Since its launch in 1988, AKAI Professional’s MPC has earned its place as a cultural catalyst—and one that hasn’t rested on its laurels. Over time, the MPC has grown from a studio cornerstone to an all-in-one production environment, continually evolving to meet the demands of changing workflows and creative styles.
The MPC Live series marked one of the boldest shifts in that evolution: freeing producers from the confines of the desktop, while retaining the deep sequencing power of the flagship MPC models. With the MPC Live III, AKAI triples down on that vision, prioritizing portability, streamlining workflows and weaving modern production necessities—such as expanded connectivity and enhanced processing power—into a familiar yet forward-thinking design.
To dig deeper into what makes the Live III special, we spoke with Andy Mac, AKAI Professional’s creative A&R director. He generously shared insights into the design process, the artists it’s built for and how this latest MPC fits into the future of music making.
What was guiding philosophy behind your approach to the MPC Live III?
Andy Mac: I think the approach really was the next innovation with MPC, because to be honest with you, the Live, the Live II and the X all became very industry standard.
So, it was a case of, “Where do you take the next model? What's the future looking like? What type of features do people want?” We obviously knew users wanted more RAM and more processing speed. It really evolved from just being a sampler. It's become a drum machine sampler instrument, and people just want to do more.
Having more processing power—eight gigs of RAM—you could expand the capabilities of audio tracks. People also wanted to run more plug-ins. They had the luxury of using a computer with so much horsepower, and as people wanted to move away from the computer and have an interactive device, it made a lot of sense to increase all of those things.
And then, obviously, it led us onto the expressive MPCe pads, pushing the boundaries of what pads can do, because it hadn't changed for so long. Introducing the new pads gave us the ability to ring in new ways that people can dynamically perform with the MPC as well, which is really exciting for us.
To that end, at first glance, there's a lot more going on with the Live III. Can you walk us through some of the new controls?
The first thing you see are the expressive pads. The 16 pads are now split up into four quadrants per pad, which allow you to trigger four samples. And you can also slide your finger across in an XY motion. You can cross to the left, go up, add filters, cut-off, LFOs—all kinds of really exciting sound design capabilities. And then you’ve got Z for pressure.
And then we added the 16-function step sequencer, which really does enhance the workflow massively. Even though there already were a lot of electronic producers using it, you having a step sequencer on a screen is one thing, but having that more TR-8 style really talks to that type of user. So that’s a really exciting feature.
And those buttons flip into loads of different modes as well, such as pad and track mutes—you can also do live effects with them. You can assign multiple effects to the step sequencer buttons. We also added the touch strip, which adds a whole new level of performance and dynamics. And it allows you to maneuver around the product very quickly—everything can be assigned to the touch strip.
Like the speaker that we introduced on Live 2—which became such a huge part of the success of the product—the addition of the built-in microphone makes the Live III fully standalone and portable. It enables people to quickly snap up vocals and samples straight to a pad or to an audio track. We also added XLR inputs for those who want to use different microphones without having to buy an external preamp.
Pictured: Beatmaking on the AKAI Professional MPC Live III
Speaking of speed, let's take a look under the hood. What’s new in there?
You’ve now got an eight-core processor and eight gigabytes of RAM, which allows for a lot more things, such as running up to 32 plug-ins. You can run way more plug-in instances now, plus we've added new plug-in effects like Reverb Pro and visual EQ.
As an example, on a Live II, you can open up one instance of Drum Synth, the multi-instance version. On a Live III, you can open 16. So, from an efficiency perspective, you can run so many more plug-ins. And with the processor, you can run Pro Stems—desktop-quality stems on a physical standalone unit—which is really awesome, especially for such a sample-based audience. They can dig through their vinyls. They don't have to take things to a desktop app or to the MPC software to do any of that stuff. They can now keep it all self-contained standalone.
Very handy. Let’s have a look at DAW integration—for those who choose to use that workflow.
On the DAW side of things, we've added USB-C that allows you to route 24 channels of audio directly out of the MPC via one USB-C cable straight into Logic or Ableton, which I've actually been doing quite a lot. Make your beat, route everything, do one pass and you've got a complete audio capture. You've also got 32 channels of bidirectional MIDI through the USB-C. So technically, you could set up your Mac as a sound module. You could have 32 instances of Spectrasonics Omnisphere or what have you, and then you can take advantage of the MPC sequencer and sequence all of that stuff standalone, but you're triggering all of the sounds via your laptop.
Also, Live III allows you to connect iOS devices directly, so you can run iOS apps. Then, the audio will route straight into the unit via USB-C, and you can sample directly from a smartphone via USB-C as well. At the end of the day, it eliminates cables. People want to get everything down to as little cable management as they can.
Are there any fun features you're particularly excited about?
We’ve kept getting asked by the audience to add FORCE (firmware) Clip Launching, so we've added that—super powerful. Now, you can manage all of the looping capabilities, set up your song arrangements and you can do live sets with it—everything. You could take it out and do a DJ set if you really wanted to. More and more people—such as Fred Again on his Live II—want to go out and run their live tracks. We're really excited to see what he does with the Live III. The capabilities are crazy.
There's also Super Time Stretching—a very powerful time stretching algorithm. It's something we're excited about, because it adds a whole new level of quality to time stretching.
The other thing I'm really excited about is how people are going to use the MPCe pads. We were talking about sounds earlier, and the MPC comes with 15 expansion packs, which are all exclusive to the unit—all made by different artists. We’ve got LoFi, Marco Polo, F9—there's a whole massive list of different types of packs—percussion tools, acoustic tools.
But there's one that's called the MPCe expansion, and there's a whole bunch of templates in there. People can create their own custom kits by simply dropping in layers. But there are a few that I've been working on where you can run eight samples on an X-axis, which is horizontally. As you go through the pad, you're triggering different types of kick drums. If you want to create inflections or different artifacts on your drums, you can literally create a kit that changes randomly every time you hit the pad. And it can add these real nice nuances to the sound, which just could not be done before. So you're getting closer to imitating an acoustic drum, but you're also creating new ways to make your beats even more dynamic and exciting.
Pictured: AKAI Professional MPC Live III MPCe Beat Pads
MPC is obviously synonymous with hip-hop and electronic producers, but you also mentioned DJs. Who would you say the Live III is designed for?
Live III is made for everybody. It's made for the traditional MPC customer by having the best feel we've ever created on pads, the processing power and the high-quality stems.
Beyond that, it's for the electronic producer who wants to create DAW-less jammers by introducing the step sequencer. There's also the CV capability and a very unique set of advanced tools that people can take advantage of in the modular world. For electronic music, it's a massive win for that audience—especially being standalone. There's no groovebox out there that's quite like this.
You've also got your singer-songwriters and producers who can take advantage of Clip Launching by trying different ideas and different takes. Then, you move into your traditional beatmakers, who are maybe very FL Studio based, where the step sequencer comes into it. They're very into creating patterns instead of using pads. So you've got that type of user.
And then on top of that, you've got XLR mic pres and portability. So, for people who are into sound design, soundscape—who want to take something out with them to capture sonics—they can.
Lastly, is someone who wants to mix between live production and DJing, like compiling a live set. They have the ability to use clips—and a lot of interactive features—where they can do something very compelling live.
It's really built for so many different types of users, which is what we're pretty excited about. The product has expanded massively. And we've really attracted a lot more artists around the world, outside of the traditional “MPC genres” like hip-hop.
The MPC has been massively influential on the course of music over the past few decades. What do you think the MPC Live III says about the future of music?
I think the Live III definitely answers a lot of requests, because music makers are using more plug-ins, more sounds, more features. They want things to be fast, right? People work on a lot of projects at the same time, as well. They also want portability. They want to move from studio to studio. So, with all of that said, we've created an MPC that answers all of those questions that people had—all of those requests without any boundaries.
It has speed. It has performance. It has portability. It has a speaker, microphone, plug-ins, inputs, outputs and other connectivity. If you want to go into a studio and USB-C straight into Pro Tools, it gives you the ability to do that. It's exciting that we've really looked at the future of the product, and we keep innovating where the MPC will be in five years’ time. And we can see the type of users that are taking advantage of the workflow now.
And, for me, it's all about being interactive with the product, touching the product, feeling the product, creating something by interfacing with features—which is why we've added a lot more functionality. There are more dedicated buttons. People wanted ways to get to certain features faster. Some of the feedback we got from the MPC One and the One+ was that people love the fact we’ve added more buttons so they can get to these features faster. Adding that functionality is a massive win.
And doubling up the step sequencer to offer even more functionality pushes the boundaries more. As an example, if you're using something like Pad Mute or Track Mute, you lose the ability to use the pads. Now, having the ability to utilize those features using the step buttons, you still regain control of using the pads at the same time. If someone wants to use an MPC the old-school way, they can. If someone wants to use it for modern beats, they can. Someone wants to take it into the electronic world—modular, DAW-less jamming—they can. It has something for everyone.
On that note, is there anything else you want Guitar Center customers to know about the Live III?
I would say we have moved the MPC into the modern age, and we will continue to bring out compelling features and to keep growing the audience worldwide. We listen to what's going on in the music scene. We're always looking at the next generation and what features are super important for users. And we're always investing in those types of technologies.
Bringing stems into the world of standalone for the first time, we acknowledge how these types of features were gaining traction, and people wanted these in an MPC. With the Live III, we don't have the restrictions of power anymore. Having this more powerful processor and more RAM allows us to create more powerful plug-ins and expand MPCe into future development with instruments. There are so many things that we can do with this product.
The other thing I'd say is for legacy users on MPC, we are bringing out a pro feature pack that opens up some of the new features applicable to Live III. They'll be able to upgrade to 3.6, which is going to be our latest OS, and they'll be able to purchase the upgrade feature pack that will unlock Clip Launching, reverb, visual EQ and some of the other features on legacy units as well. They're not left out.