Akai MPC60
Encyclopedia
The Akai MPC60 was an electronic
musical instrument
produced in 1988, by the Japanese
company Akai
in collaboration with celebrated designer Roger Linn
. It combined MIDI sequencing
and audio sampling
with a set of velocity/aftertouch-sensitive performance pads, to produce an instrument optimized for use as a drum machine
. The MPC60 enjoyed great popularity, particularly among musicians producing Hip Hop
and similar styles.
Early machines in the 1970s tended to use analogue synthesis
for their sounds (characterful, but not very realistic) and only provided pre-set rhythms. By the late 1970s, use of microprocessors and affordable RAM
memory led to the development of machines which allowed musicians to program their own rhythm patterns (e.g. the Roland CR-78
).
In 1979, Roger Linn
produced the world's first drum machine to use digital audio samples as the sound source, the Linn LM-1
. This was very popular as these sampled sounds were generally much more realistic and "punchy" than analogue ones. Another innovation of the LM-1 was its operating system optimized for real-time recording and playback of drumbeats, introducing useful features such as automatic timing correction (quantization) and variable degrees of swing timing.
In 1983, the MIDI protocol was launched, as a standard way to interconnect electronic musical instruments, and quickly became very popular, replacing the plethora of manufacturer's incompatible proprietary interfaces. MIDI provided a ready way to synchronize the operation of drum machines with other studio devices, and enabled programmed rhythms to be exchanged as MIDI note data.
By the mid-1980s, machines such as the Sequential Circuits Inc.
Studio 440 and Linn's own Linn 9000, combined powerful MIDI sequencer
s with the ability to sample
one's own sounds. This offered much more flexibility in terms of what had been available before, both in terms of drum sounds, and the ability to integrate the drum machine with other studio devices. However neither of these machines were a great commercial success, and both Linn and Sequential ceased trading.
Roger Linn then began a design collaboration with Akai, drawing heavily on the Linn 9000 and Studio 440 concepts, resulting in the MPC60. Drummer Willie Wilcox produced & recorded many of the original drum sounds shipped with the original Akai MPC 60.
Details of Akai's own library are given below:
The original MPC60 came with four factory floppy disks, each with a different kit of sounds:
The Akai MPC60/MPC60II library consisted of the following:
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
produced in 1988, by the Japanese
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
company Akai
Akai
Akai is a consumer electronics brand, founded by Saburo Akai as , a Japanese manufacturer in 1929. It is now headquartered in Singapore as a subsidiary of Grande Holdings, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, which also owns the formerly Japanese brands Nakamichi and Sansui. The Akai brand is now used...
in collaboration with celebrated designer Roger Linn
Roger Linn
Roger Linn is an industrial designer, mainly of electronic drum machines, and has recently branched out into guitar effects pedals. His products have become underground hits, being used on many famous recordings...
. It combined MIDI sequencing
Music sequencer
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
and audio sampling
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
with a set of velocity/aftertouch-sensitive performance pads, to produce an instrument optimized for use as a drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
. The MPC60 enjoyed great popularity, particularly among musicians producing Hip Hop
Hip hop production
Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it's most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work...
and similar styles.
Precursors
The MPC60's success and popularity can perhaps be best understood in the context of earlier drum machines.Early machines in the 1970s tended to use analogue synthesis
Analog synthesizer
An analog or analogue synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog computer techniques to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s such as the Trautonium were built with a variety of vacuum-tube and electro-mechanical technologies...
for their sounds (characterful, but not very realistic) and only provided pre-set rhythms. By the late 1970s, use of microprocessors and affordable RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
memory led to the development of machines which allowed musicians to program their own rhythm patterns (e.g. the Roland CR-78
Roland CR-78
The Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 is a drum machine launched in 1978. Although primitive by today's standards, the CR-78 represented an important advance in drum machine technology at the time...
).
In 1979, Roger Linn
Roger Linn
Roger Linn is an industrial designer, mainly of electronic drum machines, and has recently branched out into guitar effects pedals. His products have become underground hits, being used on many famous recordings...
produced the world's first drum machine to use digital audio samples as the sound source, the Linn LM-1
Linn LM-1
The LM-1 Drum Computer, manufactured by Linn Electronics Inc., was the first drum machine to use digital samples of acoustic drums. Conceived and designed by Roger Linn, it was also one of the first programmable drum machines...
. This was very popular as these sampled sounds were generally much more realistic and "punchy" than analogue ones. Another innovation of the LM-1 was its operating system optimized for real-time recording and playback of drumbeats, introducing useful features such as automatic timing correction (quantization) and variable degrees of swing timing.
In 1983, the MIDI protocol was launched, as a standard way to interconnect electronic musical instruments, and quickly became very popular, replacing the plethora of manufacturer's incompatible proprietary interfaces. MIDI provided a ready way to synchronize the operation of drum machines with other studio devices, and enabled programmed rhythms to be exchanged as MIDI note data.
By the mid-1980s, machines such as the Sequential Circuits Inc.
Sequential Circuits
Sequential Circuits Inc. was a California-based synthesizer company that was founded in the early 1970s by Dave Smith and sold to Yamaha Corporation in 1987. The company, throughout its lifespan, pioneered many groundbreaking technologies and design principles that are often taken for granted in...
Studio 440 and Linn's own Linn 9000, combined powerful MIDI sequencer
Music sequencer
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
s with the ability to sample
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
one's own sounds. This offered much more flexibility in terms of what had been available before, both in terms of drum sounds, and the ability to integrate the drum machine with other studio devices. However neither of these machines were a great commercial success, and both Linn and Sequential ceased trading.
Roger Linn then began a design collaboration with Akai, drawing heavily on the Linn 9000 and Studio 440 concepts, resulting in the MPC60. Drummer Willie Wilcox produced & recorded many of the original drum sounds shipped with the original Akai MPC 60.
Features
- 16 velocity sensitive pads
- 4 pad banks (64 voices per program)
- sampling rate of 40kHz (freq response 20Hz - 18kHz)
- 16-bit ADC and DAC, with data stored in special non-linear 12bit format (for lower noise)
- 750kB sampling memory (13.1 seconds), upgradable to 1.5MB (26.2 seconds) (expansion card: EXM003)
- 128 sounds in memory, 64 sounds per program, 16 voice polyphony.
- 2 MIDI inputs, 4 MIDI outputs
- 20 songs, 99 sequences, 99 tracks, 60,000 note capacity
- timing resolution of 96ppq (parts per quarter note)
- syncable via MIDI Time Code (MTCMIDI timecodeMIDI time code , or MIDI time division, embeds the same timing information as standard SMPTE timecode as a series of small 'quarter-frame' MIDI messages. There is no provision for the user bits in the standard MIDI time code messages, and SysEx messages are used to carry this information instead...
), MIDI Clock, FSK24, SMPTE, 1/4 note click. - SMPTE supported frame rates: 24, 25, 29.97 drop, and 30.
- 8 assignable outputs + 1 stereo + 1 effects send/return
- Internal 3½" floppy drive (Double Density 720 kB)
- optional 3rd-party SCSI interface (by Marion Systems)
ASQ-10
In 1988, Akai also released the sequencer section of the MPC60 as a standalone hardware product in its own right, the ASQ10. As with the MPC60, this was renowned for its solid MIDI timing compared to computer software based systems.MPC60II
In 1991, Akai re-launched the machine as the MPC60II. This incarnation nearly identical to the original MPC60, merely featuring a headphone output, and a plastic chassis instead of a metal one.MPC 60 Sound Library
The MPC60 was widely supported by third-party sample sellers (and, of course, the instrument allowed users to do their own sampling). Many of the original MPC60 factory sounds were produced & recorded by drummer Willie Wilcox.Details of Akai's own library are given below:
The original MPC60 came with four factory floppy disks, each with a different kit of sounds:
- Studio set
- Rock set
- Dry set
- Synth set
The Akai MPC60/MPC60II library consisted of the following:
- SL601 Samba set
- SL602 Ambience set
- SL603 New60's set
- SL604 Loft-drum
- SL605 Real-drum
- SL606 Solid-drum
- SL607 Native-drum
- SL608 Live-drum
- SL609 LA-1 set
- SL610 UK-1 set
- SL611 Percuss-1
- SL612 Power-drum
- SL613 Metal-drum
- SL614 UK-2 set
- SL615 UK-3 set
- SL616 UK-4 set
- SL617 UK-5 set
- SL618 UK-6 set
- SL619 UK-7 set
- SL620 UK-8 set
- SL621 Mix-1 Dry
- SL622 Mix-2 Gate
- SL623 Mix-3 Dry
- SL624 Rickyset 1
- SL625 Rickyset 2
- SL626 Rickyset 3
- SL627 Natural & Voxset
- SL628 Dance & Voxset
- SL629 New Funk
- SL630 Brushes
Further MPC60 operating system development by Roger Linn
In 2006, Roger Linn's company Roger Linn Design continues to support the MPC60. Upgrades available include:- Operating system 3.10. This is basically the MPC3000 operating system, back-portedPortingIn computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
onto the MPC60 hardware. - SCSISCSISmall Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
interface to allow connection to SCSI hard drives and tape driveTape driveA tape drive is a data storage device that reads and performs digital recording, writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability.A tape drive provides...
s for increased storage capacity over the original floppy disks.
See also
- Akai MPC Line
- E-mu SP12 Drum Sampler
- E-mu SP-1200E-mu SP-1200E-mu SP-1200 is a classic drum machine and sampler released in August 1987 by E-mu Systems, Inc. as an update of the SP-12, which was originally created for dance music producers...