Akai Professional is a leading provider of music production hardware and software, recognized for its innovative products that cater to musicians, producers, and audio professionals. Established in 1984, the company has built a strong reputation in the industry, particularly known for its iconic MPC drum machines and the popular MPK Mini MIDI controller. The company's offerings include a wide range of music production tools designed to facilitate creativity and enhance the music-making process. Akai Professional serves a diverse customer base, from hobbyist musicians to professional sound engineers, providing essential equipment for both studio and live performance settings. With a commitment to quality and innovation, Akai Professional continues to be a trusted name in the realm of music technology.
Akai Professional receives significant criticism from consumers, primarily due to poor product quality and inadequate customer service. Many reviewers express frustration over faulty products, with claims that items like the MPC One and MPK Mini have serious issues, including unresponsive keys and software bugs.
Customers also report a lack of support, stating that help tickets go unanswered and communication with the company is nearly impossible. While some users appreciate the quality of specific hardware like the MPC Key 37, they note that the accompanying software is limited, only functioning on Windows and MacOS. Positive experiences are rare, with only a few praising the ease of purchasing plugins. Overall, the sentiment leans heavily negative, with many vowing never to buy from Akai again.
Summary generated with AI from recent reviews
Each source counts by its number of reviews. Only reviews written by people are scored.
| Source | Rating | Reviews | Weight | 6-mo | Fake risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trustpilot Imported Trustpilot reviews | 1.9 | 35 | 100% | ● Low |
Monthly average rating from reviews written by people · latest review Jul 2025.
| Month | Average | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 24 | 3.0 | 2 |
| Sep 24 | 2.0 | 2 |
| Oct 24 | — | 0 |
| Nov 24 | — | 0 |
| Dec 24 | — | 0 |
| Jan 25 | 2.3 | 4 |
| Feb 25 | 1.0 | 1 |
| Mar 25 | — | 0 |
| Apr 25 | — | 0 |
| May 25 | 1.0 | 1 |
| Jun 25 | — | 0 |
| Jul 25 | 4.0 | 1 |
Share of positive (4–5★) and negative (1–2★) reviews mentioning each topic · based on the 35 most recent reviews.
“I needed to contact Akai Professional support over the bundled software and online store partnership – they took a wh...”
“Do not buy any used Akai pro product”
Same method for every company: overall rating, legitimacy checks, the average rating of reviews mentioning each area and the 6-month trend · Musical Instruments.
| Company | Overall | Legit | Service | Quality | Refunds | Trend | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 1.9 out of 5 (poor) | 100 out of 100 | 1.5 out of 5 (poor) | 1.3 out of 5 (poor) | 1.0 out of 5 (poor) | — | 35 |
| 5.0 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | — | — | — | — | 25 | |
| 4.7 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | 4.6 out of 5 (good) | 4.7 out of 5 (good) | — | −3% | 551 | |
| 4.4 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | 4.6 out of 5 (good) | 4.0 out of 5 (good) | 2.6 out of 5 (poor) | — | 272 | |
| 4.8 out of 5 (good) | 100 out of 100 | — | 4.0 out of 5 (good) | — | — | 25 |
Bottom line: Akai Professional is #5 of 5 on overall rating in this group. On quality, Sports Integrity scores higher (4.7 vs 1.3).
35 reviews of Akai Professional. Filter by what matters to you.
The customer service sucks, make sure you know exactly what you are buying they sold me an upgrade for a product that I thought claimed to come with vsts I could use with my daw and it turned out to be only a standalone app. They refused to return it. Must be desperate times for them.
I have an MPC Live a few months after they were released. To notify all of the haters, it was a time were the MPC software portable or PC was in a beta like mode and there were no fancy plugins like now. AKAI did more than release a few plugins and so complicated software to perfection. Yes there might be some driver incompatibilities sometimes but these is not AKAI's fault, which how the PC world works. MPC Live is a miracle for musicians and those that complaint surely are youngster who want everything to work with a single click.
Akai MPC Studio 2. I was so excited to get this machine. Bought through Guitar Center. Brought it home and downloaded all software without a hitch. Put it through its paces and found that pad 9 wasn't functioning. Pad 10 also had issues. Wrote to Akai, twice, on Monday. Friday, still had not heard from them. Spoke with my contact at GC who said to just exchange it for another unit. Went back to GC and got another MPC. This time pad 4 didn't work. Wrote to customer service 2 days ago. Crickets. This has been a thoroughly disgusting experience. I am returning the second unit, this time for a refund. With no quality control and no customer service, Akai doesn't deserve my business.
Anyone can write a CrowdTrust review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they'll be displayed as long as an account is active.
Had an issue with my MPC One headphone output buzzing. Without divulging too much, I work in a field where troubleshooting computer hardware and software is 30% of my daily job. I isolated the issue down to the daughterboard that hosts the SD card reader and the headphone jack as the issue did not occur on any other outputs. I "worked" with support over 2 months with having to contact multiple technicians every week to two weeks just to keep tickets moving along only for the unit to be sent out, then back telling me that I need to buy higher impedance headphones. The thing is: I actually have access to 2 other MPCs and owned a Live, another One, and tested a few Live IIs (all returned due to HORRIBLE SSD bays that couldn't even fit drives). None of these units had this problem with these headphones. The only response I got after reopening the ticket was to send it out for "repair" again, which resulted in being told I need to spend hundreds on new headphones that needed 60+ohms. Honestly, I put up with the 2014, low end phone hardware for the ease of working with this. But I'm going back to DAWs and if I'm doing hardware again, it's gonna be Roland or Native instruments.
I bought the AKAI MPK MINI MK3 in Sept 2021. Great little controller keyboard and downloaded MPC Beats. Then I upgraded to MPC (ONE I guess - the paid 'DAW') and then bought some expansion packs. Had issues with the expansion packs and contacted AKAI. They take weeks and weeks to reply, only to tell you they are experiencing a larger than normal volume of requests. Weeks and weeks pass, with little or zero acknowledgment of your request. Great hardware, almost zero support.
Have the Akai mpd218. It's ok....or was. Needed to download and install mpc beats...no link sent after completing their link-request form No reply to emails....broken links...support feature doesn't work. Absolutely appalling service...in fact ..No actual service at all . P1ss poor
Eventhough Akai make some great products, there customerservice is nowhere to be found, when you need them. I bought an MPC One, to which many offers and discounts followed through there webpage. None of the codes for the offers worked, so i asked Akai for help. This is now 4 months ago. I have asked them multiple times, and no response. Now one of my pads are beginning to be faulty, but i expect NO HELP from akai. Sucky experience from such a great company. A quick google search reveal that i am not the only customer with the issue. Get a grip of your customerservice Akai!
I have it 1 star because there is no zero stars option. Purchased an Akai pro mini 2 midi controller with software. Software installation issues. Many including when it finally did download and install it didn't work. After watching many instructional videos on how to install via a ridiculously complicated method of licencing through yet another software item that at first didn't work I managed to get it installed on my laptop. Anyway after all that the software was pretty much useless and totally dance music oriented which is particularly of no use to me. However, since I bought it as a midi controller mainly and it is allegedly PLUG AND PLAY, no real worries as the samples and software would have been a possible bonus. Plug and play my *as, the computer didn't find the midi pro, had to get the software right before it did eventually find it, (more instructional videos) Anyway finally its registered with my computer and cubase, ha ha let's go, but NO! Latency issues are massive Not just a little but MASSIVE! Press key wait a bit, key sounds note from soundcard. After FULL adjustment of latency options and I mean all the way both ways the delay was still very present, a bit like when you know your going to sneeze then it pauses then you sneeze is the best way I can define the latency delay, eg press key two silent ah ah and then the note being the Choo. Just incase you are reading this and thinking like I did reading the reviews, well software can be an issue for people especially downloading with no disc, if your not totally computer literate. I will point out that I have used MIDI and recording software for over 20yrs, worked at studios and radio stations with different equipment and software, and looked after the computers and even built them. Finally customer service. The leaflet says AKAI will help you with any issues. Right yeah. I emailed them on the site from the part dedicated to these products, two weeks later I had a computer generated email saying their records show they received my email asking for help and hoped the issue was resolved by now We I checked junk mail on both accounts but nothing no other communication whatsoever, now another 2 weeks later still no contact. I just sent it back to claim a refund on not fit for purpose grounds today, however if customer service so far is anything to go by I don't hold out much hope.
Really rubbish, the worst customer service I think I have ever experienced. If you own an Akai pro product do not expect help when things go wrong. They do not help, answer emails other then you should have had a reply or check your spam folder, no real help at all. The UK support phone number is a dead phone line and the email support are just rubbish and no help, and ignorant. You will end up frustrated, annoyed and out of pocket when the product is not working as it should. I am actually in shock at how bad this companies support team are, they either do not read your emails properly or just do not give a s***. I would avoid and buy from another music equipment seller that has no connection to the parent company Inbrand Music. There are other music equipment manufacturers out that that actually care. They will take your money then ignore you when their equipment fails. I could go on but I think you get my feelings on this company and their attitude towards their customers...they suck!! Buy from Roland or Korg or even Behringer, they are way more helpful. UPDATE one year on, they never did sort my issue and my MPC X is crap TBH if you buy a brand new item, look after it, update it as advised then don`t update after the warranty runs out because IF the update recks your kit your screwed big time, they won`t` care or help, during this year no help at all. the ignorance continues and your warranty is worth nothing because you won`t get a reply or even help from any of them. warranty now expired so bin it, my item had a guarantee thet expired waiting!!!!!!!
Terrible manufacturer.. DO NOT BUY AKAI I bought device/software package.. At a later date software package had been removed from my AKAI Software account, removed by AKAI. CHAPTER section 33 Consumer Rights Act 2015 (2)a states "(2)This Chapter also applies to a contract for a trader to supply digital content to a consumer, if— (a)it is supplied free with goods ..." Section 34 states "34 Digital content to be of satisfactory quality" Digital content was completely missing. I spoke to Simon DJKits, where I had purcahsed the goods and returned the goods. He was a terribly rude and condescending man. Basically refused my rights and told lies about the software being "LIMITED TIME USE SOFTWARE.. Keyboard is okay.. But Software was later removed by AKAI.. Really rude/mean/sly I ended up getting my money back from my credit card company. But I still won't buy AKAI again!
These are my thoughts..About the MPC X I've had my MPC X for just under a year, and I have to say, it spent most of the time back and forwards being repaired by InMusic, who are also AKAI. Problem 1 (Quality): Based on the price you would expect the build quality to be amazing, who wouldn't - However... - The red side panels flake (They were replaced 3 times!!), yep they peel. Not only are they badly covered in a paint/texture of sorts , but its peels and according to an expert at InMusic that is something you should expect and not argue or moan about!!! Not with my £1700 thank you very much! - The OLEDs, are (after inspection) not straight, they are slightly wonky, again you are paying a premium and they can't even manufacture or assemble it right. Problem 2 (Mic's and sound recording) Now here's something laughable. The MPC X has the ability to record and sample for 20 minutes maximum which in truth is more than enough, however you cannot record through a mic (Vocals) for no more than 5 minutes...It just cuts off and you loop round and screw your previous sounds. Seriously what muppet designed this rubbish. Problem 3 (Security) You have work your brazil nuts off for a month, save on the pennies, sacrificed buying your girlfriend a wedding Ring, to buy an all dancing DAW. And for that money you would try at the very least to secure it in your home. Maybe use the most common locking system around called a......... Kensington lock!?!. This device if some of you don't know is basically a thick cable with a combination or key lock that fits into a 5mm hole in your expensive device to secure it. Laptops under £300 have them, the MPC Live has it, the Touch, the MPC One.... I digress. All of the latter are portable, and as such don't really need it, as on stage your eyes are on your equipment. And in the park with your dog running around harassing other park goers, means you have this kit securely and tightly in your grasp.. However the MPC X ...nope no security no Kensington...Nowt... nothing, NULL. So anyone could break in, and steal your badly built DAW. AKAI thought nope, it doesn't need one of those, that would be too expensive to add a 5mm rectangular hole? #rolemyeyesatAKAI So I would like to find and meet the designer and ask him/her why the above happened, was there a smoking session, was it a Friday, you felt lazy. OR did AKAI pay Andy Mac so much money to spout on, about the MPC X on youtube. That the designer simply got bored out of his/hers living daylights, and cut corners and forgot? I would honestly like to know. Maybe they did it so people like me can spend a fortune on studio equipment to later complain? Recent known feature, when connecting the M-Audio Mk3 MIDI controller, creating a new project on the MPC X doesn't reset the controller and it fails to work, you have to reboot the M-AUDIO every single time.. Those are my thoughts.
no customer service. Bought an item that never arrived. And they don't offer any kind of support! You can write them but you would just waste time.
Akai Professional is a leading provider of music production hardware and software, recognized for its innovative products that cater to musicians, producers, and audio professionals. Established in 1984, the company has built a strong reputation in the industry, particularly known for its iconic MPC drum machines and the popular MPK Mini MIDI controller. The company's offerings include a wide range of music production tools designed to facilitate creativity and enhance the music-making process. Akai Professional serves a diverse customer base, from hobbyist musicians to professional sound engineers, providing essential equipment for both studio and live performance settings. With a commitment to quality and innovation, Akai Professional continues to be a trusted name in the realm of music technology.
This profile hasn't been claimed by the business owner.
