So which Akai product iis the flagship? The MPC X or Force?

Some people believe Force is the Flagship, others believe the MPC X is. I don't know what to believe, but I do know my MPC X is the tool of my choice, so which one is it?

The Force is not an MPC so it can be a flagship MPC, that's the X

The force is the only akai standalone product of it's kind so can you really call it a flagship?

hansjbs wrote:The force is the only akai standalone product of it's kind so can you really call it a flagship?

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/akai-mpc-x

hansjbs wrote:The Force is not an MPC so it can be a flagship MPC, that's the X

The force is the only akai standalone product of it's kind so can you really call it a flagship?

He didn't ask which product was the flagship MPC - he asked which one was Akai's flagship product. Anyway, I do agree with you - obviously Force is a different product and the only one in its category for Akai. The MPC X is clearly Akai's flagship MPC right now.

MPC-X $2200
Force $999

The X has all the bells and whistles(physically). Its ironic though that the flagship product is a generation behind the Force's firmware. I have the X and the Force. I kinda want to get rid of the Force but I love the clip handling and sequencer and the mixer pages. It's much easier to do simple things in the Force than in the Mpc firmware.

Being able to play it as instrument is nice as well. Overall the firmware in the Force is much more user intuitive but Im not really feeling the physical layout. My hope when I pre-ordered the Force was that the 2 would have some kind of direct synchronicity in the future.

Unfortunately Ive never even seen that mentioned as a consideration, so once The MPCs become big boi's with 3.0, Id really have no reason to have both.

EnochLight wrote:He didn't ask which product was the flagship MPC - he asked which one was Akai's [i]flagship product

This is correct, but I thank you all for answering this question just the same...

Things that indicate a flagship product
* product cost
* number of features
* maturity
* amount of support
* level of marketing
* product profit level
* clear up market and down market

There's certainly more, but those are the big ones. I think you could spin it either way for some of those areas, but some have clear winners as well.

Personally I would say that the MPC X is the flagship, it's got a clear go to market, clear predecessors, etc... the Force has not been marketed as a successor to the MPC line, more of an accessory to it. Akai wants you to own 2+ of One/Live/X/Force this generation, similar to how the 500/1000/2500 all had an ecosystem that they wanted you to get 2+ of.

NearTao wrote:Things that indicate a flagship product
* product cost
* number of features
* maturity
* amount of support
* level of marketing
* product profit level
* clear up market and down market

There's certainly more, but those are the big ones. I think you could spin it either way for some of those areas, but some have clear winners as well.

Personally I would say that the MPC X is the flagship, it's got a clear go to market, clear predecessors, etc... the Force has not been marketed as a successor to the MPC line, more of an accessory to it. Akai wants you to own 2+ of One/Live/X/Force this generation, similar to how the 500/1000/2500 all had an ecosystem that they wanted you to get 2+ of.

I agree. Also this kind of confusion, is why the MPC brand needs to be clearly separated from Akai Brand. This way when the Akai Pro Force gets and update, Akai Pro MPC users don't expect on as well. (Vice Versa)