David Caulfield has launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to crowdfund the production of a book about Akai Professional. Planning to cover the time from their initial launch in 1984 through the following 10 highly successful years, the book will be titled The Rise Of Akai Professional - The S-900, MPC-60 & Beyond.
David says that the book will tell the story of how Akai took the music industry by storm, detailing the development of the groundbreaking products that put sampling and sequencing into the reach of musicians and unleashed a wave of creativity that continues to this day. It will be loaded with fascinating and remarkable interviews with the designers and developers who designed the S-900, MPC-60 and subsequent highly successful Akai Professional products.
Those already lined up for interviews include David Cockerell, head of Akai's software development team and the original designer of the S-900; Toshi Tamaki, head of Research and Development in Japan; Roger Linn, the inspiration and software developer of the MPC-60, along with many others from the design teams in both the UK and Japan. In addition to the interviews, there will also be in-depth details of product specifications and reviews, along with analysis of sampling and sequencing techniques and much more.
The book will be A4 size with a full colour picture section and will be available as a PDF as well as physical soft or hard cover versions. There is also an optional set of four full colour product posters.
For more information, check out David’s Kickstarter campaign via the link below.
