Akai

The MPC3000's dedicated sequencing and drum sampling control surface aims to tempt high-level musicians away from their computers with its luxurious hardware approach. David Mellor puts in a hard day's night and gives it the thumbs up.

The release of the S20 means that £500 now buys you into the prestigious Akai name — and gets you a supremely easy to use sampler which will perform both on stage and in the studio. Chris Carter goes completely loopy...

The latest MIDI and percussion combination from Akai is the first not to feature Roger Linn's signature, although it clearly takes its inspiration from those that do. But Paul Wiffen discovers that, although this unit adds a feature he's been waiting 10 years for, it's missing the high price tag of its predecessors.

Akai's new CD3000XL features the 32-voice polyphony, expansion options, DSP functions and other goodies of the S3000XL, but adds a built-in CD-ROM drive for good measure. Paul Ward takes it for a spin.

Long-time Akai sampler user Paul Ward tries to stop his credit card from leaping out of his pocket as he gets to grips with the tempting additions to Akai's mid-range sampler.

Come on down, Akai's new low-cost sampler! Astonishing value for money at a mere £999, the basic S2000 is expandable to a top-of-the-range spec by means of add-on cards. Paul White spins the (data) wheel of fortune to see whether Akai have played their cards right this time...

Random access recording offers many benefits over tape for the creative recordist. David Mellor samples this 8-track offering from Akai.

The latest in Akai's line of standalone hard disk recorders, which also includes 8- and 16-track models, sticks with the 4-track format of its predecessor, the DR4d, but adds 250 'virtual' tracks to increase the flexibility it can offer. David Mellor checks out this low-cost entry into the world of disk recording.

Though hard disk recording offers possibilities far beyond those achievable with magnetic tape, it often sports a vastly more complex user interface, which can alienate the tape-based faithful. But Akai's new 16-track hard disk recorder seeks to meet the tape heads halfway, David Mellor plays ambassador...

Akai build on their years of expertise in stand-alone digital recorders with a truly portable personal multitracker offering a digital mixer and 12 tracks of audio on a removable-media drive. David Mellor takes it away.