Music Production Controller

Akai MPCs (originally MIDI Production Center, now Music Production Controller) are a popular series of electronic musical instruments produced by the Japanese company Akai from 1988 onwards. They are grooveboxes that combine features of a sampler, drum machine and MIDI sequencer.

The original MPC60 was the first result of an alliance between Akai and Roger Linn, to design products similar to those of Linn Electronics. He developed the functional design, including the panel layout and software/hardware specifications. He then created the software with a team of engineers. The hardware electronics were designed by English engineer David Cockerell and his team. Cockerell was a founding member of the synthesizer firm EMS (co-creator of their famous VCS 3 along with Peter Zinovieff), and then worked for effects manufacturers Electro-Harmonix. Akai then pioneered many processing techniques, such as crossfade looping and "time stretch" to shorten or lengthen samples without affecting pitch and vice versa.

Intended to function as a powerful kind of drum machine, the MPC60 drew on design ideas from earlier groovebox machines, combining a powerful MIDI sequencer with the ability to sample one's own sounds. A major influence to Roger Linn's design was his love of rubber pads and how they could be pushed, prodded, and banged; this can be seen clearly in his designs especially from the MPC-60 onwards. Linn also had a passion for squares: thus, no round pads on the MPC Series. Later models feature increasingly powerful sampling, storage, interfacing and sound manipulation facilities, which broaden the use of instrument beyond just drum and rhythm tracks.

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