Akai and Native Instruments are like the Nintendo and Sega of music production. Although these long-time rivals offer many similar products, some musicians are drawn to AKAI’s MPC workflow, while others choose NI’s Maschine platform. In the near future, people may not have to choose at all. The two icons in this space team up. The MPC platform will soon be home to Native Instruments sound packs.
This means that if you’re currently using an MPC Live II, Key 61, or any of Akai’s standalone music production machines, you can get genuine Native Instruments sounds into your tracks. This is really a big deal. The MPC workflow is iconic and many genres of music wouldn’t be the same without it. At the same time, NI is also known for its top-class instruments and sounds.
Akai
“This collaboration bridges two iconic brands and provides a fully integrated ecosystem for creators,” said Matt Dircks, CEO of Native Instruments. “By combining AKAI’s legendary hardware with our extensive sound library and tools, we are pushing the boundaries of music production.”
We spoke to legendary instrument designer Roger Lin, who first invented the MPC platform in 1988, about this partnership. Although he is no longer officially affiliated with Akai, he said that incorporating NI instruments into Akai products “really benefits both companies.” He also said the move perfectly positions MPC devices to become “the next standard instrument like guitars and pianos.”
Lin, who also invented modern digital music production concepts such as swing and quantization, praised the new MPC device as the platform is a huge step forward from 1988’s MPC60. He says products like Live II are “still warm and fuzzy for people used to MPC, but they’re making their way into DAWs (digital audio workstations).” With integration with Native Instruments, These products promise to be even warmer and fudgy.
The only caveat? MPC devices only have access to Play Series instruments and official Expansions, which are genre-specific sound packs. For example, you can’t call up a full Massive X synthesizer or Kontakt. Overall, five instruments and five expansions will be available in mid-February. All of these are “specifically tailored to the MPC platform.” More releases may follow if there is positive feedback from users.
We asked Native Instruments’ CPO Simon Cross if there are any plans for compatibility in the other direction. Will the Native Instruments Maschine+ standalone groovebox be able to take out AKAI plug-ins and sound packs? There are no plans at the moment, but that’s a bit disappointing. This is somewhat understandable considering the company only has one standalone device, but still.
Akai
Finally, this partnership extends to MPK controllers as well. Akai’s MIDI controller series will soon be integrated with Native Instruments’ Native Kontrol Standard (NKS). This means that the AKAI controller can “seamlessly control all NKS-compatible plug-ins.” This integration enables pre-mapped controls and “intuitive navigation” directly from your MPK device. Software updates will occur at the end of February.
This expands controller compatibility to over 1,800 new instruments and plug-ins. The NKS standard will also be adopted by third-party controllers from companies such as M-Audio, Novation, and Korg in the near future.
To celebrate our burgeoning partnership, all current MPK series owners will receive a free copy of Komplete 15 Select. This is a carefully selected bundle of instruments and effects from Native Instruments. Again, this is free for all MPK series owners, not just new buyers.
As for Linn, his company currently makes the LinnStrument, a highly expressive MIDI controller. The device tracks finger movements in five ways, bringing acoustic-like expressiveness to digital instruments. He also (relatively) recently co-designed one of my all-time favorite drum machines, the Tempest, with MIDI and synthesizer guru Dave Smith, who passed away in 2022.