AKAI Roger Linn ADR 15?

Anyone has some more info and pics of this little beauty?

http://www.synthony.com/vintage/adr15.html

Nice link thanks! Maybe some1 else have some more info and maybe some better pics?

I noticed already that the screen doesnt seem to be able to come up.

The ADR 15 was a prototype MPC60 MK1 there was only one made so you can't find any other pics of it or info other than what's there already.

Hmm, what happend to it? They threw it away?

There was a prototype Roger Linn unit up for sell not so long ago. Forget which model though.

Found a bigger pic of this beast..
From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilvance/2981866886/

Yeah that's a good pic. No Flip Up screen on the prototype model.

This mpc is in the same stage as a song that only need to be edited and masterd before they name it and put in production.

I was the product manager at Akai when this came out. In the US, Akai was distributed by International Music Company (which also owned Charvel and Jackson guitars). The president was Jerry Freed. It was Jerry's idea to add the flipup screen, which the home office in Japan agreed to. I was in Jerry's office one day, and he asked me what ADR15 stood for. I said that the ADR could stand for Akai Drum Recorder, but the number 15 had no relationship to it. Jerry said, "Let's brainstorm. What is this machine?" I said, "Well it's basically a MIDI production center, it's got a 60,000 note sequencer....". Jerry interrupted me and said, "How about MPC60?" And the name was born. The next prototype that arrived in late 1987 had the MPC60 name and the flip screen. The company gave me the ADR15. I used it heavily at home in my little studio for a few years, and then sold it to someone in LA. Later on I wished I hadn't sold it because it was definitely one of a kind. But I think it's great that 25 years later, the MPC name is still there.

Ha that's brilliant! Thanks for taking the time to share your story.
Got any more Akai related nonsense you'd like to share? lol

Were you involved at all with their rack samplers?

mike_mcroberts wrote:I was the product manager at Akai when this came out. In the US, Akai was distributed by International Music Company (which also owned Charvel and Jackson guitars). The president was Jerry Freed. It was Jerry's idea to add the flipup screen, which the home office in Japan agreed to. I was in Jerry's office one day, and he asked me what ADR15 stood for. I said that the ADR could stand for Akai Drum Recorder, but the number 15 had no relationship to it. Jerry said, "Let's brainstorm. What is this machine?" I said, "Well it's basically a MIDI production center, it's got a 60,000 note sequencer....". Jerry interrupted me and said, "How about MPC60?" And the name was born. The next prototype that arrived in late 1987 had the MPC60 name and the flip screen. The company gave me the ADR15. I used it heavily at home in my little studio for a few years, and then sold it to someone in LA. Later on I wished I hadn't sold it because it was definitely one of a kind. But I think it's great that 25 years later, the MPC name is still there.

Pics or it never happened

Cool story bro? lol I want to believe it but dunno

Pictures you ask? This was taken during the making of the MPC60 training video around May 1988. I'm at the left, Roger Linn in the chair.


And this is an out-take from a photo session about a month later with three members of Michael Jackson's band, when they were on the BAD Tour. Top row, from the band are Ricky Lawson (drums), Greg Phillinganes (keys), Rory Kaplan (keys). I'm seated. Greg is doing the devil sign. They did Akai clinics in nearly every city where they played on that tour (including a lot in the UK).

vinyl_junkie_1620 wrote:Were you involved at all with their rack samplers?

I was involved with the S900, S1000, S1100, S3000 series (as well as all their products from 1987-1994). I still have the prototype S3200 sampler. When the S900 came out, there were 18 factory disks. I created disks 19-55, after which I let other people do it. I had a Mac 512 (which had 1/2 megabyte of memory, or 512 kilobytes), Sound Designer software from a new company called Digidesign, and I had to edit samples using MIDI Sample Dump commands to transfer them from the S900 to the Mac. If I was doing a cymbal, it could take 5 minutes for it to transfer. Or if I was looping a sample, I'd create the loop, wait forever for it to transfer back to the S900, only to discover the loop didn't work. Creating a looped piano sample disk then was tedious at best.

After Akai, I became a product manager at Digidesign.