“Represents the evolution of everything we've learned from decades of innovation in music production”: Akai’s MPC XL is its new flagship – watch our first look review

NAMM 2026: Akai has launched its successor to the flagship MPC X, the MPC XL. The XL follows in the footsteps of last year’s excellent MPC Live III upgrade, adding a lot of similar enhancements such as vastly improved CPU power, expressive MPCe pads and a new step sequencing workflow.

The MPC XL maintains the design ethos of the MPC X, which was first released in 2017, and followed by an upgraded Special Edition model in 2023. Broadly speaking, it offers the same workflow as the smaller MPC Live and MPC One models, capable of self-contained beatmaking, recording, sampling, arranging and mixing, but with an increased amount of inputs and outputs and a broader variety of hands-on controls.