New Tiny Akai Keyboard and Pad Controllers for Musician’s Laptops

Here’s some natty looking controllers that are totally portable – Laptop bag sized in fact!

Akai‘s LPK 25 keyboard and LPD8 pad are small, but offer pro-grade construction and velocity-sensitive keys.

Powered by the USB bus and 13 inches long, they’re designed to fit in laptop bags and backpacks. The LPD8 has eight pads and 8 knobs, while the LPK25 has twenty-five keys, an arpeggiator, and controls for sustain, octave switching and tap tempo.

The LPD8 and LPK25 are USB-MIDI controllers for musicians, producers, DJs and other music creators. Each model is less than 13 inches across and weighs less than a pound.

The LPD8 is based on Akai Professional’s MPC line of iconic music product stations. While the smallest model, the MPC500 is quite portable, many producers prefer to work with software on their computer and the LPD8 gives their laptop the controls they prefer over a mouse and keyboard.

The LPD8 has eight blue light-up pads that are velocity sensitive for programming rhythmic or melodic parts. The pads can also send program-change information to software. The LPD8 also has eight assignable Q-Link knobs to which users can assign virtually any parameters in their software for hands-on control.

The LPK25 is a scaled-down relative to the MPK series of keyboard performance controllers. The handy keyboard is made up of 25 velocity-sensitive keyboard keys with synth action. The LPK25 contains an arpeggiator, which steps through chords automatically, assisting musicians with creating quick melodic ideas. Sustain, octave up and down and tap tempo controls round out the LPK25’s easy-to-learn layout.

Akai says they’ll be presented at the Summer NAMM show in Nashville later this month. Stores will get them in Q3.