AKAI Professional MPC Key 61

I bought this because I dislike making music on computers, and because it crosses off so many boxes for me: midi-hub and -controller, a great sampler, drum pads, audio recording, sequencer, a decent keyboard, etc; this has a much more hands-on interface, with the many knobs, drum pads, and touch screen. I run my instruments (guitar, bass, microphones, synths) into a mixer, and then into the MPC for recording. The workflow can be overwhelming at first because it does so many things, so until you get the hang of it at times you'll accidentally switch some setting on or off and wonder what caused the sound to mute, etc, sending you on a Google chase, but the interface is fast and responsive, and I was knocking out some beats and tunes in no time. Compared to a DAW, the downside might be that some things about the workflow will seem unintuitive, and if you make complex tunes you'll have to consider how you manage the constraints (128 midi tracks max, but only 8 tracks with plugins and 8 tracks of audio max). Akai is bringing out a major update soon that, AFAIK, grants the MPC more features akin to both more traditional sequential workflow of DAWs, as well as features similar to Ableton/Force. Workmanship seems solid all around, the semi-weighted keybed is fine for something that has to play a lot more than just piano sounds. I chose this version MPC because it comes with lots of plugin instruments that would otherwise cost a fortune. These all sound excellent, especially the pianos and e-pianos. It comes with various synth plugins that are decent, but I bought the Mini-D plugin to get that oldschool sound. It also comes with countless drumkits and samples that are fine, but cater to a certain genre of music (hiphop, trap, house, etc). I use it for synth/ambient music as well as traditional poprock. All in all, a lot of value for money, if you can dig the Akai workflow and being locked into their eco-system.

AKAI mpc keys. What to say and where to begin… it’s a whole sensory and satisfactory experience…
From the moment you start taking the AKAI box out of the fantastic “Thomann” box you can sense the perfection. Like a Christmas, really. That “wrapping” is maybe the best designed box we have ever seen. For a long time, at first we just sat and looked at the package. Screaming sexy Red color on the side, front picture of a synth and photo of plugins on the other side just inviting you in and making you drool like over some good cake or some perfect dish in a fancy restaurant.

Opening up, pulling out little poster printed on a nice high quality paper (that you don’t really get in these days) with the synth picture and basic information. And then a pure joy when you start taking out the keyboard itself. Felt like when our parents bought us our first synth. We have been using keyboards since forever. From Casio vz1 through Yamahas , Rolands, from Korgs T3,M1, 01wfd to Nautilus…Never had felt what we felt when unwrapping this peace of art, before even pressing the power button on. Pure beauty.

We’re not going to write here what the keyboard sounds like, everybody hears it daily on the radio. But being able to quickly get an idea down into the synth’s sequencer, (like in the old days on Korg 01Wfd where some careers have been made) play around, plus record vocals or guitars, mixing on the fly, without firing up the computer and a whole studio chain is absolutely amazing. We’re coming from the 90’s style of hybrid recording, and haven’t been using it much since the computers and daws came into this world, so it’s exciting to kind of a go back to the youth and the way we did it then (just on steroids).

You can finish the whole project right there in the machine or you can just hook it up with your main daw and continue working. It’s also good for my wife not to bother herself or me with getting the computers up and running when she gets an idea for a song or something. Now she can just press a button, and be on her way to creating. We love it.

Vielleicht nicht das Gerät für jedermann, aber jedenfalls genau das, auf das ich seit Jahren gewartet habe.

Pros:
+Sampling at it´s best
+Sequenzer
+"Produktions-Studio" onbord
+Bearbeitungsmöglichkeiten (Sounds, Potis, Synth, Pianoroll, Samples und und und) schier unbegrenzt
+diverse Synth Engines aus denen man unglaubliche Sounds herauskitzeln kann (neben den über 6000 Top Presets, die auch nach Belieben editiert werden können)
+Anschlussmöglichkeit für 8 (!) externe Synths bzw. Modulare Synths
+trotz Kunststoff-Gehäuse sehr hochwertig und stabil verarbeitet.
+Keyboard-Tastatur muss natürlich getestet werden, aber ich war aufgrund meiner relativ schlechten Erfahrung mit der Haptik der Akai Keys positiv überrascht wie gut sich das Keyboard anfühlt und spielen lässt.

Cons:
-kein Phono-Eingang
-kein SD Card Reader
-bedingt Live tauglich für "Standardkeyboarder" (bei den High-End Samples etwas zu lange Ladezeiten und man muss ein wenig darauf achten, welche Sounds man fürs Layering verwendet (Stichwort: Speicher) - - man kann das, je nach Setup der einzelnen Sequenzen, im Großen und Ganzen aber gut umgehen, bzw. an die Bedürfnisse anpassen.

Meiner Meinung nach top für Studio und Live Einsatz geeignet