# AKAI MPC Key 61 Keyboard



## Pier (Jun 23, 2022)

MPC Key 61


Standalone MPC Keyboard




www.akaipro.com





Looks great.

I wonder if you can then take the projects to a desktop app or a DAW and finish them there.


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## method1 (Jun 23, 2022)

Pier said:


> MPC Key 61
> 
> 
> Standalone MPC Keyboard
> ...



Yes you can import projects into the MPC desktop software.


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## SupremeFist (Jun 23, 2022)

Workstations are back? Cool. I scored my first TV doc with a Yamaha W7 workstation keyboard sequenced by an MPC in 1994 or so. If only I'd had this at the time! (But — so much better — if only I'd had a MacBook Air and a KeyStep.)


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## Pier (Jun 23, 2022)

3DC said:


> ...and very, very pricy. You can get the new Roland Fantom 08 and still save 350 EUR.


Personally I wouldn't know what to do with it 😂

But for pop, hip hop, EDM, etc, this seems like a great tool for quickly sketching out ideas away from the computer. Creativity is all about flow and if this thing allows you to work quickly and gets you into the zone, I'm sure people will pay whatever it costs.

And you can perform live too.


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## SupremeFist (Jun 23, 2022)

Pier said:


> Creativity is all about flow and if this thing allows you to work quickly and gets you into the zone, I'm sure people will pay whatever it costs.


Absolutely! For me personally, though, the big touchscreen on this would already militate against this kind of flow usage for writing, since it offers too much temptation already to tweak stuff that would be far easier to tweak in the daw. (This is why I just have a separate table with a Roland MC-101 plus KeyStep to rough out those kinds of ideas.)


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## Pier (Jun 23, 2022)

3DC said:


> I agree. I am just pointing to the fact that you can get a lot more IMHO for less money. Not to mention Korg Nautilus 88 RH3 - hammer action keyboard + 9 synthesis methods with the same price tag.


Maybe "more" from a sound design perspective, but from a workstation/workflow perspective?

I don't know, but AKAI have been into this stuff for 30 years with the MPC series. I imagine they must have nailed the workflow at this point.


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## cedricm (Jun 23, 2022)

In my experience, akai keyboard action is one of the worst of the industry.

In the video, you can already hear the plasticky noise.

But then again, I'm neither a professional keyboardist nor an advanced piano player.


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## SupremeFist (Jun 23, 2022)

3DC said:


> For sure. And with this workstation they are quietly venturing into NI territory. Quite sneaky if you ask me. The only problem is in fact the price. A bit too much compared to NI pipeline (Komplete + Kontrol S61+ Maschine MK3).


Or Maschine+ and a Kontrol keyboard (would be my choice for this kind of thing).


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## davidson (Jun 23, 2022)

3DC said:


> For sure. And with this workstation they are quietly venturing into NI territory. Quite sneaky if you ask me. The only problem is in fact the price. A bit too much compared to NI pipeline (Komplete + Kontrol S61+ Maschine MK3).
> 
> But it is AKAI and it is a well thought MPC pipeline. Plus there is a separate MPC 2 DAW for PC and MAC included with this workstation.


Well, it's rather the other way around - Akai have been making standalone workstations a *lot* longer than NI. That being said, I use both platforms and both have their strengths and weaknesses. This is a hell of a piece of kit though, especially for MPC users who don't use a separate DAW.


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## Nico5 (Jun 23, 2022)

I used to ”waste” quite a bit of money on workstation keyboards, just because workstations were such damn capable multi-timbral keyboards.

Roland and Korg got a lot of my money back in the day.

However, the “waste” was simply the fact that I never sequenced outside of the computer after getting my first Atari ST.

I never cease to be amazed by the apparently large market of music makers who cherish working without a computer. Often spending quite a bit more money in the process.

Very cool to see different individuals approach music making with so many different ways of finding inspiration and resulting work flows! Hopefully this new, very capable instrument will be a welcome addition for those kinds of music makers.


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## Pier (Jun 23, 2022)

3DC said:


> A bit too much compared to NI pipeline (Komplete + Kontrol S61+ Maschine MK3).


You can't really use those without a computer and a DAW though, no?



Nico5 said:


> I never cease to be amazed by the apparently large market of music makers who cherish working without a computer. Often spending quite a bit more money in the process.


Imagine you're in a band. Would you bring your computer with your DAW when playing with them? I don't mean playing live, I mean just playing in a band in a garage or something.

Or you're the songwriter type that just sits in front of a piano and write lyrics. Maybe also record guitar on top of it. For that type of stuff this MPC would be amazing and give you tons of options to sketch and write your songs before producing the final thing.

Etc.

Personally I also prefer just using a DAW, but I'm a studio vampier working alone.


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## Nico5 (Jun 23, 2022)

Pier said:


> Imagine you're in a band. Would you bring your computer with your DAW when playing with them?


I generally brought a keyboard and/or synth module, not necessarily a workstation


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## Nico5 (Jun 23, 2022)

Pier said:


> You can't really use those without a computer











MASCHINE+


MASCHINE+ is a standalone groovebox and sampler for production and performance, combining an iconic workflow with premium instruments and effects.




www.native-instruments.com


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## Pier (Jun 23, 2022)

Nico5 said:


> I generally brought a keyboard and/or synth module, not necessarily a workstation


Right, but having access to a mini DAW with recording, a plethora of instruments, etc, without having to mess with a computer would be useful, yes? 

In the late 90s I used to be around bands (so quite a long time ago) and people had to use cassettes to record stuff just to not forget what they played and improvised. Most people didn't even know how to write music, and if they did they wouldn't have done it. Specially after some... ahem, well you know what young people do! Having access to multitrack recording, instant recall, etc, would have been amazing.

Fair point about Maschine! I didn't know it could be used standalone. I saw a couple of videos and it doesn't seem as powerful as the MPC mini DAW, although I don't know.


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## Nico5 (Jun 23, 2022)

Pier said:


> Right, but having access to a mini DAW with recording, a plethora of instruments, etc, without having to mess with a computer would be useful, yes?


For some people yes, totally - and my original post was specifically *not* disparaging musicians who prefer workstations - but I'm also not buying that there's anything inherently better about it.

Some musicians using this and a midi controller might equally say:



> having access to a mini DAW with recording, a plethora of instruments, etc, without having to mess with a *workstation* would be useful, yes?





Pier said:


> In the late 90s I used to be around bands (so quite a long time ago) and people had to use cassettes to record stuff just to not forget what they played and improvised.


... now they record it on their phone and maybe even post it to TikTok or Instagram or YouTube ---- with video!



Pier said:


> Maschine! I didn't know it could be used standalone


it's the newest member of that family - but not without significant flaws not covered by early reviews - but visit the appropriate forums and the story seems different ...

AKAI has more experience in standalone units, so one would hope that this is better. - But if the slow loading of patches is indeed a general issue, it may be a killer flaw. (I once had a Korg Z1 - amazing synth, but the slow loading patches made me give up on it, even just for jamming).


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## ChrisHarrison (Jun 25, 2022)

I have the MPC One and have gotten very deep with it. This is the same platform as this keyboard, so I can speak to how it has worked for me as a composer. 

Benefits:
Latency free finger drumming. Nothing like it. Even ableton with the Push2 and a very fast computer, nothing is as accurate as it's standalone mode. It feels like playing a real drum as far as latency. 
Accurate pads
good built in sounds, infinitely expandable. 
Note repeat is super duper fun and useful for modern music
really fun for keeping on the table and jamming
works great for live. put it in the backpack, turn it on, plug it in, and you're good. 

Drawbacks:
the workflow does not integrate with a DAW well at all in standalone. 
The sample editing is really shitty compared to ableton or cubase. It's just SLOOOOOWWWW and the time stretching is super old school and... just doesn't really sound good. 
With ableton link, it works great and it's fun with ableton, however:
With cubase syncing via MTC or midi clock... I just can't really get it to work. There's always latency. It's my first hardware piece, but it just is a pain to deal with the latency issues. 
The MPC software is fine, and allows better control of editing, but doesn't really do any where NEAR as easy of a job as a normal DAW. Simple things like copy and paste (if the pattern start on beat 2 for example).. is kind of a PITA and just... isn't smooth. 
If using it to make drum machine patterns on top of a score with a complex tempo map with changing tempos and time signatures, I've had to make just one giant huge sequence with time signature changes etc for it to line up with my tempo map in cubase. 

This is just that MPC one with a keyboard attached. Cool and all... but... just plug in an actually nice midi keyboard to the MPC one or live 2 or mpc x.. and it'll be better overall. 

Just a huge warning... after all that time spent with it... I'm still unhappy overall because I just can't get it to integrate with my DAW setup outside of having fun playing with ableton... but that's literally it... just jamming and having fun. 


I would love to see if anyone has any other ideas on how to integrate it, in standalone. The main reason being the latency free solution when playing it. But when communicating that midi back and forth to cubase it is just... way off. Some have suggested that I get a better midi interface instead of the simple midi to usb mio device. 

Honestly, after spending the money and HUGE amount of hours getting to know it... I'm just leaving it as a fun thing I have to play with, but I just can't really justify integrating it into a professional rig due to it being so lofty to integrate.


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## hag01 (Jun 26, 2022)

Correct me if I'm wrong but this keyboard packed with sounds that are mainly useful for EDM, R&B, Rap, and stuff lick these?

Is there any acoustic library in it except for strings?
Are there brass sounds for example?


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## Pier (Jun 26, 2022)

hag01 said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong but this keyboard packed with sounds that are mainly useful for EDM, R&B, Rap, and stuff lick these?
> 
> Is there any acoustic library in it except for strings?
> Are there brass sounds for example?


There are pianos and guitars too.

I haven't been able to find a list of instruments... but this video has a good overview.



Edit:

I have to say, the performance of the UI on the touch screen seems really laggy. For the price I would have expected something more premium.

It's great they made an all-in-one device, but OTOH this seems like an outdated Android tablet. I had hoped AKAI would have made this properly, maybe with a Linux PC on a custom OS.

Maybe they probably should have just made it BYOD? Instead of of selling it for $1,900 they could sell it for $900 and tell users to bring their own iPad/iPad Pro.


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## HammyHavoc (Jun 26, 2022)

Pier said:


> There are pianos and guitars too.
> 
> I haven't been able to find a list of instruments... but this video has a good overview.
> 
> ...



Either that, or bring-your-own MPC Live and dock it into it ala ThinkPad dock connector on the base, but an iPad would absolutely be the way to go in terms of bang-for-buck specs and not being forced to update your MPC Key hardware in the not-so-distant future, which just seems inevitable. I could see myself getting frustrated with the plugin limit.

Though to be honest, if I'm sat at a desk, I'll likely want the full power of a desktop computer, and would prefer to run this in controller mode to try and get better DAW integration, thus making the standalone functionality a little pointless.

I don't get the impression that it's aimed at our power user niche though, so there's that! Some nice concepts brought to the table overall, and obviously the hardware design team did well in making an attractive product.

For what it's worth though, the MPC Live and X use the Radxa Rock2 SoM, and MPC 2.X firmware is/was based on Linux 4.9.77, so perhaps it's a little unkind to call it an Android tablet when the Rock2 is in fact a proper SBC.


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## Pier (Jun 27, 2022)

HammyHavoc said:


> For what it's worth though, the MPC Live and X use the Radxa Rock2 SoM, and MPC 2.X firmware is/was based on Linux 4.9.77, so perhaps it's a little unkind to call it an Android tablet when the Rock2 is in fact a proper SBC.


Thanks I didn't know that.

I checked the Radxa Rock2 SoM and the specs list "Android 4.4/5.0, Linux BSP with 3.10 kernel and Ubuntu 14.04 image available" so it could totally be Android.

Anyway, it does seem pretty laggy and slow at loading multisample instruments. The Radxa apparently uses eMMC instead of SSD.

Even the non pro iPad is going to perform way better than the Radxa though.


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## Mistro (Jun 27, 2022)

cedricm said:


> In my experience, akai keyboard action is one of the worst of the industry.
> 
> In the video, you can already hear the plasticky noise.
> 
> But then again, I'm neither a professional keyboardist nor an advanced piano player.


I have an Akai MPK249 and it's my favorite keyboard so far. It's semi-weighted, sturdy and great to play on. There's nothing "plasticy" about the one I have. Other models I have no idea about. If this 61 key is built like the MPK series, I want it.


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## HammyHavoc (Jun 27, 2022)

Mistro said:


> I have an Akai MPK249 and it's my favorite keyboard so far. It's semi-weighted, sturdy and great to play on. There's nothing "plasticy" about the one I have. Other models I have no idea about. If this 61 key is built like the MPK series, I want it.


The MPK2XX series has been out for almost a decade at this point, I'm wondering if the keybed has improved/declined/changed over time, I hear a lot of extremely mixed opinions, some of which match what I think. When I tried an MPK261, I really wasn't impressed whatsoever with the keybed on it. Noisy, inconsistent feel between keys, and very slow action. Sourced in the UK for what it's worth.

The original MPK series too, including the MPK88 has a very unpleasant feeling and sound. For context, I think the Fatar TP100L/R used on the Arturia Keylab MKII 88 and Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol MK2 S88 are especially poor as well, and do not age gracefully, and age very quickly in terms of sound and action—intolerable after a few weeks of daily usage on both units I've had. The TP100L/R is the second-worst keybed I've tried on any high-end modern controller, the MPK first and second-gen being the worst I've encountered.

It's interesting to me that InMusic own Akai, Alesis, and M-Audio, especially when I see people sing the praises of the M-Audio Hammer 88 Pro, despite reliability issues, but I wasn't particularly enamoured with the action of the Hammer 88 Pro either. It wasn't terrible, and I found the graded keys to not really feel much like a piano, but it just didn't live up to the hype for me, especially when compared to decades-old controllers. However, it was in a completely different league than the MPK series, entirely. I preferred it to the Fatar TP100L/R, but that isn't exactly high praise from me. Competent is how I would describe the keybed, but the reliability issues make it a non-starter for me, and the other controls on it (pads and faders) weren't very good, though they aren't on most (any?) modern all-in-one controllers.

Would love a modern-day equivalent to the Oberheim MC3000 and MC2000. Lovely light action. That was a collab with Viscount interestingly.


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## Pier (Jun 27, 2022)

HammyHavoc said:


> Would love a modern-day equivalent to the Oberheim MC3000 and MC2000. Lovely light action. That was a collab with Viscount interestingly.


I owned the MC2000 like 15 years ago. Truly the best controller I've ever owned.


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## Mistro (Jun 28, 2022)

Perhaps the feel and experience of different controllers are subjective as some of us have more/less sensitivity in our hands and wrists for example. Or maybe if you were exposed to many different keyboard types over time, you develop an acquired taste where if someone who only played with less the flaws are not gauged. One thing I can say hurts some companies is when they send out too many glitched products. I had to send back my 1st S88 because one of the lights wasn't working for example.


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## Pier (Jun 28, 2022)

Mistro said:


> Perhaps the feel and experience of different controllers are subjective as some of us have more/less sensitivity in our hands and wrists for example. Or maybe if you were exposed to many different keyboard types over time, you develop an acquired taste where if someone who only played with less the flaws are not gauged. One thing I can say hurts some companies is when they send out too many glitched products. I had to send back my 1st S88 because one of the lights wasn't working for example.


It's really a matter of taste and also how you learned to play.

I took classical piano classes for a couple of years (a long time ago). Personally I think you do have more control with hammer-style keys. All "synth action" and "semi weighted" keys I've tried felt like the same crap to me. It's certainly possible I've never used good non-hammer style keys though


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## Crowe (Jun 28, 2022)

It looks really nice, but I think I'd still prefer an MPCX at this point.


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## Jrides (Jun 28, 2022)

Op. The syncing issues you are having are pretty common to stand alone and DAW integration. look for threads from 15 or 20 years ago on this subject. There is a bit of finagling necessary. Inserting blank bars at the beginning of the sequence and all that jazz. I don’t remember all the steps and details. I have the MPC X, MPC 60, MPC 2500, MPC 2000 and several other old crusty samplers at Drum machines. while I don’t use my stuff the same way you do, I can say for sure that connecting these devices to a DAW is not as straightforward as most people would like it to be.

I would check the MPC and cubase forms for old threads on syncing hardware with software. this has been known to be tricky at times, for decades. Some people get it up and running quickly with no issues. Others don’t. And yes the folks who told you that your Midi Interface matters, are right.


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