Availing a computer-based production studio gives you access to a literally infinite number of virtual instruments. From sampled strings to modeled analog synthesizers to enhanced, studio-recorded drum kits, a universe of voices and timbres is at your fingers tips, and all can be controlled with a MIDI-over-USB controller keyboard. Only problem is, most controller keyboards feel less like keyboards and more like controllers. Not the Akai MPK49. Akai understands how critical it is for electronic instruments to have the same feel and expressiveness of their acoustic forebears. They have applied their decades of electronic music expertise to the MPK series, and the result's a USB controller that feels more like an instrument than any that have come before it.

Beat creation, MIDI sequencing, and live performance control are all possible with Akai’s MPK49 USB/ MIDI controller. Featuring a sleek black design, this 49-key, semi-weighted keyboard with after touch includes 12 MPC-style drum pads with 4 pad banks each for a total of 48 total pads. The 49, full size keys are a selection of the very best you can get on any USB controller, even those costing hundreds more. Semi-weighted, with pressure-sensitivity and after-touch, they grant intimate, tactile control over otherwise antiseptic virtual instruments. Keys that feel this good are sure to evoke better performances, as well as make you would like to spend longer making music. Solid, responsive pitch and mod wheels add to the Akai MPK49’s expressive features as do assignable inputs for expression and sustain pedals. MIDI in/out jacks permits control of hardware synths and modules too. Hardware and software instruments alike will get advantages from the advanced arpeggiator built right into the MPK, a multi-phrase, advanced, and programmable arpeggiator tempo-sync-able to DAW projects or external MIDI gear.

Supporting MIDI Machine Control custom, the Akai MPK49 can be used to fire more than only notes in your DAW. A whopping 76 assignable rotary knobs, sliders, and buttons grant you hardware access to virtually any control parameter in any digital audio workstation. A dedicated transport section turns the keyboard into the nerve center of your whole studio setup. 8 sliders, buttons and rotary encoders are organized like a mixer for intuitive control of channel level, panning and arming, should you pick out. Alternately, use them to regulate varied functions and effect parameters in plug ins and virtual or rack-mount synthesizers. A big, backlit LCD screen clearly displays MIDI control presets and makes it simple to edit your own layouts too.

Other keyboard controllers could have “trigger pads” that emulate the classic MPC’s, but only the Akai MPK49 has the real thing. Twelve real MPC pads, velocity- and pressure-sensitive, sit at the very top center of the MPK. They are joined by familiar MPC functions like “full level,” “12 level” and “note repeat” modes. A tap speed control can be used to control both the note repeat and arpeggio functions in real time, and classic Akai “swing” can be applied too. If you have ever programed on an MPC before, you will be comfortable, and if you have not, you'll soon see why the MPC has been held in such high esteem for such a long time.

If you're hoping to get more musical with your computer audio software, don’t just settle for a USB controller that's going to get in between you and your music. Get your hands on an Akai MPK49, and rediscover the excitement, keenness and fun that your music’s been missing.

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