Thoughts on the Akai MPC range

If you're wanting something self contained and portable, then the MPC line are easily the most suitable candidate in my opinion. Thats the cornerstone of Akai's musical products that they've been making for decades now. Hmmm let me check... yeah, 20 years this year! So they know what they're doing.

A basic overview is that MPCs contain a sampler, sequencer, and simple wave editing etc - so you can record a chunk of record, chop it up, assign it to your pads, and bash out a sweet hiphop tune. At least you can once you've learnt how it works and become skilled with it ;)

You can also load on all sorts of samples from your computer, and use them to create your tracks, as well as perhaps recording in some of your vocals etc.

MPCs are very popular in the hiphop scene, but have been used by various non-hiphop electronic artists as well.