Akai MPC500

The most affordable Akai MPC to date, the Akai MPC500 - for the price it actually packs a fair bit of MPCness into what's basically a portable electronic music studio in a box.

Naturally, being a cheaper model does mean some reductions in featureset, such as "losing" 4 of the pads, bringing the unit to 12pads total. It has a 2 x 16 LCD screen.

The memory card slot on the Akai MPC500 can handle memory cards ranging from 32MB - 2GB.

This MPC model really is very portable in size! It's surprisingly compact, where several of the other MPC models have been built like tanks.

Dimensions: 266mm x 175mm x 44mm (10.4in x 6.8in x 1.7in)

Weight: 1.34 kg (2.8 pounds)

Battery life: Approximately 4.5 hours of continuous use with LCD backlight ON. (And presumably a fair bit longer with LCD off, as with most electronic goods).

You're not going to get *all* the higher end MPC features of course, but as a portable beat production studio, the Akai MPC500 is a top contender.

If you've got any comments on this writeup, feel free to post them in the Akai MPC500 comments forum thread.