Akai MPC4000

The point where sound enters

The product description makes the phono input unusually prominent. You could connect a turntable through its built-in RIAA stage, record through other analogue or digital inputs, or load material from a disc. A sample could then be cut, looped, time-stretched, pitched or sliced before it reached a pad or a keyboard map. Sampling was not merely the way to acquire a sound; it was the machine's method of composition.

Drum programs place sounds beneath the pads; Keygroup programs let a MIDI keyboard play multisampled instruments. A bass or piano part can sit beside the percussion inside the same sampler.

Two ways to build a song

Akai describes short sequences that can be arranged and rearranged as a song, and a continuous linear sequence that can run through a whole performance. The MPC4000 can play a pattern-based song and a linear sequence together. Two MIDI inputs and four outputs connect it to other instruments: a keyboard can play into the sampler while a separate input receives synchronisation.

The Q-Link knobs and sliders can be assigned to level, tuning, filters or effects. Knob-generated MIDI controller data can also be recorded into a sequence, so a movement made during a performance can return with the notes.

A machine that continued to change

Akai showed the MPC4000 at NAMM in January 2002, with shipping projected for the end of March. Later operating-system releases continued its development. The Version 1.71 notes describe a later software state; fitted drives, memory and optional connections also need to be considered when comparing individual machines.

In somebody's room

O.N.O of Tha Blue Herb described the MPC4000 as the core of his music-making setup. He connected hardware and software instruments by MIDI, made rhythms in a Machinedrum, and moved pieces into the sampler to recombine and mute them. He describes his method without naming a particular recording.

In that setup, the sampler becomes a meeting place for material made elsewhere. Muting and recombining the pieces lets O.N.O change the rhythm after its first performance.