October 25, 2011
Basic Information About Akai MPK49 49-Key MIDI Controller
Employing a computer-based production studio gives you access to a literally infinite number of virtual instruments. From sampled strings to modeled analogue 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 important it is for electronic instruments to have the same feel and expressiveness of their acoustic forebears. They have applied their decades of electronic music experience 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 smooth black design, this 49-key, semi-weighted keyboard with after touch includes 12 MPC-style drum pads with 4 pad banks each for has a grand total of 48 total pads. The 49, full sized 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 inspire better performances, as well as make you need to spend a little more time making music. Solid, respondent pitch and mod wheels add to the Akai MPK49’s expressive capacities, as do assignable inputs for expression and sustain pedals. MIDI in/out jacks allows control over hardware synths and modules as well. 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 may be employed to fire more than only notes in your DAW. A gigantic 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 middle of your whole studio set up. 8 sliders, buttons and rotary encoders are prepared like a mixer for intuitive control over channel level, panning and arming, should you pick out. Alternately, use them to regulate various functions and effect parameters in plug ins and virtual or rack-mount synthesizers. A massive, backlit LCD screen obviously displays MIDI control presets and makes it simple to edit your own layouts too.
Other keyboard controllers may have “trigger pads” that copy the classic MPC’s, but only the Akai MPK49 has the real thing. 12 real MPC pads, velocity- and pressure-sensitive, sit at the very top middle of the MPK. They are joined by familiar MPC functions like “full level,” “12 level” and “note repeat” modes. A tap speed control may be employed to control both the note repeat and arpeggio functions in real time, and classic Akai “swing” can be applied too. If you've ever programed on an MPC before, you will be at home, and if you have not, you will soon understand why the MPC has been held in such high regard for so very long.
If you're looking to get more musical with your personal computer audio software, don’t settle for a USB controller that is going to get between you and your music. Get your hands on an Akai MPK49, and rediscover the excitement, enthusiasm and fun that your music’s been missing.
Check out handy tips in buying New Midi Keyboards. Know what other users say in the Reviews of MIDI Keyboards section.
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