AKAI Pro Intros $699 MPC One At 2020 NAMM Show

At the 2020 NAMM Show, being held in Anaheim, CA Jan 16-19, AKAI Pro is introducing the MPC One sampling workstation.

The $699 MPC One is powered by what AKAI calls ‘the most powerful processor found in any standalone production device’. It can can work standalone, with your computer, or to sequence MIDI or CV/Gate gear.

“We broke new ground with the MPC X and MPC Live, the most powerful standalone music production devices ever,” says AKAI Pro’s Dan Gill. “We’re proud to say we’ve been able to deliver that exact same power in an efficient form factor that will be at home in any music production studio suite.”

Included as standard are network connectivity, Splice integration and CV/Gate connectors. MPC One comes loaded with 2GB of drum sample & loop collections. The MPC One also features the synth engines Electric, Tubesynth and Bassline as well as AIR FX for mixing & mastering.

Features:

  • 7-inch multi-touch display
  • 16 velocity-sensitive RGB pads
  • 2GB RAM, 4GB onboard storage
  • MIDI In/Out
  • 4 TRS CV/Gate Jacks, 8 Outputs Total
  • USB Flash & SD Card storage

Additionally, MPC One incorporates control surface workflow for PC & Mac and includes a full version of MPC2 Desktop Software.

MPC One Video Demos:

Pricing and Availability

The AKAI Pro MPC One will be available in February 2020 and will ship with a retail price of $699.

31 thoughts on “AKAI Pro Intros $699 MPC One At 2020 NAMM Show”

    1. I just bought the Akai Force and it pairs really well with the Digitakt. Both allow for different sound, sequencing and tweaking.

    2. First of all, you get the 8 outputs, which is the Digitakt’s fatal flaw, imo. Also you get twice the storage (its second fatal flaw) and possibly 4x if you can delete the stock library. Moreover, you’re not limited to 8 tracks, so you don’t have to resample your drums just to layer them. Also it samples in stereo.

      Yup. This thing is a Digitakt killer.

      I’ve stayed far away from Akai for years and I do still hear some horror stories about buggy MPC’s (like Jade Wii) but not nearly as much as I’d expected to when they came out. I might be willing to dip my toes and try Akai again for this price.

  2. The only difference i’m seeing from the MPC Live is the somewhat reduced I/O and more compact/crowded layout. I’m surprised it’s $300 cheaper, that’s aggressively competitive. Akai has really come back in a big way; touch screens have breathed new life into the MPC concept.

  4. What’s with the big gap around the scroll knob? Looks like a place that’ll collect all my biscuit crumbs…this machine does look cool though and I just bought a digitakt 🙁 poor timing

  6. I think this will sell really well, the lack of direct buttons on the mpc live was a real pain, having to navigate through the menu button and then the touchscreen, those short cuts means I can finally replace the mpc 1000

    1. You hit the menu button, then select what you need. 2 taps honestly can’t be a real pain. I saw those dedicated buttons and wished they would have been knobs. I mean, it is nice in some regards but to say it was a real pain, is like saying your car was a real pain to get in, until they released it with no doors. The MPC 1000 was a real pain, with hidden menus and no touchscreen. But it obviously became more intuitive to use, spinning that wheel like crazy to set those trim points. But that menu button, real pain!

      1. Geez. God forbid someone have a preference on how they manage their workflow. Sometimes little things like that make a difference to someone actually trying to make music.

        1. I’d also prefer to have 1 button per function. Thats a given. I didnt comment on the preference, I commented on calling it a “real pain” by listing the steps to make a selection. When you read a bunch of complaints on Synthtopia, you have to chime in on the really bizarre ones especially when tapping 2 buttons kept you from purchasing the Live and sticking with the MPC 1000. I had to call shenanigans on that one. Thats what we’re here for, right? Criticism.

  7. Looks great, only downside is it doesn’t have a rechargeable battery (needs to be plugged in for power) so harder to sit on the couch with it.

  8. I like the screen, GUI, front panel, I bet the build quality is good, the utilities, effects, I/O as well, but the only thing that stops me buying akai products is the lack of modulations with LFO’s and envelopes, I’d like to use it to glitch samples modulating sample start/end, loop point, effects, things like that, not just assign a parameter value to a sequence step. will this product have these features???

    1. Drum “Punchiness” ? You mean as in crunchy because of low Bit depth as it was “back in the day”? Well you can put ANY sample into this machine here. You can literally sample any-every old Mpc and it will sound exactly as … the Sample you put into it. There are probably sample packs already

      1. They also apparently have some emulation plug-ins from a few different models to give a ‘lofi’ grit to your samples. Whether it sounds authentic or not is another question

  10. Looks cool, but as Akai MPC-2000 user [Thinking about a replacement] I have the feeling that this one could be improved in matter of sound outputs and midi-ports and worst, I have the feeling that you will drown in features 🙁

  12. I’m impressed. Akai really punches hard with this. Lower cost but looks like it runs the same MPC OS as the Live and the X. Surprised it has cv/gate outputs. It still has the 8 audio tracks and the screen wasn’t reduced to a small 2 line LCD. It has such a wide range of use cases.

    I expect it to sell really well.

  13. Neat! I like that it has a synthesis engine as well as sampling. I recall reading that the Live and X didnt have synthesis engines, which i found a strange omission. Perhaps they were patched to have them later on.

    2. This view was not expressed by the REAL Handsome Randy. I start my sentences with capital letters and end with periods.

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