Sampler Deals of the Week: AKAI, Native Instruments and 1010music
Now’s your chance to finally pick up a new sampler!
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Beat makers: Now’s the time to upgrade your studio with hot sampler deals on AKAI MPC, Native Instruments Maschine+ and 1010music’s new bento.
Sampler Deals of the Week
AKAI Professional MPC Key 37 on Sale
The AKAI MPC series of sampler/grooveboxes has been leading the pack for decades now for beat makers. There’s just nothing like whipping up some beats on those 16 pads. But what’s a traditional keyboardist to do? Sure, you can put the MPC in chromatic mode, but old habits are hard to break – and sometimes it just feels nice to play some piano keys. Thankfully, there’s the AKAI Professional MPC Key 37 to give you the best of both worlds. And it’s even on sale right now.
The MPC Key 37 has the same 16 RGB pads and a 7” multi-touch screen, much like many of the other current MPC models. It also gives you four 360° Q-Link encoders for getting around. In terms of the keyboard, there are 37 velocity-sensitive keys equipped with aftertouch plus pitch and modulation wheels. If you need more keys, there’s always the MPC Key 61.
On the inside, you get 2GB of RAM, 32GB of memory, 8GB of bundled samples plus eight plugin instruments. MPC3, the latest OS, is also standard.
The AKAI MPC Key 37 is now on sale at Thomann* for $729 / £655 / €769 – a significant discount over the launch price! Truly one of the best sampler deals you can find right now.
Native Instruments Maschine+ on Sale + 6 Free Expansions!
If you’re a serious beat maker, chances are you’re either on team AKAI or team Native Instruments. If you’re part of the NI camp, you may have been POed by the news that the German company was working with AKAI on getting its sounds into MPCs. Well, don’t worry, as NI is still updating Maschine – and that includes its standalone version, Maschine+, as well. And, with the Native Instruments Summer of Sound sale underway, there’s never been a better time to pick up a Maschine+.
The big selling point of Maschine+ is, of course, the workflow. And, as it’s standalone, you get the Maschine operating system right inside the machine (as it were) with no need to connect to a computer. Along with the main software itself, you also get 18 synths and sampled instruments (including Massive, FM8, Monark and Prism), 37 effects, and eight Expansions (including two that you can choose yourself).
On the hardware side, you’re equipped with 16 velocity-sensitive keys and two color displays, while there’s a quad-core CPU, 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash memory on the inside.
The current sale price gives you 5% off** plus an additional six Expansions of your choosing as part of the Summer of Sound campaign. Sounds like a no-brainer of a sampler deal.
Native Instruments Maschine+ is available from Thomann* for $849 / £769 / €899.
1010music bento: New and on Sale
One of the best new devices to debut at Superbooth25 this month was bento, the new “sampling production lab” from 1010music. You may know that the company has its variety of tiny but powerful boxes, like the Blackbox sampling studio, Bluebox digital mixer and recorder, and nanobox fireball, a polyphonic wavetable mini synth. Bento has now joined their ranks and takes things up a notch.
More than just a box, bento is a production lab. With its 16 expressive pads (arranged in a 2 x 8 configuration rather than 4 x 4) plus eight endless encoders and a 7” touchscreen, it’s offering some stiff competition to established players like AKAI and NI. For sequencing, you get eight tracks with support for sample banks, loops, granular, multisample, slicer or even external MIDI. There’s also a powerful effects section with delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, phase and overdrive, all with per-track routing.
Bento is also a true sampler, with the ability to capture external audio through its three inputs at 24 bits up to four hours in length. You can also resample internally to print samples with effects applied.
We loved playing with it at Superbooth, calling 1010music’s bento a real contender for the greatest all-in-one music-making device ever. It’s available now – and it’s on sale at 6% off**. Get it at Thomann* for $955 / £849 / €999. Now that’s a sampler deal.
Want more deals? Check out Thomann* as well as the Gearnews deal zone for all of the latest.
*Note: This article contains advertising links that help us pay for this site. Don’t worry: the price for you will always be the same! If you buy something through these links, we will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!
**Percentage discount will vary based on your territory and conversion rates on the day of purchase. Displayed percentage discounts are used for guidance only. Note that American prices may be subject to import duties.
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