Looking at it, for me it’s just a mpc live bundled with a keyboard.
I’m happy that it exist because it’s really great to play this box with a keyboard.
But the price looks to be really high for what it bring on the table.
Yeah with the mpc x control and in/out I would have thought that it was worth 2K€.
No it doesnt.
Chips are in shortage and even MPC price went up $200 in less than 12 months.
So you are saying it costs $1200 to add a keyboard to the MPC live? And that’s after you remove the battery and speaker.
Uness they make it to respond to MSB/LSB program changes…not sure I will buy it. I have the MPC live and would love the attached keyboard but program change functionality for live performance is a holdback for me.
The Power of Sound
Introducing the Akai Professional MPC Key 61, the
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keyboard powering the next chapter of the MPC legacy.
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FEATURE BENEFITS
25 Cutting-edge Instrument Plugins
Expressive 61-key semi-weighted keyed with aftertouch
Powerful 4GB Ram / Quad Core ARM Processor - no need
for a computer
16 GB Velocity-Sensitive MPC Drum Pads with Note
Repeat
Assignable Touch Strip Controller
2 Mic/Line Inputs with high-end preamps
Vibrant 7" Color Touch Screen with Multi Touch & Gestures
Audio Interface with high-quality AD/DA converters
Accepts Class Compliant Audio Interfaces and MIDI
devices
Sounds Button for Fast Browsing
Powerful 128 Track Midi Sequencer
Onboard Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
4 Assignable Q Link Controller knobs
Pitch Bend/Modulation Wheels
Dedicated Transport Section
4 Discrete Line Outputs
8 Audio Tracks
8 CV/Gate Output Jacks for modular integration
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Keys to Expression
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The 16-velocity sensitive GB pads on MPC Key 61 are the
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THE HUB OF YOUR PRODUCTION WORLD
Surround your Creativity
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The powerful features integrated inside MPC Key 61 were
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Powered by 4GB of Ram, MPC 2.11 Operating System, 32
GB Internal SD, a world-class 16GB onboard Factory
Library, comprehensive I/O Connectivity, and a dedicated
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packed with everything needed for modern music production
8 Likes
No pop-out espresso maker?
Guess my 200+ feature request emails were ignored again.
2 Likes
They upgraded the RAM and CPU compared to the other MPCs.
I just hope that this new OPx4 plug-in will be available for and will work on my MPC One
1 Like
Double the RAM, isn’t it? I doubt I’ll ever approach the RAM limits of the MPC / Force as they currently stand (or the CPU), but of course new plugins built with this updated spec in mind could change all that, assuming they’re released for the earlier devices. I expect the RAM increase is mainly to accommodate new piano libraries, which I’m not fussed about. I’d like the FM synth, though, and I can’t imagine that being too taxing.
3 Likes
Could also mean a new MPC-line (desktop or mobile) is on the way
I Imagine they had to double the RAM because all these piano and orchestral plugins must take a whole lot of RAM to run. It’s not rare to see 500MB piano libraries on PC so 1 GB of RAM for samples might have been too little to run both a project and some piano sample collection.
It will be interesting to see if regular MPC gets a CPU and RAM update soon. If AKAI does that, please put an internal battery in the MPC One, it makes sense to me to make the smaller model more portable.
1 Like
Did they? Ram for sure, but cpu? Still 8 plugin and 8 audio tracks.
Here’s hoping the opx4 comes to the rest of us. Or maybe we must wait for the new MPC field…
2 Likes
On paper, this is the perfect instrument for me. If I could be friends with the MPC workflow, this is the next candidate for the One 
2 Likes
You won’t be my man. Don’t let it fool you, the little things you appreciate in hardware still will either be missing in action or will be implemented in a sub-optimal way that will clash with your workflow, this is Akai after all…I send you strength to resist the disappointment 
6 Likes
You must have mistakenly sent that email to Teenage Engineering, judging from their latest release…
and then we will have the inevitable
“I returned and it wasn’t for me posts”
followed by the yearly
“I want to like it and why should I posts”
6 Likes
My main thought about this is that with an mpc touch, midi keyboard, and laptop you’re probably taking up as much space, and spending as much money as you would for this thing (with equally as configurable controls but possibly more power/flexibility)
The draw of the octatrack is the fader & the draw of the 404 is the portability/FX right?
I know that this will sell and I’m sure it is dope, but is it just the dawn of the keyboard DAW or is my one day as an MPC One owner not enough for me to weigh in on this? Lol
People love that retro MPC sound and I’m excited to see what the workflow has to offer but I haven’t discovered THE thing about these contemporary Akai machines just yet. What is it?? 
It is a huge pain in the ass dealing with a laptop plus two controllers and the wires. One device doing it all, I’d pay just not to deal with that.
2 Likes
after I spent all that time hand typing it?
11 Likes
How do you compare it to a Touch, laptop and controller though?
An MPC X and a midi keyboard is more accurate. But then the X has 8 more qlinks, better ergonomy and *phono-inputs:)
1 Like