For me this is heaven sent - I’m an older musician who has been left behind by technology up to now. You need a degree to be able to navigate most software these days unless you grew up with it. The intuitiveness of this means I am confident I’m going to be able to create great music straight out of the box. Mine’s on order - can’t wait!!!!!
Very nice review! Love the keyboard it look even better than a some of popular brands workstations. I just have one question in mind can we do sound samples? I haven’t seen anything related to sounds sampling video. If it’s possible then I can use my choice sounds for life show. Thank you so much 😊
That’s my feeling. If you have an MPC X and a larger keyboard. This will not be needed. Especially if they did not add arrange view like they did Akai Force. For new AKAI customers this can be good. For those who been using AKAI gear heads, this is purely one of those I’m a get just because type pieces.
what kind of polyphinis has this akai ?? are the colors cut when changing to another ?? how are the sounds of acoustic instruments, trumpets, guitars, etc., no one demonstrates this
Ah mannnnn so frustrating! About a year ago I finally decided to give up on my vintage gear and get an MPC-X . Long story short I begged AKAI representative here in Taiwan for about two weeks they wouldn´t reply emails , phone calls were pointless around the bush , honestly seller just don´t give a sh... Finally I went to Arturia , ordered Keylab 88Mk2 and they sent it in less than a week. I´ve spent a crazy amount of money on pluggings and I am very happy with the investment but... All that money could have been on AKAI purchases , I still have that bitter feeling every time I see AKAI release something .
I agree with your comment but, this product can't be called a workstation yet because it's just a mpc sas midi keyboard. if you use it as a live performance instrument, it will be difficult for you to wait for it to load when selecting each sound. For a studio, however, is the perfect workflow.
@@yuliyanparpulev3589 he’s literally playing it in a live setting now and switching thru patches much faster than you would playing songs Also the new update features a set list feature where you can set patches nsuch for live performance
@@Chyuuch we are all witnessing that akai is growing very fast and in the right direction I hope that in the near future there will be an update for just that.
@@yuliyanparpulev3589 slightly confused by your comment, as that is LITTERALLY what he is doing now, try doing it at that speed on a traditional setup....
@@yuliyanparpulev3589 I agree i am an mpc head loyally but this is a drum machine with a synth. keyboard workstations are the other way around and plus designed and modified to handle heavy sound loads.Most keyboard workstations only have 16 tracks but they are 16 strong tracks that usually don't overload the unit.The xl version of Fabric don't come close to Yamaha Roland or Korg and I'm talking sounds from the older workstations like the Triton classic motif es or Fantom x or g
So, if I bought the MPC Key 61, do I get all these new synth engines for use on my MPC Live / Live 2 / X? Yes, I know they come with the keys, but I want to know if these synths can be added to my other MPC units free of charge if I purchase the Keys 61?
I'd like to know that, as well. Also, if you have more than one MPC, do you have to pay to add the Plugs to each unit or one fee covers all units owned.
No..it’s an extra 500 US dollars….besides the fact..you only get 4 gigs of ram and with all the plugins you won’t have much memory left..so I’m just going for the novation 88 key launch key controller as I do my music with an iPad Pro../ 49 key novation which is a beast …
Meh... I'll stick to my Native Instruments S88 MK2 and my Arturia Keylab MK2 61... plus Komplete 14 Collector's Edition and about a dozen other VST libraries.
For the digital domain, it seems very nice right now, but for €2000 Their are so many incredible options.. My “Humble” opinion, is to stand by for a little bit and see what the competition brings to the table (at that price range :) ) Deepmind 12 is a sick Analog unit for less than half the price (with flightcase) and you can still have €1200 left to play with.. What style of music do you write man ? Cheers 🇮🇪🦅🇺🇸
Hoping for a 76/88 key version, more like the MPC X, instead of the One/Live 2 with 16 QLinks and maybe Sliders. Nevertheless, this, as is, is probably "one" of the most advanced (considerate? of Keyboard players) Keyboard Workstations on the market. Still very happy with my Akai MPC-boxes!!! How much voltage do the CV Ports put out, 5volts or more? I would need 10volts to run my B2600 not 5.
Wonder what kind of response this device will generate amongst the greats (Korg, Yamaha, Roland, etc) now that the flood-gates have literally been opened?
The temptation was too great and I had to order one, but yes, there are a few compromises I wish hadn't been made. Most notably, the lack of Q-links / Scribble Strips and gain control on the back of the unit. As a former owner of the MPC Live, and current owner of the MPC X and One Retro, the Q-links and gain controls position on the X makes a world of difference when sampling and editing. I really wish they had put at least eight Q-links with Scribble Strips on this one. Oh well, I bough one any way!
In my case, the synth part itself is not enough for any music I would like to play/crate BUT I can simply connect my Summit/AFX Station to record some analog tracks and also the Mininova to add some cool vocoder track.. This will be the center of my music creation kit.
Get an akai Force, and connect it to a keyboard, It's so much better. I have one, toutch is a gimmick, most of the cool stuff you don't even need to use the screen.
How can you disable the sustain pedal in just one track. Example on the right hand I have a piano and a pad and on the left hand a bass. I want to disable the sustain pedal on the bass while keeping it on on the piano and pad. Is there a way?
Far from being the best MPC ever by any means. Unfortunately they diminished the control aspects that the MPC-X offer which hurts the usable nature of the unit in the studio. It's more like a MPC One with a ribbon controller since it lost the 16 encoders and display strips of the MPC-X. The key was definitely made for players instead of for the heavy lifting. It looks like many people discovered that after getting them since the used market is flooded with them and the price keeps getting lower and lower in the used market as well.
Hi very nice instrument amazing sound, however there is still a polyphony limit of only 64 voices now that it is used by more musicians who use more fingers to play chords how will the polyphony get after several vst instruments with 3 oxiolators. For example, we have a synth pad el piano string section and the polyphony is over. Can you explain. thanks
That's a good question. From my perspective, I don't need all that polyphony because I'm making 8 bar loops and editing into song format for RnB and Rap. But for a person who'd require that I'd assume use a PC to get the extra horsepower.
So, is there a 1 touch chords feature like on the X? Great if ur a keyboardist, but playing chords in key, will be quite a challenge if ur not a keyboardist.
The MPC Key 61 seems to be marketed as if they completely reinvented the hardware workstation( that presumably, destroys all of the other brands out there in every aspect.) At a price-tag of only $1,900....I am VERY skeptical. How does the Akai stack up to something like the Korg Nautilus?
Great board! Done 3 live gigs & have not used mpc sequencer yet. Have not tried half of the sounds.. gonna pass on some others (Sunday, etc..) for now..
Peddling this as a workstation they're going to have to bring the arranger to this, it feels like the emperor's new clothes at the moment. Still based on the same hardware and limitation's of the MPC / Force abiet with more ram/ storage & the new plugins. The devil is always in the details.
@@dougroyce5784 Software doesn't fix hardware limitations, well not in the literal sense. Yeah, they should be able to include the arranger window like on the force unless there's some something stopping that. Its not been brought to the MPC firmware yet. I'm sure its a great unit to use though, its just another twist on the interface. I'm into smaller foot prints these days and don't need a keybed so pads are fine for me. There's always a sting in the tail with Akai though, I've been a user for for like 27 years going back to their hardware samplers / MPC's.
The details are even more compelling if you look... There is nothing on the market at that price with this much functionality. Also, some of the most iconic tracks ever produced were created on MPC's with even more limitations that this one. Have you ever used an MPC? There is everything you need to produce complete tracks including a song mode.
@@vertigev Your right, there's nothing else out there hardware wise that does what these units do, you do get a lot functionality for your money i guess though for me i couldn't justify the extra £500 on the extra samples & plugins. Yeah, I have a MPC2000XL i brought new back in the early 2000's and have a Force as of a couple of years. I know the O/S and what these modern units are capable of. I don't think it has the arranger yet, same as MPC's. They need to add that one in. Have to see how stable the O/S is, the Force still has a number of gremlins that need to be addressed. I think these use the later generation of CPU board as well so that's a good thing. I'm not knocking it, more of an observation on where Akai are going with this generation hardware and software development. If your keyboard player then this is a good addition.
I'd like to see how this could import a sound sample set say from a real pipe organ & see how it handles it because at the moment I need a very powerful computer to do this & interface with several keyboards.
Begs the question since I have not researched it, is it using DDR4 or DDR5 and why only 4Gb and not 8Gb or even 16Gb Ram? Then why only 32Gb memory when you they could have had 500Gb SSD or larger since a SSD is plenty fast enough? Like I have said elsewhere it looks strikingly familiar to the smart Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol keyboards with some internal storage rather than using a laptop, even the press buttons look the exact same. NOt only that but there is significantly more and better nks supported sample libraries, so for me, Native Instruments keyboards BLOW it out the water
Can we get an in depth video on the sampling aspect of this workstation. Can we take a sample and spread it across all keys? How does the chopping work etc. ?
Yes you can spread a single sample across the keyboard with the press of a button. Alternatively create a multi sample instrument using using an automatic sampling system or do it manually. It’s the same as any other MPC so maybe check out videos on the MPC one, Live or X.
@@Boderick_McNeil I was waiting for a RETRO. MPC-X. Would be nice if they dropped an MPC Xi (I = improved) RETRO with more memory like the Key 61 of course..😎
I agree, amazing instrument! One big issue came up for me, when I use an external midi controller to have control over two separate tracks/sounds on 2 separate midi channels. If I play the same note (same octave) on both boards at once the 2nd once doesn't sound. Is anyone else having this problem?
Hi. I can see that it seems the MPC 2.11.2 OS is having a few problems. Thanks for sharing the one you're having. Hoping Akai responds quickly with the bug fixes, because as of now, my Akai MPC-boxes are back to the days before the release of 2.8, "nearly" useless except for use as a Drum Machine, very few MIDI capabilities.