page_title: Akai MPC
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Akai MPC / Development
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Roger Linn tijdens de SF MusicTech top, 17 mei 2010 English: Roger Linn at the SF MusicTech Summit, May 17, 2010
context_page_description: The Akai MPC is a series of music workstations produced by Akai from 1988 onwards. The MPC combines sampling and sequencing functions.
  The first MPCs were designed by Roger Linn, who had designed the successful LM-1 and LinnDrum drum machines. He aimed to create an intuitive instrument, with a grid of pads that could be played similarly to a traditional instrument such as a keyboard or drum kit. Rhythms can be built not just from samples of percussion but samples of any sound, such as horns or synthesizers.
  Linn anticipated that users would sample short sounds; to his surprise, they also sampled long sequences of music. The MPC had a major influence on the development of electronic and hip hop music, allowing musicians and producers to create elaborate tracks without a studio and opening the way for new sampling techniques.
context_section_description: By the late 1980s, drum machines had become popular for creating beats and loops without musicians, and hip hop artists were using samplers to take portions of existing recordings and create new compositions. Grooveboxes, machines that combined these functions, such as those by E-mu Systems, required knowledge of music production and cost up to $10,000.
  The original MPC, the MPC-60, was a collaboration between the Japanese company Akai and the American engineer Roger Linn. Linn had designed the successful LM-1 and LinnDrum, two of the earliest drum machines to use samples (prerecorded sounds). His company Linn Electronics had closed following the failure of the Linn 9000, a drum machine and sampler. According to Linn, "[The collaboration] was a good fit because Akai needed a creative designer with ideas and I didn't want to do sales, marketing, finance or manufacturing, all of which Akai was very good at." 
  Linn described the MPC as an attempt to "properly re-engineer" the Linn 9000. He disliked reading instruction manuals and wanted to create an intuitive interface that simplified music production. He designed the functions, including the panel layout and hardware specification, and created the software with his team. He credited the circuitry to a team led by English engineer David Cockerell. Akai did the production engineering, making it "more manufacturable". The first model, the MPC60 (MIDI Production Center), was released in December 08,1988 and retailed for $5,000. It was followed by the MPC60 MkII, the MPC2000, and several subsequent models. 
  Linn left Akai after the company went out of business and its assets were purchased by Numark. Akai has continued to produce MPC models without Linn. Linn was critical, saying: "Akai seems to be making slight changes to my old 1986 designs for the original MPC, basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."
caption: The MPC was designed by Roger Linn (pictured in 2010), who also created the Linndrum
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