Akai “officially” unveiled their new MPC, the Sample a few days ago and it looks to be an across the board hit. We weren’t allowed to discuss the product due to an embargo, even though every retailer who obtained stock before the March 24th release date leaked it online to every platform known to man.
Therefore, by the time March 24th rolled around, we didn’t even deem it to be actual “news.” However, let’s take a look at the Sample and what it means to the industry. We can now ascertain that most of the initial stock has sold out across the globe and Akai’s strike against Teenage Engineering’s K.O. II series, as well the Roland SP-404 mkII, is complete. Not to mention, many Finger Drummers have found the compact pads to provide the functionality required for even the most complex Drum ‘n’ Bass workouts.
Akai Sample
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The Akai Sample absolutely crushes the Teenage Engineering K.O. series on every possible front. And it’s not even close. From build quality to storage to I/O to the operating system, the K.O. just got KO’d. The SP-404 mkII definitely puts up more of a fight. It has a lot going for it, but at 100 beans more, it will force more potential buyers to compare the two and make a decision based on workflow and genre. Roland adroitly promoted a 404 culture with custom name plates and was even smart enough to offer a specialized case from the jump, something that Akai should have debuted upon release, missing out on significant revenue.
Akai’s new Sample has obviously made a major impact and will continue to do so right through the holidays, how will the industry respond?
Where the Sample shines is in its simplicity. The Akai Live III and the newly released XL are both daunting with a myriad of knobs, buttons, pads and whatnot that look more like you’re about to embark on a mission to Mars than rock out. The Sample allows new users to get their feet wet in the MPC ecosystem without the Mount Everest learning curve. Even better, the portable nature and accessible price point means that even when a user wants to upgrade to the next MPC level, they are most likely to keep the Sample.
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Akai Sample Features:
- 16 RGB velocity-sensitive MPC pads with poly aftertouch
- 32 stereo voices of polyphony with disk streaming
- MPC Sequencer with Real-Time Swing (960 PPQN)
- Instant Sample Chop Mode
- Real-time Timestretch and Repitch
- Internal resampling with FX
- Over 100 factory kits included
- Four effects engines with 60 effect types
- Pad FX
- Knob FX
- FlexBeat
- Color-Compressor
- 2.4″ full-color LCD with waveform editing
- Three real-time control knobs
- MPC parameter fader
- MPC Note Repeat, Sequence Recall, and Sample Recall
- Rechargeable lithium-ion battery (up to 5 hours)
- Built-in 3-watt speaker
- Internal microphone
- Compact footprint: 23.6 × 19.4 × 5.0 cm
- 2 × 1/4″ TRS inputs
- 2 × 1/4″ TRS outputs
- 1/8″ headphone output
- MIDI In/Out
- Sync Out
- USB-C power, MIDI, audio I/O, and file transfer
- 2 GB RAM
- 8 GB internal storage
- microSD card expansion
- Standalone operation, no computer required
- MPC Sample projects load directly into MPC3 products
- Supports WAV, MP3, AIFF, FLAC, OGG, and more
