AKAI IN BRIGHT RED
By Graeme Hague
25 June 2013
You might say some product designs are a little too Toys-R-Us in the effort to stand out in a crowded market, but Akai Professional is happy to tell us the MAX25 controller is “made to be in front of a crowd”, so that explains the striking bright red design that might have a few folks reaching for the sun-glasses before midday. Akai was a little more restrained with the black-themed MPX8. The MAX25 is a compact version of the MAX49 USB/MIDI/CV keyboard controller that was released in 2012. MAX25 has all of the same features as MAX49, including CV/Gate output, semi-weighted keys with after-touch, a built-in step sequencer, expanded arpeggiator, and LED touch faders. The difference between MAX49 and MAX25 only lies in the number of onboard controls. Where MAX49 has 49 keys, eight faders, and 12 pads, MAX25 has 25, four, and eight, respectively. The MPX8 is a standalone SD sample launcher with MPC pads. Using a standard SD card, users can load virtually any sample onto MPX8 and then assign it to any of the unit’s eight backlit velocity-and pressure-sensitive pads. MPX8 also comes with a large library of standard samples, a 3.5mm headphone output, two balanced 6.5mm outputs, plus five-pin MIDI and USB MIDI inputs and outputs. The MPX8 comes with a drag-and-drop sample editor for Mac and PC.
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Electric Factory www.elfa.com.au
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