Akai MPC Sample Firmware 1.3 — Normalise, Knob Takeover and More for the Battery-Powered Beat Machine

The Akai MPC Sample — a battery-powered sampler priced at $399 and inspired by the workflow of the MPC60.

Three Weeks Old and Already on Its Third Update

The MPC Sample shipped March 24 and cleared stock within hours. Three weeks later, Akai has already pushed three firmware revisions — 1.2.0, 1.2.1, and now 1.3 — which tells you two things: the device has real momentum, and there were real issues to sort out.

Firmware 1.3 is the most substantive of the three. The headlining addition is sample normalisation: you can now normalise a sample to 0dB between its defined start and end points. That might sound minor, but for anyone chopping drum breaks or lifting reese basslines from vinyl rips, hitting consistent levels across a kit without manual gain-staging saves time mid-session. When you are building a DnB arrangement at 174 BPM and want every chop to sit at the same volume before you start layering, this is the kind of friction-removal that matters.

Knob Takeover Solves a Real Complaint

The other meaningful addition is knob takeover modes. The MPC Sample uses three standard potentiometers rather than endless encoders — a design decision that drew criticism from day one, because jumping between patches or sequences caused the knobs to snap to their physical positions rather than picking up from where the software left off. Firmware 1.3 introduces three modes to control this behaviour: Pickup, Scaled, and Instant, each configurable independently for Standard controls, Knob FX, and the Fader.

Pickup mode is the one most producers will reach for: the knob does nothing until its physical position matches the stored software value, then takes over smoothly. This is the standard workaround found on hardware like the Roland SP-404 MK2, and its absence at launch was a legitimate gripe. It is now fixed.

What the MPC Sample Is

For anyone who has not been tracking this device: the MPC Sample is a compact hardware sampler — 23.6 × 19.4 × 5.0 cm — running on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for up to five hours. It carries 16 velocity-sensitive RGB pads with polyphonic aftertouch, 8GB of internal storage, 32 stereo voices of polyphony, eight pad banks, and a 2GB CPU. Key sampling tools include Instant Sample Chop, real-time Timestretch, Repitch, and four effects engines covering 60 effect types. MIDI In/Out and USB-C connectivity round out the I/O.

For DnB producers, the workflow case is straightforward: sample from any audio source via the USB-C input or internal mic, chop directly on the pads, sequence a loop, and export stems back to your DAW. The device is explicitly positioned against the Roland SP-404 MK2 and Teenage Engineering EP-133 K.O. II, but at $399 it undercuts both in a meaningful way while carrying decades of MPC DNA. More stock is expected to arrive at retailers within the next two weeks. Firmware 1.3 is available now from the Akai website.