In the studio you can use MPC X instead of your DAW and audio/MIDI interface for tracking and recording. You can record external audio/instruments (at 16-/24-bit quality) directly to the SD card or connected hard drive(s) via its built-in 4-in/8-out audio interface (via the great-sounding dual mic pres/line/ phono inputs), and the MPC X also fires CV/Gate out over its eight minijack outs. It can sequence samples residing internally and sequence MIDI hardware via the 2-in/4-out MIDI interface (like hardware MPCs of old), plus it now does audio warping, beat matching and clip launching. The MPC X is designed as a fully self-contained solution both live and in the studio - the idea is that it can replace your DAW as the hub of your setup.

However, Akai tells us it opted not to include one in order to keep the unit’s cost, size and weight down, which seems fair enough. The only real downside to the X’s hardware is lack of battery power.Ī rechargeable battery here would have made the MPC X fully self-contained like the MPC Live. Of course, you still have the indispensable ‘note repeat’ feature for quickly entering multiple events, and also the 16-Levels function for mapping sounds chromatically, by level, filter, decay and more. You also get eight pad banks to map your samples across. These pads are the finest out there right now, and they allow extremely sensitive and precise expression. Like all MPCs previously, the X has 16 thick rubber pads which are velocity and pressure sensitive, and the coloured backlights are a huge help for checking velocity levels, placement of events within your beats, and to denote the clip lanes in clip mode.

Plugins for mpc essentials