4 | BPM
STUDIO By Fletcher Beadon
AKAI MPK49 Performance Controller “As someone who normally uses a shorter keyboard in the studio it felt luxurious to play on this 49 key model.”
Anatomy
A Closer look...
Straight out the box I liked this big and weighty controller keyboard. It is USB bus powered so the lights came on and it was working with Ableton in seconds. I selected the MPK49 as a control surface from the MIDI preferences page and everything was mapped and ready to go. Just for the sake of clarity, the MPK49 is not a synthesizer, it has no onboard sounds. It is just a giant MIDI instrument to control softsynths and effects inside your sequencer. So the power of a controller like this can only be realized if you have spent time building a library of instruments in your sequencer software. If you haven’t, then mileage may vary. Theoretically the MPK49 is all the control you could possibly desire: a 49 key semi-weighted keyboard, big rubbery pitch and modulation wheels, 12 MPC-style drum pads, 8 long faders, 8 infinite rotary knobs and 8 buttons all on one control surface. I use at least three pieces of MIDI gear in my studio to achieve the same results. So let’s take a tour through the features and see how the MPK49 measures up in a studio session.
The unit has a sturdy build, although at the end of the day it is all plastic and won’t survive fire or heavy rock ‘n roll abuse. Get a board bag if you’re going to take it out to party. The keys are semi-weighted and don’t feel cheap like many other controllers on the market. They seem a little stiff for my personal taste, although admittedly I do play with a stylish one finger technique (left and right hand), so I won’t deduct any points for that. As someone who normally uses a shorter keyboard in the studio it felt luxurious to play on this 49 key model. For the serious keyboard players out there, it has input on the rear for a foot pedal, an expression pedals and MIDI input and output to send and receive information between other
sound modules. Strangely, if you would like to use the MPK49 without a computer, you would need to go out and purchase a 6V power adaptor, something not mentioned in the manual. The drum pads proved to be a bit of a dilemma for me. The Akai website, and indeed both the local distributor ’s drum expert and technician all assured me that the MPC-style pads on the controller use the same contact membrane technology as that of Akai’s highly respected MPC series, albeit made from a different rubber. For those not familiar, Akai in fact made its name with the MPC, the drum sampler of choice for hip hop producers since the late 1980s. What you do get is four different velocity curves available from the global preferences, however I found them a bit stiff for subtle velocity detection and actually banged them quite hard to achieve close to 127 velocity. This may just be my demo model (it is brand new) so my suggestion is to test this to see if it is to your liking. Something else to take note is that the MPK25 and MPK49 both have a drum pad layout of 3 across and 4 up. Most software and hardware uses a 4 x 4 grid layout so you’ll find yourself needing to trigger the missing notes on the keyboard; not ideal. If this is an issue I recommend looking at the MPK61 or MPK88, both of which have 4 across and 4 up.