I’ve been deliberating over what changes I’m going to do to my gear loadout in conjunction with the new TP2 software next month; and I’d like some thoughts in regard to the X1.
I currently use a Maschine in midi mode to handle most of the functions, but I’m interested in pickup up a pair of X1s so I can work on using the Maschine ‘as’ Maschine while playing live.
My question asks for speculation of course, but do you guys feel there might be a chance that NI will release a hardware upgrade to the X1 with or shortly after Pro 2 comes out in April? I understand the X1 could easily be remapped to acomodate the new software features, but I get the feeling they would want to keep everything nice and neat. Even if they didn’t change the guts at all and simply updated the top plate/labels for the sample decks and loop recorder.
I think it’s unlikely. The sample decks will have been well set in the NI roadmap when they released the X1, which is almost certainly one of the reasons why the layout is as it is, with 8 pots and 8 buttons on top.
Making an alternative version of the X1 with different labels would not make sense, since that would imply retailers having to stock 2 versions which are otherwise identical.
also, one of the primary aims of the X1 is still as a companion to a DVS setup, which needs to have FX control.
If the X1 gets updated, I don’t think it will be this year. It can handle perfectly well the new features introduced so releasing a new version just with cosmetic/label changes wouldn’t be too useful.
