MPC Key 61: Impressive, But Frustrating 

Guess this would be a good time to link my brand loyalty video ✌: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HqMMRh3VRT8.html 00:00: Intro 04:00: Demoing the pianos 08:50: 1 patch, 55% CPU usage 10:39: Severe Bugs 13:00: Day 2. Factory Reset 15:00: System crash 16:37: Recording a double bass 19:22: List edit for glitchy beats 23:26: THE SONG I Finally Made 26:10: Takeaways & Thoughts

I know you hate making negative content but I'm honestly glad you do it. This stuff costs a lot. I want to know what I pay for. If all the reviewers and RU-vidrs are ignoring bad parts then I'm not going to be happy when I get a buggy horrible mess of a product. I really appreciate you doing this!

I need it!!!

I wish we had far more honest reviews like this. Manufacturers can't improve if people are just blowing sunshine up their asses all the time.

That sucks man, I'm sorry you're dealing with that. When I was younger and less financially stable I saved up for a while to get an mpc live, and when I couldn't get it to work right I just thought I sucked, and I felt bad going back to my computer because I spent so much on it. I ended up going through a pretty dry period creatively. I also saw the specs and thought it'd solve my problems. Thanks for using this as an opportunity to go into broader issues and saving the greener among us from having to learn the hard way.

Looks like this comment section is about to some attention, for the next couple days...I was just saying how these companies need to stop bringing unfinished products to market, while spending the next few years, attempting to fix problems that should be worked out beforehand. I look forward to the video. As far as the comments; you're about to get all the smoke! Haha.

The “Workstation Piano” is probably a KORG M1 - to recreate the sounds of old hits. Typically just one really hard sample with no layers and a filter applied for dynamics.

Your honesty and negativity is INSANELY appreciated. So sick of the shills/fanboys with the whole “this new gear is INSANE!!! A game-changer!!!” Utterly sick of the phony shill bulls-t out there. Maschine user since 2009. Bought MPC One in Sept 2020. Thankfully few bugs. Don’t trust new firmware at all. Nothing annoys me more than beta-testing expensive gear. Other than the shills out there with all the gear company butt-kissing. We need a LOT more content like this. Thank you, Benn.

Brutally honest yet very even handed and fair review/assessment I thought. Perhaps I’m naive about these things but for the money you were talking I’d expect the product to be finished and close to flawless.

Using a Python script to check stock availability is the most Benn Jordan shit Benn Jordan has ever Benn Jordan'd.

Your musical ability is what shines here the most. Beautiful song.

Good on you! We need more critical reviews of gear. Too many reviewers who are shills for the manufacturers…

It is refreshing to watch an HONEST video about an unfinished product. Most YT content is paid by manufacturers and they hide the truth. Kudos for that!

I am totally with you. I have a MPC One, I like it so far, but I also undestood when they advertised the Key61 I knew this is not what people think it is. And Akai says it is. Just stick with a MPC non key and add any keyboard/workstation/synthesizer and you have more fun and flexibility.

I really appreciate the "negative" content Benn, because 99% of RU-vid channels are actively trying to sell me something or /at best/ are neutral enough to just tell me about the feature list. This is great and necessary content. My big problem with all the current Akai hardware (besides the bugs) is that even if they were perfect and bug free, the UI / UX feels like it was designed by space aliens who had an instrument described to them by some guy on Twitter, but had never actually seen or used one themselves. Why are we 5(?) years deep on this OS and the Q links still don't actually indicate what they're going to do before you touch them? Come on Akai.

The fact that you compared a keyboard to a THPS2 level explains perfectly why you have one of my favorite channels on RU-vid. (Also, just buy some air special tricks and go to town, they get you the most points ;))

this reminds me of the days when I was one of the first Austrians to receive an mpc 4000. some 20 years ago. it took all my savings and then some, but I absolutely wanted it. within the first few weeks it became obvious the thing was close to being unusable because it had so many bugs, including. the dealer didn't take it back and I eventually sold it with quite a loss. it took years for the machine to finally deliver and become desirable again. I will never forgive akai for that.

Customers are not just beta testers, they're quality control too!

Thank you for showing me how to use this event edit screen in order to prepare my favorite type of drum beats style O_0 I believe MPC community needs more content creators exploring something else than just rap & hip hop related generes. The piece you created was perfect example.

Thank you for calling out Akai Pro for doing this. I have had a similar experience with their newer MPC One+. They really need to raise their game with software quality and testing. In-music need to hire more devs and get a grip on what goes out the door. Otherwise they just lose ground to Roland/Elektron/TE etc.

Benn, I really enjoy your use of the sound stage. Very inspiring, creative and some other positive adjectives I fail to come up with at 2:30 am because I'm too tired to type proper English. 😁

Thank you for this video, Benn!! Happy owner of Akai Force here, and I've also been around the Force community for long enough to know that the bugs+feature gaps are a real issue. The technique you demonstrate at 22:36 "list edit mode" -> high hat ratchets unconstrained by the bpm is absolutely brilliant. Just finished attempting a deep dive into how you pulled this off, and haven't quite figured it out; if you can offer any clues, that'd be amazing. Happy touring!

I always love truly honest reviews about gear -- positive or negative! Outstanding! FWIW, some of the lockups you encountered I've also seen people gripe about happening with the MPC One after the 2.10 update. So, these issues may not be limited to just the MPC Key 61.

Woah! The list edit feature is such a discovery, worth the whole video. 💖

Great video Ben!!! You really nailed it man. I wish more RU-vidrs had your guts, but no.....You are far from the many and I'm sure this is appreciated by the serious people in the synthesizers community. Thank you for doing that!

I don't know what to think about the bugs... I'm blown away by the drums you did in that weird list view. The controls do look unique there and the parameters on the instruments are sounding amazing.

Thank you for changing my mind on this brick…you saved me a lot of money! I’ve been looking at the Arturia 88, and I’ve seen nothing but great reviews on it. I’ll probably be going with that as a combo midi controller and sampler. Thanks!

I am not an MPC user. I play live in cover bands. Some years ago with Kronos or Montage, nowadays with a MacBookPro and a long list of VSTs. IMHO this is a very brave try to build a workstation able to use plugins, during my 10 minutes test in a shop I found a lot of wonderful sounds, much better than any workstation preset (power of nice plugins). But the GUI prevented me to think at a use in my rig, obvious: I don't need MPC at all. But still, the full design is a positively innovative step. Then the truth is that it cannot have memory and cpu of modern computers, it's an embedded solution. I hope it will evolve, with serious bug check and upated firmware. But the perfect tool (plugins live without a computer) is still to be designed.

I don't know if there's ever been a time when MusicRadar and their magazines have actually provided any real testing or critique, it's all more like a glorified product catalogue

Thanks bro...I needed this 👍

Akai is like your childhood's bipolar uncle. Sometimes he made the coolest shit (MPC Live's firmware updates), but you can't forget the day you found him inside your playhouse, covered in his own vomit and feces (MPX8).

Thanks for the review !

Thank you Benn. Thank you for your tips on the MPC list edit, ratchet. Thank you for introducing me to The Flashbulb. Thank you for reminding me, in the most positive ways possible, of Max Headroom. ❤🎹😎

After my experience with the MPC Live, I'll never purchase an Akai product until it has been on the market for at least 2 years. When the Live launched, it promised to be capable of being the midi brain for a whole setup. Had 2 midi ins and two midi outs, but you could only use one each effectively. It took Akai 4 years to offer midi support that was promised on launch day. I'm still salty about it. Say what you will about Maschine+ (and there is plenty wrong with it) but it handled midi as promised on day one.

Thanks so much for share with us.

Benn, thank you. Great critique.

I recognize how this sort of negative review can be awkward and challenging, but I found it to be extremely helpful and fair - you also showed what you did really enjoy about the gear, your complaints were legitimate: system crashes, panning bugs, etc. are things that need to be sorted before shipping out. Thank you for this video!

They are not even releasing patch notes (4 bug fixes in a few months) or simple manuals for their paid plugins at this point, I’m taking akai less seriously but I hope they turn it around somehow.

You are being very fair in your video. This is why when you post "negative" content it is very valuable information. Appreciate it!

Glad I watched your vid Benn. Maybe the 'all in one', solution I was thinking of purchasing ain't such a good idea now. I was literally about to 'pull the trigger' on the mpc 61 and whilst perusing the tube I came across your vid. I'm so glad I did too. Thanks for your honest appraisal of this piece of equipment. I'll go looking for some other solution now, 👍👍👍👍

It's kind of funny - I remember say, 15 - 20 years ago people would drag these Huge Keyboards around on tour because they needed the power and it needed to be reliable. No one wants a BSOD or the chimes of death in the middle of a show. Now, I have a Mac laptop running Reaper or Ableton Live with a Novation Impulse kbd controller and have NEVER had a single crash when using audio software. And now, here's a big heavy workstation keyboard, that is less reliable than my computer. Sort of abdicates ones of the strengths of using a workstation....

I knew this was going to happen; that the Akai "flagship" was going to be sunk by their usual willful negligence. It's always "amateur hour" for them. I'm glad that, finally, someone of some note is actually calling them out instead of playing the fanboy like so many did when the Force was released. My Force was (and remains) a disaster. Had I not gotten the Force before the price hike and at a deep discount I would have been soliciting other unhappy users and looking for a hungry attorney who wanted to make a name for himself/herself. It spent a year on the shelf waiting for firmware with bugfixes that, after taking it off the shelf and updating the firmware to give it another go, have mostly not come. It's only good to me as a very large, rather expensive, "clip launcher". My 404SX can do that but is smaller, cheaper, and runs on batteries when I want to go outside and do some work on it. As for the beta testing thing... I've been saying the same thing for years. Unfortunately, the majority of people who buy musical equipment these days aren't professionals with high standards and don't know better but they now set the standards nonetheless. I'll never buy Akai again, no matter how great the marketing makes something sound. Perhaps they should take some of the marketing money and use it to hire experienced, talented, engineers. 17:50 You thought that because it's something that experienced designers and engineers have been doing for years and has become SOP.

One good thing about this release is it hopefully means they will keep evolving their OS. I think I'm still waiting for disk streaming on the MPC Live.. was added to the Force not so long ago

Glad to see someone calling Akai out for this. It's not just the new products. My MPC-X, which is marketed as the centerpiece of the studio and the flagship product at Akai is so screwed up with bugs from "updates" they provide, that it's unusable for a lot of functions. They do not respond to support tickets. Ever since InaMusic bought them, this has gotten even worse. They release completely unstable updates that make our multi-thousand dollar pieces of gear unusable. So unprofessional.

It comes with a stand up bass neck that emerges magically from the unit, what's not to love?

I have had one of these for about a month now. It's my first Akai product and I'm definitely surprised by the way the launch has progressed so far and have pretty mixed feelings about the product. On one hand, I've made quite a bit of music with it so far. The actual recording functionality is good (for me at least) and I do think they're close to that DAW-in-a-box philosophy. I have been mostly fortunate in that I've only encountered one or two bugs up to now that have not been repeated and one hard crash without losing any progress. That said, you've echoed a lot of my own thoughts about the Key here and I appreciate the honesty. It's not a finished product and I can only hope Akai provide the level and frequency of support it needs going forward. There are some really good sounds in here for sure, plenty of filler, but some very usable things. The sampling functionality is good too, very easy to use. But the interface is maddening. Not being able to preview sounds without long pauses for loading. Actually navigating through the non-Key content (other MPC sounds, expansions, key groups, samples) is pretty awful. They can't be sorted by type nor can you designate some as favourites. And I tried gigging with it and the long loads meant I had to change my set and remove some musical interludes to actually make it work for me. I could go on. The worst offence however is that there is no user manual. You get a quick start guide of a few pages in the box, and there's a fairly detailed but generic MPC software guide, but there's so much about the specific Key or hardware functionality that I've had to learn myself just by messing around. Even Akai's own tutorial content only focuses on recording. I suppose this is the potential risk of being an early adopter and as I said, I have made some stuff with it that I'm happy. But it's hard for me to think of a recent instrument/product that was this rocky at launch and it's a shame that more people aren't vocalising their concerns to Akai (that I've heard at least)

Imagine u pay 2k for a new computer and one piano sound more than half maxes the cpu

Thanks for the awesome "out of sync" tip at 20:55, I'm new to mpc and it would take ages to discover it myself

Love seeing “Benn & Gear”, again! Great to see it on occasion.

Fantastic keyboard!

This really makes me appreciate my motif es6! holy moly

Brilliant! Thank you. So glad this was the next review I went to after seeing Andy Mac doing the product demonstration Sonic Lab. Great sounds, and future firmware updates will hopefully iron out the bugs. The key bed is very noisy, problem for live in a Bar situation? Many thanks for the inspiration! I am just a self taught tinkerer using the brilliant Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio DAW. Love the Tone 2 VST instruments.

21:56 man, I need to take notes. It's like magic, the way the rhythms come alive. You make hard work look so easy, even when you show how laborious it can be.

I’ve had an mpc one since the start of the year thinking it would be the centre of my live set up. While it’s good for what I’m using it for, the terrible external midi controller support means I’m not able to use a lot of what I want live. They should fix major issues like that rather than adding new features as far as I’m concerned.

Akai do release hardware with what is effectively beta software. I remember buying my Live and being very frustrated for a month or two until they updated firmware. The thing I will say about Akai is that they are the best when it comes to supporting older gear and providing updates in response to feedback. I own hardware from most of the other big manufacturers and the only other company with the same dedication or close to it is Novation. Benn, I am sure Akai will take your critique onboard and actually address the issues you and many others have brought up. Personally, I would recommend the One and a good Midi keyboard over the Key61 or the Live/2 or X. I like the Live these days but the CV options on the One are attractive . The paid plugins are not a good option for 99.5% of us (including moi). All the best!

What a nightmare lol. I couldn't get too frustrated with gear what just ends up ruining good ideas with flaws like these. Still was super impressed with how good the piano sounds sounded. Also mad jealous on your piano playing skills, as usual.

I don't know anything about music. I have no idea what you're doing or talking about. Yet, it's so fascinating to see an artist doing creative work!!! Thanks.

This is a really amazing video. And I really like the song. I was about to sell my MPC One and buy a polyend tracker. But I think you made me change my mind. I still may buy a tracker but I’ll have to sell something else.

Whats weird is, some ppl have all sorts of problems and yet some ppl have few or no problems at all. Theres a quality control issue because everyone should have the same issues. I use it as a workstation and I've never had a crash or freeze up. But Akai needs to stop releasing products if they are not 100% ready. I think users would like to have usability over expediency.

I'm still using older stuff and looking around so i appreciate you telling us it's not working for you and why..

This 10000X!!!! Had some major issues with a few items. The Arturia Matrixbrute was the worst offender for me. Without major public shaming, I doubt it would have been patched. Tha k you for sharing this!!

First time seeing one of your videos and I loved it :) I didn't even care about the gear review it was just so inspiring watching you make music. I did feel better about my own musical incompetence after finding out you struggle at skatestreet. Hey maybe I can make a video tutorial showing you how to get a gold medal XD

This is a great video, seriously. I look forward to when you can be more effusive about a product, but honesty is absolutely more important than consistency of tone.

Interesting take on it all, i did wonder what it was really like in the real world. I've owned a Force since late 2020, i found issues within 10 mins of first use with the firmware version as it was then. Put it down to pilot error at the time but turns out later down the road its firmware issues. I don't know what's going on at Akai but there are basic functionality features that are just plain missing on these units. They're very much half baked in some areas. I have a love / hate relationship with the Force, its all down to workflow pretty much. Lets hope the audio hardware isn't susceptible to the failures Force users have found.

despite the frustration coming through, it was still a interesting and useful video!

The golden rule for me is to never buy new kit especially electronics for about a year or two after its released.

Watching this video makes me extremely glad that I didn't end up buying this thing, and instead decided to double down on Bitwig with a Novation SL MK3. Akai really aren't covering themselves in glory here.

One might appreciate the straight up honesty and the fact that despite working with a challenging piece of gear, however frustratingly, you still managed to create a track with it. I am one of those people. It's just a shame that it couldn't go smoother. Something like this isn't in my budget for now anyway, maybe if/when I'm in the market for this kind of thing, it'll have all the bugs fixed

Have never seen anyone create sequences using the event list editor before. Crazy glitch beats!

worked as a QA software engineer for over 30 years for adobe apple it is an unappreciated resource:)

Excited for those Fractalfest sets!

I just did a video on the MPC one on pretty much this exact topic. I find that internally the functions work great- as soon as you start incorporating with other gear it’s 100% not reliable. Made me lose all confidence in Akai for live sets and this video just confirms that.

I really appreciate you taking the time to do this video. Let's hope this becomes a bit of a wakeup call for the product team - I feel sorry for the devs on that team because I'm suspecting that the problems are due to far too little resource investments on quality. If I had to guess, they are spending nearly all their time on new features and almost zero time on bug fixing. I've seen this done before and it's a morale killer. Let's hope they have a Monday morning meeting reviewing this video and going: "💩, we really need to prioritize bug fixes too 🙈." I LOVE my MPC Live 2, but would love it even more if they could spend 3 months doing nothing but fixing bugs and workflow issues. Andy Mac, I hope you are listening and have some leverage here. 🙏

I’ve had a very similar “wait, am I beta testing a supposedly finished product?” experience with the Arturia KeyStep Pro. That device is supposedly designed to be the central brain of a performance setup, but it’s also loaded with dozens of unpredictable show-stopping bugs that still aren’t fixed even a year after the last firmware update. It’s infuriating that companies aren’t held more accountable for not delivering on the basic functionality that they promised upon the launch of their products.

I wish people would do more honest reviews like this

You said you were headlining..I thought, what does this guy sound like. Checked ya flashbulb . Dood. Deep m8. Love that drop with the orchestra live... congrats

The MPC key has been awesome for me, I love it. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience with it.

Many thanks Benn for an excellent video. Your negativity is entirely justified. You've helped me come down off that fence. Not sure I appreciate the sort of 'buy now play later' (after 2 yrs of bug fixes) approach, not at the 61 keys price. Will go back to looking at the MPC One plus controller keyboard if I want to pursue an MPC approach to music making. It's a shame as I wanted a 1 box keyboard sampler solution. All those bugs would bug me too.

TELL IT LIKE IT IS BROTHER!

Thanks for your honesty, it's actually refreshing to see a RU-vid music tech video that isn't basically an advert disguised as a review. I'm a long time Akai user (as far back as the S950) but I don't think I've ever been a particularly early adopter (I've always had to save before buying, because I was young and they were expensive back in the late 80's - mid 90's) So perhaps the bugs had been ironed out by the time I'd bought one of their samplers (S950, 1100, 3200). So I'm wondering if this early users being practically beta testers situation has beplagued Akai for some time, or it's only started happening relatively recently?

Hot damn man sorry you're dealing with this. The new update really screwed up my MPC I.

Thank you for doing this video. Most RU-vid reviews are unequivocally positive, so I was tempted, despite the known shortcomings of the MPC architecture (no real song arrangement). I am sticking with my Maschine and a midi controller…

Got my Key 61 a few days ago as my first MPC and greatly enjoy it so far. Of course being a newbie might be a blessing since most of the bugs you’ve shown are for features I don’t know very well yet anyway. FWIW, I work in the software field, and the “MVP” mindset and release pressure makes for great progress, but not necessarily bulletproof quality. Let’s hope Akai listens to you and others for better QC. If you keep the Key 61, would love to hear more about which on boards sounds you prefer. I was surprised how much I enjoy the Odyssey analog synth. Fabric and Stage aren’t the only instruments to focus on. Thanks!

Benn, this is the most positive negative feedback video I've ever watched. Thank you for the quality content. FWIW I would pay pretty decent money for tutorials of your workflow for this kind of music, particularly with FL Studio. Peace!

A refreshing opinion of something users have known since 2.11 was released. It’s amazing how most of the other akai using RU-vidrs have been quiet on the subject, they don’t want to jeopardise their freebies. I believe the drumsynth bug has been fixed with 2.11.4 although it was easily fixable anyway.

One Love! Always forward, never ever backward!! ☀️☀️☀️ 💚💛❤️ 🙏🏿🙏🙏🏼

here for tony hawk 2 reference , i get it

Hi! I'm just stumbling upon your video and channel. Have there been any improvements since a year ago? I want to get the MPC Key 61 but after watching this video, I'd might have to pass.

Benn, This video is definitely needed. I now have an even greater appreciation for your creativity and willingness to research things. This MPCKEY61 is my first Akai production device EVER. I’ve typically gone the other routes for the past almost 20 years. So when this was announced, I jumped at the chance to grab it early before they were sold out. Honestly, I haven’t given it much time at all. As I planned to do so later on this year. But, also knowing that new items have “growing pains” out the gate. Hopefully, this video will alert their team to fix these now flagged issues. So by the time I dedicate my focus to it, they’ll be resolved. Keep your objective point of view intact. As it helps keep companies honest, which benefits us all. Thanks for the always inspirational content. Keep em coming. 👍🏾✌🏾✊🏾

great video :)

Thanks for the honest opinion. I always see praise for all these products until I buy and learn for myself. Thanks again.

I wish they brought back the old step sequencer and overall UI of the pre mpc live as an option on the newer DAW models, excellent work around!

I love these videos. I also do lighting and I wish there was a Ben Jordan of lighting software and hardware.... That's an industry that loves over priced and buggy gear and having customers beta test gear. It's not even a beta test, as many things just go on unsolved....

Would be great to see how you compare the workflow of making the same music to some other workstation keyboards.

I appreciate the unbiased review. Thanks. Also making a short song is always the best bug-revealer. This is like MPC Studio with a keyboard. I'd rather have a hybrid digital-analogue sampler with hands-on pots and faders, and possibly a little 7-16 track sequencer. Nothing complicated. Having said that, my Yamaha A5000 is far more usable than this but has no sequencer or keyboard and it's a 16-bit sampler.

The honesty is appreciated for sure , but for me i am truly enjoying this product . I’m going from FL Studio+Sp404sx to MPC Key 61 . It’s a learning curve but that’s what I like, the journey of learning a new way to make music . May be too early for me to notice any bugs within it but from what I have seen thus far it is a powerful piece of equipment

Benn “this is awful” also Benn *makes world class sick beat* love you man ❤️

@6:50 ...nice melody! 🔥🔥 Do you offer lessons? This was a very honest and enlightening video. Great work. I have a few AKAI products and enjoy them normally, but its frustrating they end support of their hardware so quickly. Advance VIP software for example.... Total fumble.

Which firmware are you on? I haven't gotten into serious programming yet with the Key 61 but initial doodling has been mighty impressive for me.

The MPC can be really polarizing in general. I think the step sequencing is why so many are drawn to elektron. I think it really depends on what you want from it. I have used the 2000xl, 1000, and 500 (and now the one) for many years, mainly as a drum machine and midi sequencer, with rack units for the heavy duty sampling (I no longer need them with the one). And there's no doubt about it, with the right samples it's the best drum machine on the planet, and one of the best hardware midi sequencers ever made. It's never had a priority on step sequencing, it wants you to beat the hell out of the pads and that's why it's so popular in hip hop. It's never going to be a VST machine or fx monster. But I think they've really tried hard to push it forward with the new models mainly being able to tweak out your patterns in grid mode, and the big thing is being able to multi-sample very easily and create your own instruments. Want deep MS20 pads, hook up a midi cable and auto sample. I think that's where the new units shine. Would be cool to see you investigate more. Shame the keys is so buggy. My one is rock solid, but took a few updates to get there, so I feel the frustration hard...