YOUTH CORRESPONDENT
Its presentation is flashy: a small, laptop-size durable blue plastic box with red trimmings and multicolored buttons of many sizes.
Green, red and yellow lights flicker with vivid intensity, like jungle eyes hungrily watching a wounded elk, as the ghostly green LED screen flashes beats, bars and ticks.
This is the Akai Music Production Center 1000, and--much like its forefathers--it is a sex machine.
Akai's legendary drum machines/samplers have been used by famous hip-hop producers since the late '80s. Instrumentalist DJ Shadow, DJs Cut Chemist and Numark of Jurassic 5, the ever-popular Neptunes, the remarkably talentless Dr. Dre (so I'm biased toward gangster rap, sue me) and many, many others are no strangers to the MPC4000 and 2000XL.
But these behemoths are usually found only in multimillion-dollar studios, where they belong.
Akai's newest beatbox, the MPC1000, is a more cost-effective instrument as well as a technologically advanced piece of audio equipment. Available for about a grand at Guitar Center and many online stores (including eBay), the MPC1K is a step in the right direction for musicians with an interest in staying up to date.
I speak from experience. This is a truly beautiful device.
It offers a USB 2.0 connection and an outlet for a standard compact flash card (the kind used in many digital cameras). It comes with 16 megabytes of onboard memory, which can be upgraded to 128.
However, it does have some limitations. Due to its relatively low cost, Akai chose to remove some components that could be found in the company's older machines.
But as the MPC1K is meant to be used in conjunction with computer software (Acid Pro 5.0, Cubase, Sound Forge, Reason, Cakewalk and Logic 5--all of which have simple delay and time stretch), these limitations are trivial.
Its production quality is still top-notch, and maybe even higher than that of older models. The 1K, though not without problems, is more flexible.
MPC gurus are able to spin entire songs by switching between four banks of 16 sounds to create live beats.
The machine can even sample MP3s, creating a kind of digital cratedigging that will enhance a vinyl DJ's versatility.
Like any instrument, the MPC takes practice. However, once enough experience is gained, the pads can be played with intense skill that parallels a live drummer or bassist.
There are dozens of tutorials and forums dedicated to MPC tutelage (mpc-forums.com, to name one), since one's parents would be hard-pressed to find a musician who would be able to give sampler lessons.
Samplers like the 1K have been under fire by classical musicians for years due to the fact that largely untrained aspiring musicians (inner-city youth with an interest in hip-hop, for example) have found an outlet that doesn't cost a fortune yet provides the ability to make music in an unconventional method.
The MPC allows a single musician the opportunity to create an entire song without paying for a guitar, drums, a bass, an effects rack and/or studio time. It creates a real one-man band.
Samplists have been snidely dubbed "button-pushers" and "note thieves" for many years, but this is because the instrument style is relatively new compared with the guitar or keyboard.
Give it time, friends, because in 50 years, samplers will be a staple across the genre board.
As a musician who recently moved away from computer-based software music programs into the world of hardware, I can testify to the skill level needed to play an MPC. Just as with a guitar, an intuitive knowledge and feel for music is needed to make something beautiful.
The only difference between recording music from a live band in a studio and producing music with an MPC1K is the $100 an hour that band members have to shell out to the engineer.
Whether you are a hip-hop producer, an electronica vocalist or a rocker who wants to incorporate the sounds of the future, do your research.
The MPC1K might help you push the right buttons.
ALLEN SCAIFE is a student at George Mason University.