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Akai MPD226 MIDI Pad Controller Review

Last Updated: July 13, 2017 By Sean

One of our favorite brands, Akai Professional, has come out with three new MIDI pad controllers for us to play around with. Nowadays, us producers usually use a MIDI keyboard that already has pads alongside it as opposed to a piece of gear dedicated to only pads. However, what about an extra upgrade in terms of pad feel\make? What about some extra faders, knobs and buttons to assign sounds\FX to? In this article, we focus on the middle model of their brand new MPD2 series of controllers, the Akai MPD226 MIDI Controller.

Akai MPD232 MIDI Pad Controller Review

Last Updated: July 13, 2017 By Sean

Another year, a bunch of new gear. We always have our antennas up for new Akai music equipment, and this year they’ve brought us a few new controllers to play with. They’ve built upon their older, solid MPD pad controller and have created three new versions (upgraded, that is). In this article, we explore the flagship model of the new MPD2 toys, the Akai MPD232 MIDI Pad Controller. They’ve combined their beloved MPD pads, some control surface features as well as step sequencer programming into one machine. Let’s check it out!

Akai MIDIMix Portable Mixer Review

Last Updated: May 6, 2015 By Sean

Whenever one of our favorite brands, and in this case Akai Professional come out with a new piece of gear, we have to see what it’s all about. When we first saw the pictures of the new concoction, we were a bit taken back it wasn’t just another MIDI keyboard or drum pad controller. Here we’ve got a smaller, simpler solution for mixing and controlling certain mix-like features in our DAW. Although they state for it to work particularly well with Ableton, it’s highly compatible with most digital audio workstations out there in the world. Let’s get down into the finer details of the Akai MIDIMix Portable Mixer.

Akai Advance 49 MIDI Keyboard Controller Review

Last Updated: February 11, 2015 By Sean

To continue our series of reviews on the new Akai Professional MIDI keyboard controllers, the 49-key version of the Advance models brings us the most popular solution in terms of key counts. If you read our Advance 25 MIDI keyboard review, you’ll have learned that the most important highlight of these new controllers is their VIP software. It allows you to seamlessly control your VST’s and plug-ins. Akai has done a great job at pretty much eliminating all ‘extra moves’ you’d need to make in order to sync your sounds with your controller. This is especially nifty for those who perform live, but it can be beneficial for studio use as well. Aside from that, there are some other decent features that it comes with that may make it worth it for you. Let’s check the details on the Akai Advance 49 MIDI keyboard controller.

Akai Advance 25 MIDI Keyboard Controller Review

Last Updated: May 21, 2015 By Sean

Here we are again! An exciting new MIDI keyboard controller from of our favorite creators, Akai Professional. But what a second…doesn’t it look a lot like those guy’s keyboards over at Native Instruments? Yes, yes it does. However, don’t get judgmental too quickly. It’s quite obvious they’ve taken a liking to the aesthetics of NI’s Kontrol S-Series keyboards; but we’ll take that as merely complimenting them. It doesn’t look like the features list is quite the same, and these are a little more affordable than the S-Series, but not by much. Let’s take a look at what Akai has given us this time around with the Advance 25 MIDI Keyboard Controller.