Akai Professional has announced updates to its range of standalone MPCs, giving the entry-level MPC One and keyboard-equipped MPC Key 37 Gen 2 upgrades that bring them in line with the MPC XL and MPC Live III.

As with those latter models, the big news is a significant step up in processing power and storage capacity. Both new machines feature 8-core processors, which Akai claims offers four times the power of the previous generation.

Both MPCs also now pack 4GB of RAM, up from the 2GB of their predecessors, along with 64GB of storage. The previous MPC Key 37 had 32GB of storage, while the MPC One+ had just 16GB.

The improved specs mean that both models can make better use of the MPC3 OS in standalone mode, with the capacity for up-to 32 simultaneous plugin instances and 16 stereo audio tracks.

The extra power can also be put to use for pro-grade stem separation and real-time time-stretching, although access to these features requires the optional Pro Pack expansion, which also adds the Clip Matrix seen on other new MPCs.

While there are big changes under the hood, the hardware units themselves are fairly similar to their predecessors. Whereas both the MPC XL and Live III saw the introduction of new interface layouts with additional hands-on control, both the hardware UI and I/O is largely unchanged here.

The most significant addition on this front is the introduction of multi-channel audio streaming via USB-C, which lets users stream multiple tracks of audio and MIDI to/from a DAW, as well as sample directly via USB-C. This is a feature I really liked on the Live III and XL, so it’s nice to see it included here.

The most notable omission of these Gen 2 designs is the multi-expression MPCe pads found on the XL and Live III. Instead, both of these new models stick with the velocity and pressure-sensitive pad designs of their last gen predecessors.

The MPC Key also keeps the existing 37 synth-action keys with aftertouch, pitch bend and mod wheel.

This may well come as a disappointment for users of the current models who have been anticipating an upgrade, although the absence does create a slightly more logical gap in capabilities between the MPC Live III and its cheaper MPC One counterpart.

"Whether you live on the pads or write everything on keys, the MPC One G2 and MPC Key 37 G2 give producers and beat makers the most powerful standalone MPC we have ever built at these prices," said Andy Mac, Director of Artist Relations at Akai Professional.

"From bedroom beat makers to established producer communities around the world, creators now have four times the power, MPC3 OS, and a powerful collection of instruments and samples ready to get you started. This is generation 2 of MPC standalone production."

Next gen

Akai’s MPC range has had numerous ups and downs over the past four decades, from the early days of Roger Linn’s designs through the company’s initial bankruptcy, sale to InMusic and a shortlived reinvention as a range of MIDI controllers.

Recent iterations of the MPC have been some of the strongest we’ve seen in years though, hitting on a winning formula that balances the self-contained creativity of ‘90s MPCs with versatile, DAW-rivalling production capabilities.

I really liked both the MPC Live III and XL when I reviewed those machines. The increased CPU power and USB-C streaming makes them far more viable standalone production machines for those that want DAW-like tools without being bound to a laptop. Given Native Instruments’ much-discussed turbulence and scant Maschine updates, these current MPCs are unrivalled at what they do.

The MPC One G2 and MPC Key 37 G2 are out now priced at $799/£729/€849 and $999/£849/€999 respectively. Both sport new colours inspired by classic MPC designs.

Check out full specs and included plugins below, or head to the official Akai site for more info.

Key features

Shared Platform Features (Both Models)

• G2 8-core processor with 4x the processing power of the previous generation
• 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage
• Up to 32 simultaneous plugin instances and 16 stereo audio tracks in standalone
• MPC3 OS with modern, track-based workflow and full Linear Arranger
• 7" full-colour multitouch LED display
• USB-C with 24×24 audio streaming, expanded MIDI, host and device support over a single cable
• Ableton Live Control Mode and Ableton project import/export
• Direct sampling from phones, tablets, and external devices via USB-C
• Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz, 802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5
• Over 20 GB of included content; NI Analog Dreams MPC Edition free at launch
• An optional Pro Pack expands both systems with advanced production tools including professional-grade stem separation, real-time time-stretching, and Clip Matrix.

MPC One G2 – Additional Features

• 16 velocity- and pressure-sensitive RGB pads across 8 banks
• 4 touch-sensitive Q-Link knobs with 4 accessible columns
• 5-pin MIDI in/out and 4 TRS CV/Gate jacks (8 outputs total) for hardware and modular integration
• SD card slot and USB-A port for expanded storage and accessories
• 11 included plugins and 9 expansion packs

MPC Key 37 G2 – Additional Features

• 37 synth-action keys with aftertouch, pitch bend, and modulation wheel
• 16 velocity- and pressure-sensitive RGB-backlit pads with 8 accessible pad banks
• 2 × 1/4" TRS inputs and 2 × 1/4" TRS outputs (stereo)
• 8 CV/gate outputs (4 × 1/8" TRS jacks), 5-pin MIDI in/out
• 13 included plugins and 6 expansion packs

MPC One G2 – Included Plugins (11)

• NI Analog Dreams MPC Edition (free, included at launch)
• Bassline
• Electric
• Fabric Select
• Hype
• Mellotron
• Odyssey
• Organ
• Solina
• Tubesynth
• Drumsynth

MPC One G2 – Included Expansions (9)

• Acoustic Tools
• Classic Drum Machines
• Apollo Retro Kits
• Percussion Tools
• ATL Song Starters
• Marco Polo Lo-Fi Boom
• Welcome to ATL Kits
• Welcome to ATL Melodics
• Producer Essentials

MPC Key 37 G2 – Included Plugins (13)

• NI Analog Dreams MPC Edition (free, included at launch)
• Bassline
• Electric
• Fabric Select
• Hype
• Mellotron
• Odyssey
• Solina
• Tubesynth
• Drumsynth
• OPX-4
• Jura
• Sub Factory

MPC Key 37 G2 – Included Expansions (6)

• Acoustic Tools
• Classic Drum Machines
• Apollo Retro Kits
• Marco Polo Lo-Fi Boom
• Gemini Future Classic Synths
• Orion Future Classic Workstations

SUPERBOOTH 2026: 1010music has announced a successor to its Blackbox sampler, which promises to be both more creative and more portable than the 2019 original.

Like its predecessor, the Blackbox 2 is a portable, touchscreen-equipped instrument that houses a self-contained sampling workstation within a compact, rugged device. However, for version 2 1010 has significantly reworked the interface, adding a larger touchscreen and new layout that promises an improved workflow.

According to its creators, “Blackbox 2 is heir to its own portable sampler throne with more creative features for the studio and stage. An even more elegant workflow, great sound, industry standard IO and portable size.”

The central feature of this new look Blackbox is its four-inch hi-res colour touchscreen, which is used as the primary interface for sequencing and sample editing. A bank of four multi-use rotaries sit directly above the screen while a bank of transport and navigation buttons are placed below.

Blackbox 2 is a four-track workstation that can load up-to four one-shot, loop, slicer or multisample instruments, with the one-shot and loop instruments capable of supporting 16 samples per-patch. Blackbox 2 expands the song-creation features of the original, introducing new launch, scene, song, mixing and effect screens for editing various elements of the composition.

Unlike its predecessor, which required an external power source, Blackbox 2 contains its own rechargeable battery, allowing for 3hrs of fully portable use. It also adds USB-C host and device ports capable of transmitting multichannel USB audio and MIDI.

Other elements of the Blackbox workflow are unchanged from version one. As before, the instrument has a sequencer with step, grid and piano-roll modes, which is capable of probability sequencing. There are DJ-style effects with XY pad control for filter, echo,, gating, flanger, bitcrusher and repeater effects.

Sample editing tools include multiple filters, envelopes and LFOs, distortion and a flexible mod matrix. It also features a four-band EQ with cut, shelf and parametric modes for each band.

The hardware features a stereo main audio in and three stereo outputs, plus headphones output. It’s equipped with an automatic multisampling function allowing users to easily turn external gear into sampled instruments.

Blackbox 2 also has a microSD card slot, allowing users to expand the memory for projects and samples. Longer WAVs and detailed multisampled instruments can be streamed directly from the microSD.

Between this and the likes of Akai Sample, Teenage Engineering’s KO II and Casio’s forthcoming sampler, we’re living in something of a golden age of portable samplers. If, as 1010 states, “Blackbox 2 is heir to its own portable sampler throne”, then it’s suddenly facing Westeros-levels of rivalry.

Blackbox 2 is scheduled to arrive in July, priced at $649. Head to the 1010music site for more information.

SUPERBOOTH 2026: With its old-school sampling workflow, Kiviak Instruments’ WoFi pushed a lot of nostalgic buttons, but the price was a potential sticking point.

The goods is that this has now been eased with the announcement of the WoFi LE, which offers similar functionality but does away with the piano-style keyboard and replaces it with a padded configuration.

In doing so, Kiviak has managed to bring the cost down to less than half that of the standard WoFi’s original price tag: just $349/€299 (although said original WoFi has just had its price cut to €499, making the difference slightly less stark).

There are some other differences – no built-in speaker or battery, for example – but Kiviak reckons that the WoFi’s best features remain intact. You can record directly into the hardware and then chop and manipulate your samples on the fly, and the rubber keys double as a sequencer. A MicroSD card slot means that storage should be a non-issue, and the workflow is said to cater for live performance.

The downside is that the WoFi LE’s release date is still some way off. Don’t expect it to land until the end of 2026 at the earliest, and possibly at some point in 2027. “No compromises. No shortcuts. Just pure, hands-on sampling and sound design,” says Kiviak.

The better news is that we’ll be able to get a flavour of what the device can do at Superbooth, where it’s being launched this week as a prototype.

If you’re interested, you can sign up for development progress updates on the Kiviak Instruments website.

What is it?

Elektron's music machines are not always obvious devices, marrying synths, drum machines, grooveboxes and sampling together in pretty much whichever way you wish, focusing on everything from dynamic processing (Analogue Heat + FX) to grooves (Model:Cycles), analogue drums (Analog Rytm MkII) to analogue synths (Analog Four MkII).

Tonverk is the company's latest and most-anticipated music box, a polyphonic sampler, sequencer, granular machine, audio interface and effects processor all-in-one. You might be thinking 'sampling groovebox' and you wouldn't be too far off, but there's a not-so-hidden depth to this machine that takes it up a few levels as a sound design tool, with a character that can evolve, twist and shout more than most.

It's dirty, fun, and importantly to us, straightforward to grasp. We've not always enjoyed – sometimes endured – the Elektron user experience, having owned and used many a device over the last three decades. But this time around, Tonverk's larger form factor, extra keyboard and effects give it an edge over other Elektron devices, so while we came for some dirty beats, we went away with a lot more, including a new-found respect for this particular 'sound factory'.

Performance

There's a lot to get across with Tonverk and inevitably we're not going to be able to cover everything here. The modulation alone is worth its own chapter, as is an extraordinary set of sequencing and dynamic features, but focusing on Tonverk's tracks, new effects and architecture – basically how to make a tune – will give you a flavour of what it is capable of.

Tonverk has a total of 16 tracks. The first eight are audio, each with eight voices of polyphony. Tracks 9 to 12 are bus tracks, with tracks 13 to 15 acting as effect sends and track 16 the overall mix. All tracks can also be used as standard MIDI tracks for use with external gear.

Typically Tonverk works by layering up the audio tracks with either preset samples (from a supplied 64GB SD card) or your own. Select a track by holding the Track button – top-left above the very welcome mini keyboard – and one of the first eight track buttons along the bottom. Then you select a 'Source Machine' from the Setup options for the chosen audio track. These determine how the audio is played back and, at the time of writing – they can and have been expanded with system updates – include five options.

Single Player is an eight-voice polyphonic single sample player where the audio is mapped across the keyboard. Multiplayer mode acts like a multisample or soundfont player, able to load in more detailed, velocity-layered sample setups. Subtracks are a huge addition as they are like kits of sounds, up to eight together per track, split across the keyboard.

Think of Subtracks as tracks within tracks, with Tonverk able to play up to 64 sounds simultaneously across its eight tracks, with each block of eight able to access a very comprehensive effects section. However you think of them, they are a big Tonverk highlight, especially given that each Subtrack has its own two filters, an envelope and modulation.

Finally, in addition to the aforementioned MIDI tracks, the last of the Source Machines is the all-new Grainer, Elektron's first granular engine, so an important update that gives Tonverk a lot of its sonic bite, smashing, as it does, a sample into manipulatable grains.

Effect madness

Tonverk's other effects are, quite simply, stunning. You get two insert effects per audio track plus three send effects, with around a dozen types to choose from. These include the usual Elektron compressor, reverb, delay and chorus, plus all-new mostly filter and lo-fi style effects like Degrader, which should be heard to be believed. Its eight assigned parameters can truly smash a sound to pieces which, along with others like Chrono Pitch, prove that Tonverk, while clean if you want it to be, excels at proper filth with some outstanding, dirty options.

You can easily layer two of these effects per audio track, with the flexibility to add up to three more via send effects, found by dialling up each of tracks 13 to 15, and with the level of each adjusted via the main FX page. Tracks 9 to 12, meanwhile, offer four bus tracks for setting up even more flexible routing – like you think you must be needing it at this point – as each also has two more insert effect slots.

All of the main parameters within Tonverk's effects have been mapped to the eight function dials on the top-right of Tonverk, which change function according to what mode you are in, so it's dead simple to tweak each one, and you can quickly set up very complex layered insert and send effects right across your song or parts of it.

Layering more icing onto an already sweet cake, you can also add an Effects Machine to the overall mix of a pattern by selecting track 16 and hitting Func>FX to select – it's basically an effect to add to the entire track. While we're on Track 16, the Mix track, here you can also set your mixer up, adjusting settings across the audio tracks, and also those for Tonverk's two audio inputs.

You can get an overview of Tonverk's potentially complex routing setup by hitting the Shift and Routing/Mute button which offers a simpler view of your setup and allows you to set up the routing for everything. Here, for example, you can set the audio destinations for multiple tracks to the main Mix, four busses or direct out, and you can even send the audio from one of the three send effects to an external effects box, and route the effected signal back into Tonverk's input, which obviously opens the box up to processing with a mountain of external modular or other studio gear.

Other features worth noting are that each track has a sequencer, and effects can be (quite) easily automated to create incredibly moving and dynamic sequences; set sequencer steps, for example, to route to certain effects and levels. You can also control effects in real time using hands-on performance options like freeze and stutter via the function knobs to liven up any live performance.

Sequencing is often where we used to fall down with some Elektrons – here you get Projects with up to 16 songs, each with up to 128 patterns for the 16 tracks. You might struggle with some of the terminology, with sequencing rows and suchlike, but seasoned Elektron users will be at home, and it's probably (OK, likely) more logical than our brain realises. Certainly the recording options – step and real-time plus Grid recording to add trigs – fulfil those composition requirements, and the real-time editing options are endless.

Add in that modulation we mentioned, including a filter, two LFOs per track, effects bus and mix plus a modulation envelope per voice, and you have an almost overwhelming number of options – Tonverk really is just on the right side of 'doing too much'. Yes, some processes can seem convoluted on occasion – mostly because there are just so many options – but it is by no means as complex as it could be for such a flexible beast.

We should also touch on the sampling – this is a sampler at heart, after all – and here you can load in samples from an extensive and high-quality Elektron library (from the SD card). There are 80 multisampled synths here, for example, plus kits, basses, single samples and projects.

Sampling yourself is easy. We touched on how you can route to external hardware earlier, but standard sampling includes an Auto Sampler that makes creating multisamples easy. Select audio via USB or physical inputs, set a number of velocity layers and notes, record and Tonverk maps and layers for you. Finally, an on-board arpeggiator and chord mode add even more creative possibilities should you tire of the rest of the machine's extensive features (you won't).

Verdict

Tonverk has certainly opened our eyes up to 'the Elektron way'. While it follows a similar Elektron path to other Elektron devices, it gels better as a product to us, possibly because its larger format makes everything more approachable. The point of the machine also seems more obvious and a happy compromise between what we expect a device to do while keeping some of Elektron's rather exclusive clubby feel – basically, we've been invited to the VIP area of a bar and are actually enjoying it.

Tonverk, then, is a bit of a triumph to our eyes and ears. We're not surprised that it is so deep – Elektron will always prioritise flexibility and sonic mayhem, while rewarding your time spent diving in – but the fact that we actually get the message and can use it is the real joy.

With an emphasis on the dirtier side of music production – the Grainer machine alone here will suffice – and with a range of effects and routing flexibility that can back this up in any situation, Tonverk has surpassed our expectations in many ways. We started out wanting a box to add some filthy beats to some way-too-nice tracks we've been working on, but ended up pretty much getting this particular sound factory to supply most of the actual tracks.

Tonverk isn't cheap but a) it does cost less than two of our alternatives and b) it's not 2024 anymore. Yes, it's not quite as mobile as it could be, and there are maybe one or two extra button pushes over what we'd like, but if you want in-your-face electronic music productions, Tonverk has the flexibility to be whatever you want it to be, and is easily one of the most inspirational and accessible Elektrons we've used.

Hands-on demos

Elektron

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

Akai’s new MPC Sample is a self-contained, battery powered sampler that distills the MPC workflow down to its fundamentals.

Designed equally as an accessible entry point into the MPC range and a quick, on-the-go source of inspiration for more advanced producers, it lets users sample, sequence, slice loops and apply effects using a simple interface, focussed around a classic MPC-style grid of 16 pads.

MPC Sample is 32-voice polyphonic and capable of stereo sampling. It has 2GB of RAM with 8GB of internal storage, which can be expanded using a micro SD card. Its pads are velocity sensitive with polyphonic aftertouch, and lets users sample and sequence sounds across eight banks of 16 sounds.

The hardware is fully standalone, thanks to its rechargeable lithium-ion battery, capable of lasting for around 5 hours of operation. It also features a 3-watt built-in speaker and onboard mic.

Despite its diminutive size, there’s a decent amount of connectivity. As well as sampling using the mic, users can also capture sounds via a stereo pair of TRS inputs on the rear, as audio over USB-C, or load sounds from the micro SD card slot.

These inputs are joined by another TRS stereo pair of outputs, a rear panel headphone port, analogue sync output and MIDI in/out. MIDI can also be sent or received via the USB-C connection at the same time as audio.

The sequencer can capture patterns of up to 128 bars, complete with automation, which can be arranged using the device’s song mode. Its effect capabilities include momentary Pad FX, which are triggered by the pads and respond to velocity and aftertouch, as well as a rhythmic effect engine called Flex Beat and a global Knob FX slot. It also has a master Color Compressor.

Performance

Over the past few decades, Akai’s MPCs have become increasingly capable and complex devices. I’ve reviewed several of the company’s recent models – including the recent flagship MPC XL – and there’s a lot I really like about them.

I do, however, have a certain amount of sympathy with those who miss the immediacy of the Roger Linn designed MPCs of the late-'80 and early-’90s.

The MPC Sample is the closest thing Akai has released to a vintage MPC in decades, in that it places the focus squarely on sampling and sequencing, without all the DAW-like bells and whistles of the MPC Live, One or XL.

Akai isn’t shy about making this comparison. With its light grey colour scheme, angled profile, parameter fader and padded wrist rest, the MPC Sample owes an obvious visual debt to 1988’s MPC 60. Unfortunately, its compact size and obviously plastic chassis result in it looking a little bit like a kids’ toy take on that iconic sampler.

Thankfully, that impression is purely superficial. For its size, the MPC Sample is surprisingly capable and really nails the on-the-fly creativity that users look for from those classic MPCs.

Although the MPC 60 is an obvious visual reference point, the design of the Sample equally feels like Akai’s response to several contemporary competitors, including Teenage Engineering’s EP-133 KO II, Roland’s SP-404 samplers and Ableton’s sketchpad device Move.

Free Sample

The MPC Sample's two biggest assets are its pads and the ease of its sampling workflow.

The pad grid is an integral part of the MPC design. When people laud the classic ‘MPC swing’ of the original devices, while the quantisation settings and timing instability played a significant role, the inherent expressiveness of triggering sounds on responsive pads adds a lot to the humanised feel of beats produced on an MPC.

The Sample’s pads lack the advanced MPCe capabilities of the current top-end MPCs, but they are velocity and aftertouch sensitive and feel great in-use. For a device of this size and price point they’re brilliantly responsive and make triggering beats an absolute joy.

Sampling, meanwhile, is fast and intuitive, and benefits from the broad selection of input options, which allow users to quickly sample from vinyl, hardware synths, digital sources via USB, or found sounds and quick vocals via the built-in mic.

While sample editing isn’t as deep as you’ll find on some other samplers, there’s a decent amount of flexibility. There are standard editing tools including start and end position markers, control over sample level and pitch, pan position and a simple attack/decay envelope.

Each sample can also be processed with a multimode resonant filter with its own A/D envelope. MPC Sample also has two warp modes, Pitch and Time Stretch, which are great for recreating the sound and workflow of a vintage sampler.

To the top right of the interface is a Pad Play menu, where users can control things including pad mutes, looping and reversing of samples and sample slicing.

This latter element is another highlight of the MPC Sample’s workflow. By pressing the Chop button, users can quickly slice a loop, which is automatically laid out across the 16 pads. Loops can be divided by transients, into equal segments or sliced manually.

This is a fast and easy workflow, which makes slicing and resequencing a drum breaks a breeze. It’s a shame, however, that there aren’t a few extra options for deeper editing of each slice.

The MPC Sample lets users play a chopped sample using the 16 pads, although the loop remains within the original sample slot, meaning that each chopped segment shares the same pitch and filter settings. It would be nice to have an option to assign individual slices to new sample slots, for deeper editing, warping and filtering without the need for fiddly automation workarounds.

On the automation front, many sample parameters can have automation recorded into sequences, including tuning, filter setting and envelope parameters, but not sample start and end times or – disappointingly – loop length. It’s also a slight shame there’s no LFOs or additional envelopes for assigning modulation beyond the pre-routed amp and filter setups.

One neat feature included on the sequencer front is the MPC Sample’s Recall functions. These work a little like the Capture features on Ableton Move. Essentially, the device has a constant recording buffer of 25 seconds. If you play something you like using the pads but weren’t recording at the time, it’s possible to recall what you just played, either as an audio loop using Sample Recall, or as a MIDI sequence using Seq Recall.

External MIDI connectivity is – although hardly unusual – another nice inclusion. The easy sequencing workflow lends the MPC Sample to quickly sketching out rhythms and sequences for external synths or drum machines, and the sampling workflow makes it very easy to then sample these into the machine itself.

Effects Flex

I have slightly mixed feelings about the way effects work on the MPC Sample. On one level, there’s no shortage of processing tools, including the creative Pad FX and Flex Beat options, Knob FX plugins and master compressor. However, the more you dig into these, the more you find there are some annoying limitations that make the whole effects workflow feel a little surface-level.

Take the Pad FX, these are very obviously influenced by the punch-in effects found on Teenage Engineering’s KO II. They work in a similar way, whereby the user holds down one of the 16 pads to apply an effect to the master output. Effect types include filter sweeps, beat repeats, modulation effects, reverses, delays and more. These are velocity sensitive, which alters the depth and character of the effect.

These are great in a performance setting, letting users apply multiple pad effects simultaneously on the fly to warp and manipulate a pattern in real time. Unfortunately though, there’s no way to record these effects into your patterns. It’s possible to latch an effect on, but this just creates a static effect missing out on all the fun of punching in effects or altering the depth with velocity.

Disappointingly, although the MPC Sample has resampling capabilities, the workflow doesn’t seem to offer any way to resample the output while also manipulating the Pad FX. It’s possible to latch an effect on and resample the output, but the device won’t allow users to ‘play’ the Pad FX and resample at the same time.

The excellent Flex Beat FX tools perform better on this front. These are a variety of sequenced rhythmic effects that can be applied across the full beat, offering things like scratches, reverses, glitchy beat repeats and timing modulations. They sound fantastic, and while you still can’t perform with them at the same time as resampling, you can latch and record a Flex Beat effect, which is a powerful and fun tool for mangling and resampling loops.

Knob FX, meanwhile, provides a more conventional effect plugin setup, offering tools such as reverb, delay, distortion and some nice vinyl and tape emulations. This is just a single effect module shared across all sample pads, although it’s possible to select which pads are routed to the effect. It is a slight disappointment that it's not possible to modulate parameters of these effect though.

Verdict

Some of these criticisms are perhaps a bit unfair, seeing as many are the sort of advanced features we’d expect from more expensive machines. Given that the MPC Sample lands below $400, it’s certainly a capable and well-equipped machine for the price.

What’s more, there’s a strong argument to be made that the instrument’s biggest selling point is its quick workflow and accessibility, and adding further depth in terms of automation, modulation and effects might come at the expense of its immediacy.

That said, one thing I do miss, having used Ableton Move fairly extensively recently, is the simplicity that device offers when it comes to transferring projects, sounds and stems to and from a DAW. Akai has made it possible to transfer Sample projects to a computer using Micro SD card and USB-C, and Sample projects can be opened using its bigger sibling MPCs, which is a nice touch.

Wi-fi connectivity – as exists on the similarly priced Move – could have made the MPC Sample an indispensable sketch pad though. It’s also a shame it can only output the stereo master channel via USB-C, and not individual stems.

Again, this might be asking a lot of a fun and simple instrument. But there’s a lot I really like about MPC Sample. I can really imagine this becoming a go-to tool for creating quick sample sketches and chopping up loops – it’s a shame the process of getting those ideas into a DAW isn’t a tiny bit quicker.

These modern considerations aside, the MPC Sample is the most intuitive and instantaneous version of an MPC Akai has released in a long time. If you've been craving a device that will let you chop, flip and jam with samples, without getting bogged down in menus and miscellanea, this could be the MPC you've been waiting for.

Hands-on demos

Akai

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

Last year’s MPC Live III is probably the most appealing MPC model Akai has released this side of the Millenium. By increasing the under-the-hood power and hands-on control, the Live III feels like true a return to the self-contained, hands-on production ethos that made the original MPCs so beloved, albeit now equipped with the DAW-level capabilities modern users have come to expect.

Although the MPC XL is primarily an update to 2017’s MPC X, it’s also a continuation of that design ethos introduced with the Live III. Like that latter model, the MPC XL vastly expands on the processing power of its direct predecessors.

The original MPC X had 2GB of RAM under-the-hood, later doubled to 4GB for 2023’s MPC X SE. The MPC XL has the same 8-core processor as the Live III, but with 16GB RAM – double that of Live III – making it comfortably the most powerful MPC to-date.

It also massively expands on the storage of its predecessor. Where the original MPC X had a now somewhat stingy-feeling 16GB, the MPC XL has a 256GB SSD, still expandable via SATA expansion bay.

There are other features ported over from the Live III too. The MPC XL gains the same MPCe pads, which put a finger drumming-focused spin on MPE-style expression, allowing users to do things such as modulate sounds by moving their fingers around the pad or trigger different samples, expressions or repeats by playing different areas across the pads’ four quadrants.

The MPC XL also features both the touchstrip and step sequencer of the Live III. The former is used for a diverse range of performance functions, from pitch bends and volume changes to a suite of fun hands-on effects. The step sequencer, on the other hand, introduces a classic drum machine workflow alongside the MPC’s pad grid.

Performance

The core updates that impressed us with the MPC Live III are equally impressive here. Those expressive MPCe pads, combined with the new touchstrip, add layers of additional potential when considering how to perform and create with the MPC.

That said, this isn’t the same expressive experience users have come to expect from MPE gear such as Roli’s Seaboards or Ableton Push 3. Whereas those devices are tailored to melodic playing with per-note pitchbends and expression, Akai’s MPCe pads are better suited to applying modulation and variation within rhythmic playing. On the whole, traditional melodic ‘playing’ of synths and sampled instruments remains the weakest side of the hardware workflow.

The physical step sequencer is a fantastic addition to the MPC workflow. Previous iterations of the MPC were capable of creating step sequenced patterns, but doing so involved using a combination of the pad grid and touch screen, which would involve switching between pad modes and lacked the satisfying physicality of punching in patterns on a drum machine.

The 16 step sequencer buttons now allow for that workflow to exist side-by-side with the finger drumming, sample chopping approach more traditionally associated with the MPC range. It makes for a really nice pairing, particularly for users working simultaneously with samples and external hardware.

The sequencer also interacts nicely with the new clip launching workflow, which brings an Ableton Live influence – via Akai’s own Force hardware – to the MPC system. Although it’s hardly a groundbreaking addition, the clip view offers a welcome new way to sequence and perform and slots nicely into the software design without adding extra confusion or increasing the learning curve.

Naturally, the additional processing power is very welcome. The increase will be particularly noticeable for users upgrading from the MPX X and X SE. Compared to these machines, the XL has an overall faster workflow with considerably fewer limitations on track and plugin counts. It’s now possible to record 16 tracks of audio and 32 plugin tracks when using the MPC XL in standalone mode.

That being said, these limits are the same as those set for the MPC Live III, and it’s arguably a disappointment not to see the capabilities upped for the flagship model, bearing in mind its additional RAM, footprint and price.

The extra power does more than just up the track counts though. As with the Live III, the MPC XL can make use of the high-quality version of Akai’s stem separation algorithm in standalone mode, unlike previous models that had to rely on an ‘efficient’ version of the tech.

Aside from its processing power, the most obvious difference between the MPC XL and the MPC Live is its size. Whereas the Live is designed as a portable beatmaker, the XL is significantly larger and heavier, clearly intended to be installed in a studio and left in place or, as proved a popular choice for those using the MPC X in larger studios, mounted to a trolley.

The MPC XL has significantly more inputs and outputs than the MPC Live, although its I/O offering is broadly the same as its MPC X predecessor. This includes a total of eight inputs covering mic, line, instrument and phono options, along with eight outputs and dual headphone ports. There’s plenty of control connectivity too, with four MIDI outputs, two MIDI ins, two footswitch inputs, eight stereo CV ports and multiple USB connections.

The main connectivity upgrade that the XL offers compared to the MPC X isn’t immediately obvious from looking at the hardware itself. Like the latest MPC Live, the XL can now stream multiple channels of audio over USB, allowing for 24 channels of audio and 32 channels of MIDI to pass through a single USB-C connection.

This is a smart addition. The extra power and flexibility of the MPC XL mean that, more than ever, it functions primarily as a standalone machine, rather than an interface to work with Akai’s desktop MPC software, which remains the weakest part of the MPC ecosystem. Easy audio streaming means that, if and when users want to move a project beyond the MPC XL, there’s an additional option for getting your work into a DAW. It also works in the other direction too, making it possible to sample into the MPC from a computer or smart device.

Take control

The MPC XL’s chunky footprint also means it has space for a lot of physical controls. The interface has been rearranged and expanded significantly compared to that of the MPC X and SE. Those machines had the bank of assignable Q-Link rotaries to the left of the main grid of pads, the MPC XL now shifts these to sit in a neat row across the top of the interface, directly above the step sequencer.

Of all the changes made for this latest MPC, it's this that is most likely to divide opinion among existing users. Personally, I like the new placement of these controls, which allows them to interact with the step buttons for controlling a variety of sequencing functions. Those accustomed to an existing Q-Link setup might find it fiddly breaking away from previous muscle memory though.

The move frees up a space for numerous new buttons that provide quick access to various MPC functions. This additional control is very welcome, particularly since it offers rapid access to fundamental MPC tools such as sample slicing, as well as stem separation. Some might argue that the extra controls make the interface feel far more cluttered, although to me this feels like an acceptable trade off for the additional navigational tools.

That said, there are a few minor annoyances to how the interface has been designed, some of which are hangovers from previous models. For one, there are now two buttons both labelled ‘Arrange’, which do different things: the one to the left of the interface is used to access the MPC’s arrangement view, the one to the right cycles between arrangement and clip as recording destinations. It’s fairly easy to remember which is which once you’re up and running, but it’s still an example of slightly muddled design.

Also, unlike the MPC Live, the dial used for navigating through menus and interfaces isn’t clickable, meaning that making selections requires pressing a separate button, rather than depressing the dial itself, which feels more natural.

Verdict

These few minor complaints aside, the MPC XL is otherwise a resounding success. Compared directly to the MPC X and MPC X SE, this latest flagship model is an all round improvement. The under-the-hood power and storage space is a massive step up, making the slight jump in price feel largely justified. Users of those previous models will immediately notice a difference in the speed and capabilities.

While some changes to the control panel layout might split opinion, it undeniably opens up a multitude of creative possibilities, from expressive finger drumming to speedier sequencing of external gear. While there’s more to memorise, control wise, the workflow is faster and more user-friendly than any other MPC in recent years.

It’s arguably disappointing that Akai hasn’t expanded the physical connectivity to the extent it’s upgraded other areas of the MPC, although multichannel USB-C audio streaming certainly adds to the flexibility.

Comparing the MPC XL to the – considerably cheaper – MPC Live III is a little less clear cut. The XL has more under-the-hood power, additional I/O, more physical controls and a larger screen, although in practical terms there’s not actually that much that can be done with the MPC XL that the MPC Live III isn’t capable of.

There are also several winning features of the Live III absent from the XL, including its onboard battery, speaker and mic.

In reality, comparing these two machines directly isn’t a fair or accurate way to appraise them. The MPC XL isn’t exactly a bigger and better version of the Live III, rather it’s a slightly different take on the MPC concept, one which trades the portable immediacy of the Live for a machine that acts as an all-encompassing studio hub.

If you’re performing on stage, jamming with friends or simply want to get away from a conventional studio environment, the MPC Live III remains the one to go for. If you want something that can sit in pride of place amongst your hardware and sampling sources, always plugged in and ready to create, the MPC XL is a machine worthy of building your whole workflow around.

That said, I still miss the built-in speaker and mic – sometimes it’s just nice to throw together a quick beat without turning on your monitors and plugging in any external gear.

The MPC ecosystem has come a long way since the ‘90s. While the roots of the original sampling and sequencing workflow remain, the MPC XL is more like a full-on DAW built into a custom controller-come-interface. Some users will always miss the simplicity of that bygone era, but those willing to buy into the modern age of MPCs will find a serious amount of depth and power here.

Hands-on demos

Akai

Alternatives

Specifications

NAMM 2026: MusicRadar’s tech team pick their NAMM 2026 show highlights, including new gear from Korg, Ashun Sound Machines, Nord, Fender, Behringer, Akai and more.

After a strong return last year, NAMM 2026 was back at full force, with an impressive showing of exciting new synths, software, beat makers and studio gear.

MusicRadar’s Tech Editor Matt Mullen and Music Making Editor Andy Price have been on the ground in California getting hands-on with the latest new announcements and forthcoming releases. We caught up with them from the UK via high-tech video link up (ie a laptop) to quiz them on their highlights of this year’s show.

Check out our six highlights below, along with a selection of runners up that are also very much worth keeping an eye out for.

For more NAMM news, insights and oddities, head over to our rolling live blog.

NAMM 2026 music tech highlights

ASM Leviasynth

Expected price: From $1799

Due: February

This is it - arguably the big one at NAMM 2026. The synth that those who’ve been swimming through the rich waters of Hydrasynth by Ashun Sound Machines have been eagerly waiting for since 2020.

The question is, does Leviasynth deliver? Well, listen to our sound demo in the video above to hear for yourself.

Get a load of the density of those patches - that’s a multi-layered sound that’s built on a brand new synthesis engine, which brings 8 algorithmic oscillators per voice and the warmest analogue (and slick digital!) filters.

Modulation is vast, with multiple LFOs, envelopes and a dense modulation matrix that enables hyper-colourful sonic wrangling. All this sound design potential is playable via ASM’s well-regarded Polytouch (aka polyphonic aftertouch) keyboard while the desktop version features 16 Polytouch pads.

All these tech specs are all well and good, but the proof of the pudding is in the… listening.

We were treated to a sound demo of Leviasynth over at ASM’s booth at NAMM, and crikey – this thing has some heft.

16 voices of polyphony with bi-timbral split/layer modes mean you can easily re-design your sound from the ground up.It’s not long before you’re faced with massive-sounding cinematic breadth and density.

One of the key things to note with Leviasynth is that, although it builds on the recognisable control structure, feel and aesthetics of Hydrasynth, it’s really an instrument that’s aimed at those who are serious about sound design. Its FM-like architecture is quite different to Hydrasynth’s wavetable synthesis philosophy. This thing is big in every way.

The Leviasynth keyboard version is available to order now from retailers for $2499/3299€ while the desktop version’s RRP is $1799/2399€. We’re told they’ll be shipping in mid-Feb!

Korg Phase8

Expected price: $1149/£859

Due: April

In a synth world that can sometimes seem a little oversaturated with retro nostalgia, it’s always refreshing to see a major manufacturer exploring innovative new avenues for music creation.

Korg’s Phase8 is the brainchild of renowned engineer Tatsuya “Tats” Takahashi, best known for masterminding the hugely popular Minilogue and the Volca series, but where those instruments found mass appeal through accessibility and affordability, Phase8 takes a very different direction.

Described by Korg as an “acoustic synthesizer”, Phase8 is essentially a hybrid of a synth and an electric kalimba, bringing together acoustic sound generation with electronic control via synth-style sequencing and modulation.

At its heart are eight tuned steel resonators that are electromagnetically stimulated to produce sound – the resonators can also be physically touched, plucked or strummed, and Korg suggests that you place objects on the instrument to modify its timbre.

Though we admittedly found Phase8 a little baffling at first, after spending some quality time with this oddball of an instrument, we’re converted. Tinkering with its resonators while a sequence plays can produce a surprisingly diverse spectrum of timbres and textures – armed with a humble pebble and screw, we coaxed some truly unearthly sounds out of its tines that could easily soundtrack an arthouse horror movie. Phase8 is a stroke of genius, and easily the most innovative product we’ve tried at NAMM so far.

Stylophone Voice

Expected price: $50

Due: July

Now this is a great deal of fun. The new Stylophone Voice takes the classic pen-based concept and updates it with a Daft Punk-esque twist. Prompting you to record your voice (or anything you like, really) via the small ‘Sample’ button on the left-hand side of the machine (or via the aux input), the lightweight Stylophone Voice allows you to not only capture original audio, but to mash it up as much as you like!

12 onboard effects, spanning chorus, delay, reverb, filter and drive can completely mangle your sample, and experiment intuitively via the tactile stylus keyboard. A built-in sequencer and integrated drum sounds mean you can get a new idea going in minutes.

We entertained ourselves tinkering with this on the show floor, alongisde Stylophone’s other new release – the Stylophone On-The-Fly Performance Sequencer. More on that soon.

So speed and fun are the watchwords with Stylophone Voice. The best part is the price point – it’ll be launched at around the $50 mark sometime in July, we’re told. We’ll bring you more details and a full review soon.

Behringer JN-80

Expected price: $599

Due: Soon

The product catalogue of Behringer continues to grow at an exponential rate with another clone of another classic synthesizer delivered at a price point that nobody can argue with.

But this isn’t just any vintage synth, it’s the Roland Juno-60, a strong contender for one of the most beloved instruments in musical history – and while you’d do well to get a legit Juno for under $3,000, Behringer’s version comes in at $599.

Behringer tell us they went to great lengths to recreate the Juno-60’s signature sound, closely following the designs of the original oscillator and filter circuits and even crafting an analogue BBD chorus from the ground up to imitate the Juno’s rich and shimmering chorus effect. I

t’s not an exact replica, though, and despite staying true to the classic Juno tone, the JN-80 adds a host of modern conveniences that the original synth lacked while expanding the polyphony with two additional voices. JN-80 also features expanded modulation capabilities, channel aftertouch, full MIDI support and a selection of voice modes that let you creatively redistribute JN-80’s eight voices in poly, mono, unison and duo configurations.

The JN-80 is tons of fun, capturing all the things that made the Juno-60 a classic – the lush, warm analogue sound and the simple, intuitive interface – while bringing it into the 21st century with some well-placed tweaks and enhancements. As with any clone, purists will debate the authenticity of its sound, but it sounds pretty damn good to our ears – and at $599, we’re not complaining.

Fender Studio Pro

Price: $199

Due: Out now

The new rebranding of PreSonus’ Studio One into Fender Studio Pro was motivated in part by the drive to get away from a burnt-in perception of the Fender brand as purely guitar-oriented.

Instead, Fender has taken a significant chunk of the existing PreSonus’ music production catalogue and brought it in-line with a singular ‘eco-system’ based ‘Fender Studio’ branding ethos, the company explained to us at the NAMM Press Day.

Being Fender though, and it’s the guitar-angled additions to the Studio One-derived DAW that are the most substantial. In Fender Studio Pro, the new Fender Mustang Guitar and Rumble Bass plugins offer guitarists an extensive selection of 39 guitar amps and 18 bass amps alongside 125 modelled effects pedals.

The most impressive feature we’ve seen so far at the show is the new Chord Assistant, an intelligent songwriting tool that offers chord recommendations based on existing progressions, while a new AI-powered conversion tool transforms audio files into editable MIDI notes for creative rearrangement.

It was genuinely cool to see and hear it in action – at the press day, a guitarist inputted a wash of distorted guitar, which was instantly converted into a MIDI track. This output via a lush synth pad, which responded to every subtle chordal variation within the guitar audio. Colour us impressed.

UDO DMNO

Expected price: £2,499/$3,500

Due: 2026

Unveiled late last year, DMNO is the latest synth from UDO, joining the Super 6, Super 8 and Super Gemini in the company's line-up.

DMNO is a polyphonic, multitimbral and hybrid analogue/digital instrument made up of two fully independent four-voice synths, each with a dedicated set of front-panel controls.

Like UDO’s Super series, DMNO is a hybrid synth with FPGA-based digital oscillators and an analogue signal path and filter. Each of DMNO’s oscillators is made up of a central oscillator and six peripheral “sister” oscillators that can be dynamically dephased in the stereo field to create lush and wide timbres in the synth’s Super Mode.

Available waveshapes cover sine, saw, square, triangle and pulse, along with 3 user-assignable complex waveforms. Each synth engine is armed with two LFOs with 10 waveshapes (including 2 user-assignable shapes) that can be assigned to multiple destinations via the mod matrix. There’s cross-modulation and PWM onboard too.

DMNO is eight-voice polyphonic, dropping to four “super voices” when the synth’s Binaural Mode is engaged. Each of DMNO’s voices runs through a newly-designed Dynamic Multi-Core Stereo VCF with LP, HP, BP, all-pass and phase shifter modes, overdrive, keyboard tracking and multiple routing options. DMNO features a 32-bit DSP digital effects engine that covers delay, reverb, EQ, overdrive, distortion and chorus.

DMNO is equipped with a 44-key Fatar keybed with channel aftertouch and a two-axis bender, and can be programmed via its 64-step sequencer and multi-mode arpeggiator. The synth also boasts a high-contrast electroluminescent vacuum fluorescent display. DMNO is available in black and white editions, the latter giving off some unmistakable Oberheim Two Voice vibes.

DMNO features a selection of eight Play Modes that determine how the synth engines interact and how the 44-note keyboard interacts with them. These range from traditional options that allow patches to be layered or split across the keys to creative configurations such as Series mode, which goes semi-modular by routing one synth’s output into the other’s oscillator, and Chaos mode, which assigns notes randomly to either synth.

Also worth checking out…

Korg Kaoss Pad V

While most of the buzz at Korg’s booth was centred around its new Phase8 “acoustic synthesizer”, the long-established Japanese brand had plenty more on show for electronic music-makers, most notably a long-awaited update to its widely beloved Kaoss Pad effects unit and sampler.

Kaoss Pad V is the first full-size, traditional Kaoss Pad to be released since the KP3+ in 2013, and brings with it a host of new features and enhancements that make this effects-laden powerhouse an even more powerful tool for creative sound design and live performance.

The most distinctive feature of the Kaoss Pad has always been its XY touchscreen interface, which provides a rewardingly hands-on means of manipulating its ample catalogue of effects. Kaoss Pad V introduces dual-touch operation for the first time, allowing you to use two fingers to control two parameters at once to produce complex textures that leverage multiple effects.

These can range from the obvious – tweaking filter cutoff and resonance simultaneously, for example – to the wildly experimental, effectively doubling the real-time control that the Kaoss Pad can provide and considerably expanding its sonic scope.

The new Kaoss Pad V has been equipped with a newly-developed Voice FX engine for creative vocal processing, and while we were a little disappointed not to get the chance to test this out over at Korg’s booth, we had heaps of fun messing about with its delays and reverbs, and slicing and dicing a MicroKorg arpeggio with the V’s extensive selection of glitchy stutter effects. Well into its second decade, the Kaoss Pad remains as relevant as it ever was.

Akai MPC XL

Akai’s MPC XL is one of the biggest announcements at this year’s NAMM show in more ways than one - not only a significant release, it’s also absolutely massive, both larger and heavier than the MPC X that preceded it in Akai’s product line-up. That can be a benefit or a drawback, depending on what you’re looking for, but it’s clearly intended as more of a do-it-all studio centerpiece that’s going to remain in one place than a live performance instrument like the recently-released MPC Live III.

All that space means tons of room for controls, so you get way more hands-on control than you would on any MPC released before it, and that means less menu-diving – but even when you do reach for the menus, you’ll be navigating them via a gorgeous 10” touchscreen, which is especially useful for taking advantage of the XL’s sophisticated arrangement capabilities. They haven’t only supersized the interface, either, but they’ve maxed out the specs too, and you essentially get the power of a decent laptop in the XL with 16GB RAM, 256GB of storage and a Gen 2 8-core processor.

That’s all well and good, but what really impressed us about the XL was the expressive MPCe pads, which were introduced with the Live III. Each backlit, colour-coded pad is divided into four quadrants that can be assigned to different samples, so you’ve essentially got 64 pads here. There’s velocity sensitivity, aftertouch, and the pads can track your finger’s motion and use its position across an XY grid to control assigned parameters. (I was a bit disappointed to find out that this can’t currently be mapped to some instrument parameters, but we’re told this is coming in a future update.)

Akai has knocked it out of the park with this one: it’s safe to say that in terms of raw power, control and capability, the MPC XL is probably the most advanced piece of standalone music production hardware on the market.

Polyend Endless

AI has been a massive topic of conversation at this year’s NAMM Show, with its ubiquity in a range of software, DAWs and web-based generative platforms debated and mused upon.

But AI in… a guitar pedal is something we really didn’t expect to be reporting on.

Polyend Endless is a new open-source effects pedal that allows users to swap its internal sounds using either C++ coding or - for the less coding inclined - using a prompt-based interface, called Playground (currently in beta) wherin you can essentially describe what effect you want your Endless pedal to add, and the results can be easily exported to your hardware via a file.

In Polyend’s words, users can “describe an idea, download the file, and drop it into the pedal. Play it, suggest tweaks, ask for improvements, and get results without coding.”

Although this is unmistakbly AI at work here, Polyend is keen to avoid using that term.

To us, this feels like a solid example of AI as a ‘good thing’ as the application of the intelligently crafted, prompt-generated sound certainly lends itself to creativity and imagination.

The swappable front plates underline the concept in an eye-catching way. The pedals (and the wholly unique concept) certainly piqued interest at NAMM this year.

Although a community library of effects is free, Playground will use a system of tokens in order for users to purchase custom effects. When buying Endless, users will get $20 of Playground tokens.

Endless is available to preorder now, priced at $299/€299. The units are scheduled to start shipping February 22, 2026. Endless ships with a blank faceplate and $20 in Playground tokens.

Soundtoys SpaceBlender 2

Soundtoys is teasing a sequel to its SpaceBlender plugin at NAMM this year, an experimental reverb designed to create unreal and imaginary spaces: “shapes, textures and tones that are otherwise impossible in the real world”. It’s a powerful sound design tool that looks set to become even more capable in its second iteration.

SpaceBlender 2 is still a work in progress, but the Soundtoys team tell us that it will offer several additional reverb algorithms or “styles” (including the intriguingly named Bubble, Metronomic, and Synthi) and more in-depth control over texture and density, while opening up the ability to dial in independent reverbs across both left and right channels simultaneously for wide, spatial stereo effects.

Nord Electro 7

One of the most eye-catching new arrivals at NAMM this year, the Nord Electro 7 brings in a fully fledged synth section to proceedings, as well as a redesigned interface and dedicated per-section effects processing to this latest incarnation of a stage keyboard classic.

Nord says it’s the most versatile model in the Electro line to date (the last, Electro 6 was revealed way back in NAMM 2018 if you can believe it…) Although there’s numerous new additions to the Electro 7 - including a snazzy redesigned interface - it’s the new virtual analogue-powered synth section that is perhaps the most interesting development, filling out Electro 6’s sample-based synthesis with a virtual analogue synth section and some straightforward FM capabilities.

You can play it in either mono or legato, or if you really want to get performative you can use the glide mode. There’s dual ADR envelopes for amp, filter and FM amount, vibrato and a resonant low-pass filter.

Although our own time with it was a little compromised by the excessive noise of a band performing just next to the Nord rack (that’s NAMM in a nutshell) we can vouch for an impressive depth of sound and some lovely key action.

Nord Electro 7 comes in three editions: 61-key and 73-key versions with a semi-weighted waterfall keyboard and a 73-key edition with a triple-sensor Kawai Hammer Action Portable Keyboard, the Nord Electro 7 HP. Electro 7 61 is priced at £2299/$3299, Electro 7 73 is priced at £2499/$3599, and Electro 7 HP is priced at £2799/$3999

Neumann M 50 V

While everybody of course rushes to the synths, drum machines and playable toys at NAMM (us included, we admit) there’s also been some significant drops in the microphone department this year.

Chief among them was the Nuemann resurrection of the legendary M 50 - the tube microphone used on a wide range of film scores and orchestral recordings. The original has been a scarce rarity for years, coveted by those who own them. Now, the M 50 V carries the baton into a new era.

A noted mainstay in the orchestral world, the original M 50 - introduced to the world back in 1951 - was the microphone that was pivotal for birthing the renowned Decca Tree technique, something it was particularly adept at due to its highly unique polar pattern and transient response.

Although this new version is a faithful reproduction of the original acoustic concept which includes the small diapragm omni capsule mounted within a 40 mm sphere, the capsule type has been improved, now sporting a titanium K 33 Ti for extra durability. The noted realism and depth of the stereo image that the original M 50 brought to the table is preserved, and then some.

The M 50 V will be handmade to order by Neumann itself, with a limited production run to maintain the lofty standards that Neumann prides itself on. Orders can be placed now and shipping begins in Feb. The mic also comes with an NM V power supply and the classic yoke mount. You’ll need to start saving now if you want one - as the price is $12,500.

“This reissue is not just a microphone - it’s a piece of recording history reborn,” Medzid Veseli, Head of Neumann Service and Quality Control, stated at launch. “The production team and I take immense pride in crafting each unit by hand. Every component is meticulously inspected and assembled to deliver the legendary sound that professionals expect from Neumann.”

NAMM 2026: Casio has a bit of history in the budget sampler market, not least with the classic SK-1 keyboard, which was released way back in 1985.

Now it appears that it’s about to get involved in this world again, as a fun-looking handheld sampler prototype known as the SX-C1 - it sort of looks like a beefed-up, more robust and approachable version of Teenage Engineering’s PO-33 - has been spotted on the NAMM Show floor.

With its D-pad and creamy grey case, there’s definitely a bit of a Game Boy vibe going on, and the old-school number styling on the 16 pads is another retro nod. Current specs - which we’re guessing are subject to change - include 16-bit/48kHz sampling (from the built-in mic, line input or transferred via the USB-C port) a sequencer, and hopefully some effects. A built-in speaker is the agenda, too, and power can come from either three AAA batteries or via USB.

As things stand, you’ll be able to save up to 10 banks of 16 samples, and there will be 64GB of internal memory. Some of this will be filled with presets, some of which are expected to be sounds from Casio’s archives. There’s a dinky 1.3-inch OLED display that’s flanked by the aforementioned D-pad and four buttons, and a slightly unusual looking configuration of sliders and rotary dials below. How intuitive this setup will be for editing and programming remains to be seen.

For now, though, let’s enjoy the fact that, with a fair wind, this thing is going to exist. We should say that a release hasn’t yet been officially confirmed, but the fact that Casio is creating some buzz around the product by showing it at a trade show suggests that it’s serious about taking this thing into production.

In these days of smartphones and apps such as Koala Sampler, of course, there’s an argument that products such as this aren’t really necessary anymore, but if the workflow is good and it has some decent performance features, we reckon Casio could be onto something.

NAMM 2026: Akai has launched its successor to the flagship MPC X, the MPC XL. The XL follows in the footsteps of last year’s excellent MPC Live III upgrade, adding a lot of similar enhancements such as vastly improved CPU power, expressive MPCe pads and a new step sequencing workflow.

The MPC XL maintains the design ethos of the MPC X, which was first released in 2017, and followed by an upgraded Special Edition model in 2023. Broadly speaking, it offers the same workflow as the smaller MPC Live and MPC One models, capable of self-contained beatmaking, recording, sampling, arranging and mixing, but with an increased amount of inputs and outputs and a broader variety of hands-on controls.

There are significant upgrades here compared to previous gen MPCs though. As with last year’s MPC Live III, the XL is now powered by a Gen 2 8-core processor that Akai says offers four times the processing power of previous MPCs. The XL is also packed with 16GB of RAM, which is double the 8GB offered by the MPC Live III and a massive upgrade from the 2GB and 4GB of RAM in the MPC X and X SE respectively.

From a practical perspective, that means the MPC XL can now run up to 32 plugin instruments and 16 audio tracks simultaneously, with support for up to 256 simultaneous voices. The MPC XL also ups the onboard storage to 256GB, with a SATA expansion bay for additional storage.

The central grid of pads is upgraded with the MPCe tech seen on the Live III last year. This brings an expressive functionality broadly inspired by MPE controllers, although functioning a little differently in practice. As well as offering aftertouch expression, the pads can also be configured to modulate parameters by moving a finger across their X/Y axis.

The pads are divided into four quadrants, and the MPC XL also allows for these to be configured to trigger different samples, effects or timing divisions depending on where the pad is pressed, which is fantastic for creative finger drumming.

Another new feature carried across from the Live III is the touchstrip, which can be configured to control pitch, volume levels, trigger samples or introduce performance effects and beat repeats.

The 16 multi-functional Q-Link rotaries of the previous MPC X are still included, but they’re now moved to sit in a row running across the middle of the unit, above a bank of buttons used for step sequencing. Each Q-Link controller has its own OLED screen offering feedback on various parameters within different sequencing and arranging modes.

Thanks to the repositioned Q-Links, the MPC XL has more front panel UI space, which allows it to offer, according to Akai, “one-to-one function buttons for immediate access to every feature.” A particular highlight of this is a pair of buttons for instant access to sample slicing and stem separation.

On this latter front, as with the MPC Live III, the increased CPU allows for the MPC XL to include the higher quality separation algorithms used in the desktop version of the MPC software, as opposed to a more ‘efficient’ variation.

Connectivity-wise, the MPC XL is similar to the MPC X. Its rear panel has two preamp-equipped combo XLR/TRS ports, along with an additional pair of rear inputs switchable between stereo TRS or phono. These are joined by a pair of front panel instrument inputs.

The MPC XL has eight ¼-inch jack outputs arranged in four stereo pairs. As with the MPC Live III, the X can now stream ​24 channels of audio I/O and 32 channels of MIDI I/O via its USB-C port.

The MPC XL has six MIDI ports, offering two inputs and four outputs. There are also eight stereo CV outputs, allowing the unit to output up-to 16 CV signals simultaneously. For additional storage and connectivity, the MPC XL also has two rear panel USB ports, along with an additional USB and SD card slot on its front edge.

"The MPC XL represents the evolution of everything we've learned from decades of innovation in music production," said Andy Mac, Creative Global Marketing and Artist Relations Manager at Akai Professional. "We've created a true studio-grade workhorse that delivers DAW-like power in a standalone format. MPC XL removes every barrier between inspiration and creation, giving producers the speed, control, and connectivity to bring their most ambitious musical visions to life."

We got our hands-on the MPC XL ahead of launch. In the video at the top of this page, we explore how it differs from the MPC Live III and MPC X, along what we like and what we’d like to see added.

The MPC XL is out, now priced at €2,899.99, £2,499.99 and $2,899. Head to the Akai Professional site for more.

What is it?

Hardware sound modules and software titles aimed at specific genres of music are by no means new – just look back at the evolution of the groovebox from Roland, Yamaha and Korg right up to the latest modules from Akai, Novation and NI to understand how dance music has shaped the music equipment industry.

Companies like Sonicware produce competitively-priced hardware for other specific tastes – ambient, lo-fi, you name it – and sample-packed ROMplers from the likes of, well, everyone, will tailor to any desktop flavour.

Routes specifically for dub and reggae creation are thinner on the ground, although many delay and sub bass synths are capable of producing the necessary deep and mesmerising low-end backbones and repeating effects.

However, no module has worn its aim so proudly as Teenage Engineering’s latest EP-40 Riddim, which not only provides sirens, delays and deep, deep basses, but partners with its own lo-fi effect microphone, the EP-2350 Ting. You get, then, all the low frequencies, all the effects and all the beats you need for reggae, dancehall and dub… and more genres besides.

Riddim and Ting is a compelling package from TE, and the latest in its range of bigger, ‘not so pocket’ operators, large format desktop modules first kicked off with the EP-133 K.O. II sampler, itself a larger version of one of TE’s Pocket Operators.

We’ve already had the first variation on that unit, the slightly bizarre and perhaps too-focussed Medieval EP-1320, a module aimed at time-travelling bards and court jesters – yes, really. But this latest EP combo promises to be a wider-ranging beast, so it should be more of a home run for TE. Let’s get them together, then, but do they feel alright? (Sorry.)

Performance

Think of EP-40 as a groovebox with a synth engine and sampling, and you won’t go far wrong. There are four parts to a Riddim project – Drums, Bass, Melodic and SFX – and you simply hit a project part button on the left-hand side, and audition sounds with the keys or change them by holding the +/- buttons.

There are 400 such sounds, including a ton of percussive hits through the first few banks, with bass and leads from location 400 onwards; as you go higher, you get effects, stabs, fills and loops.

Both the bass and lead sounds utilise Riddim’s on-board ‘Supertone’ subtractive synth engine, which is one of the draws of the machine over previous models in the range, so you get some proper beefy basses and head-tearing leads. Choose a sound you like and then hit the Keys button, and Riddim maps the chosen sound across the keys in a scale for you to play and record.

Within each project part, hitting a key might give you loops (of beats, basslines etc) – most often played on buttons 7, 8 and 9 – and single hits and effects on the rest of the keys. The parts are set up slightly differently, though, so you can, for example, only play one drum loop at any one time, but up to three melodic loops. Either way, this is a great way to get a feel for Riddim and to audition some varied sounds.

Better still, you get nine user-editable projects (although both website and manual state eight) already loaded in, which should be your first port of call. Hit play as soon as you enter the Live State mode, and you can audition a project with loops (new to this model), hits, synth sounds and more, all created by production royalty, including dancehall’s King Jammy, dub pioneers like Mad Professor, and singer/songwriters including Lisa Hyper and Etana.

These are all excellent, if perhaps somewhat ‘obvious’ on occasion, even sounding pretty good on Riddim’s not-so-large and not-so-powerful on-board speaker. Riddim might not be a mobile sound system capable of carrying Notting Hill’s carnival on its own, then, but it’s good enough to use for mobile song creation. You will just have to plug the unit into a proper sound system to enjoy it to the full, but it can certainly deliver; its range is superb and dynamic, the sirens as loud and proud as you could ask for, and all the beats, bass and leads are there for project creation across a variety of genres, not just the obvious ones.

There are plenty of vocal and other sound effects too, although EP-40’s sample mode lets you add more, replacing or adding to the existing presets and utilising Riddim’s 128MB storage (twice that of the original EP-133).

Here you can use the optional (but currently free) EP-2350 Ting microphone, which we’d say is an essential partner, plugging in and allowing you to transform your vocal, or any outside world sound, into something very dubby indeed. Not only can you use it to sample your voice, but also trigger up to four on-board samples and use Riddim’s on-board effects, which can also be selected via the mic.

And the effects section is where it gets just that little bit crazier, as it most certainly should. In these genres, the effects are as important as the initial sounds, and how your delays intertwine and evolve with the beats and bass are really where the magic happens, so much so that original producers would sprinkle effects from Space Echos and other delays in to result in mesmerising reggae tracks that would take on a life of their own.

With Riddim, you can select these different effects, either by triggering different effect sounds – sirens, squeals and plenty more – or by putting any sound through the on-board effects (7 main plus 12 punch-in) and controlling its level with the single fader on the left. Again, this is great fun for adding live effects on the fly, highlighting Riddim’s fantastic performance chops.

Verdict

It’s not all fabulous news – we did struggle with the operating system at first, as the learning curve is a little steep if you are a non-EP/OP/OPZ user. Proper old school producers might also baulk at the ease of song creation and the slick results – a criticism you can level at almost any piece of genre-specific music technology. Yes, this is perhaps a sanitised dub and reggae module, but feel free to filth up the results to make them more ‘authentic’ should you wish.

Overall, though, using Riddim and Ting is a very enjoyable experience. Unlike Medieval, this is a more flexible package that delivers everything it should in ways that only TE can. The operating system is easy once you get over that initial hurdle, and we found that you should perhaps simply enjoy the many rather marvellous and colourful icons around the screen as a light show rather than use them as guidance.

If dancehall, reggae and dub aren’t necessarily your ‘ting’, then Riddim also acts as a bridge to those worlds for newcomers, and you can very easily find yourself fitting its workflow, effects, beats, and some very solid low end into whatever genres you produce.

Surprisingly for Teenage Engineering, the price is reasonable, although there is some rather overpriced merch should you wish to splash out – we’ll take the £29 socks. EP-40 sounds great, and the EP-2350 mic is a stroke of genius, although that also makes it an essential addition in our books, so grab it free while you can to enjoy a fantastic partnership. As someone might have once said, this is the sound… of sirens.

Hands-on demos

teenage engineering

Alternatives

Specifications

In the 21st century, sampling has become an essential technique in pop music’s toolbox: from Britney Spears’ Toxic to Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso, modern chart history is lined with hits built on snippets of other songs or ready-made loops from commercial sample packs.

Back in the ‘90s, though, sampling was still a new frontier in music-making. Having entered the vocabulary of mainstream music in the ‘80s via the groundbreaking efforts of American hip-hop producers, sampling's abundant creative potential inspired a generation of electronic musicians on the other side of the Atlantic, armed with bold new ideas and music technology that was becoming more sophisticated and affordable with each passing year.

Artists like Orbital, The Prodigy, Aphex Twin, Fatboy Slim and Moby all played a decisive role in pushing the boundaries of what sample-driven music-making could do. But amid this golden age of sample-based creativity, one widely beloved and blissfully psychedelic track stands tall, symbolizing the alchemical magic of sampling’s ability to collide disparate sounds from different worlds together to create something thrillingly new: The Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds.

The disparate sounds in question? An interview clip of American singer Rickie Lee Jones dreamily reminiscing about the “beautiful skies” and “little fluffy clouds” of her Arizonian childhood, a Pat Metheny performance of Electric Counterpoint, composer Steve Reich’s minimalist masterpiece for electric guitar, and a harmonica sample from Ennio Morricone’s score for Once Upon a Time in the West. Throw in a time-stretched drum break from a Harry Nilsson tune, a handful of sound effects and a bubbling synth line, and you’ve got the recipe for Little Fluffy Clouds.

In the three-and-a-half decades since it was founded, The Orb has been made up of a shifting line-up centred around one consistent member: Alex Paterson. While the group began as a duo with Jimmy Cauty of The KLF, the pair unceremoniously parted ways in 1990 during recording sessions for what they thought would become The Orb’s debut album, before Cauty was replaced by Martin “Youth” Glover, a childhood friend of Paterson’s and a founding member and bassist of the band Killing Joke.

“Jimmy and Alex were making an album called Space when they had a big argument,” Glover recalled in a 2016 interview with The Guardian. “Jimmy stormed off, took all of Alex’s bits off the record and released it under his own name. Alex was mortified. I told him not to worry – we’d make a record that was even better.” That record was Little Fluffy Clouds, a song that helped to launch The Orb’s career, introduced ambient house to the masses, and even prompted a lawsuit from Rickie Lee Jones.

But Paterson and Glover couldn’t have made Little Fluffy Clouds without the help of one of their fans, an enterprising listener that mailed them a cassette tape with the very same sample combination that became the song’s foundation. “The cassette had Pat Metheny on one side and the Rickie Lee Jones interview on the other,” Paterson told Sound on Sound in 2011. “It came with a note saying something along the lines of, 'You guys are going to have to make a track out of this. It is definitely Orb material.'”

With this germ of an idea in hand, Paterson and Glover put together a demo for Little Fluffy Clouds in a bedroom studio in their Wandsworth flat, with the rackmount Akai S700 on sampling duties. Layering multiple samples together in a freeform and improvisational creative process, they drew inspiration from wide-ranging DJ sets they’d performed at London’s Heaven nightclub.

“We set up the first chillout room there, playing ambient music and film soundtracks,” Glover recalls. “No one danced; they were all lying down. There were five or six turntables, and we’d play different records all at once. We thought: ‘Why don’t we do this in a studio?’”

Alongside the two original samples, the duo pulled in an eclectic mix of sounds: the Morricone harmonica and the Nilsson drum break were joined by sound effects from the BBC archives and snippets of Paterson being interviewed on radio. The evocative line that opens the track ("Over the past few years, to the traditional sounds of an English summer - the drone of lawnmowers, and the smack of leather on willow - has been added a new noise...") was lifted from BBC Radio 4 programme You and Yours.

With their bricolage of samples arranged into a demo, Paterson and Glover decamped to Bunk, Junk and Genius - a studio a stone’s throw away in Fulham – to finish off Little Fluffy Clouds with the help of Kris “Thrash” Weston, a collaborator that would spend several years in The Orb’s line-up as a full-time member. “The track evolved over the course of about six months,” Paterson told SoS. “Working in a proper studio was different to being in the bedroom, where we could waddle in and out whenever we felt like it.”

Weston helped to engineer the track and program the drum pattern, a beat constructed out of a slowed-down drum break pulled from Harry Nilsson’s 1990 song Jump Into The Fire. “My brother was a big Harry Nilsson fan, and I always wet myself when the drum solo came on,” Paterson told Electronic Sound in 2018.

“When we were sampling things for Little Fluffy Clouds, Youth said, ‘Do you know any good drum breaks? ‘Actually, I do – this one’. It’s just a short section programmed to work in such a way that it gives whatever else you want to put over the top even more oomph. The whole structure of the song is based on that loop, really.”

Though The Orb’s use of the Nilsson break is now public knowledge, Paterson kept the origin of the drums a secret for many years, telling Remix Magazine in 2001: “If anyone actually knew where the drums on Little Fluffy Clouds came from, they'd all just die, but I'm not at liberty to tell. Record companies have always warned me, ‘Don't tell anyone where you got your samples until we get them cleared!’”

Paterson later told Electronic Sound that the sample would’ve remained a secret, if only he hadn’t revealed his methods after a few too many pints at the pub: “No one would have ever known that if I hadn’t told someone when I was really drunk one night”.

With their kaleidoscopic melange of samples in place, Glover added a keyboard riff and a bassline to round off the track and bring the elements together as a coherent whole, an aspect of the writing process that Paterson says was no easy task: “One of the main challenges was disguising so many things to make the track have its own identity and getting so many different areas of samples to stick together”.

Another challenging moment in the song’s creation was trimming down its runtime to create the four-minute version first released as a seven-inch single. (The Orb’s debut single, A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld, stretched to 19 minutes.)

“I thought it was too poppy, but people loved it,” Paterson says of Little Fluffy Clouds’ radio edit. And loved it they did. Released in late 1990, the song rose to No 87 on the UK Singles Chart, a level of success that few could have predicted for a relatively unknown group working in a then-nascent genre, building tracks from obscure samples using experimental production techniques. The song later featured on The Orb’s debut album in 1991, before a 1993 re-release reached No 10 in the UK.

Little Fluffy Clouds may have helped to launch The Orb’s career, but its success brought its own problems. Back in the ‘90s, when sampling had yet to become the established practice that it is today, The Orb held a decidedly laissez-faire attitude to copyright, a “punk rock attitude” that Paterson sums up as “if you want something, you can come and get us”.

That’s exactly what happened when Rickie Lee Jones’ record label heard Little Fluffy Clouds; threatening The Orb’s label with a lawsuit, they ultimately settled for a $5,000 payout. (Years later, she candidly referred to The Orb in an interview as “those fuckers”.)

Thankfully, Steve Reich’s approach was a little softer. “We got a letter from Steve’s lawyers, but he was a proper gentleman,” Paterson recalls. “He wanted 20 per cent of the publishing, but only from the day he found us, not from when it was released, and he also asked us to remix a track for him in exchange. We obliged, very courteously. I have so much faith in artists like that.”

With their brazen, fast-and-loose approach to sampling, The Orb raised more than a few eyebrows back in the ‘90s, drawing criticism not only from those who challenged the legality of their musical plundering, but also those who questioned its artistic value. Many listeners and publications sneered at sample-based music, framing it as lazy and inauthentic – not like the “real music” of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Thanks to pioneering artists like The Orb, public perception of sampling has since evolved, as audiences have grown to realize that samplers are instruments like any other, and that the way that you use a sample is a creative act in and of itself. "I've always thought that plagiarism is creative," Paterson once said. "In no way did I consider it to be destructive, especially if you can twist that sample and make it become something else."

What is it?

It’s almost a decade since Akai first returned to standalone, laptop-free MPCs with the MPC Live and MPC X. Although the larger and better-equipped X was always pitched as the flagship, and the later MPC One offers the most affordable way into the range, the MPC Live has proved itself to be the highlight of the contemporary lineup, finding a sweet spot between power and portability.

When the Live first arrived in 2017, it acted as a bridge between the two sides of the MPC’s history. Under-the-hood, it was still powered by a variation of the MPC software developed for the range’s era of MIDI controllers, but its self-contained nature and ability to sample and sequence directly from the hardware offered a more direct link bank to the ‘80s and ‘90s designs that had such a powerful influence on the evolution of dance music and hip-hop.

As time has gone on, these latter elements have proved to be where the MPC Live’s strengths lie. While the software element of the MPC setup has long felt a little clunky and like a lesser version of dedicated DAWs, as a self-contained DAW-in-a-box the MPC Live has set a standard the more recent competitors like Ableton’s Push 3 and Native Instruments’ Maschine+ have looked to match.

With this third iteration of the MPC Live, Akai is going all-in on the standalone capabilities. Whereas previous versions were fantastic tools for idea creation or live performance, the level of power under the hood resulted in a few restrictions that meant that, for many users, creating full arrangements and finessing ideas would mean transferring projects to a desktop machine.

Pricing

$1,699 | €1,649 | £1,399

Performance

The MPC Live III is positioned more as an end-to-end production and performance workstation. The key factor making this more practical, is a significant step up in power under-the-hood. Whereas the MPC Live II had a quad core ARM processor and 2GB of RAM, this model ups that to an 8-core processor and 8GB of RAM – which Akai is touting as four times the power of the Live II. The onboard storage has also been significantly increased from 16GB to 128GB.

From a practical standpoint, this loosens many of the restrictions on what can be done in standalone mode. The amount of simultaneous plugin tracks that can be run within the hardware rises from eight to 32, while the simultaneous audio track count goes from eight to 16.

Along with this, the overall polyphony rises from 64 stereo voices to 256, and the max polyphony for a single drum/keygroup is now 64 voices, up from 32. There are improvements to the quality of various processes on offer too. The MPC Live III adds a new high-quality FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) time stretching algorithm and also now offers a higher-quality version of stem separation.

This latter feature is particularly nice. The standalone MPCs already had stem separation available, which was added in an update last year, but used an ‘efficient’ version of the tech. The Live III can now use the same ‘pro’ version as the desktop MPC software, which is noticeably more consistent and clearer.

Decent quality stem separation is a fairly common feature across many DAWs these days, but of everywhere I’ve tried it, I feel like the MPC is the place it makes the most sense. Sampling stabs and loops is such a core part of the traditional MPC workflow, and being able to grab a loop from vinyl, YouTube etc, and easily isolate a specific chord stab, drum break or vocal hit is a real revelation.

Getting hands-on

The upgrades to the MPC aren’t limited to its inner workings though. There are some significant new additions to the hardware control surface too.

The most prominent of these are the newly overhauled pads. While the traditional 16 pad grid looks and feels the same as previous models at first glance, the manner in which they respond and can be played has been upgraded massively.

Akai is calling its latest pad designs MPCe – a play on MIDI polyphonic expression (MPE) – and aims at introducing a similar level of expressivity as found on devices like Roli’s Seaboards or the pads of Ableton’s Push 3. I say similar, because while there’s certainly a deep level of control here, the way they work is a little different from standard MPE.

The pads are informally divided into four quarters, and can register initial velocity, pressure, aftertouch and movement across the X and Y axis of the pads. This allows for a whole variety of different setups, which are demonstrated nicely by the MPCe factory kits that ship with the new hardware.

Some patches, for example, use the four quadrants of each pad to trigger different samples using the four layers of each internal drum track. This means it's possible to, for example, trigger open and closed hats from the same pad, or different snare or clap sounds, but also lets the user morph between these layers.

Another use shown off well by the presets is assigning different articulations – such as rolls and trills – to different pad quadrants, which is a fantastic performance feature.

It’s also possible to route the various expression inputs in the internal mod matrix, this allows for all sorts of expressive options, with obvious examples being routing changes in pitch or filter cutoff, but the options are extensive and by combining different routings it’s possible to get really interesting setups out of the pads.

What it’s not possible to do is drift from pad-to-pad to create pitch slides as is common on MPE controllers. This doesn’t feel like a problem though – the pad-focussed approach here leans into the finger drumming, sample-orientated workflow of the MPC more than traditional instrument playing, which suits the design.

Beside the pad grid is a new touchstrip, which adds a further level of creative expression. Again, this can perform multiple functions, from pitch modulation to controlling volume levels, acting as a sustain or expression input or controlling punch-in performance effects. It can also be used in place of one of the right hand Q-Link controls. It’s another level of control likely to be welcomed by those that use the MPC onstage.

Step in

The other major new control element is a 16-step sequencer that now sits along the upper edge of the unit. I really like this as an addition. While the MPC has always been a pad-focused machine – and the grid rightly remains at the heart of the workflow – sequencing is obviously a major element of electronic music production, and the more rigid X0X-approach to beat programming can provide a nice counterpoint to the hands-on uses of the pad grid.

While it’s long been possible to step sequence using an MPC, using the pad grid and screen in previous Live models, the dedicated button sequencer is a much nicer way of working. It allows for the pads and sequencer to be used side-by-side in a variety of ways too.

The sequencer can do far more than simple note on/off programming. It’s possible to record automation and edit various parameters for each sequencer step, allowing for radical shifts in sound from step to step. It’s also possible to nudge steps off the grid, add ratchets, as well as set probability levels for individual steps. The step sequencer also has a Last Step mode, allowing for differing sequence lengths across each track.

The step sequencer is a particularly nice tool when using the MPC hooked up to external gear via MIDI or CV, and makes it far more practical, and fun, to simultaneously sequence an external synth or drum machine from the MPC while also performing with the pads.

Along with these control elements, there are a few upgrades to the connectivity offered by the MPC Live III. On the rear panel, the ins and outs are largely the same as version II, but the inputs are now combi ports, as opposed to jacks, which makes it easier to hook up a mic and adds to the flexibility.

The USB port used to connect to a computer is also upgraded to a USB-C port. This is more than a port upgrade though – the MPC III now lets users stream audio directly through this connection, either to sample into the machine or stream audio to a DAW. This means it’s possible to easily, for example, sample directly from YouTube or (some) mobile devices.

It also means that the MPC Live III can now stream up-to 32 simultaneous input/output channels of audio over USB (that results in 24 input options and 24 output options in your DAW). This is another handy option for those moving projects to or from a DAW, alongside the existing export/transfer functions.

On the front panel, meanwhile, there is a new onboard condenser microphone nestled along the top edge of the speaker. This allows users to sample directly into the hardware without needing to connect anything to the inputs. While it’s not going to replace your top-end studio mic and channel strip any time soon, the quality is decent and it’s great for recording quick percussion hits or rough vocals.

Out to launch

The final significant new feature added for the MPC Live III is clip launching. This is ported over from Akai’s Force – the device launched a few years back that was essentially a standalone Ableton Push before Ableton made that a real thing.

The workflow will be familiar to users of Live and Logic, etc. Along with the MPC’s standard arrangement functions, each pattern or loop can now be duplicated into a Clip, which can be arranged into and launched as scenes.

It’s a nice additional tool, particularly for live performers. Clips can be triggered from a variety of places, including the screen, pads and step sequencer, which is nice when multitasking. My only minor gripe is that I’d love to be able to drag and move clips around the grid using the touchscreen, rather than having to copy and paste them.

Verdict

Taking these headline features together, the MPC Live III really is a fantastic upgrade. It does land at a price point noticeably higher than its predecessor – around £400 at launch – but given the additional under-the-hood power and expanded controls, this feels reasonable.

There is an argument to be made that cramming so much more functionality into a similar sized box leaves the Live III feeling cluttered. Personally, I don’t find this a problem, if anything I actually find the additional buttons makes overall navigation easier.

I feel like some users may find the significant amount of extra controls cumbersome though. There is certainly a lot more to get your head around on the front panel, and it’s a lot easier to hit the wrong button.

When it comes to the OS itself though, the opposite is true. When I’ve reviewed previous MPC models in the past, I’ve often highlighted the slightly convoluted and disjointed workflow as a weak point. To Akai’s credit, when the company launched the v3.0 software last year, not only did it add features such as stem separation and NKS compatibility, but it also streamlined the workspace significantly.

Tracks are now unified into a single interface with a clear and more navigable ‘main mode’ and the overall look of the interface is more stylish and better laid out. There is, admittedly, still a lot going on within the overall MPC workspace, and I still find myself getting lost at times, but the overall user experience has improved significantly since the first version of the MPC Live launched.

Taking all this into account, there’s little doubt in my mind that the MPC Live III is the best standalone DAW-in-a-box on the market right now. That’s not to say it’s, for comparison, a Push 3 killer – what Ableton has that Akai doesn’t is a wealth of DAW heritage that allows Push to act as a conduit between standalone and DAW workflow.

For those looking for a hybrid workflow between standalone and DAW modes, Push arguably offers the smoother experience. With the MPC Live III, however, Akai has gone all-in on the standalone functionality, which seems like a really smart choice.

This is a truly go-anywhere production box that’s determined to keep you away from a laptop at all costs. For those who want to commit to that standalone workflow, there’s nothing better out there right now.

Alternatives

Specifications

When I reviewed Ableton’s compact hardware sketchpad Move last year, I wrote that ‘for some, Move might prove to be a gamechanger, but others will likely struggle to fit it into their creative workflow’. I must admit that, initially at least, I fell into the latter category.

On the (increasingly rare) occasions I get to play around with Live for non-work purposes, it tends to involve processing simple sounds with Live’s more sound design-focused devices, such as its Hybrid Reverb, the pair of Spectral effects or Roar’s multi-stage distortion/delay. Move, which is more geared towards composing than sound design, doesn’t necessarily fit into that way of working.

I’ve always been impressed by Move’s capabilities when it comes to sketching out rough ideas, and I appreciate how it can be used to quickly rough out the basic elements of a track. It just doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the type of music I like to make.

In recent weeks, however, I’ve picked Move back up, and something has finally clicked. This is, in part, thanks to a run of firmware updates that have added a handful of intriguing new features since Move was first launched. (Updating our original review in light of these was my initial reason for revisiting the hardware).

It’s also a result of embracing an altogether looser and more haphazard way of using the device, which has helped to find a genuinely useful and inspiring way to fit it into my creative workflow. But more on that later…

On the Move

When Ableton Move was revealed in 2024, it excited plenty of Live users but confounded others. On the surface Ableton’s new hardware device looked a lot like a micro version of Push, but those expecting a straightforward compact controller were likely left confused by the various things Move both could and couldn’t do.

Move is simultaneously more capable and more niche than one might expect from first glance. Although it has the look of a simple controller or sequencer, Move’s onboard processor and bespoke OS allow it to act as a self-contained groovebox, stocked with synths, drum kits and sampled instruments, complete with a variety of effects and capable of both sampling and resampling.

For all that it can do, however, there are a number of limitations on what Move is capable of compared to Push 3. Whereas Push, in both controller and standalone modes, aims to offer as full a recreation of the desktop Live experience as possible, Move makes use of just a small selection of Live’s instrument and effect devices and in most cases limits these to using presets and a selection of pre-configured macro controls.

For the most part, these limitations are intentional and kind of the whole point of Move. As an instrument, it’s pitched as a sketchpad more than anything else – a tool designed to create beats and patterns that can be further developed in its companion DAW. It purposely foregoes the bells and whistles required to create finished arrangements or build live performances.

In practice, working around these limitations can be one of the most creative and inspiring aspects of Move’s workflow. The limited track count, for example, encourages the use of the instrument’s resampling functionality. By bouncing synth or bass riffs down to slots in a Drum Rack, it's possible to simultaneously free up tracks for additional melodic layers as well as open up new ways to manipulate your resampled loops via the effects in Move’s Drum Sampler.

Drum Sampler is one of a handful of new or upgraded Live devices that have emerged since Move was first unveiled that have clearly been designed with its workflow in mind. It’s more simplistic than Live’s Simpler and Sampler devices, which makes it ideal for Move’s control surface, but also opens up new creative tools with its multifunctional effect slot, which offers on-the-fly looping, stretching, ring modulation and other interesting ways to process one-shot samples.

Similarly well suited is the updated Auto Filter, which adds new creative modes including comb and vowel filters along with a revamped control layout. Auto Filter’s introduction to Move’s toolkit is very welcome as its multifunctional LFO helps to address the instrument’s slight lack of modulation sources by providing a quick and easy solution for keeping sounds moving.

It bodes well for Move owners that Ableton is showing an ongoing dedication to unifying the workflow between Move, Note, Push and Live. Both Drum Sampler and Auto Filter are Device highlights across all of these platforms, and their inclusion helps Move feel less like a ‘light’ version of the Live toolset, and more like one specifically targeted at the DAW’s most immediate creative tools.

Thanks to a regular flow of firmware updates, Move itself has also been improved in a number of ways since it first hit the market. Move’s latest firmware is version 1.6, with v1.7 in beta, and each ‘point’ upgrade has brought improvements that make the hardware slightly more useful in a day-to-day studio context.

Aside from the introduction of Auto Filter, the majority of these improvements have focused on ways in which Move can sample from or interact with other devices. Move can now, for example, sample audio via its USB-C input, which is great for recording directly from a laptop or mobile device (although you’ll still need an adapter if you’re using a Lightning-equipped iPhone).

Ableton has also significantly upgraded Move’s MIDI options, allowing each of its four tracks to both input and output MIDI simultaneously on a selected channel. Move can also now receive MIDI clock from an external source, as well as output MIDI clock at the same time as receiving MIDI notes.

The other major improvement, introduced this summer, is the ability to slice a sampled loop into up-to 16 sections. This is a manual process, which slices a loop in equal chunks by default and requires the users to manually move slice points to adjust those divisions, as opposed to automatically placing slice points on transients, as in Live itself.

Neither sample slicing or the MIDI upgrades radically overhaul what Move is capable of, and in both cases there are competitors on the market that are more capable. For dedicated sampling, for instance, Move isn’t a patch on Roland’s similarly-priced SP-404.

Similarly, as much as Move’s MIDI capabilities are handy, it still lacks dedicated MIDI ports. This means all MIDI communication needs to come through the USB port, which in some cases will require use of an adapter or hub.

The point, however, is that Move is not a dedicated sampler or a hardware sequencer – it’s an accessory for Ableton Live, one designed to generate ideas and complement the workflow of the DAW. And each of these upgrades makes it a little more useful on that front.

Rediscovering Move

Move’s greatest asset, by far, is the simplicity of transferring sounds and ideas created with the hardware to Live. By using Ableton Cloud or the Move Manager, it takes seconds to wirelessly move Sets from one place to the other.

It’s embracing this aspect of Move that has finally made me see how useful it can be. When I’ve tried to create complete-sounding beats or loops, I tend to end up with things that I’m not particularly inspired by, but as a conduit for simply collecting ‘things’ to transfer to Ableton Live, it’s endlessly useful.

For example, in the process of reviewing new gear, I’m lucky enough to get my hands on an ever revolving line-up of new synths and drum machines. I’ll now regularly use Move to sample short snatches of sound from whatever I have to hand.

I might build a Drum Rack with my favourite one shots from a drum machine, or record synth arps and sequences as loops, perhaps slicing these to a Drum Rack too in order to resequence them later. I have an entire Move Set dedicated to sampled chord stabs from various hardware synths.

Sounds, not music

In the past, when I’ve sat down with Move, I’ve always felt inclined to try to make proper music with it. Not necessarily an attempt at a finished track, but a fully fledged beat complete with bassline and melodic elements, and it's in doing this that it inevitably leads me in a direction that I’m less interested in.

Now, I rarely use Move itself to edit or arrange things – beyond, perhaps, throwing a simple kick drum under a synth riff or creating a quick rhythm from one-shot samples. But capturing those raw sounds and simple motifs quickly creates a rich pool of inspiration that’s readily available the next time I sit down at Live itself.

Essentially, by stopping attempting to make proper music with Move, I’ve come to fully appreciate its potential as a platform for half-formed ideas and barely-there sketches. Move is now, for me at least, a fantastic platform for collecting ‘things’ completely detached from musical context – random chords I like the sound of, simple rhythmic patterns, odd percussive sounds captured via the onboard mic.

While none of Move’s recent updates have exactly altered its ability to be used in this way – it’s been possible to sample and store sounds since day one – each iteration adds a little more flexibility, should you want to, say, sequence a quick riff on an external synth, sample a sound from YouTube via USB-C, slice a synth sequence or reverse one-shot sounds in a drum kit.

Move’s latest update, currently in beta, opens up full access to Live’s Drift synth, which adds more routes to potential inspiration. Now, Move can be used to design synth sounds from scratch on the go. What’s more though, thanks to its lovely expressive pads, it makes the device an effective compact instrument in its own right – a mini synth that it’s possible to play with surprising expressivity.

One year on, Ableton’s commitment to opening up new ways that Move can be used has, for me at least, helped turn the device from a neat curiosity into the genuinely useful accessory it was always pitched as.

Lizzo has claimed that the ‘origins’ of sampling law are "racially charged".

The singer was on the podcast Million Dollaz Worth Of Game discussing her current mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling when she observed that: “In this day and age people get so weird about samples. I feel like the sampling laws are racist.”

“Why,” the presenters asked, before Lizzo broke it down: “The first time people started sampling was... who? It was rappers in the '80s and '90s. They were sampling records because they didn't have access to big studios. They didn't grow up learning how to play bass and stuff like that. They created the genre of hip-hop through sampling records in their parents' vinyls and stuff.

"There were no sampling laws back then," she added. "It was all a free-for-all. So, they was just outside, just like, ‘OK, this is just what it is.’ And then hip-hop was born, and it was this beautiful thing.”

After mistakenly citing Sir Mix-A-Lot as the first rapper to get sued for sampling - maybe she was thinking of Biz Markie, or even De La Soul, who were sued for using a sample from the '60s group The Turtles, on 3 Feet High and Rising - Lizzo continued.

“I just feel like the theft of it all, putting theft on black culture, that's the part that kind of turns me off.”

Perhaps feeling like she might be wading too deep into murky waters, she said: “Maybe this is a conversation that shouldn’t be on camera! It’s policing black music. Hip-hop's medium was sampling. Sampling is a Black art that bred hip-hop. Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft.”

Perhaps clarifying herself, lest anyone get the wrong idea she said: “The origins of sampling law, I think, were racially charged. It was policing Black art. I think now, of course, they had to regulate some sort of thing, and there's certain things that are fair and unfair. I get it. But when you're suing people off of a vibe, it's like, man, that's the vibe of my song.”

She relates an episode from her own career when she had inadvertently copied another song, without having any previous knowledge of it. “I get it if I have intentionally taken your song or if I was intentionally doing that – I want to give you credit. But I’ve had to give pieces of my songs up to songs I’ve never even heard of.”

But as many artists who’ve gone before will sagely nod, ignorance of the song whose copyright you’re infringing is no defence in a court of law.

We’ve known about the existence of Elektron’s Tonverk since leaked images of a prototype unit appeared online almost exactly a year ago.

At the time, Elektron appeared to confirm the veracity of the leak, while simultaneously dampening any hopes that a release was imminent, stating that: “At any given time there are a number of prototypes in various stages of development… Some eventually see the light of day and others stay in the proto stage.”

Now the Swedish brand has finally made things official, revealing full details of its latest hardware groovebox, which is available to order as of today.

As expected, Tonverk is a primarily sample-based instrument, albeit one that incorporates workstation-like elements that go beyond the sampling capabilities of regular samplers like Elektron’s own Digitakt. The instrument features 16 tracks, the first eight of which are stereo audio tracks, while the remaining eight handle routing and processing, with four assigned as bus tracks, three sends and one master mix channel.

Each audio track can work in one of three ways, making use of Elektron’s system of playback ‘machines’. The first of these is the Single Player machine, which lets users record and playback both mono and stereo samples polyphonically, with the ability to adjust sample length and playback behaviour, as well as set loop points and crossfading.

The second machine mode is labelled Multi Player, which allows Tonverk to create and load multi-sampled instruments that can be played back polyphonically. To make full use of this, Tonverk introduces an Auto Sampler function, which uses MIDI to automatically multi-sample hardware instruments.

The final audio track mode is called Subtracks. This allows each audio track to play host to eight individual monophonic sample players, each with its own sample parameters and sequencer track. This allows a single audio track to be used as a full drum kit or a means to layer monophonic ideas.

Audio tracks can also function as a MIDI track for controlling external gear.

Each of these tracks can make use of what Elektron describes as ‘a kaleidoscope of effects and huge modulation possibilities’. In practice, that equates to features including two assignable LFOs and two effect LFOs per audio track, an assignable envelope for each audio track, plus two LFOs for each bus/send track. There’s also a flexible mod matrix for routing pitch bend, mod wheel, breath control and aftertouch.

On the effect front, Tonverk has a total of 17 modules available across its various track types (options differ from track to track). Many of these are new for Tonverk, and feature enticing titles such as Infinite Flanger, Phase 98, Dirtshaper, Chrono Pitch and Supervoid Reverb.

In typical Elektron fashion, each of Tonverk’s tracks can be controlled using a deep and flexible step sequencing workflow. Tonverk’s sequencer can program up-to 256 steps per track and comes equipped with functionality including parameter lock automation, an arpeggiator, probability-based sequencing, per-track sequence lengths and micro-timing adjustments.

According to Elektron: “Whether you’re multi-sampling your favorite synth, crafting drum kits, routing things all over the place or sending sounds out and back in for further alchemy, Tonverk is made for expansive sound design and immediate play.”

With its ability to save fully-fledged multi-sampled instruments and multi-part drum kits, as well as its routing and sequencing tools, Tonverk looks like the closest thing Elektron has released to a true ‘DAW in a box’ system.

The obvious question is whether or not Tonverk is intended as a replacement for Elektron’s similarly-priced Octatrack. On paper, Tonverk looks a lot like an upgrade to the Octatrack’s eight-track design; keeping the stereo sampling but expanding it with new modes and internal routing options.

That said, Tonverk lacks some popular Octatrack features such as its crossfader and, at first glance at least, appears to put less emphasis on live performance and more on studio functionality.

In terms of the Tonverk hardware itself, the rear panel features four balanced jack outputs, two balanced jack inputs, a stereo headphone output, and MIDI in, out and through ports. There’s also an SD card port providing expandable memory, along with two USB-C ports.

Tonverk can function as a class compliant USB audio device. There’s currently no word on compatibility with Elektron’s Overbridge software.

Tonverk will come loaded with a sound library containing single samples, multi-sampled instruments, drum kits and preset projects.

Tonverk is available to order now priced at $1,599/€1,399/£1,199. Head to the Elektron website for more.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s unveiling of Live 12.3, Ableton has released updates for its Note iOS app and Move hardware. While there are a few differences between these two updates, they share one key headline feature – adding full, unabridged access to Live’s stock synth Drift.

This isn’t the first time users of either platform have had access to Drift sounds – patches based on the Drift engine have been available in both Move and Note since each product debuted. As with most of the devices ported across from Live, however, those sounds have previously been offered up as presets that users could shape and modulate via a selection of pre-defined macro controls.

Now, for the first time, Note and Move users have full access to one of Live’s synths complete with every parameter available in the DAW version and the ability to craft patches from an initialised state.

Despite their visual differences, Move and Note share a lot of fundamental similarities. Note, which launched in 2022, brings a stripped-back version of the Live workflow to iOS devices, allowing users to play and sequence MIDI clips as well as sample and sequence audio, plus manipulate sounds with a limited selection of Live’s stock effects.

Move is a standalone hardware device designed as an on-the-go sketchpad companion to Live, although under-the-hood it essentially runs a variation on the Note app.

Both formats control instruments and effects via a bank of eight parameter controls, which are adjusted via the touchscreen in the case of Note and using a bank of eight touch-sensitive rotaries on the Move hardware.

In each case, in order to control Drift, these controls can cycle through multiple banks of parameters for adjusting the synth’s oscillators, filters and modulation tools, along with a top-level bank of macros.

The key difference between the rollout of Drift across the two platforms is that, while it comes to Move as a free firmware update, access to the full version of Drift in Note requires an in-app purchase, although this is fairly reasonably priced at $3.99.

In either case, having access to the full range of Drift parameters is an excellent addition. As Live users will likely already know, Drift is a fantastic-sounding, wonderfully versatile analogue-style synth capable of creating both faux-vintage tones and modern timbres. Particularly when combined with Move’s expressive pads, it can create some highly dynamic and vibrant synth patches.

The Note update is out now, and also adds an assortment of bug fixes and minor workflow refinements (all of which are free, and don’t require the purchase of Drift).

Move’s latest firmware update, v1.7, is available today via public beta. Along with the upgrade to Drift, the update also introduces the ability to adjust the brightness of the Move hardware, and adds a pair of new acoustic drum racks.

The update follows hot on the heels of other recent Move updates. Version 1.5, which arrived earlier this summer, significantly improved the device’s MIDI capabilities and added much-requested sample-slicing capabilities. V1.6, which left the beta stage just yesterday, introduced the ability to reverse samples in Drum Racks.

The Note app is available from Apple’s App Store priced at $/£6.99. Move is available now priced at £419/$499. Find out more about Note on the Ableton site, and join the Move public beta here.

Sonicware’s Lofi-12 XT first landed in 2023, itself an update to the company’s Liven Lofi-12 that had launched a year previously. Both machines share a similar ethos – reviving the crunchy, low-bitrate sound of samplers from the ‘80s and ‘90s within compact, modernised instruments that offered easier and more flexible sound shaping than the machines that inspired them.

The Lofi-12 XT expanded on the concept with longer sample times, increased connectivity and more hands-on performance features, all while keeping the price around the relatively-affordable £/$400 mark. Now the capabilities of the XT model have been expanded further via a substantial v1.5 firmware update.

The most interesting new features come to the device’s Sound Page. Here the machine gains new reverse playback sample modes, which allow it to play samples back-to-front, either as one-shots, loops or slices. The sampler’s slice mode has been improved too, making it possible to chop a loop into up-to 16 slices, as well as making it easier to edit all slices simultaneously.

The machine’s sequencing workflow gets an upgrade too, allowing users to start playback of a sequence from a specific step, as well as preview the sound of a specific step in a sequence – all of which promises to make editing and adjusting patterns easier.

Lofi-12 XT gains four new master effects too. These are Snip Loop, which will capture and repeat a chunk of the current loop, an Isolator EQ and a new beat repeat-style Remix effect. There are also newly separated Sidechain and standard Compressor modes.

Perhaps the most useful of the new features is audio exporting, which allows users to export the audio of their loops directly as a .wav file that can easily be imported directly into a DAW or another device. The Lofi-12 XT can export a full mixdown of a complete loop or individual stems of each track.

Lofi-12 XT still has a 16-bit/12kHz/24kHz engine at its core, equipped with a 12-bit sampler mode. Each sample has a maximum length of 300 seconds and, depending on your SD card, you can store as many samples as you like and load up 256 of these into a single project.

The onboard eight-track sequencer allows for both real and step-time recording plus it can record automation. The new effects are added to an existing lineup of 20 master processors.

Beyond the headline features, v1.5 also adds a variety of improvements to the interface, MIDI functionality and bug fixes. The XT now also comes with samples created by hip-hop producers Dibiase and Ski Beatz.

The v1.5 firmware is available now for existing users. New users can currently pick up the sampler for a discounted price of £359/$379. Head to the Sonicware site for more info.

WoO.1, the debut instrument from Hong Kong-based Wunderkammer, has been previewed in a recent series of demo videos ahead of its imminent launch on Kickstarter.

The instrument – pronounced ‘woo one’ – is a pocket-sized, battery powered sampler designed to allow users to layer loops and patterns whenever and wherever creativity strikes.

With its thin, rectangular body and chunky, retro control panel, it's tempting to compare the WoO.1 to Teenage Engineering’s cult classic OP-1. In reality though, its workflow and price point mean that WoO.1 has more in common with Teenage Engineering’s EP-133 KOII.

Much like that sampler, the WoO.1 can make use of samples imported via its USB input or recorded directly from its built-in mic. Samples can be trimmed using the instrument's front panel controls, and then played chromatically and polyphonically using the button keyboard.

The WoO.1 is designed to work as a looper, letting users layer an apparently unlimited number of tracks to create compositions. These can be saved as grooves and chained to create longer arrangements. It will also offer simple resampling, making it easy to replay a loop at different pitches and tempos, as well as apply effects, with high-, low- and band-pass filtering and a pitch shifter on offer.

It appears that right now, each new layer is effectively baked into the loop – ie the layers are saved and exported as a single audio file – although in a reply to a query in the YouTube comment section, Wunderkammer has indicated it intends to implement individual stem export in a future update.

The device also features a variety of other tools, including an arpeggiator, MIDI output and a ‘music game’ mode, which promises to teach users to play along with 7 built-in songs in a variety of styles and tempos.

As well as allowing users to record or import their own sounds, WoO.1 will come stocked with 161 built-in sounds.

WoO.1 is still in the prototype stage so we’ll be interested to see how it develops as it heads towards production and release.

Wunderkammer is currently yet to launch its Kickstarter campaign – due to launch 19 August – so we don’t have a confirmed price. The brand’s site invites interested parties to reserve a unit in the first run for a deposit of $3 though, which will also secure a discount of ‘35% off (save $150)’ – so we’d expect a final price a little below $450.

Those that sign up now are also promised access to a VIP community and ‘secret extra gift’. Head to the Wunderkammer site for more information, and keep an eye on the Kickstarter page for updates.

Esteemed electronic instrument designer Roger Linn has uploaded a new video onto Youtube that sees him demonstrate how the Akai MPC Live can be used as ‘the ultimate looper’.

It’s quite a turn of events for Linn, one of those select individuals whose name is synonymous with an instrument, in his case the Linn Drum, the sound of late '80s pop.

Linn worked with Akai in the late '80s to create the original MPC60. Akai was then bought out by Jack O’Donnell, the American company Numark, with whom Linn has a notorious falling out in the late 1990s.

Jack O’Donnell's company – later rebranded as InMusic – stopped paying royalties to Linn and let the MPC line decline. Linn became a prominent critic of the company, to the extent of calling O’Donnell, “a bastard”.

But times change, people move on and Akai and Linn now appear to have mended their broken relationship – hence the video which sees him extolling and then demonstrating the looping capabilities of the Akai MPC Live 2. “Kudos to Akai’s software team,” he says.

The video also see Linn making use of his own Linnstrument hardware, an expressive keyboard-like control surface first released in 2015.

It’s not the first such video Linn has made since he and Akai made up. Last year he surprised many by reviewing the MPC Live 2 after the current Akai company sent him a model.

Linn himself isn't alone in being impressed by the current generation of MPC hardware. When we reviewed the MPC Live 2 in 2021 we called it "the high point of the current MPC range."

What is it?

Swedish hardware manufacturer Teenage Engineering has made a name for itself in recent years with its innovative electronic instruments, iconic design style, and occasionally, a touch of controversy. Their latest offering into the sampler market, the EP-1320 Medieval fits all of the above, billed as “the ultimate, and only, medieval beat machine”.

The EP-1320 Medieval is essentially an updated edition of 2023’s EP-133 K.O. II sampler. As we've already reviewed this device, we won’t rehash too many of the similarities between the models, instead focusing on what new features this ancient-inspired instrument has to offer.

At first glance, the EP-1320 looks and feels great – sharing the same form factor, controls and connectivity as the K.O. II, but with an updated colour scheme and artwork. The build quality is sturdy and robust, yet thin, lightweight, and portable. Portability is a key factor here, as the unit can be battery-powered, with the built-in speaker and microphone allowing for easy use without any extra hardware or cabling. For an additional cost, Teenage Engineering even offers a quilted carry bag, so you can really look the part at the local village fayre.

Performance

When playing around with any new piece of hardware, there is always a learning curve to be had to understand the device’s idiosyncrasies and hidden features. The EP-1320’s naming conventions for the controls takes this to new levels of indecipherability, leaving users unsure whether to reach for an instruction manual or a Latin dictionary.

Despite sharing many of the same functions as its predecessor, familiar controls such as ‘volume’, ‘play’, and ‘FX’ have now been replaced by ‘magnitudo’, ‘fabula’, and ‘pocus’. This choice of faux-Latin labelling is not the most user-friendly idea that Teenage Engineering has come up with, however, it certainly adds another layer of mystery and intrigue to the device, creating a sense of deciphering an ancient artefact from a bygone time. An easy workaround to this issue is to simply consult the manual.

Alongside the printed graphics on the instrument’s shell, the EP-1320 also features an array of icons on the LED screen, intended to be visual cues to represent level metering and the status of the device’s various functions. Again, these prove to be equally as confusing as they are amusing.

The EP-1320 Medieval comes with 128MB memory, double that of its older cousin. However, a precious 96MB of this is used up by the stock sounds that cannot be deleted, leaving only a meagre 32MB for user samples. With the original K.O. II’s 64MB of memory already feeling somewhat limited compared to other similar products, this lack of space certainly comes across as a downgrade for users who are wanting to record and edit their own samples. That being said, it seems quite clear that this device is designed to occupy a more specialist, niche area of the market, offering a well-curated selection of sounds that are designed to work cohesively together.

The preinstalled sounds are an eclectic mix of horns, flutes, bowed and plucked strings, Gregorian chants, drums and percussion, as well as a wide array of medieval inspired foley sounds such as horses, clashing swords, cackling witches and rowdy peasants. The samples are high quality, and with the device’s 12 mono/six stereo voice polyphony, it’s easy to create rich textures very quickly. The EP-1320 comes with nine demo tracks, ranging from grandiose medieval fanfares, to clanging 21st century techno stompers, which can be remixed through the unit’s onboard punch-in effects.

The updated effects on the EP-1320 consist of a dungeon echo, torture chamber reverb, distortion, bardic ensemble, filter, compressor, and a dimension expander – which can all be assigned to individual pads, the main mix, or to a live input. Despite having different tonal qualities to the effects on the K.O. II, it’s impossible to say whether one version sounds objectively better than the other, and in the end it comes down to personal preference.

Verdict

All in all, there’s no doubting that the EP-1320 Medieval is heaps of fun, and it’s always great to see innovation within a market that can sometimes appear to be running out of original ideas. It looks great, it feels great and, if you’re into that sort of thing, it sounds great as well.

However, for users looking to sample their own sounds, it’s clear that the EP-133 K.O. II is still the knockout champ, offering double the user memory at the same price point. But for the dungeonsynth aficionado, D&D roleplayer, or Bardcore-ious, the EP-1320 Medieval is surely the holy grail.

Hands-on demos

teenage engineering

Alternatives

Specifications

Digitakt II arrived last year, and seriously expanded on the specs of Elektron’s modern classic sampler.

Most of what the original Digitakt could do, version 2 aimed to do better – it swapped mono sampling for fully stereo operation, doubled the audio track count from eight to 16, expanded the step sequencer and added new filters and improved effects.

As we said in our review at the time, however, while Digitakt II doubled down on what we liked about the original, it didn’t add much that the original wasn’t capable of. It was a case of more of the same, but better. With its latest firmware update, that looks set to change.

Any way you slice it...

One of the key shortcomings of both iterations, in the eyes of some users at least, was its lack of manual sample slicing capabilities. This is what Elektron is now set to rectify with the release of OS 1.5 and its new Slice machine.

As with other instruments in Elektron’s lineup, Digitakt’s sound engine makes use of a system of ‘machines’, which are virtual modules that let users swap out different modes of sound generation and filter types.

Both versions of Digitakt offered basic sample slicing thanks to the original Slice machine, which was added to Digitakt I via a firmware update (and later renamed Grid machine for Digitakt II).

That original machine allowed users to divide a loop into equal slices and then trigger and sequence these elements individually. Technically, it was a form of sample slicing, but compared to functionality in rival machines such as Roland’s SP-404 or software such as Ableton’s Simpler, where users can manually adjust slice points or automatically slice a loop by its transient, Digitakt’s functionality felt somewhat lacking.

It is precisely these features that Elektron has addressed with the new Slice machine. Digitakt II users can now divide a loop into a maximum of 64 slices. As well as applying an equally-divided slice layout, users can also engage the new Transient mode in order to slice a loop by its transient peaks.

The new machine also comes with a Slice editor, which lets users adjust the start, end and loop points of every sample. A link mode allows adjacent slices to be edited in unison.

As well as offering new ways to divide and edit slices, the OS update also adds Slice-friendly features to Digitakt II’s versatile sequencer, including features designed to make it easy to sequence and randomise slices.

In addition to broadening the capabilities of what Digitakt II can do, the new Slice machine also adds a further dividing line differentiating it from its predecessor.

It doesn’t appear that Elektron intends to roll out similar capabilities to the original machine. It’s unclear whether this is due to limitations of the original hardware or simply a choice in order to focus on the newer model, but either way, it provides a more compelling reason for owners of Digitakt I to take the plunge on an upgrade.

OS 1.5 is a free download for users of Digitakt II. Head to the Elektron site for more information.

David Lynch might have been known principally as a filmmaker, but when he died, earlier this year, the music world mourned his passing, too.

Known for his soundtracks, solo albums and collaborations, his passion for making music shone through, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that he managed to amass a pretty substantial collection of instruments and recording gear.

Now, many of Lynch’s studio essentials are set to go under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions. Bidding has now opened on almost 450 items from his personal archives, and there are some classic and eccentric bits of music tech equipment among them.

For synth fans, the highlight might be Lynch’s E-MU Emulator III sampling keyboard. A second evolution of the original Emulator, which was released in 1981, the v3 iteration arrived in 1987 and is notable for being the first 16-bit model in the range.

Lynch’s Emulator III comes with its own dedicated flight case, which has the director’s name stencilled on the side. The current bid sits at $3,500, which is already more than was originally estimated.

A Fender Rhodes Mark II 88 electric piano looks like another highlight - bidding has already reached $7,000 on this one - but if you’re after something a little cheaper, why not consider Lynch’s personal Stylophone? Or maybe not, because this $30 touchpen synth already has an $800 price ticket.

Given this eye-popping figure, the bundle of Korg Kaoss Pad 3 and Kaossilator - currently at $900 - seems like a bit of a bargain, but if you want to get your hands on (or off…) Lynch’s theremin, you’ll need to be prepared to pay more than $2,000.

The physical auction doesn’t take place until 18 June in Los Angeles, so we’d expect all of the aforementioned items to sell for significantly more than the figures we’ve quoted, but we suspect that it’s Lynch’s guitars that are going to reach the highest prices. His famous combination of 1997 Parker Fly and Roland VG-8EX guitar synth has already hit five figures, as has his 1980s Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor hollowbody electric guitar.

If you’re looking for something more outlandish, meanwhile, how about Lynch’s 2012 Danny Ferrington Custom Console Steel style instrument with five fretted necks? That one’s currently at $7,000.

You can find out more about the auction, including how to register and bid, on the Julien’s website.

Superbooth 25: In recent years, LA-based instrument brand 1010music has made a name for itself with its Nanobox range – an assortment of ultra-compact digital instruments that includes the Razzamatazz drum machine, Lemondrop granular synth and Tangerine sampler.

Its latest release, Bento, is something altogether more substantial. Described as a “flagship music production lab” Bento is a self-contained sampling instrument that aims to replace your DAW and become the focal point of your music making setup.

“Bento is everything our users have been asking for in a flagship sampler – more power, more control, and more performance tools, all in a portable package,” says 1010music founder Aaron Higgins. “It’s designed to replace your laptop and become the brain of your setup.”

The device itself is focused around a 7-inch colour touchscreen, which comes accompanied by 16 velocity and pressure sensitive pads and eight endless rotary controllers.

Bento can create fully-fledged compositions using a scene-based workflow, capable of real time recording, step sequencing, piano roll input and equipped probability tools. It can sequence eight tracks, each with four sequences, allowing users to build full sequences or launch clips for DAWless jam sessions.

Bento offers a range of sample playback modes, capable of hosting chromatic multi-sampled instruments, pad-based drums, one-shots and loops. It also features beat slicing and granular capabilities inherited from 1010’s Lemondrop.

The instrument is also designed to play nicely with your other bits of studio hardware. There are three stereo inputs, three stereo outputs, dual TRS MIDI I/O and USB-C host/device ports. The instrument has an effects engine with per-track delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, and phaser with automation, as well as an internal mixer that allows the user to process external sounds.

Bento will ship with 5GB+ of sample content, including multi-sampled synths and instruments created by Samples from Mars, Soundtrack Loops and Drew Neumann. It also offers Internal 24-bit resampling and sample streaming from its microSD.

Bento is completely standalone thanks to its onboard battery, which 1010 tells us offers 3 hours of wireless use.

Bento is available to order now priced at $899. Head to the 1010music website for more.

Superbooth 25: Polyend Synth was released in late 2024 and immediately became one of our favourite new releases of last year.

In comparison to other Polyend grooveboxes like Tracker and Play, which put an emphasis on sequencing, Synth is all about playability, featuring three multi-functional synth engines that can be controlled using an adaptable grid of poly-aftertouch pads.

Now, ahead of this year’s Superbooth, Polyend has dropped an update for synth, which adds a whole new engine to the instrument. Labelled DWA – Dual Wave Architecture – this new mode makes use of two sample-based oscillators in order to specialise in playable textures and experimental patches.

The two samples used by DWA can be cross-mixed, looped, reversed and randomised. The start and end points and loop position of each sample can be modulated using Synth’s LFOs or envelopes as well as manipulated on-the-fly using the instrument’s control rotaries.

DWA also features a feedback loop for each sample that can create delays or chorus/flanger effects. The delay times of each loop can be modulated, to create stuttering rhythmic effects. The feedback loops can also be set to track MIDI pitches too, allowing for the creation of tunable effects using short feedback times.

The DWA engine also packs a multimode filter, two LFOs and three envelope generators. As with other engines in Synth, all parameters can be controlled by the instrument’s polyphonic aftertouch for extra expressivity.

Alongside the firmware update itself, the 1.3 update comes with a selection of 100 samples and a healthy selection of presets to get you started, although users can also upload their own sounds for use with the new engine.

“Many users were requesting a sample-based synth engine, and we wanted to give them one,” explains Polyend developer Karol Celiński. “We wanted to create something more than just a basic sample-based playback engine and we immediately started to consider how to push things further. I’ve always admired how Andy Stott builds tracks from just a few carefully shaped samples and his minimal, textural approach influenced the design.

“DWA is designed around dual sample layers—similar to our dual-oscillator synths. The outcome turned out to be very playable and expanded the sound design possibilities exponentially.The goal was to design a sample engine with lots of potential for modulation of how the loop plays back, the size of the loop, etc. Synced loops became one of the most unique aspects of this engine, I think it works differently than anything existing. Every looped sample creates a kind of rhythm on its own.

“What started as a simple idea quickly evolved into one of the most inspiring engines we’ve built, and it’s been great to see even our experienced sound designers getting excited by what they’re creating with DWA.”

The 1.3 update also adds a variety of other new features, refinements and bug fixes. Most notable of these are new options to customise the colour coding of the pad grid, as well as new grid layouts that make it easier to play Synth’s three engines simultaneously.

There’s also expanded MIDI capabilities, with a new MIDI Engine that allows users to save and load custom CC mappings, plus support for using poly aftertouch and channel pressure with external devices.

The firmware update and content pack is available for all users to download from the Polyend website. Synth itself is available now priced at $549. Revisit our original review below.

Superbooth 25: Ableton Move arrived last year and was quite a surprising release from the Berlin software brand.

Although, on the surface, it looks like just another pad-based Live controller, Move is actually a self-contained instrument that functions like a cross between Ableton’s flagship Push hardware and its Note iOS app.

In short, Move allows users to play and sequence four tracks’ worth of instruments, based on devices derived from counterparts in Live. These include sampled beats and instruments, making use of Live’s Drum Racks and Drum Sampler, as well as synths powered by the likes of Drift and Operator.

Move also allows users to sample directly into the device, manipulate sounds using a small selection of Live effects, as well as act as a Live controller when hooked up to a computer running that DAW.

Now Ableton has launched a new firmware update for Move, which looks to be its most significant update yet.

When Move launched, one of the most common complaints from potential users was its lack of automatic sample slicing. Although Move allows users to sample using its audio input, onboard mic or internal routing – and lets users manually spread a recording across different pads – at launch it lacked the ability to automatically slice a loop to be triggered across different Drum Rack pads, in the way Live allows.

With the 1.5 update, Move now offers that option to slice a sample into equal regions, with the amount of slices set by the user. Users can then adjust the individual slice points in order to fine tune the process.

Move 1.5 also significantly enhances the device’s MIDI capabilities. Move can now simultaneously send and receive MIDI across its four tracks, which can each be configured with its own MIDI in and out settings. Move can also now receive MIDI clock settings from external devices.

It’s worth noting that Move uses its USB port for MIDI I/O, and doesn’t have conventional MIDI input and output ports.

Live’s newly overhauled Auto-Filter device also comes to Move 1.5, along with a range of presets. The update also adds some refinements to how Move functions when controlling Live, along with a variety of bug fixes.

These new updates join several other enhancements to the Move workflow that have been added since launch. These include the ability to sample using the device’s USB port, as well as improvements to the arpeggitor and quantize modes.

The 1.5 firmware is currently in public beta, head to the Ableton beta program site to find out how to join.

Move itself is available now, priced at £399/€449/$449. For more info visit the main Ableton site. Revisit our original review below.

What is it?

There was a time when a mini keyboard with speakers would be shunned for fear of it being a toy or, worse, a 'home keyboard' with auto accompaniments and bossanova rhythms. Not so in 2025. Now we have small companies, start-ups and even larger companies stretching the boundaries of music technology, releasing all-singing and all-sampling keyboards and synths that are putting the fun back into music creation, without an accompaniment in earshot.

WoFi is one of the best examples yet, the first product from Kiviak Instruments, a small team of developers from France and (where else) Berlin. It is a portable lo-fi keyboard sampler with a 'Texturer engine' and other effects to mangle sounds, and all behind a supremely easy interface that lets you create totally new timbres in an instant. You can load in samples via its internal memory, plugin cartridge or wi-fi, and play them as normal, should you wish, but it's more about lo-fi than wi-fi as smashing those sounds up has never been such fun. Let's call it WoFi then.

WoFi is a surprisingly sturdy and well-built keyboard – it might look plasticky from a distance but it has an aluminium case and wooden ends – and is powered by AC (supplied) or battery with up to four hours playback time on a single charge. Make sure you have the unit well charged while you use it under battery power, as bugs do creep in as the battery power fades.

Performance

It's easier to get across what the sampler does by covering its front panel controls, so let's do just that. The central Manager section has a large screen that is wonderfully clear and to the point. Just load in a sample from the internal patches on offer in the 100MB on-board memory (using the Int for Internal button), or via a 100MB (up to 18 minutes) removable cartridge (via the Cart button) using the Nav rotary to select and press it to load.

It's pretty easy to move samples and patches between the internal memory and cartridge and you can also load and save samples to a computer via USB using the WoFi Manager software, or access sounds via wi-fi from mywo.fi. Here you can download banks of sounds, those created by Kiviak and other users, edit them in the browser and a lot more – best of all it's free; just register, connect and off you go.

Alternatively, record your own samples using the switchable on-board mic or mono line input around the back with a level rotary and Record arm switch to record. Once you have your sample, you can create a patch with sequencer information (up to 16 steps) and other edited parameters like start/end points, looping and more, can all be changed using the screen's Waveform view, and all done via controls in the Texturer section, simply by pressing Shift.

Mangling time

Now the real fun starts because you can play the sample back across the keyboard in various ways via the Player section, so play it looped, as a one-shot, reversed, or looping back and forward via the Boom switch. There are also rotaries here for Pitch, Stretch (time-stretch slower by turning anticlockwise, speed it up by turning clockwise), and Glitch (adds noise and distortion). A fourth rotary, Machine, introduces one of 12 playback modes or 'rendering styles' so you can play samples back of your sound at various bit rates (from 1 to 16) and sample rates (from 4kHz to 32kHz).

Dialling rotaries within each of WoFi's sections brings up a lovely set of hexagonal graphics on screen reminiscent of UK TV quiz show Blockbusters. (“We'll have some distortion please Bob.”) The screen can also show a main ADSR envelope with sliders to the left controlling each stage and a set of three buttons determining what the envelope applies to, those being volume, filter or a combination of the two.

A simple but dramatic and useful 2-slope resonant low-pass filter is next with standard Cutoff and Resonance options plus an Envelope dial to set the modulation amount. Like everything else on WoFi, you get what you need up front, with few layers to mess with so you can get to the drama in no time.

Texturer is probably the main edit event, an effect 'inspired by' granular processing with dials for Depth (mix), Size (larger means smoother, shorter more percussive), Chaos (changes the processing start point) and Density (high means thicker timbres). Again, a set of cool, hexagonal graphics offers an indication of what you are doing on screen.

To the right of Texturer, a syncable LFO has Rate and Intensity dials for three waveforms that can modulate any front panel parameter. It's very easy to modulate with and, again, all the controls are right there in front of you – no messing about. Finally there's a simple sequencer – for recording step-by-step, or overdubbing with a Solo mode – which also doubles as an arpeggiator.

WoFi sounds

The all-important WoFi sound is obviously what makes or breaks the keyboard and here both the Texturer and Machine controls come into their own. You don't get a huge amount of sounds to start with, some 25 patches in the internal memory, but these only take up 49 of the available 1,024 memory blocks so there is plenty of room for more. You can also download these from mywo.fi and once you get connected, this is very easy. It's early days, but there are dozens of extra patches and samples here, many produced by other users and rated. They are easy to audition and you can either upload them direct to your WoFi or place any favourites in a folder to upload later. The number here is only going to increase as more users buy into WoFi and it's set to be an excellent resource.

WoFi's on-board sounds vary from atmospheric pads to big basses and keyboard leads, with the odd acoustic instrument thrown in, but it's really all about messing with them where WoFi scores well. Texturer works better on some sounds than others, tending to have more of a dramatic effect on those with a sharp attack and with the Depth and Size controls notched up; then the artifacts really do start dramatically taking hold. You can't help thinking that a simple reverb and delay would help liven things up here, but sounds can easily be saved and exported to your computer and processed later.

The sonic experimentations get even more dramatic when you bring in the Glitch and Machine options, especially the latter which can take the bit-rate right down to 1 for what can only be described as the sound of an ancient computer loading in a program. These really do take us back to the early '90s when using low sample and bit rates was done out of necessity through lack of sample memory, resulting in proper filth. Rose-tinted spectacles, maybe, but we love these varied scrunch options and think you will too. Playback through the on-board speaker is OK loud enough, but you'll get a much better frequency response and feel for the sound through your studio speakers. You get this playback through the right speaker while the left speaker is used for sampling, which is incredibly easy via the mic or line in.

Verdict

WoFi is an enormous amount of fun with a side helping of inspiration. Sure you don't get the deep dive options that some hardware alternatives offer, but that is intentional rather than a failing; this is not about subtlety or nuance, it's about hands-on, instant sonic thrashing, real-time pulsing and sequencing, and if you want some of that – and who doesn't? – then WoFi delivers the dirt in large doses and will have you smiling while doing it all.

The price might not make you grin and we could have done with some effect extras, but these might come in updates, and Kiviak has to be commended for breaking ground with WoFi and making sound design and sonic destruction just about as instantly inspiring as it can be, not to mention finally making keyboards with speakers very cool indeed.

Hands-on demos

Kiviak Instruments

Alternatives

Specifications

• Portable lo-fi sampler.
• 100MB memory plus 100MB removable cartridge.
• 10-voice polyphony.
• 48kHz, 16-bit mono recording via line input built-in mic.
• 16-step sequencer.
• Effects: pitch-shift, time-stretch, bit-crusher, resonant state variable filter, granular Texturer.
• Connectivity: sync clock in/out, CV in/out, gate in/out, mod, 2 x 14-inch line out and line in, headphone out, MIDI in/out/thru, USB.
• Dimensions: (W x D x H) 510 x 230 x 65mm.
• Weight: 2.5kg.
• Contact: Kiviak Instruments

What is it?

OP-XY is a typically divisive Teenage Engineering product that will have TE fans weeping with joy and detractors fuming at its asking price, leaving the rest of us bemused and confused.

That's because on the one hand, it can be seen as a mobile performance instrument with the coolest and sleekest of designs that is capable of jazzing up any groove you (easily) produce and performing it in endless variations at the twist of a gyroscope. Yet on the other, it's 'just' an 8-track multitimbral synth that you happen to be able to put into a large pocket. And one that costs £1,899/$2,299.

Muddying the OP waters further, XY is – depending on where you stand – either an upgraded OP-Z with an OLED screen and many souped-up features. Or it's an OP-1/OP-1 Field that moves on from tape-based sequencing to step sequencing with joined-up features that make it more of an all-round music studio in a box.

The truth is, it has enough going for it to consider it its own boss, so that's how we'll review it and keep those comparisons to a minimum. Which is hard when you unbox XY, as it initially looks and feels like the evil twin of OP-1 Field, very much the darker destroyer with a grey scale finish and none of those friendly, colour by control features of OP-1. It feels slightly menacing, then, but it turns out that it is as logical to use as any OP, not to mention as well-built, and it certainly feels expensive. Just as well…

Performance

Launching straight into create a tune – and you will, trust us – OP-XY works with projects (of which it can hold over ten thousand across its 8GB of drive space) with which you can either create your own with the press of the Project button, or select from a dozen or so pre-baked examples (with more presumably on the way) by pressing the Shift button.

Projects each have eight instrument tracks, including a couple of drum channels, all easily reconfigurable. There are also eight auxiliary channels accessed via the Auxiliary button, one of four main XY modes, the others being Instrument, Mixer and Arrangement for the sequencer setup. The eight aux channels include two for effects (with six effect types each), and several for configuring inputs and outputs (microphone, MIDI and CV), plus a channel each for adding real-time performance effects and setting scales and automatic key signatures by way of the Brain option. Many of these options set XY apart from a standard multitimbral sequencer in that they introduce all manner of performance options, which we'll cover later.

Filling a project with eight tracks of sequences (each of four pages of 64 steps) is as simple as selecting an instrument channel from the eight keys on offer, and either playing a note or sound and choosing a step on which it will appear, or recording live playing with quantise and swing options to tweak. We're not kidding, we had a half-decent tune within three minutes of booting XY up for the first time; it really is that simple. Just press the track number, hit Shift to choose a sound from eight categories (Strings, Pluck, Bass and so on), record in either step or real-time, rinse and repeat on other tracks and you're there.

In our test unit there were up to around 30 preset options per instrument category, as few as eight in the Strings folder, but we'll assume more will become available as downloads. Each sound comes from XY's eight synth engines (including subtractive, piano and wavetable options), and here's why it doesn't really matter about the number of presets, because XY makes tweaking each sound's main parameters to create something new as completely easy as it can be.

XY's cool grey-scale screen gives an often off-the-wall representation of what you are doing across four main editing rotaries – but at least you see something happen – and as soon as you like what you get, save it. You will do both (like and save), but better still, just hit the track number and Scramble option to come up with an invariably great random sound.

More than an 8-track

We're already impressed with both the sounds, their tweak-ability and the ease at which you can create entire tunes, but that four-digit asking price is still casting its shadow, so we have to ask 'what else?', and fortunately we've only just scratched the surface. We touched on the real-time performance options earlier and these are the deal makers/breakers, along with XY's modulation capabilities.

For the latter, on a sonic level you can add four LFO types: Element, Random, Tremolo and Value, with Element being the most interesting as you can select an envelope, or XY's built-in microphone and gyroscope as your mod sources (or a combination of the three). You then get sonic movement literally by moving the device using the gyroscope modulator – a familiar physical option for TE users where moving XY forwards, backwards or sideways can, depending on the instrument engine chosen, alter a sound's parameters – open a filter as you practice your Parisian mime on stage, for example. While we jest, of course, it has always been a cool option although we've not witnessed many TE users applying it live, plus we're old enough to recall German band Trio with their Casio VL-1 on TV back in the eighties, so we're not convinced we want to.

On to the real-time performance options and we'll start with Step Components, the ability to add one of 14 variations to any sequenced step you have recorded. You can simply play these over the top of your sequenced track – hit the track number, press Shift and choose from the 14 options along the bottom keys and you will add repeats, velocity/pitch changes, skip/hold steps and a lot more to your chosen track. All changes can be recorded into the sequence and deleted quite easily. Great fun and again, familiar options for TE veterans.

Not to be confused with Step Components are the 24 punch-in effects on Aux channel 2 that add percussive (bottom keyboard octave) and melodic (top octave) effects to your sequences; again these can be either performed live or baked in per track. These and the Step Components add an almost overwhelming number of performance options that can turn any loop into a song with many (many) variations. Tape is yet another Aux option that adds some real-time intrigue, this time using an audio buffer of your loop to introduce tape style effects to a performance.

Finally we must also squeeze in some words on both Brain and Maestro from XY's many other features. Brain offers key and scale changing and transposing options while Maestro is a chordal/melody generator that allows you to play and record chord and lines with a single key press. Brain uses an intelligent algorithm to determine progressions and is a very useful addition in the Aux department. Both offer yet more ways to vary those sequenced loops so by now it's pretty clear that XY is all about creating and performing complete pieces on the fly, and little out there comes close to its ease of achieving both of these.

Verdict

It's fair to say - and much of the internet will be saying it, as we speak – that you can get an awful lot of music gear for $2,300. A full-sized synth workstation with multitimbral recording will do the same thing but not in as small a form.

A laptop running a performance-based sequencer will do the same for less and in an almost as mobile setup. Products like Synstrom Audio's Deluge will even give you the all-in-one studio-in-a-box approach for less and offer more. Heck, you could even get an OP-Z, an EP-133 and all the Pocket Operator range, and still have change left for the bus fare to Stockholm.

But, as we hope we have conveyed, there's a lot of stuff buried and not so buried in XY that nearly warrants that asking price. Plus we suspect that the more we tell TE's potential customer base about any more logical alternatives, the more they'll ignore us and opt for an XY anyway.

One look at the design and the cool aesthetic, plus the gyration abilities and all of those many live performance extras, and those worries over the price will fade – indeed the fact that the price excludes this device from 'the masses' might even /increase/ its elitist appeal.

So basically whatever we say is irrelevant and we're guessing you've made your mind up already too – we know we have: XY is lovely, cool, does so much but costs too much, and we don't need it if we're being totally sensible and honest. But, yes, we really (really) do want one.

Hands-on demos

Teenage Engineering

Specifications

• Launch price: £1,899 / €2,299 / $2,299
• Keyboard: 24 Velocity-sensitive mini keys
• Polyphony: 24 voices
• Parts: 8 synth engines plus multisampling
• Eight aux channels
• Four filter types
• Effects: 24 punch-in, two channels for insert (choose from six), master EQ, saturator and compressor
• Sequencer: real or step time, 16-tracks, 64 steps, 4 pages, 9 patterns per track, 9 songs per projects, 14 Step
• Components; Arpeggiator and Maestro chord memory functions
• Brain and Tape real-time key and tape effects
• Connections: USB-C, mini audio out, multi-out (audio, MIDI and sync), audio in, built-in mic
• Power supply: via USB-C port
• Dimensions: (W x D x H) 288 x 102 x 29 mm
• Weight: 0.9 kg
• Contact: Teenage Engineering

With its distinctive hands-on interface and gritty sound, E-MU’s SP-1200 sampler is a bonafide classic, and now Behringer has suggested that it could be about to start work on a new and “affordable” version.

The news came after a user poll indicated that Behringer fans would be very much in favour of a new SP-1200 from the company, and now the big B is asking for feedback on what this should include.

“What additional features would you like to see in a modern take on this classic sampler?” asked Behringer on its Facebook page, before suggesting that “We believe we could make this happen for under $500.”

Designed by engineer Dave Rossum, the SP-1200 was originally released by E-MU back in 1987. Thanks to its eight channels and built-in sequencer, it enabled producers to create complete tracks using one piece of hardware, and was used extremely creatively by hip-hop producers in particular. In 2023, Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA put the battered SP-1200 that he used to create the band’s second album, Wu-Tang Forever, up for auction.

The SP-1200 has been revisited at various points down the years. In 2020, Dave Rossum began selling refurbished originals, and then announced a proper reissue in 2021. We’ve also had the Isla Instruments S2400, which takes a lot of inspiration from the SP-1200, and Inphonik’s RX1200, a plugin emulation.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard whispers of a Behringer SP-1200 - it was first rumoured way back in 2019 - but the latest news indicates that it’s now more likely than ever. In fact, the company is even inviting experienced software engineers to join them on the project, so it sounds like it means business.

What Dave Rossum makes of all this remains to be seen. Behringer recently announced a new version of another '80s classic, the LinnDrum, leading that machine's creator Roger Linn to share a statement on his website. "Even if we discount the copying of the visual design, logo style and sound circuit of LinnDrum, the LmDrum copies my sounds," argues Linn. "So I'd have preferred for Uli [Behringer] to ask my permission. Even if he thinks it is legal, I question whether it is ethical."

What is it?

Torso Electronics S-4 is a 'Sculpting Sampler', a compact and well-built multitrack sampler, polyphonic sample player and multi-effects box all in one.

It instantly transforms any audio you record or play through it into wonderful abstract ambiences, swirling pads, f*cked up beats, distorted basslines, and detuned loops; you can build entire tunes with four tracks of tape-style recording, or simply use it as an instant multi-effect.

It's a piece of hardware you didn't know you needed, as you could easily fall in love with its off-kilter sound and experimental attitude, but you might want to wait until its final firmware update before you turn that love into a transaction for its not inconsiderable asking price.

Performance

S-4 has a built-in 4GB flash drive with plenty of factory content in folders like 'Harmonic', 'Rhythmic' and 'Field Recordings'. It allows you to capture external audio via an on-board microphone or a pair of stereo (or two mono) inputs around the back.

You can simply play audio through it or load in a factory sound and use its five 'devices' as a real-time multi-effect, which is great fun to do on its own.

These devices start with Material which has Tape, Poly and Bypass options and is your main setup option. Tape allows you to record audio over four tracks and Poly lets you play samples via a MIDI keyboard in polyphonic mode (up to eight voices).

Once selected – as with all devices – whichever device you select has up to eight parameters that become editable via the rotary knobs above on the top right of the unit. You can see what each of these does via the fantastic screen which has all eight rotaries mapped onto it and shows the corresponding values as you rotate each knob.

Tape, for example, has Start (sample start), Length, Tempo, Speed, Rotate (reverse), and Xfade (sample start and end crossfade) options via these dials. The final Material option, Bypass, simply allows you to play audio via the unit's inputs through the remaining four effect devices.

The first of these is Granular which features a time and pitch-shifting granular processor called Mosaic. Mosaic, has Pitch, Rate, Warp, and Spray options, among others, mapped to the eight rotaries for messing with your grains. All of these yield pretty dramatic results and you are not required to have a degree in granular processing to understand it; it's very much a case of experimenting, making something sound fantastic (99% of the time), and either saving the project when you get something good (which is always wise) or even recording the audio you create as a new sample or track of a complete song.

The next device slot is Filter, a 48-band tuned filter bank with the usual Cutoff and Resonance options plus Decay, Pitch, Slope, Tone, Scale and Wet options to twist. The screen comes into its own again here with the filter shape and any edits you make gloriously displayed. And that gets even better with the final two device slots: Color and Space. These focus on distortion, delay and reverb effects and both feature distinctive graphics – the reverb has a 3D box, for example – which alter as you change parameters; not essential for your editing but very cool nonetheless.

The last main event is the modulation area on S-4 which is pretty simple to use. You hit the Mod button, select a track and can then choose up to four modulators – with editable Wave, Random or ADSR envelope options – to act upon up to any destinations with an unlimited number per track. It's easy to implement and you can very quickly turn that sample – that you've already obliterated, turned into a pad or the filthiest of basslines – into a pulsating, rhythmic beast of audio. The modulation feature is one of the many great strings in S-4's bow.

As to that sound, well, by now you'll have guessed that we're talking experimental, degraded audio, incredibly intricate pads, and atmosphere by the bucketload. You could, should you wish, simply use S-4 as a four-track sample player/recorder without any effects and come up with completely dry, 'normal' tunes, but that would be totally missing the point. S-4's raison d'être is to mess with your audio and create something unworldly, something incredible and do it all in a matter of minutes in real time.

And that's what it does very well, but here's the rub. We love the sound and those of an experimental disposition will too, but while S-4 is a brilliant concept and has some amazing sonic potential, it's a software update or two away from perfection. There's the odd bug; we sometimes experienced a tweak on power up where it went to the wrong mode in certain menus, and the end sample point sometimes got stuck. More seriously some of the features – namely Temp, Perform and Scene in the performance section – were simply unavailable with the OS we were using (v1.04). These aren't in the latest 1.2.2 version either, which we updated to, although that update does iron out some bugs, particularly with loading and saving projects. We asked Torso Electronics about when the new features will be implemented and the company says that Perform and another function, Copy, will be in v1.5, while Temp and Scene will be in v2, although dates for those updates have not been specified.

That leaves us and you in a quandary. At present, as amazing as S-4 is as a multi-effect and audio mangler, it's not quite finished. While you could still get on board early and enjoy its experimental approach, it is a fair amount of cash to shell out for a product with some quite major features yet to be included. However, with those promised updates, it will very probably be worth the wait in the coming months, so look out for an update review just as soon as we can get the v2 firmware installed.

MusicRadar verdict: S-4 is the experimental effects box and sample mangler you didn't know you wanted, but you might want to wait until all the features are implemented and bugs completely ironed out before you part with its considerable asking price.

Hands-on demos

torso electronics

Specifications

• Virtual tape machine, effects box and MIDI controlled 8-voice sampler with wi-fi.
• 21 RGB buttons, nine endless encoders.
• Audio engine with five devices: Material (sampler/tape recorder), Granular, Filter, Color and Space.
• Modulation system with four configurable modulators that can be mapped to any parameter.
• 4GB flash memory.
• 24-bit/48 kHz stereo audio in and out.
• Connectivity: 2 line inputs, 2 line outputs, built-in mic, headphone out, MIDI in/out, analogue sync in/out, USB-C.
• Dimensions: (W x D x H) 242 x 156 x 39mm.
• Weight: 0.82kg.
• CONTACT: Torso Electronics

2024 has been a great year for new music making gear. As it comes to a close, we’re counting down our top 10 music tech instruments of the past 12 months. You can watch them all in action in our video above, or read more about each in the count down below.

For this round-up, we’re focusing on hardware – there have been a multitude of excellent software releases in the past 12 months, from Ableton Live 12 to FabFilter’s Pro-Q 4, but we’ll save that for another time. We’re sticking to instruments too – hardware synths, samplers and drum machines. Check out our regularly updated buyer’s guides at the links below for the best interface, monitors, mics and headphones. We’re also overlooking the whole modular realm where, again, there have been lots of great releases, but ones we don’t have space to include here.

Some brands have dropped multiple impressive releases this year, including the likes of Korg, Moog and Roland, and for the most part, we’ve tried to limit ourselves to a single release from each. That means some hardware devices that we’ve really enjoyed using this year haven’t made the cut, such as Moog’s generative semi-modular Labyrinth or several of Korg’s releases.

We’ve based our rankings on a number of factors, such as innovation, value and usability. Ultimately, it’s all pretty subjective too, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on what you disagree with, what you think is missing and what you’ve been using most in 2024.

READ MORE: MusicRadar's best VST plugins

MusicRadar’s tech hardware of the year 2024

10. Oberheim TEO-5

What is it?

The TEO-5 is essentially Oberheim’s ‘take’ on the Sequential Take 5. At its heart lies the basic elements of a classic Oberheim synth, but these are housed in a compact and modernised instrument.

Created with help from Sequential – and as a result, Sequential’s new owner Focusrite – the TEO-5 offers a more affordable and convenient way for musicians to get hold of that classic Oberheim analogue sound.

What do we like about it?

TEO-5 is a very clever performance and sound design synth created for a small footprint and decent price. Despite it having some obvious points of comparison, there is enough personality here to set TEO-5 apart from all the synths we’d naturally try to align it with. Its easy modulation and SEM filter variations will have you creating new sounds with reckless abandon with it in no time.

Any downsides?

Five voices, for well over £1k isn't a massive amount. Some will feel limited by the polyphony and there are many other great synth options out there for similar money or even less.

READ MORE: Full Oberheim TEO-5 review

9. Elektron Digitakt 2

What is it?

Originally released in 2017, Elektron’s sampling drum machine Digitakt is one of the most popular and influential hardware instruments of recent years. This sequel doubles down on the capabilities of the original, doubling the audio track count from 8 to 16, as well as making each capable of stereo sampling. There are also significant updates to the instrument’s filters, LFOs and sequencing capabilities.

What do we like about it?

The enhanced audio capabilities instantly make Digitakt II feel capable of more complex and expansive projects. The easy, flexible modulation tools have long been one of our favourite features of Elektron gear, so an additional LFO per track is a great upgrade. The new Euclidean sequencer mode – also added to some other Elektron devices – is a great fit with the overall workflow.

Any downsides?

Despite being an all-round improvement to the format of the original – and one which justifies the bump up in price – there’s nothing here that reinvents the wheel. For anyone that wasn’t convinced by the original, either due to its limitations as a sampler or its complex workflow, there’s nothing here that’s likely to change your mind.

READ MORE: Full Elektron Digitakt II review

8. PWM Mantis

What is it?

Mantis is the second instrument from British brand PWM, which debuted in 2012 with the analogue semi-modular synth Malevolent. Mantis was created in collaboration with the late Chris Huggett, known for his work on classic synths like the Wasp and OSCar, as well as a multitude of Novation instruments. It’s a hybrid paraphonic synth that very much channels the sound of those classic instruments, albeit in a modernised format.

What do we like about it?

Mantis is a fantastic-sounding and characterful synth that lives up to its promise of capturing the essence of synths like the Wasp and OSCar in a modern format. Its multidue of filter modes, versatile digital oscillators and abundance of hands-on control offer plenty to get lost in, and exploration often rewards rich and fascinating sounds.

Any downsides?

Mantis’ price point is fairly steep for a paraphonic synth, and in terms of sheer bang-for-your-buck, you can certainly get more for your money elsewhere. While the synth’s interface is generally well laid out, the fact that all controls are similar in style and look can make navigation a bit confusing.

7. Ableton Move

What is it?

Although it kind of looks a little like Push mini, Move is actually more like a hardware version of Ableton’s iOS app, Note. Although it’s capable of being both a standalone instrument and a Live controller, Move’s primary purpose is as a sketchpad for Live. In standalone mode, it can sequence beats using Drum Racks, as well as playing sampled instruments and synths based on some of Live’s stock devices. There’s simple onboard sampling and basic effects too.

What do we like about it?

What Move does, it does really well. It’s designed for ease of use and the process of generating basic ideas and capturing samples is fluid and intuitive. The integration with Live is excellent too, making it really easy to take ideas started on Move into the full version of the DAW for further development. Aside from its standalone capabilities, Move is a convenient basic Live controller too – great for those that want simple interaction with the DAW without needing to lug Push around on the road.

Any downsides?

Move is very much a sketchpad, and it's inherently limited by design. Because of this, it won’t suit everyone – effects processing and audio sequencing is very minimal, for example. You really need to embrace its limitations to get the most out of it.

READ MORE: Full Ableton Move review

6. Korg Multi/Poly

What is it?

The latest in Korg’s line of 37-key digital polysynths – joining the likes of the Modwave, Opsix and Wavestate – is inspired by the classic analogue Mono/Poly. Korg pitch Multi/Poly as an analogue modelling synth, but we still think that description undersells it somewhat; although it does a good line in virtual analogue, it’s also equipped with powerful wavetable and wavefolding capabilities, along with deep modulation and sequencing tools that go well beyond what an analogue synth would be capable of.

What do we like about it?

As with other recent digital synths in Korg’s line-up, the Multi/Poly has a ton of depth and flexibility for its price. It can do a decent line in analogue style sounds, but with four timbral layers and a mass of digital and VA sound generation, it’s capable of much more than mere analogue emulation. Its layer rotate function – inspired by the original Mono/Poly’s round robin capabilities – is the most distinctive and fun feature here.

Any downsides?

The Mono/Poly-inspired branding is a slight red herring here, and although it leans into a few vintage-inspired ideas, those hoping for an authentic Mono/Poly experience might be disappointed.

READ MORE: Full Korg Multi/Poly review

5. Moog Muse

What is it?

Following the discontinuation of the mammoth Moog One, Muse is the synth brand’s latest flagship eight-voice poly. It’s considerably cheaper and more accessible than the One, but maintains much of what the Moog One had to offer, including eight analogue voices, a multi-timbral design – reduced from three to two timbral layers – and a similarly flexible approach to modulation.

What do we like about it?

This might be the purest form of what one hopes to hear when imagining a ‘Moog poly’; rich, characterful and full of life. Unlike the all-guns-blazing One, Muse nails the balance between modern depth and approachable, hands-on design.

Any downsides?

With its price point just shy of £3k, Muse invites inevitable comparison with a number of other polys. Within a few hundred pounds either way, you have Arturia’s PolyBrute 12, UDO’s Super Gemini, Novation’s Summit, and Sequential’s Prophet-5 and 6, among others. Muse isn’t the outright biggest-sounding nor the most versatile of the bunch. Several of the synths named above outstrip Muse in terms of voice count, and we’d argue that those that embrace more of a hybrid analogue-digital design offer a wider spectrum of potential sounds.

READ MORE: Full Moog Muse review

4. Roland P-6

What is it?

The latest addition to Roland’s Aira compact range, the P-6 is a compact and very affordable sampler, with six tracks of stereo sampling, a granular engine and some neat global effects. It’s battery powered, with a built-in mic and a good array of ins and outs, making it great fun for sampling on-the-go.

What do we like about it?

The P-6 is the cheapest product in our GOTY round-up, and for its size and price there’s a lot of creative power on offer here. The granular engine is a great addition, as are the effects, which are great for lo-fi crunch and grit. What’s more, unlike many of Roland’s Aira instruments, the P-6 doesn’t feel beholden to retreading past glories.

Any downsides?

As with other Aira compact machines, the small size can make for a somewhat fiddly user experience and there can be a fair amount of shift-pressing and menu-diving. Ideally, we’d like a few more options for sample editing and effect routing too, but given the price point these are understandable omissions.

3. Polyend Synth

What is it?

Synth is, shockingly enough, a synthesizer. More specifically, it’s an 8-voice digital synthesizer that lets users layer and perform with three independent synth engines. Each of these layers can be loaded with one of eight different engine types, each of which is designed to have its own unique palette of sounds.

What do we like about it?

The multiple digital synth engines here are excellent and incredibly versatile. Synth’s strongest assets, however, are in its hardware design. The poly-aftertouch pads are a joy to use and equipped with some clever features that make it easy to play up-to three sounds from a single interface. The layout of each synth engine and use of macro controls makes hands-on editing wonderfully simple.

Any downsides?

Eight voices isn’t a lot from a digital synth in this day and age, and you can certainly get more polyphony for your money elsewhere. It can be a little too easy to overload Synth’s onboard CPU too, leading to unwanted glitches when using the more demanding synth engines.

READ MORE: Full Polyend Synth review

2. Arturia PolyBrute 12

What is it?

A 12 voice update to Arturia’s flagship PolyBrute synth, which doubles down on the expressive nature of the original with innovative aftertouch features as well as doubling the voice count.

What do we like about it?

The original PolyBrute was already a hugely expressive multitimbral synth, but particularly when layering patches, it was easy to butt up against the six voice limit. The extra polyphony pays real dividends here. What’s more, the improved keybed adds even more to the expressivity – already emphasised by the morphing capabilities, ribbon controller and Morphee expression controller.

Any downsides?

Aside from the imposing price point, it’s hard to find anything negative to say about the PolyBrute 12. This is an all-round winning upgrade to an excellent poly, and those that can afford the outlay will find a synth with enough depth to warrant its top-end price.

READ MORE: Full Arturia PolyBrute 12 review

1. Elektron Digitone II

What is it?

A sequel to Elektron’s multi-timbral FM synth. Like the Digitakt II – above – the updated Digitone massively expands the audio and sequencing capabilities of the original. Here upping the polyphony to 16-voices, which can now be sequenced across 16 individual audio tracks. A new system of ‘machines’ adds extra synthesis engines and filter types into the mix.

What do we like about it?

Whereas Digitakt II felt like an upgrade to, rather than a reinvention of the original instrument, the improvements to Digitone are more fundamental. The new synth machines add virtual analogue and percussive synthesis capabilities alongside the original FM engine, which remains onboard too. Because of this, and the ability to program up-to 16 audio channels, Digitone II has changed from being simply a multi-timbral synth to a full multi-channel groovebox with almost DAW-in-a-box capabilities.

As a result, it vastly expands what Digitone can do without losing much of what we loved about the original. The typically powerful Elektron sequencer has been expanded and upgraded too, with double the step count, a new Euclidean sequencer mode, and more.

The original Digitone was one of our favourite and most-used synthesizers of the past decade, and Digitone II looks set to claim pride of place on our studio desktop.

Any downsides?

Ultimately, Digitone is still an Elektron groovebox for better and worse. While that means powerful sequencing and lots of under-the-hood features, it also comes with a steep learning curve. Set aside time to read the manual front to back, twice, in order to get the most out of it.

What is it?

You might know Kontakt as the sampler shell that wraps around your Native Instrument or third-party libraries, and perhaps not really give it a second thought beyond that. Version 8, however, is demanding that you sit up and reappraise the software as it's become your new creative best friend.

It has extra tools, a new sample player/editor, and a new Conflux instrument, and is designed to smash writer's block and make putting new tunes together as easy as pressing a single key.

There are indeed a lot of additions in this latest version of Kontakt – it is perhaps the most dramatic update ever. Or at least that is what you might think when first loading it, because it looks very different… at first anyway. That said, should you wish, you can go back to the Classic Kontakt UI under the View menu, but actually we'd advise sticking with the new resizable UI – you won't regret it.

Performance and verdict

Kontakt 8 is firstly all about getting to the sound you want, fast, so it's really focused around the new browser. The main menu at the top has six choices, with the Instruments tab being the main one to list your libraries in the centre of the screen rather than down the left-hand side. Then you are straight into filtering by brand, sound type or character so can easily home in on what you need very quickly.

Should you wish, you can always click on a library and have its presets list down the right-hand side. Either way, these presets or the ones you filter down to are listed in a window on the right and you simply click on each to audition. It's fast, it's easy, it does exactly what it should do.

Next up – and you'll have to forgive us for not hanging around as there is a lot to cover – are the new tools. Again these are accessed from the main menu at the top and there are just two at the moment, Chords and Phrases. (We say 'at the moment' as there is clearly room for NI to add further tools as and when it pleases.)

Chords is a very straightforward tool to help you with chord progressions. Simply choose from one of around 130 chord progression presets – and again you get to hear each one by clicking on the preset name – and a set of seven chords will appear as circles at the top of the UI with each of these mapped to the white keys across several octaves (three or four) on your keyboard. Press a button, play a chord, simple!

Handily you can choose a lockable key or scale in a drop-down menu top left, and also edit a Strum option that simply increases the time between each note in a chord being played. A Human dial increases variations in timing and velocity or can knock the odd note out of a chord to make it sound more flawed and less perfect.

Other features, like creating your own chord in a circular slot or randomising each one, complete a very flexible and easy set of chord tools, but perhaps the best feature is the ability to simply drag the MIDI notes of your chords and progressions into your DAW to play any instrument you like, not just those within Kontakt.

The second Tool is Phrases and has a similar writer's block-smashing concept but delivers melodic phrases across the keys rather than chords. Each phrase is represented by a circle with a 'second hand' rotating clockwise as you play a phrase, with the notes indicated as circles within the circle.

The handy editing features here include a randomise option, lockable key and scale and again the ability to drag the MIDI to your DAW. But the cooler options – and those that make this feel a little less like cheating – are the Rotate and Invert dials that let you spin the Phrase wheel so that it plays the phrase differently, like at different starting points or backwards. It's a very easy way to change a phrase that, let's face it, someone else has done for you.

New sounds and sample playing

Conflux is the new instrument in Kontakt and is a hybrid wavetable instrument including some of those found in the original PPG. It has a surprising number of hands-on, real-time options and is a very decent addition to the Kontakt library, with around 200 presets of mostly atmospheric and otherworldly sounds. And you can do a lot with them with Conflux's modulation and effect options, making it pretty flexible overall.

As we're limited in space we'll skate over the new Combined feature which is a handy new way of combining sounds across libraries with an all-new panel to make solo'ing, muting etc easy. But the final big addition deserves more room and that is Leap. This is a 'sampler within a sampler' allowing you to play samples from the expansion packs that come with Kontakt 8 across as a kit, with up to 16 white keys playing the main samples all in key, and the associated black keys playing effects. It's basically a way to jam with these packs and come up with ideas very quickly, and there's a row of tweakable effects plus quantise options on hand too.

You can dig deeper with the samples and create your own kits using the new Loops and One-shots options in the main menu. These list all of those available samples from all expansion packs so you simply drag your chosen one onto a key and start creating your own Leap kit. There are deeper sample editing options here so you can set loop points, playback options and more. As good as Leap is, we can't see ourselves utilising it that much, doing much of what it offers in our main DAW, but if nothing else it's a great way of auditioning the 12 Leap expansions you get with Kontakt 8.

Verdict

Kontakt 8 is a very big update with some in-your-face options that drag it back in front of you if, like us, it is software you've been using but perhaps not properly utilising. We'll certainly be using the chord feature – especially the MIDI export side of it – as it's so easy to get to grips with. Conflux too has grabbed our attention and we'll definitely be revisiting that for some atmosphere and movement. The rest is there for ideas if you need them, but perhaps the best thing about Kontakt 8 is that most of its new features can be applied to your existing libraries so it might be time to dust off some of those old titles, revisit them and add some K8 action. You get an awful lot of content with Kontakt 8, and now a ton of things to do with it, so it's no longer just a shell for your sample libraries but a fully-fledged performance tool.

MusicRadar verdict: Version 8 takes Kontakt out of the shadows of your instrument collection and puts it right up there front and centre as a performance tool and ideas generator. It is pricey, though, so make sure you at least download the all-new free Kontakt Player which has some of the new features included.

Hands-on demos

Native Instruments

Specifications

• Sampler and sample library player.
• Comes with 900 instruments including the new Conflux sound design tool.
• Hybrid Keys custom keyboard instrument.
• 12 Leap expansions.
• VST3, AU and AAX compatible.
• CONTACT: Native Instruments

GAS is a problem, we all know it. Events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday only fuel the addiction. With so many crazy deals flying about it can be a tough time for GAS-heads, especially with Christmas just around the corner.

This time of year is rough for those obliged to buy gifts for others and sate the urge to buy a little something for themselves at the same time.

If you're reading this, unaware of what Gear Acquisition Syndrome is, then you can use this article in one of two ways. You either A) take heed of these words and run… run like the wind. Don’t look back and certainly don’t check out any of the deals below on some of the biggest savings on synths we’ve found this Cyber Weekend, or B) do the opposite. The choice is yours.

The premise here is simple. You have a modest budget of $/£200 to spend on a synth or synths and they have to be special offers. That way, your loved ones still get to enjoy Christmas and you get to feed your addiction in a restrained and sensible fashion, knowing that you nabbed yourself a deal. Think of it as a box-ticking GAS/FOMO exercise.

US Cyber Monday synth deals under $200

UK Cyber Monday synth deals under £200

I get the feeling this year there have been some of the best synth deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday that we’ve seen for a while. Both US and UK retailers have had some absolute crackers and I think I’ve found another in what might be one of the year’s most misunderstood synth products.

Let’s rewind the clock 11 months and head back to those sun-kissed January days in Anaheim, more specifically, to the launch of the Yamaha Seqtrak at the NAMM show. You can’t deny it, it was quite exciting.

Here’s a company that isn’t as prolific as it once was in the synthesizer space, dropping something akin to the design house of Teenage Engineering. A standalone production groovebox with synth, sampling, drum and sequencing capabilities all wrapped up in a minimalistic design. Very TE altogether, and that’s even before we get to the lack of screen, reliance on an app and a Visualizer feature.

The Seqtrak bedazzled us in its rather lurid orange and light grey colourway, with a more subdued double dark grey version also available. Our interest was instantly piqued and we’ve wanted to check one out ever since, but are still yet to have a really good look.

However, from what we’ve seen around the web, there seems to be a lot of mixed feelings about the Seqtrak, almost reminiscent of when Yamaha launched its Reface keyboards. The Refaces have long since been vindicated and are standing the test of time, but it got me thinking, will we be able to say the same thing of the Seqtrak in a few years?

Unfortunately, my crystal ball doesn’t look that far ahead, but what I can say for sure is that this deal at PMT makes testing those waters far more palatable. The one thing guaranteed to turn folks against a product is a lofty price, so when I clocked the Seqtrak in the double dark grey guise down to a mouth-wateringly low price of £199, I just had to let you know about it.

Now, since writing this article, the price has snuck up ever so slightly to £208.95, but PMT has just dropped a site-wide extra 5% off dropping the Seqtrak down to just £198.50, but there are only a few hours of Cyber Monday left, so you’d better hurry just in case this one disappears.

Elektron’s sampling drum machine Digitakt is something of a modern classic. Since it arrived back in 2017, it’s won legions of fans for its punchy one-shot sampling capabilities and creative sequencing workflow.

Elektron dropped a direct sequel earlier this year in the form of Digitakt II. I reviewed Digitakt II and came away impressed. It’s undeniably more powerful than its predecessor and builds on what made the original great with new features and enhancements.

Here’s the thing though, the original Digitakt is still a great instrument. I’ve returned Digitakt II to Elektron following our review, but I still have the OG Digitakt in my studio at home and it in no way feels obsolete. What’s more, thanks to the existence of Digitakt II, you can now pick up remaining mk1 units at temptingly cheap prices, such as that found in Andertons’ Cyber Monday sale.

Compared to version II, the original Digitakt has some clear disadvantages, most notably it has eight audio tracks instead of 16, and these are mono, rather than stereo. It also lacks the new filter modes and Euclidean sequencer. That’s a step down, for sure, but given that this mk1 deal is around £325 cheaper than the current price of mk2, those may well be things you can live with.

Digitakt v1 still has a lot of great features that have made it one of the most influential hardware instruments of the past decade. It can stretch and warp samples in brilliantly creative ways with its range of playback modes. It has two flexible, easy-to-assign LFOs for each of the eight tracks, which are great for bringing sounds to life.

What's more, its deep sequencer is capable of micro-timing, probability sequencing, polymetric programming, conditional sequences and full automation of all sound parameters. It’s great for sequencing external hardware too. Put simply, it’s still a very powerful and inspiring instrument.

You might, understandably, be a little wary of buying older gen gear due to concerns about a lack of ongoing support or firmware fixes. Fortunately though, Elektron has good form on this front – Analog Rytm mk1, for example, was superseded by the mk2 back in 2018 but Elektron released a firmware update for it just last month ensuring it’s compatible with the latest versions of Overbridge and Transfer.

All of which is to say, if you can live with the FOMO that comes with having an older iteration, I wouldn’t ignore a solid deal on the OG version.

On a similar note, Andertons also has a deal on the original Digitone – Elektron’s similarly-equipped FM synthesizer. Pretty much everything I’ve said above counts for the original Digitone too. I’m just getting to grips with the new version, but the mk1 is one of my most used synths of recent years. At a price of £599, it’s not quite as good of a deal, but it's still worth a look.

It’s Black Friday weekend, a time when we’re all overloaded with deals, offers and bargains. It can seem like the entire world is trying to persuade you to buy new music gear. But I am here to remind you of an important fact – new gear probably isn’t the answer to your problems.

Perhaps you’re struggling to finish tracks and think that you just need more plugins? You probably don’t. Maybe you think your music isn’t good enough because you’re using a digital synth rather than a genuine analogue one? That’s almost certainly not true. Do you think that better monitors will instantly make your mixes sound better? It’s unlikely.

Yes, new gear can help us do things quicker, or explore new ideas, or make the overall music-making process easier. But the fundamental truth is that some of the best electronic music of all time has been made with limited, cheap setups. Essentially, more gear does not necessarily equate to better music.

With all that being said, while I don’t want you to think that you need new gear this Black Friday weekend, you might still want it – and I totally get that. I’m lucky enough to review synths and drum machines for a living, and I know how exciting getting your hands on some new creative tool can be.

Although it's not always the route to better music, getting to grips with a new instrument, controller or effect can be a great way to spark creativity. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of exploring the features and capabilities of something, only to hit upon one of those lighting-in-a-bottle moments, when the pieces suddenly come together and you realise, ‘wow, what if I tried doing *this*!?’

With that in mind, I’ve been searching through this weekend’s best synth and drum machine deals, and these are my recommendations. I won’t promise that any of them will make you a better producer or musician. But if you’ve been waiting for Cyber Weekend to drop your hard earned money on something new, exciting and fun, then these are the deals to check out.

I’m going to focus on hardware gear here, but there’s a lot of solid deals on software about this weekend too, which you can keep tabs on in our Black Friday plugin deals hub page.

US Deals

I’m a really big fan of Korg’s recent 37-key digital synths, which each put an innovative spin on classic synth formats. Modwave II is one of the best in the range. It’s a wavetable synth, loosely inspired by Korg’s cult classic DW-8000, but its approach is genuinely innovative, allowing users to craft custom oscillators by blending different wavetables and applying a range of playback modifiers.

Yes, it’s purely digital. And the plastic build and keybed are nothing to write home about. But there’s so much depth and power to this synth. If you’re looking for an instrument that will have you lost down sound design rabbit holes for hours, this is a great purchase for $679.

Sticking to Korg for a moment, Sweetwater is also offering $10 off for most of Korg’s Volca range this weekend. That’s not a massive discount, but the Volcas were a bargain to begin with – and they’re great fun for the price. Personally, I think the Volca Bass and Volca Drum are the ones to go for. Watch our video ranking below for more.

I’ve been using Ableton Live for almost 20 years and, I’ll be honest, as much as versions 1 and 2 of Push impressed me, I drifted away from both and ended up reverting to using a mouse and keyboard. Push 3 is a different story though – I’ve been using it since before it came out last year, and I absolutely love it.

The MPE pads are fantastic, and Ableton has finally cracked its goal of making a controller that feels like a proper instrument. Paired with expressive presets from Live’s Drift and Meld synths, I find Push really expressive (it’s great for me who is, I’ll admit, not a great keys player).

I have the standalone version of Push, which I really rate, although honestly I think the non-CPU-equipped model would be fine for most users, unless you’re planning on performing live or really desperate to be free of your laptop. Either way, both are available at Sweetwater with some sizable discounts this weekend.

Roland's SH-4d was one of my favourite releases of last year, and Amazon has it down to the lowest price I’ve seen this weekend.

Like a lot of Roland’s current crop of hardware instruments, the SH-4d makes use of the company’s Zen-Core engine, but its unique design sets it apart from the bulk of the company’s Zen-Core keyboards. The SH-4d is a five-part groovebox, with four polyphonic synth channels and one multi-track drum machine. Its sound engine makes use of a mixture of virtual analogue, digital synthesis and sampling in order to offer a spectrum of sounds that range from vintage gear emulations to modern tones and an array of percussive kits.

It’s a unique and creative machine, and personally I find it very inspiring. Its characteristic design means that it won’t suit everyone – the lack of a keyboard being an obvious downside for some users – but for less than $400 it’s a lot of synth power for the money.

Donner is better known for its cheap guitars, electronic drums and pianos, but has recently entered the synth market. The B1 was its debut instrument, which takes heavy influence from Roland’s iconic acid machine the TB-303.

The B1 doesn’t look like much – its grey styling looks more like something you’d use to calculate your taxes – but it sounds seriously great. Its analogue oscillator and filter nail the aggressive tones associated with the 303, and the included drive and delay effects really bring the sound to life.

With Donner’s extra 25% this weekend, you can pick up the B1 for $103.99. Trust me, this sounds way better than any $100 analogue synth has any right to.

UK Deals

Waldorf’s Iridium synths are seriously powerful machines. While the top-end Iridium Keys and Desktop have the most bells and whistles, the cut down Iridium Core still has a hell of a lot of power for the money, and at a price only a little over a grand, I think it’s a bit of a bargain.

The Core is a 12 voice digital synth with three oscillators per voice. It makes use of a variety of really interesting synthesis approaches, ranging from flexible wavetable and granular capabilities to the unique Particle, Resonator and Kernel synthesis modes. There’s a ton of deep modulation and filtering options on offer too.

When we reviewed the Iridium Core earlier this year, we described it as offering “boundless amounts of creativity in the smallest of footprints”. If you’re looking for a deep synth to get lost in, this should keep you occupied for a very long time.

Say what you want about Behringer and its approach to synth emulations – or ‘tributes’ as the company prefers – but you can’t knock it for value. This weekend you can pick up Behringer gear over at Thomann for some ludicrously cheap prices.

There are too many instruments on offer to name all of them, but a few stand out as highlights. At a price of £235, the Sequential-inspired Pro-800 is stupidly cheap for an analogue polysynth. Elsewhere, Behinger’s original synth Deepmind 6 has lots of power and flexibility for its price. A steal at less than £400.

I own the RD-8 and RD-9 drum machines, inspired by Roland’s TR-808 and TR-909 respectively, and I think they’re really solid for the money. Obviously, it’s simply not worth spending the money on a real 808 or 909 in 2024. Roland’s own recreations are great, but what I like most about Behringer’s takes are their satisfyingly chunky size and rugged sequencers. While their current prices aren’t actually a Black Friday deal – they’ve simply come down recently – at under £250 a pop it’s still hard to argue.

Personally, I have no real experience with Behringer’s Eurorack modules, so I can’t vouch for them, but the prices look very tempting. £1,150 for the System-55 is a crazily cheap price for a full modular system.

Version 2 of Elektron’s Digitakt sampler-come-drum machine dropped earlier this year. While v2 is undoubtedly more powerful than the original in almost every way, it doesn’t fundamentally change what made the original Digitakt great. In short, while Digitakt 2 is the best version, Digitakt v1 is still an excellent hardware machine – and because v2 now exists, you can pick up the original for a bargain price.

I have the original Digitakt at home, and although I’ve recently reviewed and enjoyed my time with Digitakt 2, the original still provides a great source of hands-on beat-making inspiration. While v1 has fewer audio tracks, it still packs an excellent, deep sequencer, powerful modulation tools and can work smoothly within your DAW thanks to Elektron’s Overbridge software. For a price below £500, I certainly wouldn’t feel bad about missing out on the latest version.

Arturia’s hybrid MiniFreak synth has quickly become one of my go-to tools. What I love about it is its easy-to-use yet broad digital synthesis engine. This lets users combine a multitude of synthesis approaches, including wavetable, granular, FM, additive and more. These are deep and powerful tools, but MiniFreak’s neat interface and user-friendly mod matrix make programming sounds a breeze.

MiniFreak pairs this engine with powerful, gorgeous digital effects. Its smooth analogue filter is the cherry on the cake.

Andertons has a deal on the stylish-looking all-black Stellar Edition. I’ve seen the original version for cheaper than this, but it’s a nice discount for the special edition and a good price overall.

Novation’s Circuit Tracks has always been a lot of instrument for the money. It has two capable digital polysynth engines, four sample-based drum tracks and four MIDI channels that make it perfect for driving external hardware gear.

Honestly, there are deeper synths out there if you’re interested in sound design – to get the most out of Circuit you’ll need to use the browser-based editor – but this makes a really great hub for a studio setup. Its sequencer is fast and surprisingly flexible too. On top of all this, it’s down to a really low price this weekend.

Native Instruments has launched version 3.0 of its Maschine software – the DAW-like application designed to work as a counterpart to its range of Maschine controllers.

Although, when it originally launched in 2010, Maschine was primarily positioned as a beat making tool, the modern version of the software is designed as a one-stop shop for producing electronic music, offering sequencing, sampling, built-in synths, track arrangement and mixing tools.

Version 3 brings several refinements to the Maschine workflow, but the most notable new features are the addition of stem separation – powered by the tech from iZotope RX – and a major shake up to the Maschine factory library.

It’s been 11 years since NI released Maschine 2.0 into the world, and although the software has received numerous upgrades and new features along the way – the latest iteration stands at v2.18 – there’s no doubt that a full update has been long overdue.

Unlike version 2, Maschine 3 doesn’t launch alongside any new hardware. NI is, however, launching a sale whereby users can get between $50 and $200 off of Maschine Mikro, Mk3 and Maschine+ until 15 January. Find out more at the Native Instruments site.

Native Instruments Maschine 3.0: What is it?

Whereas the jump from Maschine 1 to 2 brought some fundamental changes to how the Maschine software worked, introducing a mixer view and suite of inbuilt drum synthesizers, there’s no major changes to the overall workflow for version 3.

That’s not to say Maschine 3.0 feels identical to version 2.0. Over the course of its lifespan, Maschine 2 introduced radical changes to the way it handled arrangement, audio and sampling, as well as adding native Poly and Bass synth devices. But, beyond the modernised and smarter looking UI skin, those moving from Maschine 2.18 to 3 might struggle to identify any obvious changes upon opening the software.

The basics

Each Maschine Project contains up-to eight Groups, which can themselves contain up-to 16 Sounds. The Sound slots can be filled with a variety of sources, including one-shot samples and multisampled instruments played via Maschine’s inbuilt sampler, audio loops, Maschine’s stock synths, and VST or AU plugins. Maschine can also be used to sequence external hardware, which can then be captured using the software’s audio inputs or sampling capabilities. Each Sound and Group can also host effect chains, again sourced from either Maschine’s stock devices or external plugins.

Although the Maschine hardware takes its primary inspiration for the workflow of classic MPCs, in software terms Maschine is equally influenced by the non-linear workflow of Ableton Live. Groups are sequenced using a mixture of a step sequencer and piano roll to create patterns. These clips can be arranged and triggered as Scenes using Maschine’s Ideas view, or arranged into longer compositions using the Song view.

Maschine is designed primarily for use with one of the company’s complimentary controllers. Version 3 is compatible with Maschine Mikro MK3, Maschine MK3, Maschine Studio and Maschine+ in controller mode. It also has limited compatibility with Maschine Jam. With this new release, NI is also introducing compatibility for the company’s latest generation keyboard controllers, the S-Series Mk3.

Whereas Maschine was originally only available bundled alongside one of its associated controllers, in more recent years NI has made the software available for purchase on its own. With the introduction of new keyboard shortcuts and its new library of sound content, NI seems to be positioning Maschine 3.0 as more of a viable purchase for those that don’t own Maschine hardware.

Native Instruments Maschine 3.0: Performance and verdict

Given that stem separation is the headline feature of v3, it’s surprisingly hard to find. The functionality is accessed by loading an audio file into a sampler in any available Sound slot, and then accessing the sample edit tab. Alongside the previously available options here – cropping, looping, normalising, etc – Maschine now has a Stems button. Pressing this begins an offline separation process, at the end of which Maschine will create a new Group with the individual Drum, Bass, Other and Vocal spread across the first four sound slots.

The separation is powered by the same tech found in iZotope’s RX, which has impressed us previously. On the M1-equipped MacBook Pro (2020) we used for our tests, separating a four-minute R&B track took just over two and a half minutes, rising to just under five minutes for an eight-minute electronic track. It’s possible to use the rest of Maschine’s UI while waiting for a track to process, but it’s only possible to separate a single track at any one time.

We tested a few different tracks across a variety of genres, including Frank Ocean’s pop/R&B track Swim Good, Talking Heads’ alt-rock classic Once In A Lifetime, Autechre’s skeletal electronic remix of The Bug’s Skeng, and Let’s Start from Fela Kuti’s 1971 album Live! The quality of the separation was generally high throughout and certainly up with the best of Maschine’s rivals.

Our best results came from the more straightforward tracks in our test, with both Frank Ocean and Talking Heads tracks benefitting from clean separation of their elements. Maschine tends to do best at isolating drums and vocals. In the case of the Fela Kuti live track, the drums were isolated well, but bass, brass and vocal elements tended to drift in and out of each other’s lanes a little. With the Autechre track, Maschine occasionally struggled to define where to draw the line between drums and bass (perhaps unsurprisingly, to be fair). In all cases though, we were left with results that would certainly be usable for creative purposes.

Each stem is loaded within a sampler by default, but it’s possible to switch the relevant track to Audio mode in order to play the stem back wholesale. Using a sampler, however, allows the user to make use of Maschine’s standard sample editing and playback tools, allowing stems to be truncated, reversed, cut and pasted, looped, shifted and stretched. In all its a flexible toolset and there’s a lot of fun to be had manipulating stems like sampled loops, although Maschine’s tempo auto-detect function can be a bit patchy when loading full tracks – particularly unquantised funk or soul – meaning that getting part of a stem to fit perfectly over your track can be a little fiddly.

Central selection

The other headline feature of Maschine 3.0 is its new Maschine Central library. This is a full refresh of factory content that the software ships with, replacing the Maschine and Maschine 2 libraries. It weighs in at just under 8GB, broadly divided into 103 kits of one-shot samples, 144 Kontakt-derived multi-sampled instruments and 204 presets for Maschine’s Drum, Bass and Poly synths, as well as NI’s Massive, Monark and Prism.

Maschine Central is also offered alongside a bundle of additional software. This includes iZotope’s Ozone 11 Elements, which offers a series of simple mastering tools, as well as the aforementioned Massive, Monark and Prism synths. We're told purchesers of the Maschine hardware will also receive a version of Komplete Select, and Maschine+ will ship with an enhanced bundle of software (although we don't have details on what this will include at the time of writing).

We’ve always been impressed by the quality of Maschine’s sounds and – although we’ve not had a chance to explore the entirety of Maschine Central’s library for this review – the kits and presets included seem to be well-designed and highly usable. There’s been an obvious effort to update the sound palette here, including kits aimed at drill and modern pop production alongside more standard hip-hop, trap and drum machine offerings.

While there’s a nice breadth to the included sounds, with enough for music makers in most genres to get started with, it’s far from definitive, and the collection seems designed to leave enough obvious holes to tempt users into buying NI’s more targeted and comprehensive Expansions.

For existing Maschine users, Central can be purchased as an optional add-on, with or without an upgrade to v3. While it’s not unreasonably priced, it doesn’t strike us as a must-have addition if you already have previous Maschine libraries and/or Expansions.

What else?

Aside from these headline additions, Maschine 3 comes with a few quality of life changes. There are new MIDI options, allowing users to split, join, audition or mute MIDI notes, which are each assigned a keyboard shortcut. These seem designed to aid those who might be using Maschine without a controller, or for more nuanced editing alongside one.

Maschine can now trigger changes in tempo when changing Scenes, which will certainly be handy for those building Projects for live performances. The software also adds the ability to render sounds or patterns to audio in place, which is handy for saving on CPU load. There’s also improved audio file compatibility, with the ability to import MP3, MP4, FLAC and OGG files – all of which is useful given the stem separation tech.

Verdict

There’s still a lot to like about Maschine in 2024. Over the past decade the software has matured into a well-rounded and accessible tool for quickly creating ideas. Particularly when paired with one of the core pad-based controllers, the general workflow remains fast, and still channels the tactile fun of playing and sequencing sounds in a style rooted in the workflow of classic ‘90s MPCs.

That being said, it’s hard not to feel a sense of disappointment when assessing the total of what Maschine 3 has to offer. As we mentioned above, when Maschine 2 landed it brought new synths, mixing tools and a revamped audio engine, which significantly broadened what the platform was capable of. Aside from the stem separation capabilities, there’s little here that presents new creative opportunities or radical workflow upgrades.

While the stem separation technology is a nice addition and capable of decent results, it’s hardly groundbreaking – the tech itself is lifted from iZotope RX, and similar functionality is already found in NI’s newly revamped Traktor DJ software. Its inclusion here is also a case of playing catch-up with some of Maschine’s key rivals, notably Akai’s MPC software, Serato Sample and FL Studio, all of which already feature similar capabilities.

Although the technology itself is decent and is certainly usable within the Maschine workflow, it does feel a little tacked-on. It would have been nice to have seen a proper rework of Maschine’s sample/audio editing view designed with stem extraction in mind, making it easier to say, grab a vocal hook from a chorus or warp elements to fit the groove of a track. As it is, it’s just an option added onto the end of the existing tools.

There are, undoubtedly, plenty of areas where Maschine could be improved or updated. For one thing, Maschine Central still leans heavily on Massive, Monark and Prism, all of which are well over a decade old. While these are technically not part of the Maschine software itself, their heavy use for sounds emphasises how much Maschine is crying out for some innovative new sound generation tools in order to compete with the devices offered by the likes of Ableton Live. It seems like, as with the recent Komplete refresh, NI is leaning more and more on Kontakt libraries, perhaps because the company no longer has the soft synth expertise it once did.

Similarly on the effect front, it's been a good while since Maschine received any updates to its stock of creative and mixing tools, and it feels like the company is now simply leaning on tech from its sister brand iZotope to take up the slack.

It’s almost comedic to tout the addition of MIDI tools as basic as split, join and mute as major new features, when compared to what else the market has to offer right now. Where are, for example, the probability and generative tools, Euclidean sequencers, conditional sequences or MPE capabilities that would help Maschine compete with other software tools? To bill this as a step into a new generation after 11 years and offer such a dearth of features worth getting excited about is incredibly underwhelming.

As we’ve said, there is undoubtedly still plenty of fun and creativity to be had with the Maschine platform. And to be fair, the $29 upgrade price for owners of Maschine 2 isn’t unreasonable, if you’re interested in stem separation. However, musicians that have invested in the platform over the years through hardware purchases, Expansions or simply integrating Maschine into their music making, deserve more than this.

If NI brings as many updates to Maschine 3 as it did 2, this could shape up into a far more interesting proposition. For now, this 'new' version isn't much to write home about.

MusicRadar Verdict: While there’s still plenty of fun to be had with Maschine, this is a very underwhelming step into a supposed new generation.

Native Instruments Maschine 3.0: Specification

• Contact: Native Instruments
• Pricing: Maschine 3, Maschine Central, and additional software bundle: $99 / €99 MSRP, $69 / €69 upgrade from Maschine 2. Maschine 3 without Maschine Central or additional software: $29 / €29 upgrade from Maschine 2. Maschine Central sound library without additional software: $49 / €49
• Controller compatibility: Maschine 3 functions without hardware, and is supported by following controllers: Maschine Mikro MK3, Maschine MK3, Maschine Studio, and Maschine+ in controller mode. Supported Keyboard controllers: M32, A-series, Komplete Kontrol S-Series MK2 and basic integration with the Kontrol S-Series MK3. Maschine Jam is supported by Maschine 3 but without an update to the browser interface. Currently, projects created standalone on Maschine+ in the Maschine 2 format will open in Maschine 3, but not vice versa.  Compatibility for Maschine 3 with Maschine+ in standalone mode will be added in the Maschine 3.1 update, coming soon.

Elektron Digitakt II: What is it?

Released in 2017, Elektron’s original Digitakt was an influential release not just for the Swedish brand itself, but the wider hardware market. Having spent the previous decade focused on its top-end Analog range, the sub-$/£1k Digitakt, though hardly a budget instrument, saw Elektron bringing its distinctive designs back to the masses.

There’s no doubt those designs have influenced other gear that has followed it too – Elektron itself has replicated the format with its Digitone and Syntakt synths, and a number of Digitakt’s distinctive features have been widely adopted as standard across the industry too, including probability sequencing and parameter lock automation.

Described as a ‘drum computer and sampler’, Digitakt sits in a realm somewhere between a drum machine and a traditional sampler while – for reasons both for the better and worse, which we’ll come to – not quite fitting neatly into either category.

Earlier this year, Elektron lifted the lid on a direct sequel that significantly upgrades the design of the original without making any radical changes to the overall formula. Those upgrades include doubling the audio track count of the original from eight to 16. What’s more, each of these tracks is now capable of stereo playback, in contrast to the mono sampling of the original. Digitakt II also increases the modulation, filtering and effect options, as well as upgrading the capabilities of the sequencer.

Elektron Digitakt II: Performance and verdict

Let’s get the top level stuff out of the way first – Digitakt II is an all-round upgrade to the formula of the original, but it’s unlikely to convince any sceptics. While there are some significant improvements added for version II, nothing about this revamp fundamentally changes the Digitakt workflow, for better or worse.

The additional audio capabilities are the most immediately obvious enhancement. While you could certainly create fleshed-out compositions on the original machine, the additional audio tracks and incorporation of stereo source material – shown off nicely by the included presets – mean that it’s far easier to create near-finished sounding compositions.

This is assisted in no small part by the vastly improved storage capacity for Digitakt II. This ups the original’s somewhat meagre 1GB of sample storage to 20GB, and ups the RAM from 64MB to 400MB. As a result, the amount of samples that can be loaded to a particular project rises from 128 to 1016.

Each of its tracks can also be switched to act as a MIDI sequencer, meaning that, as before, Digitakt remains an excellent hub for a wider hardware setup.

The updated filters are excellent too. Whereas the original Digitakt had a resonant multimode filter and bi-directional Base filter for each audio track, this new version has the ability to alter the filter in that first slot. Alongside the existing filter model from Digitakt Mk I – here renamed Legacy – and parametric EQ, each track can now also make use of either a new multimode filter that can be swept or modulated through low-, band- and high-pass states, a more aggressive 4-pole low-pass filter, or a comb filter.

All of these new options are very welcome, but the comb filter in particular really adds to the flexibility of Digitakt’s sound engine, capable of bringing harsher and more synthetic qualities to the source samples.

These new filters work excellently alongside the sampler’s other major new feature – its expanded modulation capabilities. The headline addition here is that of an additional LFO per-track.

The implementation of flexible LFOs within Elektron’s instruments has long been one of our favourite aspects of their design. The setup is both flexible – capable of a variety of sync and shape options with controls for fades and retriggers – and easy to assign. As a result it’s easy to create patterns that are full of movement and life even before turning to the automation capabilities of the sequencer.

Having an extra modulator available for each audio track only enhances this, and given how much fun it can be to sweep the new multimode filter or slowly modulate the resonance of the comb filter, it’s an extremely welcome addition.

Digitakt II benefits from enhanced effects too, with a chorus added to the send effects – joining reverb and delay, along with a master compressor – as a whole new per-track effects page. This offers three types of digital distortion: Overdrive, which was also available on Digitakt Mk I, now joined by bit reduction and sample rate reduction, the latter of which can be configured to sit pre- or post-filter.

In sequence

Elektron’s sequencers have long been one of the most appealing elements of its instrument designs, despite hardly being what we’d call intuitive. Between conditional triggers, fills, parameter locks, micro-timings and much more, Digitakt’s sequencer will have newcomers regularly reaching for the manual, although you’ll always come away pleasantly surprised at just how flexible the whole setup is.

There’s nothing here that we’d describe as a radical overhaul to the sequencer, although there are a few significant upgrades. First and foremost, the maximum step length of patterns has been raised from 64 to 128, allowing for the creation of longer compositions without the need to chain two patterns together.

Digitakt II also gains a new Euclidean sequencer mode. This works by using two pulse generators to create evenly spaced patterns of triggers across a user-defined step length, and then uses a Boolean operator system to dictate how these two sets of pulses interact. It adds a nicely Eurorack-inspired touch of rhythmic creativity to the overall capabilities, which suits Digitakt well.

These are the topline changes, but there are a multitude of smaller tweaks throughout the OS too. One easily missed change that we’re particularly keen on is the increased flexibility in the way Digitakt routes audio over USB.

All of which adds up to a whole lot more depth, really doubling down on the things Digitakt was already capable of. There are also, however, areas where little has changed from the Mk I, and it’s these that may prove a continued sticking point for those that weren’t won over by the original.

For one thing, Elektron machines can be notorious for how convoluted their operating systems are and how much menu diving can be involved in the creative flow. Digitakt II does nothing to address this, adding more menu screens, rather than simplifying anything. We’ve long felt that the combination of +Drive, Projects, Sample Pools, Songs and Patterns feels like it adds too many layers of complexity to the overall architecture – although we’ll concede it’s very flexible.

Significantly, aside from the stereo capabilities, nothing much has changed in regards to how Digitakt plays back the samples themselves. As before, Digitakt makes use of four playback ‘machines’ – added in a firmware update during the Mk I's life cycle – labelled One Shot, Werp, Repitch and Slice. Respectively, these will either play a sample back in a linear manner, warp the sample to fit project tempo, repitch a sample to fit project tempo, or slice a sample into segments that can be triggered individually.

Verdict

To expect Digitakt to be a do-everything sampler misses the point somewhat though. It’s the specific functionality of Digitakt that makes it an appealing and inspiring device, and that comes from the confluence of complex sequencing and its characteristic, if in some ways limited, sample engines.

Which brings us back to our earlier point of Digitakt fitting somewhere between the realms of drum machine and sampler. If you try to use it purely as either one of these things, you’re liable to wind up disappointed. Those looking for the immediacy of a hardware drum machine will likely be put off by its complex and unintuitive workflow, while those who want flexible sampling will butt up against some of its limitations. It’s in the space between these two realms where you find Elektron’s most unique ideas and where Digitakt II shines.

To put it simply, if you were already sold on the original Digitakt, this offers more of the same, with considerably more depth and power. While it’s not quite as cheap as it once was, the bump in price feels reasonable given the additional audio capabilities. Those that were unconvinced by the original, however, are unlikely to have their minds changed by this upgrade – as impressive as it is.

MusicRadar verdict: Those that got on well with the original Digitakt will love the extra tools and flexibility, but naysayers may remain unconvinced.

Elektron Digitakt II: Hands-on demos

Bo Beats

Loopop

AudioPilz

Elektron Digitakt II: Specifications

• KEY FEATURES: 16 × stereo or mono audio tracks, or MIDI tracks. 1 × digital base-width filter per track. 1 × digital overdrive per track. 1 × digital bit reduction. 1 × digital sample rate reduction. 1 × overdrive master effect . 1 × stereo compressor master effect. 3 × assignable LFOs per track. 400 MB sample memory. 20 GB +Drive storage.
• CONTACT: Elektron

Kenny Dixon Jr, aka Moodymann, is one of modern Detroit’s best-known and most widely respected artists. Now Roland is celebrating his career with a signature edition of its much-loved SP-404 MKII sampler.

Only 600 units of the SP-404 MKII KDJ Records Limited Edition are available worldwide. Each comes sporting a custom aluminium faceplate and is loaded with samples sourced from the roster of Dixon’s KDJ Records. What’s more, the signature sampler also ships with a 7-inch record featuring exclusive new edits of Moodymann cuts I Think of Saturday and Hold It Down, along with a 60-minute mixtape, curated by Moodymann himself, highlighting tracks from the KDJ back catalogue.

Detroit-raised Kenny Dixon Jr has been releasing music and Moodymann since the early-’90s. As a DJ, he’s toured the world, bringing his characteristic style to festival stages and small clubs alike, liable to slip eclectic funk, hip-hop and rock tracks into sets packed with deep cuts of house and techno.

As a producer, he’s become known for his sample-heavy tracks and distinctive stripped-back, looping arrangements, that reduce his soul, funk and disco influences down to their rawest, groove-centred foundations.

Dixon founded KDJ Records in 1994 and over the years, along with its sister label Mahogani Music, it’s acted as a home for his own productions, as well as releases from the likes of Andrés, Theo Parrish and the late Amp Fiddler.

“30 years of KDJ provided me, personally, a way out. But it also provided a way out for a few other people, for me to turn around and help them as well,” Dixon says. “The best part of that is I could bring my whole team with me that I grew up with."

For the release, Moodymann has also created a new video, which you can watch above. It's titled More Raydee Ohh, and features vocals from Jazdivine and animation by Vaughn Taormina.

Roland’s SP-404 MKII landed in 2021, updating the design of one of the most popular performance samplers on the market. It impressed us when we reviewed it at launch, with our review concluding that “Roland has given the 404 an upgrade without changing its core workflow, which is dependent on being able to do almost everything you need to without looking at the screen or menu diving.”

A previous SP-404 special edition arrived last year, in collaboration with LA label Stones Throw.

If you’re hoping to grab one of those 600 SP-404 MKII KDJ Records Limited Editions, you can order now. It’s priced at $599. Find out more at the Roland website.

Elektron has officially responded to last week’s leaked images that appeared to reveal the existence of a new hardware instrument called Tonverk.

Posting on its own Elektronauts forum, where the images originally appeared before being swiftly removed, the Swedish brand neither outright confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the images.

“It’s great to see the speculation in the threads even if things occasionally drift a little off-piste,” the post begins. “At any given time there are a number of prototypes in various stages of development. It would be strange if we didn’t have any since creating music machines is what we love doing. Some eventually see the light of day and others stay in the proto stage.”

Although the statement leaves plenty of room for ambiguity, it’s fair to read it as an acknowledgement that Tonverk is a genuine Elektron prototype. At the same time, Elektron is clearly aiming to pour cold water on any Tonverk hype, and we're left none-the-wiser as to whether we can expect an official reveal any time soon. There may still be reason for excitement in the final lines of the post though.

“We do have other fun hardware things in the pipeline,” Elektron confirms. “And Overbridge for Digitakt II is soon done [sic] for some multi-streaming audio madness.”

Originally posted to the Elektronauts forum before being removed and reposted to Reddit, last week’s leak showed an apparent new Elektron instrument labelled Tonverk, which appeared to be some combination of sampler and synthesizer.

The instrument appeared to feature a lot of classically Elektron design touches, including a multi-functional sequencer, sample editing and multiple playback ‘Machines’. There were also signs that the company may be toying with some intriguing new designs though, with Tonverk seemingly offering extra flexibility when it comes to effect and modulation routing, as well as a USB-C power input.

See Elektron’s full response below. You can read more of our – semi-informed – speculation in the original news story.

Not for the first time this year, Elektron fans are getting all hot under the collar after photos of a new hardware instrument appeared to leak onto the internet. Images of a device labelled Tonverk, possibly a sampler or synthesizer, first appeared on Elektron’s own Elektronauts forum, before being swiftly deleted and reappearing on Reddit.

Unlike the previous leak of Digitakt II, which was an update to an existing product line and seemed like something of a dead-cert, Tonverk – if real – looks to be something completely new for the Swedish brand. 

There’s little information other than the images themselves, but we can draw some obvious conclusions from the interface pictured. Much of the labelled functionality appears to be lifted from existing Elektron devices. There’s a 16-button sequencer labelled with both audio and MIDI tracks. The keyboard-style button layout on the left is similar to that found on Analog Four, and indicates melodic capabilities, as do the buttons labelled Chord, Arp and Scale. The ‘Drum/Ptn Bank’ label also implies percussive capabilities.

The machine looks to be at least partially sample-based, due to the inclusion of a sample-edit button on the top left that looks similar to that found on Digitakt. There’s a bank of eight rotaries – again, classic Elektron fare – and one of the buttons underneath is labelled ‘Machines’, implying a variety of sound engine modes, possibly offering different modes of sample playback or a mix of sampling and synthesis.

Some Redditors are concluding that Tonverk is a likely successor to Elektron’s much-loved performance sampler Octatrack, although it seems unlikely to be pitched as such to us, due to the lack of some of that machine’s most popular features, such as its crossfader.

The leaked images also suggest some curious features that would fly in the face of Elektron convention. On the rear panel there’s no obvious power input, suggesting that power would be provided by one of the two USB-C inputs – and perhaps even an internal battery? An SD card slot suggests expandable storage, in a more convenient format than the CompactFlash cards used by the Octatrack. All of which would make Tonverk appear like a response to the DAW-in-a-box workflows offered by the likes of Ableton Push or Akai’s MPC Live.

The labelled controls also imply the existence of routable effects, a full mod matrix and bus tracks, all of which would add considerable flexibility compared to existing Elektron designs.

So how much should we trust these leaked images? Elektron did appear to register the name Tonverk as a trademark earlier this year, although that alone doesn’t confirm anything – it’s entirely possible that somebody saw that news and has taken it upon themselves to knock up their own DIY prototype. 

The fact that Elektron deleted the images from its forum appears to give the leak some credibility, although it could be that the company is working on something called Tonverk, and doesn’t want a fake circulating under that name.

The two sets of ‘leaked’ images – above and below – have a few discrepancies too. The buttons to the top left are different colours, but also several controls appeared to be labelled differently on the two units: the button marked Machines on one says Instruments on the other, and the Browse button on one unit appears to say Samples on the other. The two could conceivably be different prototype/pre-production iterations though.

Tonverk could well be real then, but it equally feels like it could have been put together by someone combining elements of previous Elektron machines with a few wishlist features of their own. Either way, we’ll find out in due course.

We’ve reach out to Elektron for comment.

Roland’s Aira Compact range already had a couple of synths, a beat machine and a voice tweaker, and now it’s got a sampler, too. The P-6 Creative Sampler, to be precise - a pocket-sized, portable device that enables you to capture, tweak, play and sequence sounds on the go.

That’s likely to sound like a pretty enticing combination to a lot of people. You can sample using the built-in mic, analogue inputs or from your smartphone over USB-C, and these samples can be chopped and triggered using the built-in keyboard.

There are step sampling and resampling features, while the hands-on effects include Vinyl Simulator, DJFX Looper, Stopper, Lo-fi, Scatter, Phaser, Resonator and more. Granular sampling tools enable you to indulge in some “microscopic sound design”; as well as being able to detune samples you can also adjust the grain shape and play with the head position, head speed and spread.

The 64-step sequencer, meanwhile, comes with creative features such as motion recording, probability, micro-timing, off-grid sequencing and sub-steps. The Step Function enables real-time manipulation so that you can improvise live and generate stutter effects.

We certainly like the sound of being able to sample directly into the P-6, but if you’d rather prepare sounds on a Mac or PC, you can do so in the dedicated SampleTool software. As well as offering click removal, editing and normalisation features, this also has a downsampling option for a grittier, lo-fi sound.

Of course, a lot of what’s described above can be achieved in several mobile apps, but there’s an argument to say that sampling on the P-6 will be a more fun and tactile experience. What’s more, you can connect and sync it to the other Aira Compacts - the S-1 Tweak Synth, T-8 Beat Machine, J-6 Chord Synthesizer, and E-4 Voice Tweaker - if you happen to own one or more of those.

The P-6 Creative Sampler is available now priced at $220. Find out more on the Roland website.

Arturia Augmented Yangtze: What is it?

Arturia’s Augmented Instruments are a growing series of software instruments that focus on a specific class or family of acoustic instrument, and do so in a way that favours musical performance and creativity over untrammelled sound design power.

The latest addition to the series, Augmented Yangtze, is built around a collection of traditional Chinese instruments, blending meticulous, high-quality samples with modern tones, textures and synthesis techniques to deliver an achingly seductive suite of sounds that positively drip with far-eastern mystique.

Arturia Augmented Yangtze: Performance and verdict

In keeping with the series as a whole, Augmented Yangtze’s main view is dominated by a set of eight macro controls that reach down into the parameters of the underlying sound generation engine. 

While the parameters controlled by the macros vary from patch to patch, each has a fixed name and aim, so you always know roughly what to expect when adjusting it. For example the Color macro always affects the brightness and timbre of the sound, and Time impacts envelopes, delays and other time-based elements. This continuity is particularly helpful when mapping the macros to real-time hardware controllers, as you don’t need to configure and/or learn a different knob layout for each patch. 

The large, central Morph macro is, perhaps, the most important of the bunch. Unlike the other macros, whose parameter modulation values increase from zero to a maximum as the macro is turned up, the Morph macro defines both a start and end value for the six parameters it controls. The result is more variable and organic than a simple crossfade, with unique tones and textures waiting to be discovered throughout the macro’s movement range.

Augmented Yangtze’s included patch library is packed with evocative, dramatic and emotive sounds, every single one oozing with quality and clarity. Arturia’s sound designers have truly excelled themselves here, not only with the sounds themselves, but also in the way the macros have been configured for perfect expressiveness and performability. 

Nevertheless, there will still be occasions when you want to dig deeper than simple macro adjustments, which is where the instrument’s Advanced overlay comes in.

Here you can configure each of Yangtze’s pair of sound generation layers (see below), and set the balance between them. Layers also have their own dedicated filter stage, offering a choice of six filter models taken from other synths in Arturia’s range: SEM, MultiMode, Surgeon, Comb, Phaser and Formant. Similarly, each layer sports two insert FX slots that can load any of 14 different processors – EQs, reverbs, dynamics, and so on. Global delay and reverb processors, that are applied to the final mixed signal of both layers, are also available.

Continuous modulation is provided by two-each of LFO, function curve and random value generator, each of which can be mapped to up-to four destination parameters. The instrument also handles mod wheel and keyboard velocity, aftertouch and tracking as modulation sources, and can recognise MPE slide and bend. 

Yangtze sound engine

Augmented Yangtze features two sound generation layers. Each layer can host up-to two sound engines – Sampler or Synth – although a patch can only contain two of each engine type, distributed between layers as you see fit.

Sampler provides access to a collection of 64 multi-sampled presets. The majority of these focus on a particular instrument: Bass Dizi (transverse flute), Erhu (bowed string), Guqin (zither), Pipa (lute/guitar), Xiao (vertical flute), and Yangqin (hammered dulcimer). The remaining presets are either processed instrument samples, or useful sound elements such as plucks.

Synth is preset-based too, but here the presets are organised by synthesizer type: Analog and Harmonic are pure synthesizers (a three-oscillator subtractive synth and an additive synth, respectively); Simpler and Granular are sample-based; and Wavetable is a wavetable synth engine (well, duh!).

All engines – Sampler and Synth – provide a small number of parameters for modifying their sound (these varying depending on the engine and preset), and each has a dedicated ADSR amp envelope. Unfortunately, samples and wavetables are fixed within their engine presets, and there’s no way to load custom samples/wavetables.

Masterful execution

Augmented Yangtze’s final flourish is a 16-step arpeggiator/pattern sequencer. This is much more flexible than a standard arpeggiator, able to include chord stabs within a pattern, but it lacks even a single modulation lane – boo!

This absence is just about the only complaint we can raise against Augmented Yangtze. In every other respect it is deeply satisfying. Yes, the engine imposes limitations on what you can do with it, but this is entirely consistent with Augmented Yangtze’s musical focus and performance-centric approach, and there’s enough editability here to satisfy even the most ardent sound designer. It also ensures Arturia’s meticulous sampling, astonishing sound design and masterful execution shine through, no matter how you use the instrument.

MusicRadar verdict: A unique world of evocative and dramatic voices for your compositions.

Arturia Augmented Yangtze: The web says

"Layer-specific and global effects, including reverb and delay, enable detailed sound sculpting, while the customizable macros ensure precise control over modulation and effects parameters. This comprehensive feature set makes Augmented Yangtze an exciting out-of-the-ordinary instrument for composers and sound designers seeking to infuse their projects with evocative Far Eastern sounds."
Epicomposer

Arturia Augmented Yangtze: Hands-on demos

Arturia

SumnSumnSumn HTK

UDi Audio

Sample Library Review

Arturia Augmented Yangtze: Specifications

• macOS 11+. 4GB RAM. 4 cores CPU, 3.4 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo-boost) or M1 CPU. 3GB free hard disk space. OpenGL 2.0 compatible GPU.
• Windows 10+ (64-bit). 4GB RAM. 4 cores CPU, 3.4 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo-boost). 3GB free hard disk space. OpenGL 2.0 compatible GPU. ARM processors not supported on Windows.
• Works in Standalone, VST, AAX, Audio Unit, NKS (64-bit DAWs only).
• CONTACT: Arturia

Roger Linn is one of the most famous names in music technology. Creator of the LM-1, the first drum machine to use digital samples, he also designed the MPC60 and MPC3000 for Akai.

Linn stopped working with Akai after the company went out of business in 2000, but the electronic instrument division that was spun off from the main brand has continued to produce new instruments in the MPC line that draw on Linn's pioneering designs. 

Things have come full circle in a new video posted to Linn's YouTube channel in which he tries out Akai's MPC Live II, one of the most recent products in the MPC family; MPC Live II is a standalone sampler, drum machine and sequencer with built-in monitors and a 7-inch touch display. Linn says he's been in touch with the current incarnation of Akai, and the company offered to send him out an MPC to play with.

In the video, embedded above, Linn walks us through the process of making a track with the MPC, pairing it with the Linnstrument, an MPE-equipped MIDI controller designed by Linn.

He also up his opinion on the instrument, saying that he "likes" the MPC Live II, and that "Akai has done a very good job of honouring the workflow of my original design and bringing it into the present with modern features - and in the process giving computers and DAWs a run for their money."

1010music Nanobox Tangerine: What is it?

1010music has been knocking out the Nanobox range for a few years now, and while the diminutive noise-makers have been mostly well-received, we’ve still had our reservations over usability within a device of this size. 

First to fly out of the blocks were the Fireball wavetable and Lemondrop granular synths, which managed to pack a lot of sonic power in such a small footprint. Then along came the Razzmatazz, all pretty in pink and chock full of lo-fi grimy FM beats. Now we have the fourth instalment in the Nanobox range, the Tangerine. Can this tiny sampler cut the mustard or will it fall foul of similar issues we’ve seen in the range so far? 

1010music Nanobox Tangerine: Performance and verdict

A quick tour of the specs and the controls are very much the same as before with the two rotary dials, four buttons and touchscreen adorning the front panel. The I/O is also the standard Nanobox fayre with 3.5mm MIDI in/out (5-pin DIN adapter incl.), Clock out, stereo line in/out and a micro SD card slot loaded with over 500 samples (1500 wav files), with the unit’s power coming via the USB-C port (USB A to C cable incl.). 

The selection of samples on offer is varied from the utilitarian to the abstract. The preset list starts with multi-sampled pianos before working through beats and synths to foley and sound effects from Soundtrack Loops. Previous Nanobox users will be familiar with the layout with navigation on par with Razzmatazz. This also means the return of the Teleporter, a quick navigation page that allows you to quickly jump to each menu window. Holding down the Home key at any point will magically teleport you to a page with all the menus laid out. Honestly, without this, you can get lost navigating your way around all the menus and sub-menus.

Tangerine has up to 24 notes of polyphony if utilising the 64MB of onboard storage per sample pad, which is then divided for each subsequent sample pad used, or eight stereo files running from the micro SD card with a max sample size of 4GB. Each pad can operate in four different modes: Sample for one-shots, hits and multi-sample for mapping across the keyboard, Clip for creating quantised loops and Slicer for triggering different sections within a WAV file. Despite being called a ‘Streaming Sampler’, suggesting only sample playback is available, the final pad mode available is Record. You can sample directly via the stereo line-in port and create your own multi-samples, one-shots or loops. There’s an SP-x0x-like workflow here, which felt slightly tricky at first, but soon became pretty painless and ultimately fun. This is where Tangerine’s albeit small screen comes to the fore. It’s responsive and there’s no lag with the UI, which in itself is thoughtfully designed overall. However, for the full ‘sampling’ experience we feel you will need to plug in a MIDI key or pad controller to get the most out of it.

Pad power

Within each pad, samples can be processed within two menus, the Macro screen for processing pitch, panning, level and filtering, with further access to the LFO, envelope, and then the Position and Configure menus. Within Configure, you can select the sample Launch mode, whether it’s Trigger to play the sample in its entirety, Gate which plays until the pad is released, Tap to start the sample and then a second tap to stop it or Piano, a combination of Gate and Trigger modes to better emulate a piano’s behaviour. Here you can also set up Exclusion Group for preventing one or more pads from playing at the same time. 

Limitations

The main limitation with Tangerine when compared to Razzmatazz is the lack of sequence editing. One of Razzmatazz’s plus points was the addition of the Super Stepper, which doesn’t make a comeback here, unfortunately. Although understandable given that Super Stepper is only capable of dealing with just one-shot samples, we would‘ve liked to have seen an evolution of the sequencer here. Generally, the sequencing on the whole is a bit of a letdown. A bigger screen, for instance, could be the answer for implementing something like a piano roll for sequencing melodic content, although, more realistically would be a tracker-like sequencer. 

To further compound the issue, there isn’t even an option to undo a recording or an overdub at the moment, but possible in a future firmware update perhaps? For some, such limitations can be seen as a positive. The lack of sequence editing will force you to change your approach when hitting that record button. You can either hone your skills to capture the perfect take when building up a clip or embrace the happy accidents and wonky takes. That’s what sampling is about, right? 

Another minor negative point is that Tangerine only features two effects, delay and reverb per pad with a global compressor. It’s got us feeling a little cheated when compared to the rest of the Nanoboxes, which are far richer in signal processing. Razzmatazz, for instance, comes with three effects slots, with the third one reserved for distortion and a cab sim and it feels like distortion is what’s missing from Tangerine. Presumably this limitation is giving way to far more hungry parameters and functionality, which is fine, but we’re wondering if one slot for spatial and the other for more sound-mangling effects would’ve been better?

So far, the entire Nanobox range is generally a force for good. 1010music has done a fine job of ramming a lot of sampler into a tight space. The main caveat, however, is true portability, or the lack thereof. No onboard battery seems to nullify the need for such a small device. Price-wise, Tangerine is up against stiff competition in the diminutive portable sampler stakes as well. 

To create a feature-rich UI within the contraints of a screen this size is no mean feat, but we’d still like it to be a bit bigger. 

MusicRadar verdict: The Nanobox range gets a sampler and a powerful one at that. 1010music has done a great job squeezing so much into this tiny box. 

1010music Nanobox Tangerine: Hands-on demos

1010music 

BoBeats

sonicstate

Battery Operated Orchestra

1010music Nanobox Tangerine: Specifications

• KEY FEATURES: Compact Streaming Sampler. Up to 24 voices of polyphony and 16 sequences per preset. 32 GB MicroSD card with 85 presets and over 1500 wav files. Colour matched USB-A to -C power cable and 5-pin MIDI to TRS cable included. 
• I/O: 3.5mm MIDI in/out, Stereo line in/out, USB-C, Micro SD card slot. 
• DIMENSIONS: 95 x 76 x 38mm. 
• WEIGHT: 110g.
• CONTACT: 1010music

The evergreen sounds of classic polyphonic synths (Prophet, Juno, Jupiter, Matrix, etc.) are the focus of this sample collection. 16 synth patches were created across a variety of sources, and to warm up their digital bones they were recorded through an Arsenal Audio R24 EQ and Focusrite ISA828 preamps. 

The base synth patches were created to make the most of the classic oscillator/filter relationships we tend to associate with the analogue polyphonics, but they were also kept on the more 'vanilla' side to maximise usefulness – bathe them in delay, reverb, flange/phase, and don't forget some spicy distortion. 

What you need to know

The samples are split into two folders: Chord Hits and Instruments. Pretty self-explanatory. The Chord Hits are made up of seven chords (major, 6th, 9th, minor, minor 6th, minor 7th and diminished) in three keys (A, C & E) to minimise pitch shifting in order to shoe-horn into a track. The Instruments folder contains all 16 patches with individual white notes from C0 to C5.

Because they're royalty-free, you're welcome to use the samples in your music in any way you like - all we ask is that you don't re-distribute them.

The samples are supplied in a zip file, so you'll need to extract them before you can see them. Enjoy!

Example sounds

 Analogue polysynths samples: click to download

Analogue polysynths samples (1.38GB)

These samples originally appeared in Future Music Magazine. Check out the latest issue for many more.

Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 90,000 more free samples.

Digitakt II is here. Following a leak that revealed the details of Elektron’s successor to its popular sampler, the Swedish manufacturer has made an official announcement and Digitakt II is now available to order.

Elektron says the next edition of Digitakt has "so much more power under the hood", and it's not wrong; with the addition of stereo sampling, an expanded track count and sequencer, more memory, effects, LFOs and a host of workflow upgrades, the machine is likely to please devotees of the original while offering something a little more capable to those thinking about making the jump. 

Up from Digitakt's 8 tracks, the new version has 16 that can be freely assigned to trigger either the internal sampling engine or external gear via MIDI. The original's 64-step sequencer has been doubled, and now supports patterns of 128 steps. You'll also find a new Euclidean sequence generator onboard. What's more, the II has been equipped with a far roomier storage capacity than its predecessor, with 20GB of sample storage and 400MB of sample memory (RAM). 

While the visual aspect of the Digitakt is pretty similar, there are a few extra buttons on the interface that point to new or improved features; an FX button can be used to access the expanded selection of effects, which now offers delay, reverb, chorus, bitcrusher and sample rate reduction per track, along with compression and overdrive master effects. A keyboard button activates Keyboard Mode, which lets you play chromatically across 10 octaves or experiment with 30 preset scales.

Digitakt II features new, 'swappable'; filters, with a base/width filter per track and an additional slot to be filled with your choice of five filters (Multi-mode, Low pass 4, Comb, EQ, or Legacy LP/HP). There's more in the way of modulation, too, with three LFOs now available per track. In terms of I/O, Digitakt II offers much the same as its younger brother, with balanced stereo ins and outs, a headphone output, MIDI In, Out and Thru and a USB 2.0 connection for hooking up with Overbridge via your computer.

Digitakt II is priced at $999/1049€. 

Find out more on Elektron's website.

Elektron fans, rejoice: it looks like the successor to the Swedish manufacturer's enduringly popular Digitakt sampler and drum machine is finally on the way. 

A now-deleted leak shared on the Elektronauts forum yesterday, and later reposted to Reddit, suggests that the release of the Digitakt II is imminent and gives us an exciting glimpse at the machine's spec sheet. 

According to the leaked details, Digitakt II will offer stereo sampling, unlike its younger brother, along with a track count of 16, up from Digitakt's 8 tracks. These tracks can be freely assigned to either audio or MIDI, for sequencing external gear. The II also boasts extra storage, with 400MB of sample memory and an impressive 20GB of storage.

That's not all. Digitakt's beloved sequencer has reportedly been equipped with Euclidean sequencing and expanded to 128 steps for its second iteration, double that of its predecessor. There are new, 'swappable' filters onboard - each track is equipped with a base/width filter along with an additional filter slot that can be filled with a choice of five filter types - and there's now three LFOs available per track.

Though the machine's design has been kept relatively similar, keen-eyed Elektronites will notice a new button on the interface: FX. This points to an expanded selection of effects processors that includes delay, reverb, chorus, and overdrive per track, along with bit and sample rate reduction and compression and overdrive on the master output. 

As for connectivity, Digitakt II offers you two stereo ins and outs, a headphone output, MIDI In, Out and Thru along with a USB-B port. The leak suggests the sampler will be priced at 949€.

When we know more, so will you...

We should probably blame Disney with its May 4th 'Stars Wars Day' because Roland now has many of its own 'days' – think March 3rd ('303 Day'), August 8th ('808 Day') and so on. 

But if you thought April was lacking a special day, let alone an iconic piece of Roland gear to go with it, then think again. It's April 4th so Roland is updating its SP-404MKII Sampler! 

And not only is the company updating the 404 on the the fourth of the fourth, it is updating the operating system to v4.04. Of course it is! 

Now after that introduction, this update better be good…

Luckily, there does seem to be quite a lot packed into the 4.04 update, the first major enhancement being Loop Capture. This essentially lets you get all Ed Sheeran with your SP by creating loops within the unit and then sampling other loops over them (internally or externally) to create entire pieces.

Loop Capture was present and correct in Roland's SP-555 which came out in 2008 as this classic Roland Loop Capture video demonstrates, so has taken a little while to reach the 404, but is a welcome addition.

Next up, the SP-404 MkII now has integration with the Koala iOS and Android app, a touch-based phone/tablet sampler. You can now control the app parameters with the SP-404MKII and send audio from Koala to and from the SP via USB.

A further update will please DAW users because you can now send audio from selected pads as individual multitrack stems, so you can either edit them in your DAW or send them out for remixes. (Although we'd probably put this particular update in the box marked 'should have been in there anyway'.)

Another useful addition is Sound Generator which is based around 15 waveforms generated by the SP-404MKII with which you can create basslines and other melodies. There's also a new Groove Function that is said to be "inspired by VP-9000 VariPhrase" and it allows you to add subtle or extreme swing to your grooves. 

Finally, we get some extras that all aim to improve the SP-404's workflow including Preset Measure Sampling, TR-REC Microscope Editing, Sample Merge, and Bounce Pattern Chains.

It's a bit of a shame that Roland didn't add any '4' based features to keep the '404' theme going. If it was up to us, we'd have included some four-on-the-floor grooves, 4/4 kicks, samples of people saying 'four', that kind of thing, but if you are reading this Roland, we are available for ideas for both of this year's 808 and 909 days*. 

Anyway, the best news of all is that the 4.04 update is free, so it's a happy 404 Day to all existing owners. (And a bit of a tempter for new ones.)

The SP-404Mk2 sells for around £429 / $449 and you can find more information from the Roland website.

*And for weddings, after dinner speeches, award ceremony hosting jobs… Anything really.

Most MusicRadar readers will likely have a passing familiarity with Elektron, the Swedish brand that started as a college project in 1997 at Gothenburg's Chalmers University of Technology between three classmates, Daniel Hansson, Anders Garder and Mikael Raim. 

Few companies have maintained the relevance and longevity that Elektron has, managing to not only continue growing with the times but influencing the very way in which electronic musicians utilize their gear, both on stage and in the studio. 

Daniel Troberg, one of Elektron's first employees and one of the brains behind the Octatrack, described Elektron as "a school project, driven by curiosity and a true interest in forward-thinking and alternative music products. It was not about 'what the market wanted.'"

1. SidStation

Elektron's first ever release, a synthesizer called the SidStation, stemmed from the aforementioned school project, and was initially made in a test run of ten in 1998 but not released to the public until 1999. The SidStation was unique in Elektron's lineup for several reasons. 

First, it was the only synthesizer product of theirs to not be paired with their famed sequencer, which we'll return to later. It was also unique in that it utilized a MOS Technology SID chip from the Commodore 64 home computer, a machine released all the way back in 1982 that helped lead the home computing revolution. 

Troberg, who came across the SidStation while working at a computer retail shop in 1998, was immediately impressed—and intrigued. “I remember it was an incredible experience to see what this quirky company had done with the sound chip from the C64, a computer I was well accustomed to, and more importantly a sound I knew very well. Let's just say I was impressed. It was the missing link between my interest in home computing and electronic music, and it felt like a match made in heaven."

Because of the age of these chips, Elektron purchased them en masse and supposedly bought almost all of the remaining chips that were available. These SID chips were far more capable than previous sound chips, featuring three voices with four available waveforms, envelopes, filters and more. The SidStation quickly became a runaway success, both because of its sound - which harked back to video game soundtracks of yore - and its unique feature set. 

2. Machinedrum

The SidStation was such a success, in fact, that the three founders knew they had a good thing going and sought to continue. Their next instrument would build exponentially on the Elektron concept of a highly flexible and sonically idiosyncratic music-making machine. 

It was called the Machinedrum, and as you'd expect from the name, it put the idea of a drum machine into a completely modern framework. The Machinedrum was where many ideas that made it into later Elektron products originated; you could think of it as the granddaddy of all future Elektron devices, in a sense. 

Machinedrum featured a sequencer with the ability to extend up to 64 steps, 16 instrument tracks with the ability to load any number of 'machines' for drum-specific sonic sculpting, a kit save and reload functionality that allowed users to save a grouping of sounds and then automatically recall the saved Kit settings after a round of sonic mangling, LFOs and effect sends per track, and most impressively, Elektron's now-famed parameter locking (or p-locking, as it's come to be known), which allows users to hold down a step in the sequence, adjust any settings with the eight data knobs and save those settings for just that step. 

Parameter locking introduced an unprecedented amount of movement and lifelike dance into the world of drum machines, and the world of electronic music hasn't been the same since. P-locking has featured on every Elektron sequencer since and has become somewhat of a calling card for the brand, able to turn stale, repeating loops into complex, evolving patterns. Note input values were called Trigs in Elektron speak and could be added in either real-time or in traditional step sequencing manner. Individual outputs, MIDI sequencing, a unique Slide trig feature all added to the Machinedrum's unique appeal. 

It’s hard to overstate how important and influential the Machinedrum was to introducing the Elektron brand to music-makers all around the globe. The Machinedrum was also the first machine that grabbed the attention of Cenk Sayinli, better known as Dataline to Elektron devotees. Sayinli was living in Istanbul in 2002 when he encountered the Machinedrum and quickly became hooked, selling off all his gear to be able to purchase one. 

"It arrived on a cold December morning and was very special trying it out first time," Sayinli said. The brand quickly became a part of his life, as he was hired as the Product Specialist in 2010, eventually founding Elektron Studios Berlin and demoing Elektron gear at trade shows around the world. His own music as Dataline was heavily informed by Elektron products as well, something he has described as a reciprocal relationship. "I think demoing Elektron products naturally bled into my music, but also it was the other way around: making music on the Elektron boxes managed me to get hired by them," Sayinli reminisced.

The Machinedrum is still used by a huge range of producers, from The Knife to Mathew Jonson, and unsurprising given its discontinued nature, fetches huge sums on the used market. It made coveted machines like Roland's XOX series look absolutely anachronistic by comparison, and at the time of its release (and arguably, still), there was very little competition for the type of advanced, complex beats it could produce. 

3. Monomachine

Frankly, Elektron's place in history would have been cemented if they had called it quits after the SidStation and the Machinedrum; each was incredibly unique and brought a wide-ranging sonic palette to the table. But this was only the beginning. The next instrument introduced to the general public in 2003 and 2004 would take the idea of a monosynth and flip it on its head: the Monomachine. 

Two versions of the Monomachine were created - one that was the same size and form factor as the Machinedrum, and the SFX6, which paired the same Machinedrum-inspired chassis with an attached keyboard. Only 500 units of the SFX6 were produced, making it nearly as rare as the Sidstation. 

The Monomachine took many of the concepts introduced by the Machinedrum (the flexible sequencer, the concept of kits, parameter locking, the eight rotary encoders) and paired them to six tracks of monophonic synthesis. Each of these tracks had the ability to load up one of five different synthesis methods, again following the Machinedrum's concept of 'machines'. 

SuperWave (classic waveshapes), DigiPro (drum samples / wavetables), Sid (C64 emulation), FM+ (an FM engine) and VO (a voice emulator) gave users a tremendous array of sounds available, especially considering that each of these were paired with three LFOs per track and the aforementioned parameter locking that allowed for each step to have its own unique settings. 

These engines were quite varied and unique and made use of the Monomachine's digital nature, allowing for deep flexibility and sonic potential, especially given the fact that they combined any way the user wished amongst the six tracks. 

Along with the six instrument tracks, the Monomachine featured an FX track that could have its own set of trigs, MIDI sequencing for external gear, in addition to an audio input for processing external sound sources through its effects. Pairing the Monomachine and the Machinedrum opened up a whole world of sonic possibilities, right at your fingertips, with no laptop needed. 

4. Octatrack

Elektron was off to an incredible start after releasing these three products, but its next design would become the most famous and well-known in its entire line-up. It's also the longest-running product in the company range, as it's still being manufactured today, albeit in a slightly updated mk2 form factor. 

That product is of course the Octatrack, released in 2010, an eight voice "dynamic performance sampler '' that was arguably Elektron's most complex machine yet. Troberg described the Octatrack as an idea that came to him when he was DJing with the UW version of the Machinedrum and a few decks of vinyl. "​​The Octatrack was an idea that came to me when I was showing the Machinedrum UW with its real-time sampling feature together with a vinyl turntable," he said. 

"I was doing DJ sets with one turntable and one UW and a DJ mixer, doing real-time remixing, grabbing loops and manually syncing the two, adding a fat bass drum and filtering the sampled loops and so on. When I played an MP3 from the computer, I suddenly realized how the mono sampling UW could not keep up with enormously wide phase-messy stereo MP3 files." And thus the idea of the Octatrack was born, a sampler whose very nature was as oriented to performance as it was to studio experimentation and adventurous beatmaking.

The Octatrack might be one of the most divisive electronic machines ever created; there have been pages and pages filled on Elektron's vast forum on both its merits and its faults. Many of the differing opinions on the Octatrack allude to the fact that it can do so much. Each of its eight tracks can record, playback and effect audio with a myriad of effects. Troberg describes the open-endedness of the Octatrack as a deliberate decision. "The idea was that it should be compatible with any musical style, any rhythmic mash-up, and feature a way to control several parameters easily using a fader - which made perfect sense for a DJ - and really cater for non-musicians in a way."

Just like the Monomachine and Machinedrum, the Octatrack features a sequencer that holds up to 64 steps, MIDI sequencing, kit saving (though in Octatrack speak, this functionality is known as Parts and operates slightly differently), several LFOs per track and much more. The Octatrack's highly sensitive crossfader allowed for the creation of Scenes, stored sets of parameter values across all eight tracks that could be morphed between with flicks of the crossfader, creating interpolations of these values as the crossfader moved from side to side. 

This functionality alone allowed for the kind of sonic mangling that would take hours to reproduce in the context of a DAW. Samples could be stored and recalled from a Compact Flash card and the Octatrack was the first Elektron device to feature a USB port, although this was largely for data management and sample transfer. More advanced USB features would come later, however, as you'll soon see. 

The Octatrack has probably graced more live set stages than many of the other Elektron machines simply for its diverse abilities - it can act as a sample playback machine, a sonic mangler, a way to quickly record incoming audio or even just a mixer, given that it boasts two full sets of stereo audio inputs. 

While many have complained that the Octatrack imparts its own sonic imprint on audio ran through it, given the somewhat dated AD/DA converters, others have argued that it's exactly this sonic characteristic that has infused so much of the electronic music we all know and love with a unique character. Clean is boring, as many have yelled from the rooftops and into chat forum screens. 

5. Analog Four

Up until 2010, Elektron had focused on purely digital devices but times were about to change. In 2012, the first of the three new 'Dark Trinity' instruments (as they've lovingly come to be nicknamed) was released. This was the all-new Analog Four, a machine Troberg described as the "ultimate analogue mono synthesizer." 

He continued, saying "the Analog Four was in a way like an analog Monomachine, but this time with focus on the voicing of a TB-303 and an Oberheim synth. Like two cool mono synths that had made a love child. I provided a lot of sound examples on my Eurorack modular synthesizer, patching it in a way where it would mimic possible voicing setups on the Analog Four. Luckily we could now borrow a lot of features that the Octatrack sequencer had been blessed with, like the micro-timing and more deep trig-based events."

6. Analog Rytm

The A4, as it's come to be colloquially known, was followed shortly afterwards in 2013 by the Analog Keys and in 2014, the Analog Rytm. Each of these instruments were bold new steps for Elektron, as they each featured fully analogue signal paths paired to the same complex digital sequencers and parameter locking system that the brand had come to be known for. 

The Analog Four, as you might have guessed, offered four monophonic synth tracks, whereas the Analog Rytm combined twelve instrument tracks (spread across eight voices), each with the ability to layer samples with bespoke drum-focused machines, again returning to the 'machine' concept introduced by the Machinedrum. The Analog Four's sonic engines were the most complex synths that Elektron had produced yet, with no less than eight pages of sonic sculpting per voice, each with an expanded six encoders per page. 

The Analog series have become some of Elektron's most beloved devices, and the Four and Rytm are still being produced to this day in mk2 iterations. Incredibly, both are still being updated with new OS features; the Rytm's latest OS, version 1.70, was released in late 2023 and added a plethora of new features, some of which greatly expanded the functionality of what is now a ten-year-old machine (the new OS works on both mk1 and mk2 versions of the Analog Rytm, showing Elektron's dedication to their own devices and fighting the battle against forced obsolescence). 

Some have criticized the Analog Rytm's pads as a weak point, and while they clearly aren't as sensitive as pads on an MPC,  they work as intended. Many claim the Analog Rytm as their favorite Elektron device, as it pairs the Machinedrum's workflow with a deep and lush analogue engine that sounds like nothing else in the world of drum machines. 

7. Overbridge

Another important feature of the Analog series that proved Elektron was ahead of the times was a software component called Overbridge, which allowed each of the Analog series to connect to your computer over USB and digitally stream each track's (and main stereo) ouput into your DAW. There was also a plugin window that allowed users to control the synth engines and parameters from the comfort of your computer screen. 

While a similar feature had been introduced in a slightly more limited capacity by Access Virus's TI software, Overbridge was a huge step forward in connecting the analog and digital worlds, and won Elektron the coveted Red Dot award for UI Design. It can't be overstated how valuable Overbridge has been to producers of all levels, as it greatly reduces the complexity of controlling and multitracking Elektron instruments via your DAW. 

One USB cable is all it takes for full data transfer of both MIDI and audio - this was huge. While it did take several years for Overbridge to reach full maturation, and there were some bumps along the way, when it finally did arrive in 2.0 form, it became something to marvel at.

8. Digitakt

And yet, Elektron continued to evolve. The announcement of a brand new instrument, the Digitakt, first shown at NAMM 2017 brought an even wider array of musicians and performers into the Elektron fold. 

The Digitakt was the first introduction of a slightly smaller instrument size with a number of features that would make their way into other machines in the range in subsequent years. Pairing an eight track sampler and 'drum computer' with a further eight MIDI tracks, each of which are four-note polyphonic, made the 'takt an incredibly portable centerpiece for a live rig, or just a studio workhorse capable of mangling samples any number of ways. 

The Digitakt also did away with the Machines concept, as each of its eight audio tracks are identical, allowing users to place whatever samples they choose on each. It was also the first purely digital machine since the Octatrack, eschewing the analogue sound generation of the Analog Four and Analog Rytm. And yet the Digitakt became one of the most popular Elektron machines, possibly due to a lower price point and a streamlined workflow compared to its earlier products. 

9. Digitone

Following the Digitakt came Elektron's first foray into a machine devoted purely to FM synthesis, the Digitone. An eight voice polyphonic synthesizer that had four synthesizer tracks and four MIDI sequencing tracks, the Digitone came in the same compact form factor as the Digitakt and introduced many newcomers to the complexity of FM in an easy to understand package. 

Ess Mattisson, one of the Digitone designers, described it as "the right synth at the right time." He went on, describing the milieu into which it entered. "Everyone was ready for fiercely digital synths to come back and It was a dream of mine to make an FM synth in the Elektron format, things just fell into place," he continued. 

"Every single FM synth ever made has the tagline of being 'FM made simple', but I feel like we really did that with the Digitone - it’s one of the few FM synths that stray away from the paradigm established by Yamaha and instead explores a unique and smaller, yet capable, subset of FM synthesis."

10. Syntakt

The success of both the Digitakt and Digitone (both of which are Overbridge-compatible) showed Elektron that the compact form factor was a hit with their user base and in 2022, the newest Elektron machine made its debut. 

Syntakt combined many features from previous products, placing them all in a single package - analogue engines from the Analog Rytm, digital engines from the Model:Cycles (a smaller, less expensive machine itself derived from the FM engine in the Digitone) and an FX track that many likened to a mini Analog Heat, itself yet another novel product that Elektron introduced in 2016. 

Syntakt also upped the track count to 12, with all tracks able to send MIDI information or sequence the internal engine. Many Elektron devotees saw Syntakt as a best-of device; others saw it as skimming the surface of what made the other machines great, while not bringing enough novelty and innovation to the table.

How the Syntakt will fare in the long-term remains to be seen, but it's without question that Elektron has proven itself to be the rare brand whose customers remember the people involved just as much as the products they produced, and that sentiment is shared by those involved. 

"Elektron had a brand identity and charisma which was displayed so well during Machinedrum and Monomachine times - I think this is what makes Elektron special to me," Sayinli said. "Some could say it's the parameter locks, or the sound, or its clicky buttons or pixel screen fonts... and there are probably better answers than mine. For myself, it's more of a nostalgic feeling." 

The evolution of the company as it has grown and expanded into a globally recognized brand hasn't come without growing pains, as is inevitable for any company that starts as an idea and becomes hugely successful on an international stage. 

Troberg describes the early days as a special time: "There was lots more collaboration, and that speaks volume to what was achieved. From the collaboration with people like Jesper Kouthoofd (who later founded Teenage Engineering) to Sony Japan who wanted to make a semi-modular music system, to connecting with rare chip scavengers and so on. It was so much more fun and explorative, and also not completely destroyed by the ultra-connected internet world we live in now." 

Devon Hughes, who worked as a sales manager for Elektron between 2014 and 2019, described the brand's gear as balancing complexity and simplicity perfectly. "Elektron gear is special because extra attention was paid to the important role of immediacy in the composition and performance process. Different kinds of people like to create music in different ways, and for those who enjoy the act of real-time expression with a highly responsive instrument, the Elektron interface has been designed to deliver on that experience." 

Where Elektron will go next is anyone's guess, but there is a legion of fans, musicians, programmers and producers waiting with baited breath for the next machine to bear the Elektron logo. It's quite an incredible story for any brand, but especially one with such a meager start - an idea formed by a trio of Swedish college students that has now grown into a new mode of electronic expression. You could say the future for Elektron is brighter than it's ever been.

NAMM 2024: In one of the most exciting gear announcements made in the lead-up to NAMM 2024 so far, Yamaha has unveiled a new product that looks like it could be one of the stars of this year's show.

Seqtrak is described by Yamaha as a "standalone music production studio" and comprises a step sequencer, drum machine, sampler and several software synths. The portable device is equipped with a microphone, speaker and rechargeable battery, along with a companion app that allows the user to dive into detailed sound editing.

Seqtrak's interface is divided into three sections; on the left we have drums, in the middle is the synth and sampler, and the coloured section on the right handles sound design and effects. The drum section is made up of seven tracks (kick, snare, clap, two hi-hats and two percussion sounds) that can be loaded up with sounds from Seqtrak's sample library, which contains 2000 sounds in total, or with the user's own samples through the Seqtrak app. 

The device offers three polyphonic digital synth engines; two of these make use of Yamaha's AWM2 (Advanced Wave Memory) technology, which is a sample-based subtractive synth engine found in a number of other Yamaha products. The other, named DX, is a four-operator FM synth engine based on the sounds of the classic Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. 

Each of the synths can switch between mono, poly and chord modes and melodies can be played in via Seqtrak's seven keys, which can be assigned to customizable scales. The device's step sequencer can also be used as a chromatic keyboard. The sequencer itself holds six patterns per track of up to 128 steps that can be dialled in through the 16 steps on Seqtrak's interface.

Seqtrak's sampler can record audio via the built-in microphone or the stereo mini-jack input, resample internally, or play back samples loaded in via the Wi-Fi and USB-C connections. Sounds can be processed through an array of effects that includes 12 types of reverb, 9 types of delay, modulation, distortion and compression, a 5-band master EQ and low-pass and high-pass filters on each track. 

Though it's described as a standalone music-making device, Seqtrak notably lacks a screen, and detailed sound editing will be easier to access through the Seqtrak companion app, which runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. The app also offers a visualizer which turns your tracks into graphics that respond to the music; we can't help but note a similarity to Teenage Engineering's OP-Z here, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Seqtrak in its sleek and minimalist design. 

Seqtrak is available in two colour schemes, grey and black and a striking white and orange. In addition to the audio in and USB-C port, it's equipped with a headphone out, MIDI in/out and Bluetooth MIDI for linking up with other gear and mobile devices. 

At $599, Seqtrak should make a worthy challenger to similarly priced devices such as Elektron's Digitakt and Digitone that offer an abundance of music-making potential in a portable package, and an affordable rival to more expensive grooveboxes like the Teenage Engineering OP-1 field.

Find out more on Yamaha's website.