Akai is best known for their classic Music Production Center (MPC) line of drum machines, MIDI sequencers, samplers, and disk recorders. You can hear the MPC at work in many records from the past 23 years – starting with the MPC60 – including hits by Dr. Dre, Zombie Nation, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, and many more. Recently, Akai has experienced a new resurgence from their line of Ableton Performance Controllers (APC) – most notably the APC40. Now that competition is heating up even more in the USB/MIDI controller arena, where companies are integrating both hardware and software (read: Native Instruments’ MASCHINE), Akai has stepped their game up with the release of the APC Renaissance. Akai is dubbing their new machine as “the instrument for music production”, which is a bold claim.

The Renaissance should look familiar to those who already use Akai products. It includes an integrated USB soundcard, lots of I/O, MIDI, and even a dedicated turntable input. The Renaissance features Akai’s legendary touch-sensitive drum pads and their modern encoders from the APC line. Where the new machine really shines however, is in its bundled software and digital connection. The software runs either standalone, or as a VST, AU, or RTAS plugin in your favorite digital audio workstation (DAW) and allows seamless integration with the controller for both studio production and live performance.

If all this new technology doesn’t impress you, then you might like the “vintage” mode that recreates the sound of the legendary MPC3000/60 crunch. Don’t worry, you don’t need to hook the Renaissance up to a computer; it works just fine as a standalone unit.

While the competition for hardware/software music production solutions is hotter than ever, Akai seems to have killed it with the new MPC Renaissance. I will be most interested to watch how musicians use the device in the coming months; whether they will use the standalone hardware by itself, use the fully integrated software, or use the software as a VST inside Ableton Live perhaps?

– Paul Loeb

Visit Paul’s site for a free download of his “Chronica Electronica” Remix