Since the release of AKAI MPC60 in 1988, the Music Production Controller has become one of the most legendary drum machines. Now inspired by the success of Native Instruments Maschine, the company entered the hardware/software market with the revived MPC lineup. The pioneer of the series - MPC Renaissance. It consists of plastic and metal casing with built-in display, displaying the involved sequencing, libraries, pad assignments. The controller comes with a unique software that works in standalone mode or as a VST/AU plug-in for DAW.

Its pads remind those from MPC3000, and the number of banks increased to 8. Each pad shines with yellow, orange, green and red to display the velocity sensitivity level or events. The new metal knob on the right side looks very powerful, as much as the 16 assignable Q-Link knobs (with LEDs) that provide the necessary visual feedback, whether it's MPC software or external plug-in control.

AKAI software features 12 main user points. "Main" is the main mode. It is designed to change the loop length, select the type of track (Drum, MIDI) and to assign "real time/edit" functions to "Q-Links". Here you can also find the settings for quantization, swing, time shift. The "Program Edit" button is responsible for the functions pitch change and sample layering (up to 4 samples per pad), changing the speed range, and selecting from 29 versatile filter modes, including the low-pass filter from MPC3000.

You can also add 4 effects to each program and use "Keygroups" to display the samples in a chromatic form through 4 layers, and in the 88-note range, which is great for sampling a piano, rhodes or synth. "Program Mixer" allows you to control the panning, volume and effects, and "Track Mixer" does the same job, but for each of the 128 tracks in a sequence.

In addition, "Sequences" are edited in the "Track View", sequences can be created in the "Next Sequence" that will respond to pressing the pads, and "Sample Edit/Sample Record" provides the user with wide sampling capabilities. The rear panel features USB connectors, 4 balanced outputs, 2 combined XLR/TRS inputs with phantom power, 2 phono, 2 headphone inputs (1/4, 1/8), S/PDIF input and output, 2 MIDI IN and 4 MIDI out.

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