Recording - April 2013 - 52

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

Akai MAX49
USB/MIDI/CV Keyboard Controller
This controller boasts modern conveniences and
vintage compatibility

Akai knows when it has a good thing
going. When we reviewed the MPK Series
of controller keyboards (November 2010),
the venerable manufacturer of the beatfriendly MPC tabletop sampler/sequencers
had already found many new ways to give
home-studio composers and live performers
access to the MPC pad interface. There
were modern hardware MPCs, tabletop
USB controllers to add MPC pads to your
DAW, and in the MPKs, performance keyboards/control surfaces that had MPC
pads as part of the package.
The MPK line is still available from Akai
and doing well, but the company hasn’t
stopped looking around to find cool new
ways to take the MPC-and-more paradigm
even further. The MAX49 controller under
review here is a prime example, as it takes
the MPK formula and adds new control methods and new interface options to the mix.
Getting started
The MAX49 comes preconfigured with
templates to control many different DAWs,
and not only speaks MIDI Control Change
(CC) and MIDI Machine Control (MMC) messages, but can also communicate handily in
the popular Mackie Control and HUI protocols when needed. Even if you’re not entirely
sure just how your DAW wants to see controller commands, the MAX49 will probably
give you want you need right out of the starting gate. Anyone with experience configuring his or her DAW for external control will
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RECORDING April 2013

find everything easy to access, and can customize the MAX49 to taste in a jiffy.
So what do you find when you open the
box? A new-car-red chassis sporting a 49note keyboard with a nicely stiff action
and comfortable aftertouch, a set of 12
velocity/pressure-sensitive backlit MPC
drum pads with the usual Akai performance controls like Note Repeat and Full
Level, centrally-located function and menu
controls (including dedicated transport
controls) under a four-line backlit LCD, rubberized pitch and mod wheels, eight
assignable buttons, and a set of eight
Touch Faders—ribbon controllers with LED
ladders to indicate their current setting,
taking the place of conventional faders.
The Touch Faders offer a few advantages
when compared to traditional faders. They
have no moving parts so they’re hopefully
more sturdy; the LED ladders indicate fader
position on a dark stage; and perhaps most
critically, when you switch fader banks or
functions, all of the Touch Faders’ settings
instantly update to new values because you
don’t have to physically move the faders to
new positions—you get the instant recall of
automation without having to motorize the
faders. Disadvantages? Their resolution
feels a bit more coarse than what you’d get
with a real fader (although that may just be
perception), and they lack the tactile feedback of faders—for example, you can’t set
a fader to match levels with the one next to
it just by feel. The fact that they instantly

update to new values with a gentle touch is
both an advantage and a disadvantage;
you can do cool control-stepping tricks that
are impossible with faders, but an accidental touch can throw a parameter value a lot
farther than a mistaken fader nudge.
The rear panel offers USB, MIDI In and
Out, and five 1/4" TS jacks for an expression pedal, two footswitches, and Control
Voltage (CV) and Gate outputs for oldschool analog gear (more about those
below). There’s also a jack for the 6V
wall-wart power supply included with the
MAX49; it’s not always necessary if
you’re only doing USB connectivity, but
you’ll need it for CV/Gate use, and if
you’re low on USB power the LEDs may
not always light as you’d expect them to.
I’d play it safe and run the MAX49
plugged in when possible.
New operating features
I won’t revisit the many features the
MAX49 shares in common with the MPK
Series; it’s a fine-playing keyboard, the
MPC pads are comfortable to play (and do
double duty as function switches or MIDI
controllers if you’re not a pad-masher), and
the built-in Arpeggiator offers various play
modes and controllable swing. As a controller, the MAX49 covers a lot of ground,
as its Pads and Touch Faders each have four
separate Banks of settings (for 48 Pads and
32 Faders/buttons in all). It’s seen by your
DAW as having three output ports and two
inputs; that lets you send up to 32 channels
of MIDI data from the MAX49 (each control
can be assigned a transmit channel or use
a common one), exchange parameter settings with your computer, and use the MIDI
In and Out as DAW MIDI interface ports.
The Sequencer is a fun throwback to
the old days of analog modular gear; you
can set up a sequence of up to 32 steps,
with each step transmitting a note within
a 2-octave range, a rest, or a tie to the
previous note. Pitches are set with the
LCD or via the Touch Faders, a quick and
intuitive process, and a function called
Keyshift lets you transpose a sequence on
the fly by touching the keyboard. Each of
four storable Sequences can have not
only a series of notes but also a different
series of values for a given MIDI CC number, so you can automate stepped knobturns like filter cutoff for cool effects.
If you have analog synth gear that uses
standard 5V/octave Control Voltage scaling
and accepts positive-going Gate signals, the
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