Akai

Really powerful things are getting smaller yet becoming more powerful. This mania of micronization is apparent in the Akai Pro Miniak.  

According to my son’s former favorite TV show, “small is powerful.” Indeed it is. Look at how cellular phones and laptops have become. Akai Professional LPD8 and LPK25 live up to this motto as you will see at Summer NAMM 2009.  

Bass, bass, bass, and lots of bass: a predominant feature in the music of today. Faced with such low-frequency predominance, working in the studio requires far more accurate monitoring designed for this purpose. To be debuted at Summer NAMM 2009, Akai Professional RPM8 Studio Monitors is bound to exceed your expectations.  

Compromises often lead to win-win situations. In this case, some musicians find a 49-key MIDI controller to fall short of the desired range and an 88-key to be too bulky for transport. Giving that winning compromise while retaining uncompromising control options, Akai Professional MPK61 is about to make its debut at Summer NAMM 2009.  

In addition to the exciting announcement about the MINIAK, Akai is bringing two new controllers to Frankfurt. The Akai MPK88 will be the company's biggest keyboard-controller, while the MPD18 will be the company's smallest pad-contrller. No judgements about folks who prefer one over the other, please.  

The mini-synth-plus-vocoder arms race is on! Hot on the heels of the MicroKORG XL comes the Akai MINIAK, the first synth from the makes of legendary samplers and top-notch midi controllers. Won't somebody draft a synth-kitsch-nonproliferation act before it's too late?  

Akai's new sample pack, Vintage Beat Machines, boasts fat kicks and raw snares. If you like your beats like I like my steak -- fat, raw and inside an MPC -- you'll love this library.  

Even if you haven't fully explored the multitudinous function on the Akai MPC5000 -- and we'll understand if you haven't yet -- you'll want to check out the expanded features that the OS v2.0 firmware upgrade offers. Also, it's a free upgrade; download now and ask questions later.  

Like Penny from the venerable Inspector Gadget animated series, the Akai MPK25 may look innocent and unassuming, but it packs some impressive technological acumen into its tiny frame.  

We don't see a lot of wind instruments at Gearwire, but everyone's always excited about anything that has "USB" in the title. Enter the Akai EWIUSB, which allows you to blow a mean clarinet or any kind of horn without so much as changing a spitguard.  

Winter NAMM 09 has lots of goodies for the Live crowd. Akai paired up with Ableton to make everyone's Lives (get it??!!) easier with this controller.  

The movers and shakers at Ableton found more friends at Akai. The two partnered up to produce the Akai APC40, a massively intertwining controller built for Ableton Live, at Winter NAMM 2009.  

It comes once a year. Winter NAMM. Much like your birthday, the weeks fly by and then suddenly it is upon you. The difference at NAMM, of course, is that you cannot purchase the presents yet. Also, the last time I had a birthday, I did not have to check in at the press booth and risk getting run over by a guy in an Elmo suit.  

With 25 keys and a dozen MPC pads, the Akai MPK25 is set to make a huge impact on Winter NAMM while maintaining a small footprint. This is the controller that many wish accompanied the earlier release of the MPK49, but like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky, Akai knows that it's more fun when you can draw it out.  

Darius "Deezle" Harrison has been nominated for three Grammys this year as a result of his work with Lil Wayne. He took some time to chat with Gearwire about his Akai MPC4000.  

Vir2 MOJO gets your virtual mojo going, allowing you to multiply your virtual ensemble players like rabbits -- rabbits who play flugelhorns and such.  

Maestro Bill Holland calls upon the Akai MPK49 to be his enforcer. It keeps all of his audio in its best behavior thanks to its expert knowledge of control.  

We put five amps from different walks of life all together in one room to see what happened when we connected them to the five outputs on the Akai E2 Head Rush. Next season on the Real World.  

Most guitarists don't think immediately of Akai when they think of stompboxes and guitar effects, but maybe they should. Owen O'Malley shows that BOSS and DigiTech have some stiff looping competition with the Akai E2 Head Rush, which also doubles as a normal, dedicated delay.  

John Bechdel has played with the likes of Ministry and Fear Factory. Now, working on his own project, False Icons, he takes some time to chat about the Akai S5000.  

To commemorate the release of the Akai EWI USB electronic wind instrument, may I suggest, Akai, a series of clever and moderately ribald, slogan-bearing t-shirts and / or bumper stickers? Slogans such as, for example: "AKAI EWI USB PLAYERS DO IT WITH THEIR MOUTH."  

It's time to get your hands dirty with a beat making tutorial on the MPC500. Bill Holland walks you through what to do with all those sweet, sweet pads.  

We welcome the Akai MPC500 into Gearwire Studio, and Bill shows all you future producers (and current producers) how to set the Akai MPC500 up for use. This includes a look at the controls, assigning your pads and fine tuning the pad sounds.  

We join Michael Una at the Experimental Garage Sale. It's EOD there, but Una still has his Akai MFC42 hooked up to a drum machine for some filtering fun.  

Experimental Chicago Trumpeter Jaimie Branch used to play trumpet through an SVT stack when she played with punk and ska bands. She leaves the SVT at home nowadays, for reasons I'm sure we can all appreciate.  

Jason Donnelly aka DJ Puzzle aka Alfalfa from the "Little Rascals" heads on over to the Akai booth to check out the brand new MPC5000 before his big go-kart race.  

I'm a learn-by-doing kinda guy, so when I need to remember the killer beaks that pop into my head from time to time, I just beatbox until I get home. This does not make me very popular with my fellow mass transit commuters. If only there was another way! Oh, hang on. . .  

If you're not a big fan of reading things, you're probably not even reading this right now. That's too bad, because inside, we've got some close-ups of the Akai MPC-5000  

Akai's MPC5000 makes a huge splash at NAMM. The brand new Music Production Center has all the tools you need to create a track from your first idea all the way to disc.  

Electronic musician, Jamie Radford talks about the gear he uses and his plans to create music for the movies