AKAI Professional ADVANCE 61 Advanced DAW Controller

This controller comes with Akai’s Virtual Instrument Player (V.I.P) 3.0 software, offering universal compatibility with VST plug-ins from any MIDI controller and fluid, intuitive creative workflow for musicians, engineers and producers. VIP 3.0 allows any user to catalogue, control and map their entire VST collection to the MIDI controller of their choosing, whilst 3rd party developers have the option to create their own maps for greater integration going forward.

The Akai Advance 61 MIDI Controller Keyboard is unlike any other MIDI keyboard you've played before. This 61 key keyboard gives you remarkable playability and unrestricted control of any virtual instrument. The interactive, full colour display and performance ready hardware controls help you in manipulating your virtual instruments. The Advance 61 combines the power of software instruments with the live performance of a keyboard and puts into a package that allows you to create and perform music like you never have before.

The Akai Advance surface features an integrated high resolution, full colour 4.3 inch display that provides real time control and feedback of all your virtual instruments. This display adapts itself to the virtual instrument controls instantly, giving you 1:1 access to the instrument and its various editable functions... and yes, the Akai Advance works with any VSTi virtual instrument.

Advance Keyboard's Virtual Instrument Player (VIP) gives you this unrestricted control to any virtual instrument in your collection, without losing focus on what your what you're playing in front of you. The VIP application can create setlists that provide on demand access to your virtual instruments which is great for stage performances. You can adapt to song changes as your performance goes on all at the single press of a button. This makes changes slicker as your not needing to reach for your computer.

VIP has facilities for a multitude of things including instrument and patch browsing, key zone splitting, layering of up to 8 instruments per VIP instance, expansive custom mapping capabilities, and support for any VSTi plug in. The VIP application works as either a plug in inside your DAW or as a standalone that works on both Windows and Mac.

Dedicated hardware controls give you even more control and involvement in controlling your virtual instruments. These controls include; a RGB backlit velocity and pressure sensitive pads; rubberized pitch and modulation wheels and ergonomic, continuously variable endless knobs that let you make adjustments with granular or dramatic effect. The keys themselves are semi-weighted and velocity-sensitive.

The Akai Advance 61 is a very powerful keyboard that gives you uninhibited control to your instruments without losing focus on what your playing. It's great for live performers and studio producers, and puts an unlimited amount of sounds straight to your finger tips.

The main features of the Akai Advance 61 MIDI Controller Keyboard include:

• Keyboards for advanced virtual instrument performance
• Integrated 4.3 inch high-resolution full-colour screen with dedicated interface buttons
• Screen provides 1:1, real-time feedback of plugin parameters
• 61 Premium, semi-weighted velocity-sensitive keybed aftertouch
• 8 large, endless and continuously variable control knobs
• 8 velocity- and pressure-sensitive MPC pads with RGB illumination
• Dedicated pad bank, transport control, octave, and performance buttons
• Note repeat, time-division, pattern arpeggiator, and tap-tempo buttons
• Rubberized Pitch and Modulation wheels
• Expression pedal and footswitch inputs
• USB and 5-pin MIDI Input/Output for use with any MIDI capable software or hardware
• Functions as a standalone controller
• Includes Virtual Instrument Player 3.0 Software