It’s finally January. And here in gear land, that means it's product release season. Today, we get a peek at Akai’s newest offerings: the MPC Live and MPC X.
Introducing the Next Generation of MPC: X and Live
While specs for the Live started circulating a month ago, concrete news of Akai’s two newest MPC entries dropped earlier in the day and were quickly followed by official videos from the company. Responding to criticism that the Touch and Renaissance were little more than controllers, these two models each sport 16GB of internal memory and touch screens to operate as dedicated standalone units.
In keeping with the idea that the Live and X can function seamlessly on their own or play nice with other software and hardware, each model sports MIDI jacks and audio outs for better use in recording and live performance alike.
Akai MPC X
Akai MPC Live
The new MPCs are clearly meant to compete with the likes of Ableton Push and the Maschine. But unlike those units, the MPCs do not require a laptop to operate. The Live is slated to run for $1,199 with the heftier X coming in at $2,199.
We’re sure to see more of each product at NAMM, so check back in with us next week to find out more.
AkaiSee more Keyboard & Synth News from Winter NAMM 2017