Straight from Akai rep end of 4k support

Ok

The MPC4000

Q.1 Why is it discontinuted.

The MPC4000 was discountined due to many componets been no longer available. When we purchased AKAI they had a back log of 4000's which had to be completed so we spend over 18 months purchasing the last remaining componets around the world to finish the product. The final last shippment was around 50 units worldwide.

I sold 15 in the Uk within a week due to amany people wanting and only wanting a 4000 cause of the keygroup Z8 internal sampler inside but most people didn't want that feature (hence why it's not on the 5000) they just wanted a flagship powerful MPC like the 4000 with the large screen and more powerful FX.

Q.2 Additional Software promises.

I remember when i was running a musicstore before I joined the company I could not get stock of any Akai samplers from there old UK operation. It was such a mess. we got promises that stock waould come through and it never did. The 4000 Output boards were like gold dust and know one new why. We all knew Hardware was vanishing. At that time I don't think we had any Emu sampling products at all just back orders for Akai machines.

Then Numark purchased Akai and all of a sudden there was stock available. We had 4000's availble and 2000xl's in Blue and things were moving forward. So things went on the up for everyone. After about 6 months the xl came discountinuted due to parts and old technology and this was the same as the 4000 but remember Numark had to purchase all the liquidated stock from Old Akai at a mass loss and move forward with a new face of AKAI.

The xl's we had were old stock brought with the company but we could still make some 4000's. But then componets on the 4000 became so expensive to buy and some became impossible to find the choice was made to discontinue the model. We could not make it anymore.

Updates on the 4000!

The Sales Manager from the Old Akai had made many promises giving the end users details of updates that would never happen. We do-not do this. We are a new company with the greatest engineers and sales staff around the world and i'm glad Im here and AKAI is here and we are growing from strength to strength.

EMU, Ensoniq, Kurzweil, Akai all made hardware samplers until the market for them dropped to nothing. Akai went bankrupt trying to sell samplers and disk recorders, this is why Numark was able to buy them out. We had to sell the remaining Z4's and Z8's at a loss to get them out of the warehouse, NOBODY WANTED THEM. EMU went bye-bye in the sampler world, they made some controllers but they didn't offer anything good. Their sampler market totally went away. Same thing happened to Kurzweil and Ensoniq. There is no shortage of really nice used samplers like the S-5000/S-6000, EMU 4000, K2000, K2500's, Roland S-760's, etc. and the prices are stupidly low.


So the reality is that almost nobody makes their own keymapped samples. They buy libraries and expect them to work. Even the keymapped sample library market went away. It's been revitalized by people being able to include them in a host engine like Kontakt Player or other players.


Next point!

why not expand on the 4000?
A lot of people liked the 4000. A lot didn't because it didn't feel like an MPC and had a totally different mindset to it.

THE MPC5000

Why does it not have the same software like the 4000.

It's not required. Even I felt the 4000 was to cluttered with data. We have stream lined the information and giving you everything you need on the screen. The 4000 just was far to busy. Just read how many people could not use this machine on here and the learning curve was hugh. Even i remember that.

The 4000 is our code and why would we release it to our competition! Who would. Akai is a heritage brand we are protecting and making sure every effort goes into giving the end user the products they need for today and tomorrow.

If you knew the work i put into this brand making sure music store staff have knowlegde for you and you can demo them is hard work. I'm also putting this workshop together for the puplic.

Nothing like this has ever been done before and it's my idea that I have requested permission for. I felt you guys need someone to hear and to help and I'm so please i can do that.

I can't spend hours on here but I will still try and help as much as I can.


Cheers

Andy

Taken from the 5k forum sorry guys but it is a wrap and it is done no new nothing, nothing, nada, finishto, owari on any updates from Numark.

Andy of Akai wrote:The 4000 is our code and why would we release it to our competition! Who would. Akai is a heritage brand we are protecting and making sure every effort goes into giving the end user the products they need for today and tomorrow.

Eh?
So the *users* who bought the thing are the "competition"?!
And they won't release the code because they are making "every effort" to "give us what we need"?!

WHAT - EVAH

Yea, it's sad they won't be offering anymore support for the 4k. I wonder why they listened more to the folks that didn't support it as opposed to the ones that own it.

So if Akai knows that the hardware sampler market is going the way of the wind, then why on earth are they still playing fiddle to the folks that don't really understand this stuff in the first place?

But that's alright, I'm enjoying the fact that I can interface my 4k with kontakt and have the best of both worlds.

I still don't see why the couldn't update the MPC4000 documentation -
unless they've lost the FrameMaker files as well as not having any hardware!

Not sure why the other thread was locked, lots of stuff in there.

Sure this sucks for people to read (even though it has been obvious for a long time), but from a business aspect, everything they say makes sense. Basically, most of the people that buy these machines are idiots that want an appliance that they can turn on and it practically makes music for them. That is pretty obvious when you read half the posts on this message board. If you want something new and advanced, software is now the only route. So keep what you have and learn how to exploit it, or move on. Looking at the 5000, I'm very happy with what I have.

Even though they say the code is ALL NEW for the 5000, the fact is that every MPC from the beginning has the same basic functionality, so giving away code for any of them is giving away core peices of their current line.

ok, so that's done. Thanks to all who tried. Intellegent arguments well put.

back to beatmaking, this fukking machine sound fantastic, its now officially the best MPC that will ever exist

well, until Roger Linn decides to make another one

Yea guys, it seems that the 4k was meant for musicians and not beat makers. I never thought of the 4k as being "complicated". I can now see why the 4k lost it's luster, it ended up in the hands of folks that didn't understand it let alone understand music itself.

Real musicians, like myself, love to be challenged by such gadgets...it's good for the mind. I never liked things too simple...I gets bored with it with the quickness.

"well, until Roger Linn decides to make another one"

yeah, I have the evolver, I'm very interested in this new collaboration, I think its gonna kick the machinedrum's ass sonically, and the MPC5000's fat ass too - NO DOUBT!

These super innovative guys who helped design the basic models of modern music production, Roger Linn, Dave Smith , Niles Steiner, David Cockerill - they are still making cutting edge/interesting stuff, and Don Buchla, Rubert Neve still out there too...

makes the modern Akai, Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Alesis seem really lame

or maybe electronic music just turned into a bunch of preset bullshit? Can't really blame the manufacturers for that

I'm also looking forward to what the Linn Drum II has to offer... but it doesn't look to be an MPC replacement by any means, just a badass drum machine. No sampler and not sure what the external sequencing abilities will be (only one midi out). As a drum machine, this thing will most likely be boss. I'm hoping for something in between an Xbase and a machinedrum and on steroids.

Well that was the end of all end. No more what you get in the future do you cuz it is your music. It is always the Man above the machine and if the machine won`t get any more support from Akai, if the machine won`t get any more updates it is upon us to either continue on with what we have or change to something different point blank.

I`m glad that Akai/Numark spoke up about this with the cold hard facts. It may be a bitter pill to swallow but now we can just focus on the music or get a better tool.

4k sequencer with Emulator X2 software.

I never thought of the 4k as being "complicated".

yeah man, if you've got time, interest and a manual, you can figure anything out.

i hate this "you'll be programming in 5 minutes" mentality
like there's nothing to learn
it's a fkin musical instrument, of COURSE it has a steep learning curve, of COURSE it's gonna take time, effort and cause some sort of stress

you guys are cool, i wish you the best in this

that's whack that they wont produce or support the 4k. even tho the 5k is bout to hit the market. I'm still on the look out for good bargain on 4k.

as far as 4k being difficult to use. I dont think so, new features can take some time to wrap head around. but for anybody with any prior expierience with mpcs. it should be no problem to work the 4k.

coming from 2500 and no expierience with the 4000. I had no problem banging out a loop within mintues of bringing it home. I dont think this was a problem for anybody with least ammount of common sense


it's the people who watched youtuble to frequently trying to immitate some of the prodcuers on there. thinking it's easy as it looks, but what a surprise it aint.

IT ALL SOUNDS LIKE DUBBLE TALK BULLSHT TO ME