Akai Professional / AKAI Digital
Electrical/electronic Manufacturing - , , Japan
Akai Professional / AKAI Digital Employees
Akai Professional / AKAI Digital Details
This is the page for the original Akai Professional / Akai Digital brands, a division of Akai Electric Company (Akai Denki), that ran from 1984 through 2004, and is not affiliated with the current Akai Professional, part of the inMusic brands.Multitrack Tape RecordersThe first AKAI Professional product was the MG1212, a 12 channel, 12 track analog recorder and mixer in 1984, replaced in 1985 by the MG-1214, and MG14D recorder.The first AKAI Digital product was the DR1200 / ADAM, a 12-track digital recorder introduced in 1988.Analog SynthesizersThe Akai AX80 8-voice analog synthesizer in 1984, followed by AX60 and AX73 6-voice analog synthesizers in 1986.S series SamplersThe S612, 12-bit digital sampler in 1985, was the first affordable sampler.In 1986, 12-bit, 8-voice S900 was released, followed by the X7000 keyboard and the S700 rack in 1987. The 16-bit, 16-voice Akai S1000 followed in 1988, then the S1100 in 1990. They were replaced by the 32-voice S3000 series in 1992, followed by the 64-voice S5000 and S6000. In 2002, the Z4 and Z8, 24-bit 96 kHz, were the last released hardware samplers.MPC series Music Production CenterIn 1988, the original MPC60 was the result of an alliance with Roger Linn. In 1994, Akai released the 32-voice MPC3000, with 16-bit, 44 kHz sampling. The MPC2000 was released in 1997, then replaced by the MPC2000XL in 2000. In 2002, Akai unveiled the MPC4000, the most powerful MPC ever made (24-bit 96 kHz, up to 512MB RAM). In 2003, Akai released the MPC1000, the smallest in the MPC product line at the time.Tapeless Recorders/EditorsIn 1990, Akai Digital introduced the DD1000, the first digital recorder/editor using M.O. disks instead of tape.The DD series continued with the DD1500 16-track DAW in 1994, and the DD8 Digital Dubber in 1996.Akai also released a series for hard disk recorders (DR4 - 1993, DR8 - 1994 and DR16 - 1995), and integrated digital recorder/mixer (DPS12 - 1997, DPS16, - 1999, DPS24 -2002).
