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The History of the Akai MPC

The Akai MPC series of drum machine MIDI sampler/recorders is one of the most important pieces of equipment in the production of hip hop and electronic music arena. In fact, Kanye West has been a noted user of the MPC. In 2008, Akai introduced the latest model in the MPC line, the MPC5000.

  1. Development

    • The MPC owes its legacy to Roger Linn, who partnered with Akai when Linn Electronics went out of business in the mid-80s, with the aim of releasing more of his designs. Linn and Akai came up with the MPC60, released in 1987. The unit resembled one of the last units released by Linn, the Linn 9000. It had MIDI inputs and outputs and a set of 16 pads in a four-by-four pattern. Linn upgraded the MPC60 to the MPC60 Mark II in 1991; the new unit added a headphone jack and a redesigned exterior case. Both units could sample at close to CD quality, with sample rates of 12 bits and 40 kHz.

    MPC3000

    • The next unit to come out was the MPC3000, released in 1994. This added CD quality sampling at 16 bit/44.1 kHz. Whereas the MPC60 could only sample up to 26 seconds, the upgraded machine had more memory, and could record up to six minutes. This was the last MPC that Linn collaborated with Akai on.

    MPC2000

    • Akai released the MPC2000 in 1997, and followed it with the MPC2000XL in 1999. The 2000 upgraded the note capacity of the MPC3000 from 75,000 notes to 100,000 notes. It had fewer MIDI outputs than the MPC3000, with only two to the MPC3000's four. The XL version of the MPC2000 added a time stretch feature.

    MPC4000

    • The MPC4000 was released in 2002. The sample rate quality was upgraded to DVD-audio quality, at 24 bit/96 kHz. It also allowed the musician to play other sounds than drums, including keyboard/piano, and had an internal CD drive.

    MPC1000

    • Released in 2003, the MPC1000 was a more compact unit that had a USB port and a built in compact flash reader. It also had pitch shift functions.

    MPC2500

    • Introduced in 2005, the MPC2500 had four MIDI outputs and two MIDI inputs,10 analog outputs, and a digital S/PDIF in/out. It came with 16MB of internal memory, which could be upgraded to 128MB, and had a compact flash drive for adding new sounds. With the memory upgrade, the MPC2500 had 24:28 of recording time.

    MPC500 and MPC5000

    • Akai released an upgraded version of the MPC1000, the MPC500, in 2006. It was the smallest unit in the line, and the first fully portable unit. It only has 12 pads, one MIDI in and one MIDI out. It also has a Compact Flash reader and USB port, and files created on it can integrate with files created on the MPC5000, which was released in 2008. The MPC5000 has an 8-track hard drive recorder built in and a larger display than the older units for onboard editing. The internal memory could be upgraded to 192MB, providing up to 38:24 of recording time.

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