I'm getting ready to buy a new midi (control surface - no keyboard.) I'm leaning towards an Akai MPD24 at the moment, but a part of me wants to splurge and buy a Mackie MCU (MSRP $970 - $1000, around $650 on eBay.)

The Akai = http://www.akaipro.com/prodMPD24.php

The Mackie = http://www.mackie.com/products/mcu

Any others I should look at before making a decision? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

the korg padkontrol looks pretty cool if you haven't seen it, but i'd take the mpd over it.

other than that i have no input.

i've had some time on the korg padkontrol, and i was quite impressed.

i'm still dicking around with my little oxygen 8. i'll probably be breaking down and picking up something new soon.

yeah my roommate has the oxygen 8 and its pretty cool. does what it needs to.

i recently picked up the axiom49, this thing is the shit.

yeah have the axiom 25, its pretty awesome
it sure the hell beats using the computer keyboard in FL

yeah i was gonna get the 25 but when i went to guitar center i saw the 49 and couldn't say no. the faders are perfect to link to the track volumes in the mixer.

i fuckin love mine.

i spend more time just fucking around and jamming and shit then i do actually laying down tracks.

Ended up going with the Mackie MCU



Came across a sweet deal on eBay & just couldn't say no

what sequencer are you going to be using this with?

I'll be using it in with Ableton Live 6 & a Roland TR-909 for the time being. More hardware to be added in the coming months, hopefully.

is that an audio interface or just a midi controller?

seems a little overboard for just a midi controller. I know that aint cheap being Mackie. You could've gotten that behringer BCR/BCF thing if all you wanted was knobs and faders and buttons.

I know there were cheaper alternatives, but ultimately the Mackie is what I wanted.

I got an mpk49 at guitar center today



saw the axiom49, but i like the akai layout better. I'm used to 16 pads, but 12 works for me. couldn't deal with 8. 72 assignable parameters isn't too shabby either.

that mackie is pretty sweet. so is the Bitstream 3X



this is my next must-have

yeah that thing just came out not too long ago. i would love to get my hands on one.

guitar center got some in 4 days ago, and they already sold 2 (from both stores). I got one of the 2.

looks like they're gonna be pretty elusive, like the nintendo wii.
I love this thing; looks sort of toy-like in the picture, but it's solidly built like an mpc, albeit thick plastic, except for the bottom metal plate. good springy action on the keys, and the pads are identical to the mpc500, sliders and knobs have nice resistance, though a little light on the sliders.

gotta admit, the axiom has some nice pads and keys. those are going to sell better than the mpk, they're about $150 cheaper

i kind of imagined the akai mpk to be a hybrid of something axiom-ish and the mpd. the mpd 24 is a dope little box but i need keys to play with. good knobs, sliders, buttons , etc though, and outside of an annoying USB problem its got, it gets the job done. (the mpd)

my roommate has got an oxygen 8 and the mpd, but theres no way i'd trade in my axiom for that set up.

it pretty much is. i don't know how many editable parameters or banks the axiom has, but it's certainly superior to a lot of the other midi keyboards out there. m-audio has come a long way. I was contemplating getting a CME UF50, but I'm more familiar with Akai hardware, thus I opted for the mpk49