In 1984, Akai Professional began producing professional electronic instruments and equipment. In 1987, Akai released first Music Production Center called the MPC60, which combined a 16-bit sampler with 16 velocity-sensitive pads, and an integrated sequencer, which was co-designed by Roger Linn, the producer of the highly regarded Linn Drum (LM-1 & Linn 9000). Over the past 30 years, Akai have been redesigning and updating the original concept. It wasn’t until 2012, when Akai departed from the original design and decided to harness the power of a personal computer to run the operating system. No longer was the MPC a stand-alone product, which was fine for most studio musicians, but for the performing artist, it left a lot to be desired. Thankfully, computer processors have gotten smaller, faster, and more powerful and Akai’s latest incarnation has brought back the “stand-alone” concept with the MPC X and MPC Live.
The new MPC Live makes the process of performing your studio creations on stage effortlessly seamless by combining the power of a quad-processor computer, which runs the latest MPC 2.0 software, with a portable and rugged enclosure. The heart of the MPC Live is a full-color 7" multi-touch screen, four touch-capacitive Q-Link controls, a clickable master encoder, and 16 highly responsive velocity- and pressure-sensitive RGB pads. The multi-touch screen provides fast and easy visual feedback and editing capabilities. View samples with "pinch" zoom, trim start and end times, and adjust and process samples on the fly. The XYFX allow you to control multiple effect parameters simultaneously, while the sequencer and mix page make short work of entering/deleting notes, editing values, and adjusting mix parameters.
Your production sessions can be held anywhere via the built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which boasts four hours of production time. Once in the studio, the MPC Live can be put into Control Mode, which offers some expanded functionality by connecting to a computer to operate the same MPC 2.0 stand-alone software as a plug-in in your favorite DAW. The MPC 2.0 software has added some powerful features, including audio track recording, real-time time-stretching (audio warping), pitch shifting, audio and MIDI drag-and-drop, clip program mode for clip-launching (like Ableton), an updated mixer layout with advanced signal routing, and enhanced Q-Link control. What’s more, moving between the studio’s Control Mode and Stand-alone Mode is seamless as the MPC 2.0 software is identical on both.
The MPC Live ships pre-installed with “The Vault 2.0,” a 10GB sound library featuring world-class samples and sounds from a variety of companies including Capsun Audio, MVP Loops, CR2 Records, as well as Akai's own high-quality content. Should you wish to incorporate your own samples and recordings, the MPC Live offers a 2.5" SATA drive connector, allowing you to install an optional SSD or HDD hard drive. Content can easily be uploaded and/or recorded to the full-sized SD card or USB thumb drives.
The rear panel features two ¼" inputs and two RCA inputs with a turntable ground for sampling direct from vinyl, while six line-level ¼" output are arranged in stereo pairs. There are two sets of standard MIDI 5-pin DIN connectors; two input and two output. Additionally, there is a USB type-B for connecting to your computer and two USB type-A connectors for integrating USB MIDI controllers. These are very exciting times for MPC users, old and new alike. This is the most powerful MPC to date, and it’s completely portable.
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