Moshel_A3

Akai’s MPC and its powerful sampling and sequencing capabilities ushered in a new era of creativity for beat makers. Akai, along with Roger Linn, started off with the launch of the first model called the MPC 60. The MPC 60 came with 16 programmable velocity-sensitive pads. It changed the game for both samplers and drum machines. Subsequently followed the MPC 3000 which added 16-bit 44.1 kilohertz sampling and upped the sampling memory to 22 seconds. Next came the Akai MPC 2000 Midi Production Center. The reason for the step-back from 3000 to 2000 is because of the incorporation of features from the s2000 rackmount sampler.

The Akai MPC 2000 Midi Production Center, originally influenced by drum machines, was made in the year 1997. This machine was groundbreaking in terms of cost for those consumers who wanted an MPC yet couldn’t afford its older brother, the MPC 3000. As for the MPC 3000, that was a machine that wasn’t seen a lot in the hands of a typical consumer and mostly held its place in professional studios let alone only heard when listening to records. Otherwise, not many people had any idea of how it looked due to limited access to the internet. Furthermore, the only way for one to have any kind of access to the 3000 model was through their local music store, which, unfortunately, was a rare occasion.

So, in 1997, Akai and Roger Linn part ways, Akai took what Roger Linn left behind which was the MPC operating system and, as a result, created the MPC 2000. The MPC 2000 became a machine that was smaller and cheaper but still delivered the essence of the Akai MPC series samplers. How the developers did this was by designing a machine that had the capability to be expandable. When manufacturers use this tactic and make technological devices expandable, it allows them to cut costs. They sell the base unit and let the consumers decide how to customize their system however they see fit. If you think about it, it’s the same process for when you buy a car; you have the option to buy a base model and then build everything else to your own liking on top of that.

The standard model of the Akai MPC 2000 came with two MegaBytes of RAM, a SCSI port, two MIDI outputs and two MIDI inputs. As soon as this device hit stores, it was an instant success, mostly because musicians could get their hands on an MPC model for a fraction of the previous models price. In 1999, Akai released the MPC 2000 XL which went on to become a favorite of influential hip-hop legends like MF Doom and Pete Rock.

With these devices, several hip-hop artists had the ability to record and sample portions of old songs and records and alter them using their own creativity. Changes could include altering the beat and rhythm, changing the speed of the sample, changing the pitch of the sample, changing the direction in which the sample was played, even adding their own noises whether it was something created or perhaps recycled from another existing track. One particular artist who, in my opinion, did an outstanding job with this tactic is Logic along with his producer Arjun Ivatury, also known as 6ix. Now, though Logic has had some recent projects released in the past year, his project that I believe exquisitely presents these artist’s talents is his second studio album called The Incredible True Story. The Incredible True Story was released on November 13, 2015 by Visionary Music Group and Def Jam Recordings.

Some of the tracks on the album were newly created beats that both Logic and 6ix produced independently, while other tracks sampled music from older records. For example, one of the three singles on the album called “Fade Away” sampled 1972s The Singers Unlimited’s “Deck the Halls.” A specific track’s production value to take notice of, however, is “I Am the Greatest,” the album’s eighth track. “I Am the Greatest” uses 2009s Grizzly Bear’s “Fine for Now” as a music sample while simultaneously adding parts of Cassius Clay’s - also know as Muhammad Ali – speech “I Am the Greatest.” Using the Akai MPC 2000 XL MIDI Production Center’s programmable velocity-sensitive pads, Logic recorded parts of Ali’s speech onto the different pads, so whichever pad was pressed would play the specific wording Logic assigned to it. As a result, during the recording of the song itself, Logic selected the pads in a particular order and pattern and integrated Ali’s dictation into the mix to produce a beat that’s absolutely impeccable in terms of creativity.

Akai’s later models made incremental improvements trying to compete with native instruments. In 2012, Akai stripped the MPC of its stand-alone status effectively creating controllers for MPC branded DAW’s. Recently, at NAMM 2017, Akai announced a return to the stand-alone paradigm with new portable MPC units. With the fact that these machines already come in portable hand-held models, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these devices implemented into a fully interactive on/touch screen application in the future.