Akai MPK49

odarellmc · Post by **odarellmc** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:03 pm

just received it two days ago, i waited a long time for this and I'm not disappointed. first of all its built like a tank, a lot heaver than i thought it would be. i was surprised to see that both mod and pitch wheels are lit. the display is nice and the external controllers are killer. but i had some issues, first it was cool that the templates for reason 4.0 came with the unit but it was very confusing on how to make reason 'SEE" this controller good thiing i know my way around the mac OS or i would have been screwed. if reason has the program they stated would load the profiles for this keyboard reason didn't know because nothing on the phead site gave me any clue on how to do this. anyway, once i manually put the files in the proper place, while playing some reason instruments, the pitch wheel on the mpk49 would cause the reason inst's pitch wheel to stay at that position until u click it. i don't know if this is a akai bug or phead but it needs to be fixed because i use the pitch wheel a lot. but thats a software thing. on the hardware side everything is cool except the pad sensitivity never feels right there are some options to control this but it still feels like i have to bang to hard. plus they are so thin it felt like i was dam near banging to the frame. to compare the pads, they are not as comfortable as the axiom 49 but the akais pad are more functional, and the keyboard be-it a Little springy feels better than the axiom 49 also. my only other gripe is that even though it uses usb for power you have the option of plugging in an ac adapter, but they don't supply one i guess you have to get your own but other than that I'm hyped about this board. i do recommend it and i give it 4 out 5 stars.

MELTHEDOG13 · Post by **MELTHEDOG13** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:53 pm

I just got my MPK49 as well...!! I had a lot of trouble getting DP to properly see the MPK as a MIDI instrument. I had to mess around with recreating the devices in the Audio MIDI Setup a bunch of times. I've got it up and working now though---glad there is some one else around here with this great new board.

And I agree completly with your thoughts on the pads--not sensitive enough at all, even on the most sensitive settings. I hope they can fix this with a firmware or OS update.

The construction of the unit is great though and the keys feel super fine.....!!

odarellmc · Post by **odarellmc** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:26 pm

yep the bulid is very nice, i emailed propellerheads about with pitch wheel issue with reason 4.0 ill report back as soon as i hear something. and there is a new software update for the mpk49 on the akai site i installed it but the sensitivity on the pads still suck. ill be emailing them about this issue as well

odarellmc · Post by **odarellmc** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:37 pm

the mpk has several presets for various programs reason being one of them, you can download a manual from the akai site. i'm still not crazy about the pads but i've gained a better understanding of the sensitivity controls and they're more usable now, i was using the board on a keyboard stand and it works better if you use it on a table top. the keyboard feels alot better now that ive been banging on it for at least a week, it works best with the combinator, one cool thing i like is that the last two buttons are used to select diferent devices in the sequencer section (very cool) the down side is that the window doesnt scroll to the device selected so it seems to work best if you can have a seperate monitor dedicated to the resaon sequncer. one thing i read about the axiom it that you can split the keyboard in different zones. for example the keyboard can be set to play a synth in reason and the pad used to play redrum or RDK only. this is cool and i wish akai had implemented this i've read the manual and i dont think you can do this with the akai "yet". neither props or akai has gotten back to me regarding the pitch wheel sticking in reason. when i use reason rewired to my daw (digital performer 5.13) the pitch bend doesnt get stuck this leads me to believe that it seems to be a prop bug (as i think of it it could be a problem with the codec written by akai) either way they need to check it out. i dont think they're going to do anything unless more people get this board and start calling and emailing both props and akai.

IO · Post by IO » Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:39 am

So I have the Mpk as well. Have you been using the transport keys in DP.. If so how do you get the stop key to function as a momentary switch and not toggle..? I have looked and looked and it seems like a limitation on akai's part. I love the controller but m-audio's controllers allow for much much finer configurability I must say. Any help is appreciated.

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:03 pm

The most recent review (SOS I think) confirms what I speculated after the 2007 NAMM Show, which is that Akai and Alesis are now fully interchangeable brands, but I think this new MPK controller is unrelated to the earlier Alesis controllers (Photon?). The new drum machines are the "same" though, other than for their genre emphases.

The review noted a few software glitches, but hopefully they'll be worked out soon.

I am hoping they'll release a smaller two-octave version for computer desktop use, as the tactile feel of this controller seems a bit more solid than most of Novation's more recent releases (though the X-Station is still available and is quite nice, as well as covering just about every controller you would need). Yamaha's KX25 is too wide and deep for my desktop -- I need a controller the same width as my printer

.

I have to customise everything in AMS these days, but I think those whose computer hardware supports the upgrade to Leopard get a newer version of AMS, which hopefully includes stuff released after 2001

. Is this the issue you are facing; that the Akai controller simply isn't in the available list, and then you have to figure out how to configure its ports, GM capabilities, etc.?