26 thoughts on “Akai Professional MPC Live III Promises To Be The Most Powerful Music Production Center Ever”

1. This is brilliant!
   I really hope they put these new features into the X or One (preferably the One [Two?]).
   As cool as the Live is, I don’t need battery portability or built in speakers.
   Put all this new goodness into a beefed up One and I’ll be all over it.

2. this looks like a nightmare. clunky and incoherent. totally obtuse architecture, trying to do way too much with unclear function spread, multi menus within a screen within a layered hardware menu system, four knobs not clearly aligned with anything. it may very well do a lot and offer a lot of functionality, but surely this could have been designed with even a more UX-oriented mindset? i’m not even commenting on the aesthetics, that irrelevant at this point lol.

   1. It works fine in reality. It’s not a beautiful UX, nor is it a beautiful front panel, but my experience with previous models has been that the learning curve is not especially steep and once you’re over it you can work very fast. People I know who have already received their Live 3 seem very happy with the improvements; the ~42 aditional buttons substantially reduce dependence on the touchscreen. It’s less elegant than say Elektron’s user interfaces (my favorite) but the MPC range is significantly more powerful. Its closest historical parallel would be something like the Emulator IV, which cost a great deal more and was a great deal less pleasant to use.

3. Milkshake is using hate speech, why are they not banned? I think this is a great machine!

   1. Dairyqueen – we reviewed milkshake’s comment and don’t see any hate speech or personal attacks.

      It’s on topic for readers to share their perspectives on new gear, whether positive or negative.

      To be a personal attack, the criticism would need to be targeted at a person. And hate speech targets groups of people.

   2. boo hoo, im hurt by words. please censor who ever dares.

4. wow that is ugly.

5. I am staying with my MPC One+ that has gladly accepted the 3.6 software update. Thank you, Akai.

   As for the MPC Live III, this is an exceptionally complicated beast. When the leaks emerged, everyone assumed it was a MidJourney image or Photoshop comp. There is nothing wrong with using various design software tools, even GenAI models, but the one benefit of having a human in the loop is that it makes it much more likely that the final product can be used by a human. This design is bonkers.

   32 buttons on top — half of them smaller with colorful LEDs to help you desperately try to keep track of what you selected. Colors on the buttons, pads, and GUI that are the same color scheme but have no related meaning?

   The corner LEDs on the pads so you can play the corners? Using that would require an entirely new skill set for every current MPC user and for what actual artistic benefit? Did anyone gather any data on how many MPC users leave the pads in single-velocity mode, especially when playing live? Not a lot of space for a human finger between the right top angle on one button and the left top angle on the one beside it.

   More buttons under the screen? DAWless? Did anyone count all of the buttons and compare that to the number of buttons on a standard laptop keyboard? MPC Live III = 60. Laptop Keyboard = 87. Hmmm. Look at the configuration of various buttons. The tiny little line (little buttons) and spacing (big buttons) at the top to indicate groups of 4. If that is useful, why is it so hard to see — except to fit it all in? Think of all of the MPCII users with muscle memory for the transport buttons and explain what those little + and – keys are doing over to the side. The Previous Next up top right?

   Pitch bend is on the left when you have a toggle or indented wheel to grab with your typically weaker left hand. Did you see how many people can accurately slide their left finger up and down on that Touch Strip? Even the demo artist in the video just barely moves his finger 1/3 up it once, instead doing as we might expect — stabbing it with a left hand finger.

   I challenge InMusic to prove that this interface was designed by a human being. If it was, there are too many people sitting in on that design meeting or too many managers allowed to edit the AutoCAD before it goes to engineering. This is Feature Creep at its worst.

   I guess these comments make me another stupid internet troll, but I suspect InMusic has just pushed a lot of loyal customers to an iPad, the 1010Bento, or something from Polyend. The good news for InMusic is that Roland has not found a supplier for a decent drum machine display. The TR-1000 is apparently using leftover 7-segment LEDs from the MT-32 warehouse. OK, yes, the “display” is better than that, but it has a real bitmap vibe to it. The whole TR-1000 has a very IBM PC Jr aesthetic. Google it, kids. I am also keeping my TR-6S because it is an exceptionally usable, beautifully designed little machine with incredible ACB sounds and a sensible workflow, as long as you don’t go menu diving. Why is the TR6S software librarian so buggy? Anyone at Roland know how to code a GUI in React? Anyone? Now, if I could dump a “TR6S with a 7 inch MPC screen” prompt into MidJourney…. But I digress.

   I do sincerely thank Akai for the 3.6 for the MPC One+. You didn’t have to do it, but you did and I thank you. One less MPC One+ on the used market will be the best thing to drive MPC Live III sales.

   1. My, that was a long winded rant, wasn’t it.
      Do you feel better now?
      What was it all about anyway?
      Something, something, too many buttons.
      Mumble, mumble, not how I would’ve made it.
      Random comment about tiny screens on a completely unrelated product.
      Is that about the gist of it?

      1. I do feel better, but maybe I should have taken a more serious tone. I will use my serious “professor” voice.

         Official disclaimer. I have no financial interest in any of the companies mentioned and have no commercial role in the design, marketing, manufacturing, or sales side of the synth industry. I am a user who spends approximately $3000 year on musical equipment. These views are strictly my own. My commentary is unpaid and in no way intended to generate revenue via any means.

         Many people’s negative response to the MPC LIVE III as “fugly” is expected given the number of ways this design violates basic design principles. These principles can be found in any good human factors or design textbook, but this Apple reference captures the basic principles: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines

         Re my comments on color. “Avoid using the same color to mean different things.” https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/color

         Re my comments on location and arrangement of buttons:
         “Make essential information easy to find by giving it sufficient space. People want to view the most important information right away, so don’t obscure it by crowding it with nonessential details.”
         https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/layout
         The MPC Live III is an intensely crowded layout where it looks like certain functionality was pushed into the open space on the panel.

         “Group related items to help people find the information they want. For example, you might use negative space, background shapes, colors, materials, or separator lines to show when elements are related and to separate information into distinct areas. When you do so, ensure that content and controls remain clearly distinct.” The MPC Live III layout violates known principles of human perception, often called Gestalt principles: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/gestalt-principles. Some buttons with different functionality and some so far away like the odd PREV/NEXT or PLUS/MINUS. Yes, there are lines between the button groupings at the top but they are not “clearly distinct.” There is virtually no negative space anywhere on the panel.

         Some LED buttons have labels printed under them and the row below has labels printed on them. See Abode on this issue: https://spectrum.adobe.com/page/button/ “Buttons should always have a label, unless they are only using an icon that is universally understood and accessible. They can have an optional icon, but it should not be used for decoration.” Why two different approaches in the same parallel row of 16?

         As for the new pads for playing, the learning curve will be driven by “proactive interference” related to “muscle memory.”
         https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/psychology/proactive-interference
         https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/muscle-memory
         A user community trained on an interface that defaults to a single level of velocity will have a challenge learning to play something that is so sensitive and unusual. Everything they learned about how to play an older MPC will make it harder to learn to play the new MPC Live III.

         As for the corners of the pads being too close, there are many many good studies on the precision of human touch, but this is a useful example: https://www.optofidelity.com/insights/blogs/optofidelity-human-touch . Assume 2.3mm, touch the corner of one pad and how far are you from the one beside it. Same with all those little buttons. Now do it in a dimly lit club setting.

         There is a whole research base on handedness, but suffice to say we have hundreds of millions of people who have learned to swipe with their right finger, swipe with their thumb, or even pinch with their right index finger and thumb. Not so with the left index finger. That pitch slider could have simply been placed to the right of the pads.

         As for the 60 buttons, I know of no industrial or consumer design that has a 7-inch touch screen display and so many buttons for navigation. None. The purpose of the touch screen is to avoid having to have navigation buttons — and to make is easier to add new functionaliy to a fixed hardware design. No touch screen design has so many navigation buttons.

         This fails so many basic design rules that it is hard to see how anyone — loyal users or new users — will be able to use it.

         This is what people mean when they say it is really “fugly.” It is really really really fugly.

         (I think I felt better when I wrote this as a crazy rant. This version just makes me kinda sad, like no one gives a flip about good design. Bummer. I am going to go listen to my Arlo Parks “Collapsed in Sunbeams” record until I feel better.)

         1. Sorry, but I absolutely disagree with pretty much everything you said.
            Firstly, you choose to quote Apple design philosophy in you first three quotes. Apple, as in Mac. The company that only has one mouse button. To right click you have to press the Control key on the keyboard! That’s incredibly annoying.
            Then you continue your diatribe about the pitch slider being on the left. Please name some examples of synths etc where the pitch / mod wheel is on the right rather than the left? They’re all generally on the left.
            Also, the top 16 buttons are for the new step sequencer. If you’re going to have an extra 16 buttons you might as well use then for alternative functions to minimise menu diving.
            This, to me, actually feels like Akai have listened to their customer base and given them more hands on control.
            Of course, this is all subjective and obviously people will have different opinions about it.
            I’m guessing you won’t be getting one yourself (neither will I, I shall wait for an upgraded X or One). However, I suspect that if you were to try one out you’d be pleasantly surprised.
            Anyway, have fun making music on whatever devices you choose. Take it easy.

            1. I think we actually agree on two things.

               First, people should get their hands on one of these to try it themselves before buying.

               I raced to my local musical instrument “center” the minute this came from the backroom to the shelf. The first thing I realized was that any time I press a top row button, I have hidden the screen with my hand. Things went downhill from there. My posts document my initial disappointment and my thoughts on the design science that explains (I think, you disagree) why and I and other MPC fans have reacted so negatively to this.

               Second, if you have money for an X, then you and I both have enough money for an MPC Live III and neither one of us wants one.

               My plan was to do the “15% off for a trade in deal” at my local “center.” Good through today (10/8). With my MPC trade in (plus delux travel case), I could have had an MPC Live III for about $1000. No deal. Two MPC fans with the money for it who are not interested. N=2 is not a very large sample, but we are obviously not alone.

               It will be interesting to watch the “like new” prices over the next 6 months on the “reverberation” website. With tariffs and inflation, prices for “like new” or “mint” could even go up. But we will all know whether this fulfilled the wish list of actual potential buyers, maybe even by Christmas, April Fools’ Day at the latest.

            2. Contain your hate for the fruit company, ‘boob – easy on the misinformation?Back here on earth in 2025, we’ve had great joy right-clicking on the Mac for a pretty long time, you ‘do’ know this, right? In fact, some of us have even had enjoyable careers in music and production, right-clicking on an Apple mouse for a living, to our heart’s content…two diatribes, don’t make a tribe;) Re the MPC, I want this yesterday <3 Stunning machine.

   2. Concerned Synthesis: Just want to say I appreciate the “rant”. I have never owned a groove box, and so I have NO IDEA. You bring up some excellent points for me to put into the pipe. I’m a long time Apple user, and I make ALL of my music in the iPadOS / iOS environment and it has breathed new air into my creativity. I’m DONE with desktops and laptops. But here’s the catch: if Apple goes belly up, or they do something really dumb, I’m stuck with that company. I’m looking for a way out. I want an alternative! I want something that isn’t forced to be a part of the Apple ecosystem. I want something that isn’t going to force me to update, eventually become obsolete. So thanks for posting!

6. Seriously interesting.

7. I love the love/hate divides on tools like this. You can loosely tell who wants to be DAWless, possibly because they are on a computer all day at work. Then there are those like me who love a DAW because the hassles of hardware are mostly banished.

   IMO, you get ample power for the price. The specs are up to snuff. If this appeals to your work flow gland, well, they certainly didn’t leave much off, if anything. Match it with your favorite synth and you can become a prince/princess of Asgard.

   1. I’m not Dawless but I try to be in th ebox as much as possible, creativity just flows better that way. I feel like im just trying to find something that gels with me more than the Deluge. I have not yet. Once I got a Deluge, everything made sense BUt the mpc was close. Then they started adding a plugin each week and changing the OS. So its a love/hate relationship but I did get the Live 3 yesterday and I’ve been enjoying the step sequencer and clip launcher. Now I need to get rid of the Live 2.
      But you’re right, when you work on a computer all day, its the last thing you want to do when you’re not working. Making music somehow still feels like work.

8. It is fugly as heck. The MPC was once an elegant looking piece of equipment.

9. I’ll bet a lot of people go for workstation keyboards because its not like using a $#@! PC to sequence. I lived in that world when I started and it wasn’t half bad. With today’s color displays, its even easier to tackle. Between that and the 4-point, pressure-sensing pads, this MPC probably looks inviting to someone who wants to also play for fun and not just program.

   Besides, with that sophisticated a display, its IS a DAW. It just has a different form factor.

10. But this IS a daw, just with a touchscreen and controllers. And with a much more cumbersome workflow. Nothing dawless about it at all!!

11. Unless I’ve read incorrectly it seems you can plug an ipad in and use the mpc as an interface, giving the ability to control ipad apps from mpc and send audio to and from ipad to mpc. This is a feature I wish the mpc one had (the digitakt has it). It makes this a very tempting purchase indeed.

12. What happens if one of the ‘pad quadrants’ dies, mistriggers or fails to respond? Do you get to replace the whole 16-pad bank set?

    1. I guess it’ll be like replacing any other MPC pad on any other MPC.
       Relatively straightforward, if you have some basic soldering / electrical knowledge.
       Replacement MPC pads are readily available. I can’t see why this one would be any different.

13. My, that was a long winded rant, wasn’t it.
    Do you feel better now?
    What was it all about anyway?
    Something, something, too many buttons.
    Mumble, mumble, not how I would’ve made it.
    Random comment about tiny screens on a completely unrelated product.
    Is that about the gist of it?

14. … nobody mentions the direct competitor, n.i. Maschine?
    a LONG awaited basic improvement for that one might be coming up before the end of the month. think automation.
    i dont have any horses in the n.i. race at all. dealing with them is rather annoying…. But, that maschines workflow, well it kinda does flow. besides some weird missing basic functionality as in complete freedom of pattern lenghts. and the screens could be used way more graphical informative…
    still its one to consider. it looks and feels like a quality device too. best feeling pads on the market and you can tune down it’s christmas tree qualities.

15. I have and enjoy working on my current MPC Live which still works with the latest OS.

    I am on the fence with this device because I feel 8GB of ram for a device in 2025 – especially if you can’t add more – is still not quite where I’d like it to be. This is even more true for a device that is evolving into a DAW in a box. Whether to replace a computer or as a hardware device for running tracks live, it would be cool to have at least comparable specs. You can expand storage which is great; I would have liked to have seen either at least 16GB of ram or the option to add more later.

    The new pads look really cool and the additional buttons look promising too. I find myself wanting a few more dedicated buttons on my OG Live so to see more things brought to the front panel is nice.