Akai Professional MPC Studio Music Production Controller and MPC Software Reviews

Love it!!!! It's geared to keep you creative, sounds are unbelievable. and very easy to operate. Great as a plug-in too. Best bang for my buck. Lovin it!!!

This has completely changed my music creation process. It is a great and affordable way to get into the MPC family. The software will keep you busy for quite a while exploring and creating new sounds! Highly recommended.

This piece of equipment is phenomenal. Very easy to travel with and I'm able to transition my projects smoothly from my MPC Renaissance. I highly recommend for any producer. I must also so thank you to the Sweet water staff for their wonderful customer service.

This pad is what it says it is and more. The pads are extremely sensitive and do not feel low-rate in any sense. The biggest perk to me (aside from it being an amazing percussion controller) was the huge soundbank that comes with it. The number of new wav files I have to experiment with is amazing.

I bought this piece of gear to make beats at any time anywhere.....
Make a beat any time and anywhere.
This is a great piece for musicians who have obligations outside of music and need the convenience of light weight mobile equipment.

Being an MPC 2000XL owner and user for years I'm blown away with the ease of creating a groove. The software is awesome and very easy to use. Coming from the old school that says it all. Think of a groove, kick on my studio and the groove is on. Thanks to Derick S. for turning me on to the MPC studio and all the technicians, that's been having my back for years. Way to go Sweeter Station. You Guys Rock!!!

After many years of dealing with the legacy MPC 3000 and some of its limitations such as not having the ability to undo, inability to sync with Pro Tools in loop mode, MIDI beat clock time lags, limited storage capacity and slow load up times, complicated and costly upgrading procedures for hard-drives, lack of waveform displays, I decided to get the MPC Studio.

The MPC Studio from Sweetwater arrived sooner than I expected and faster than most other companies I have dealt with. When I unpacked the box and installed the software, I ran into issues with authorization. However, I emailed my Sweetwater Sales Engineer, Ben, who responded quickly and forwarded my email to Mitchell in Tech Support. I was going to return this item, but they emailed me back with the solution to my problem.

The MPC Studio has truly made my legacy MPC 3000 look like a dinosaur. It has overcome all of the limitations of the MPC 3000 and still has the same great pads and workflow. I love it because it allow me to sync to Pro Tools in loop mode, it automatically syncs when it is used as a plug-in, storage capacity is virtually unlimited, sounds load up much faster, and the waveform display allows more accurate trimming of samples. The layout was a natural transition for me as I am used to having the transport controls on the right-hand side which is the same as on MPC 3000.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase and excellent customer service that Sweetwater provides.

Great a lot of possibilities and bang for the buck. IMPRESSED!!

I've been using this gear for about a year now. I needed something to add a little twist to my Dj mixes as well as live performances. This MPC Studio is the answer and more. This MPC is Not just for studio recordings but also made for live jamming. The only down fall is I had to make a stand to tilt the device due to the screen does not move. Other than that it's a well built one stop shop production tool. I love it and I think you will too!

It's a Great Music Production Machine... The only flaw I found was with the current MPC software included (v1.7)... It works great but appears a bit unfinished. Aside from that it a ton of fun creating with it. I love Akai Instruments... And the new plugin support is wonderful.

I love this thing. As a longtime MPC user it just brings everything into the modern way of producing music. I primarily make my music in Protools in which the MPC Software brings a whole new level of control to my sessions! I like how the hardware still feels and behaves like my old MPC, but the software adds a modern and more convenient spin on controlling my samples and sequences. If you get tired of re-recording your midi tracks on the MPC hard ware, YOU CAN JUST USE THE SOFTWARE, which is great. I did not have to relearn anything with the hardware and the software is very easy to get use to! If you already use other DAWs, the MPC Studio software is a no brainer! I recommend this for anyone that understands MPCs and why they are the best sampler and sequencers out there! If you are looking for a drum machine stick, with the company who knows how to make it simple and user friendly with endless possibilities. The MPC Studio is just as flexible as you are. It gives you control over every aspect of making your production come from your mind to reality!

I love the hardware and software

This is my first MPC, but after talking to fellow studio denizens i realized this would fill the void in my beat making. I only give this a 4 star because I had some installation issues, but sweetwater (as always) was quick to get everything working correctly. I was ready for a steep learning curve since i've never worked with an MPC before, but i was making nice beats the first night. What surprised me the most was the "Bank" plug in that came with it, a whole other set of sounds and keyboards that i use with my M-Audio MIDI controller. I would recommend this to anyone making beats from the ground up in the studio. Plays very nicely with Pro-Tools, and the MPC software works well on it's own.

This unit was definitely worth the long wait! It lives up to all of my expectations, the hardware design is user friendly with the exception of it lays perfectly flat, I wish there were some kind of legs underneath so that you can angle it up twards you. The pads feel great and all the functions of the buttons work the way their supposed to. The factory sounds are great, you can make a whole song right out of the box. A surprise was with the software, it's a daw within itself! I haven't dove way deep into the software yet, but I was able to make a beat without major effort. The last thing I'd add is that it is super portable, it comes with a carry case that you can easily slide in a laptop case. The only bad thing about the unit is that you HAVE to have the MPC plugged in at all time to use the software, so if you want to do a quick edit or listen, then you have to connect the unit, also, if you want to use it with another daw as a controller, you'll have to transform the pad messages within your daw if its possible. So over all it's great, Akai made took after Avid with its proprietary approach the software and hardware, but it's still worth it to me.

Shoutout to Sweetwater, always maintaing great service, I got this thing a day early and the rep followed up as always when I buy from Sweetwater.

As far as the MPC Studio im not totally impressed as I thought I'd be. The sounds are just ok im not blown away or anything. The kicks and snares are the best sounds, I bought this thing expecting to use more drums from inside the software but found myself reverting back to my .wav files. It probably just needs a few updates like Maschine did when it first came out, There are a few bugs like everyone has been talking about.

Overall I cant say whether it was worth the money yet, Its pretty light and sleek so thats cool but the biggest turn off is that you can't use the software without the MPC plugged in, not even use the sound. This is where Maschine takes the cake, If im on the train and want to edit some beats that I made from Maschine or make a new beat using Maschine sounds inside Kontakt that works but not with the MPC, it prompts that the software will mute as soon as you unplug the MPC, unless theres a work around I see this as a MAJOR flaw.

The step sequencer is pretty tight, and the pads feel good....it seems like Akai made the Renaissance, and then thought about how they could nerf it to make a product that was cheaper that they could sell. Hopefully its durable and doesn't break like my MPK did.

I've been an MPC head since the 2000 and I used it for sequencing as well as a drum machine and sampler. This guy here is the REAL DEAL, I like the idea of being able to have access to the vast number of sounds available and still have the MPC vibe. The only problem is that the software is a little buggy but most of the complaints I have seem to be addressed with the new 1.3 update. I use this guy with my travel rig, I would even like to get the Ren for my studio. I only gave it 3 stars because of the software bugs, if not for that I would have given it 5.