Akai Seeds Early MPC Units To Third-Party Developers

Akai is distributing early units of the upcoming MPC Sample Key to external developers ahead of a formal product announcement. The hardware maker aims to support a growing community of creators building custom modifications for the device. The unit will ship with open-source firmware to facilitate these changes.

The MPC Sample Key is a 37-key variant of the budget-focused MPC Sample. It runs software similar to the MPC Sample but is adjusted for a traditional keyboard layout with pitch and mod wheels. Unlike the higher-end MPC Key 37, the new device lacks pads, requiring users to trigger samples directly with the keys.

Akai previewed community work in Instagram Reels posted on October 27 and October 28, 2026. The clips demonstrate various custom modifications that add new synthesizers to the hardware. These include ports of Native Instruments Massive, as well as virtual analog and FM synths. One specific mod was shown running a custom operating system containing several different synthesizers.

The videos indicate that these community features may extend to the standard MPC Sample. That unit was shown running synths built with Claude. This detail suggests Akai may eventually open-source the entire MPC Sample platform, though the company has not confirmed that plan.

Jack O'Donnell, CEO of inMusic, stated that the company intends to embrace the modding community by seeding early devices to developers. The plan includes open-sourcing portions of the software and providing a software development kit. This will allow users to build their own tools for the instruments.