.
I really want to try a 64 pad setup with renoise…its enough pads to layout pretty full songs and do it all live, which is more interesting to see someone do ( when they dont go out of time anyway ). Ive heard launchpad pro is not sensitive enough, but ive never tried one…looks not too bad in videos but you can never really know until you try it yourself. On the other hand the only other 64 pad setup, ableton push 2 is very sensitive. I have tried it so I can confrim its very playable, but the price is ridiculously high and its designed specifically with ableton in mind.
another thing to consider for live drumpad performances with renoise would be some cheap non-velocity sensitive 64 button controller to put alongside the real drum-pads. You could render your patterns to sample without drums and trigger up to 64 separate patterns to play the real drums along to ( with the velocity sensitive pads, korg padkontrol or akai mpd218 ). Might be quite cool. So the button ( not drumpad ) controllers would be novation mini and mini mk2…somehow kids on youtube make it look like they are real drumpad controllers, but they are not. just buttons.
There’s also Wusik Q200 which prettymuch an MPC seq in software form.
https://www.wusik.com/w/index.php/products/host-chainers/wusik-sq200