The MPC Touch lets you pinch waveforms, draw MIDI notes and more.

Akai Professional has announced the MPC Touch, a controller with a seven-inch touchscreen together with hardware controls for beatmaking.

As you’d expect from a device that fits into the company’s MPC heritage, the Touch features 16 drum pads for sketching out beats together with controls for recording. However, it also includes a screen with multi-touch technology that lets you brows, samples, pinch waveforms, draw MIDI notes, adjust envelopes, chop samples and more.

Considering Akai’s recent MPC models have drawn a lot from Native Instruments’ Maschine controller, beating the company to market with a device that combines multi-touch and physical controls is quite a coup for Akai. Unfortunately, those hoping for a standalone device like the company’s 80s models might be disappointed – the MPC Touch still relies on being connected to a computer to function.

Despite this, it does have a few features that might make it attractive to users of Maschine, Ableton Push or Novation’s Launchpad. It has a built-in audio interface, which means you can plug it directly into speakers as well as sample audio using the hardware itself. It also features a step sequencer and an XY effects controller, which will be familiar to users of Korg’s Kaoss Pad.

The MPC Touch will be available in November for £499 – you can watch it demonstrated by hip-hop producers Needlz and Metro Boomin below.

Read this next: The samplers that shaped modern music

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