Making Tech Headlines · Page 4
Akai Offers Modders the Software Before It Offers a Price
· New York time
Akai has teased its MPC Sample Key and says it plans to open-source the device's software, inviting the modding community to experiment with it. The company has not announced a launch date or a price, according to The Verge. That puts the software invitation ahead of two facts most buyers normally want before deciding whether a gadget belongs in their studio. The Verge also received exclusive images of the device after Akai teased it on Instagram. For now, the public picture is a new music product with an unusually explicit welcome for outside developers, but without a published timetable or price tag. Open-source software can give technically minded musicians and developers a way to examine and change a product's code. What they will actually build, and how the finished hardware will work in practice, remains to be seen. The company's stated plan is an invitation, not a guarantee of a particular community project. The marketing has nevertheless identified an audience that enjoys taking instruments apart conceptually as well as playing them. Akai is offering that audience room to tinker before answering the more traditional question of what the instrument costs. The modders can start imagining features, while everyone else waits to modify the household budget.
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