Akai MPC Live III

The Live III is the most powerful and flexible MPC yet...

Akai have reclaimed their position in the sampling workstation game over the last few years, with the portable MPC Live, the classic‑format X, the affordable One and two keyboard models all hits, not to mention a steady stream of feature updates and plug‑ins. The competition has struggled to answer these in terms of horsepower (Maschine+) and functionality (Push 3). Now, the Live III appears to pull comfortably ahead of the pack with significantly upgraded internals and connectivity.

But it’s not all about hardware. The recent version 3 OS, and now the Live III, bring big changes to the way MPCs work. Could this put off long‑time users and make the MPC overly complex, or is it a much needed refresh that propels the platform forward for a new generation?

Live Rundown

There’s so much new stuff to cover here, but let’s recap quickly. The modern MPCs are versatile production stations with an open, DAW‑like track structure hosting drum and one‑shot kits, multisampled instruments, plug‑in instruments, effects, MIDI and CV tracks. They are unique in the category in offering open‑ended linear audio tracks.

You can create or perform with an MPC on its own, but they are also great as hubs for other MIDI, USB, CV and audio devices. You can even connect audio and MIDI interfaces to extend their I/O. Today’s MPCs are capable standalone devices, but they can also work as control interfaces for the MPC app/plug‑in.

The MPC has its own terminology and ways of working that connect back to the original units, with Tracks, Programs (kits/instruments) and Sequences (song sections) and lots of pad and screen modes for doing myriad things. These concepts are still part of the MPC, but there have been many developments in the last year. Now, back to the Live III...

Function Over Form

The new MPC has sprouted a host of additional buttons, and is slightly wider to accommodate a touch strip like the MPC Studio. I’ve seen some body‑shaming around its busy appearance, but would you prefer fewer controls so it looks slicker? More dedicated mode buttons like on the X and One is good news. A 16‑button strip adds (among other things) a step sequencer array to the MPC for the first time. Here I’ve read opinions insisting this should be along the bottom like on a traditional drum machine. Think again: an instrument that’s primarily going to be finger‑drummed has no business having buttons in front of its pads.

The Live has always been chunky. It’s not really backpackable, but you can pick it up, move it about and play with it on your lap. The internal battery makes all the difference, and it’s a great safety net in a live situation. The speaker array is perfectly usable for jamming and there’s now a built‑in mic, so you really could show up in many situations and create tracks and demos with just the Live III. Even better, my top wish for the I and II has been granted: a combi input with mic pres and phantom power, so you can plug ‘proper’ mics in as well as line sources.

The Live III measures 435 x 256 x 67mm and weighs in at 3.9kg.

Otherwise the panel has the same display, indented data wheel, and four touch‑sensitive encoders. The buttons are the clicky rubberised designs that I like. Most buttons have a primary and secondary function, the latter of which can be reached with the Shift button, or more easily with a double‑tap.

Internally, the Live has had a phenomenal power‑up. It’s now built around an eight‑core ARM processor with 8GB RAM, compared to the II’s quad‑core and 2GB. Everything is significantly snappier, like you’re working in controller mode with a computer. The horsepower raises the limit on audio tracks from eight to 16, and plug‑in instrument tracks from eight to an incredible 32. Total polyphony jumps from 64 to 256 stereo voices. The largest 22‑track demo session hovers just over the 20 percent CPU mark.

Internal storage is 128GB compared to the II’s 16GB. You can still install an additional SATA drive in a bay underneath. This seems mostly unnecessary now with so much standard capacity, but I popped my 160GB SSD in mainly as an instant way to bring in my existing samples and expansions.

Corner Kicks

The Live III debuts new trigger pads with distinctive, segmented corner lights. These are dubbed ‘MPCe’, presumably a play on MPE and with the ‘e’ also standing for ‘expressive’. These feel quite different to the previous generation. They have the familiar grippy texture, but are slimmer and more sensitive. The key new feature is that they know where on the pad they are being pushed or struck, an ability that’s been exploited in a number of clever ways in MPC drum programs, but not in any other areas of the workstation so far.

You can trigger different samples from the corners of the pad, so you could treat the 4x4 layout like an 8x8. You can also trigger a different sample from the centre of a pad to the corners. And drum programs support eight samples per pad, which you can layer among the zones as you wish. The zones don’t have to be discrete — you can crossfade samples in various ways across the pads. You could set up a varied response that simulates hitting a drum head in different places — like a snare moving to a rim shot.

You can also treat the pads like X/Y modulation generators, mapping the coordinates to any parameters in the drum channel as two expression inputs in addition to pressure. A multi‑page mod matrix in the program editor lets you configure this in detail. Absolute X/Y positions are just one option, you can also track the distance from the pad centre, or from the point where you hit the pad. Position can scale other mods as well as performing them directly.

The potential of the new...