AKAI MPK49 B101 – – THEO HARVEY

WHY CHOOSE THE MPK49? From a musicians point of view the design shows that this product was efficient and environmentally friendly

DESIGN The Akai MPK49 contains all three in one; a controller, MPC and midi/USB keyboard. "This first-of-a-kind controller marries the classic MPC pads and assignable Q-Link controllers with a 49-key keyboard and some of the most crucial MPC technologies." Also the MPK49 also has been pre-programmed to be compatible with a wide range of music production software, which is adjustable at the will of the user. Much of the ideas behind the MPK has been borrowed from their MPC series. Akai has taken this one step further and added a keyboard to this series for even more performance and control capabilities. Programmed to work with popular software packages and plug-ins such as Reason by Propellerhead or Ableton Live8, edit keyboard behaviour, preview controller settings, and send program changes.

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY Because of the multi ability's of the MPK49 it saves allot of room and uses far less power than having a separate keyboard controller and MPC not to mention the power it saves relying solely on USB power if you own a 2.0 USB port. Also for the MPK49 saves room people who do not own the space required to have all of that equipment.

COMPETITION

The Akai Miniak Virtual Analogue Synthesizer - This Product has sounds already stored inside it so all you have to do is plug it in to some speakers and play, "You can create interesting and unique sounds and take advantage of the more-than-600 preset sounds and store up to 1,000 programs in the MINIAK." The basic price for the Miniak is £229, and all it does is act as a midi keyboard but is only £70 cheaper than the MPK49.

The Akai MPC This Product allows the user to create music using the assigned sample pads and a brain which you can load loops of sounds into. as you can see from (fig. 1) it comes with faders. The MPC 5000 is a little more in-depth for music samples than the MPK49, as it does not need a computer to load sounds, it uses a memory card slot to save everything you need. But the cost of this product which can be up to £1,300 is this products main downfall. To add insult to injury, once the MPK49 is used in conjunction with a Program such as Cubase 5 or Propellerheads Reason software, the MPK49 becomes far more flexible in terms of the usage of samples and sound engineering.

This Product Is an 88-key keyboard with touch response, it can record with no software as it has Real-time recording, playback capabilities. I believe that the Casio PX-130 would benefit from having an MPC Applied to it which would make it a more versatile product especially considering that this Keyboard cots £430, it would make the product seem more worthy of it's price tag

CONCLUSION The MPK49 is probably the best controller MIDI/USB controller because of it's versatile attributes. Everything about the controller feels solid and well thought out in the placement of the pots/faders and overall layout. It’s well-designed and well-built. The down side to the MPK49 is amount of time it takes to set up on a P.C for production and DJ purposes "It can take approximately 30 mins". The controller is a bit heavier than most other 49-key controllers, but I think that can be attributed to how well it is built. Saving electricity is not the only pro factor that the MPK49 brings to the table, it is more cost effective if you look at the MPK49 £300 cost compared to the opposing products. If the Products above are bought separately you are looking at spending a total of £1,

REFERENCE Information on Casio PX Casio PX B3%5D.jpg Akai MPK49 Picture FMU197.rev_akai.mpk49frt_prev jpg B3%5D.jpg FMU197.rev_akai.mpk49frt_prev jpg Akai technology Developers. from the Official Akai Website fig.1 Akai MPC WESTENDDJ website (fig.2) Akai Miniak MIDI-Pad-Controller/CES (fig.3) Akai MPD26 Quote on the MINIAK by Akai technology Developers. from the Official Akai Website MIDI-Pad-Controller/CES Environment image content/uploads/2008/09/for-green-signature.jpghttp:// content/uploads/2008/09/for-green-signature.jpg