Akai Professional Battery Powered Drum Machine and Sampler with Built in Speakers, Beat Pads, Synth Engines and Touch Display (MPC Live 2)

This device does everything. It can be a portable DAW that can control and record your entire studio, or it can do it all itself. It has full song making capabilities where you can create midi sequences or audio loops and that can be saved as songs. You can create entire drum kits for the pads (or use the hundreds already included for free!) and make your own beats and sample your old records or songs from an ipod through it's inputs. You can fill it full of your own samples if you want, and even warp them into stepped synths or slow and time warp them. It recognizes every MIDI USB device I plug into it instantly AND it can power those MIDI USB devices from its own powered USB ports. Even when it's running on it's own batteries! No joke, you can chain as many USB powered devices and you want on this thing and the battery will power them all (At the cost of runtime!). Got a keystep? Plug it into the USB and it just works.The speakers are actually really nice and the battery life is about 6 hours on the dot. The overall feel is it's quite heavy and solid. It's all metal and it shows. The touch screen is actually very cool and you can do most everything via button combos as well.For inputting music, it's really geared for beats and samples above all else. The standard step sequencer is nice and easy to use and you'll have drum loops going easy. The grid mode/key roll is a bit harder to use. It's where the touch based screen isn't as precise, so if you want to put a C# note on step 6 you'll likely place it on D and have to select and move it down. It's easier to simply live record your melodies. If you want to do ARPs and such, it has all that built in. It has hundreds of different modes and you select your scale (like major, minor, pentatonic, etc) and then if you want to play chord (It has 64 sound polyphony) arps or single note arps.It has about 50+ built in FX like reverb, compressor, ducker, chorus, etc.It really can do everything. Plus it can sit on your lap on the couch. For what you get, the cost is amazingly cheap, IMO. There is a reason so many people are picking these newer MPCs up like crazy.

I decided to take a chance and buy this machine used for around $400 less than it was new. I was a bit worried it would come all jacked up with ketchup stains and scratches all up and down the machine. However when it arrived and i was able to unbox it, i was shocked at the quality and overall care the machine had seen. It looks literally brand new other than some minor scratching on the main scroll wheel but thats a hard nitpick and you would have to go looking for that. Overall i am completely blasted away that i got a machine so nice for the price i payed. I wouldnt have any issue ordering another used machine at all from Amazon directly. The quality it unreal, it plays perfectly and everything works as it should. As far as the sampler itself, just wow. It does everything, its a stand alone studio in a box. No need for a pc or any other recording gear, this thing can act as the mixer, the mastering daw, the midi controller, you name it, it can do it. It has direct link up cv gates for modular gear i mean its the works. Its also fully expandable , there is a hard drive bay on the back on the machine. This thing is wild.

Built in speakers are very cool. Volume goes loud enough and the sound quality is really good. Best part is being able to use it without the computer. It has usb in the back and you can connect a fash drive to upload your own sound files. You don't need any though, it comes with a Huge library of instruments and sounds. Only downside is the software. It doesn't seem all that intuitive and it takes some work to figure out. Best way to learn is to YouTube what you're trying to do.

Great design! All in one music production device that’s portable so you’re not always stuck in the studio. Makes beat last anywhere.

I’ve wanted an MPC from the moment I started making beats, but couldn’t afford one, so I had been using Maschine mk2 for years. Then 2020 hits and Agent Orange gives me 12 hundo, and boom! A dream is realized. I’ve been using it daily for about 6 weeks, admittedly, the first entire week was familiarizing myself with the workflow and OS. THE MPC ENVIRONMENT IS NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENT FROM MASCHINE OR ANY OF MY ELEKTRON GEAR. Once I got familiar with it, this machine has proved itself to be an absolute beast. Versus maschine, there’s no comparison. The FX, arranger, workflow and everything else is just far superior on the MPC. I slapped a skin on it and swapped the black pads out for clear pads that are also far more sensitive (this was not easy to do. You could easily destroy your MPC if you try swapping the pads yourself) I did these upgrades because I couldn’t stand how dirty the Black MPC always looks from your fingerprint smudges, plus I like clear pads for visual purposes. All in all, this is everything I hoped for. It’s a deep machine with a unique workflow that does take time to learn. If you want easy to use, Maschine is for you. If you want a deep machine that’s going to take time to master, but has far fewer limitations, then go for the Live 2. I got mine as a customer return, it had no original packaging, but only cost me $950, so I feel like I got the deal of the century. Buy it, but keep in mind that patience is crucial.