Take full control over your entire virtual instrument collection with the Akai Professional Advance 49 keyboard controller. Using Akai's Virtual Instrument Player (VIP) software, you can switch between your favorite software instruments right from the Advance 49 - even if you're performing live without a DAW! You can easily browse your instruments for inspiring sounds without losing focus on your instrument. Keyboardists at Music Experience know that you need precise response and easy navigation when you're playing live, and that's exactly what the Akai Professional Advance 49 is designed for.

Akai Professional Advance 49 USB/MIDI Keyboard Controller at a Glance:

• 49-key USB/MIDI keyboard controller for Mac and PC
• Real-time tweak parameters with 8 continuously variable knobs
• Control instruments and more with 8 velocity- and pressure-sensitive MPC pads
• Instantly switch between your software instruments using Akai's Virtual Instrument Player
• Combine your software instruments with keyboard zone splits and multi-patch creation
• Includes a 16GB download of sound content from AIR Music Technology, SONiVOX, and Toolroom Records
• Works with most major DAW software

Use VIP for instant access to all of your software instruments

The Akai Professional Advance 49 comes with Akai's Virtual Instrument Player software, and it's the key to unlocking the full potential of this keyboard controller. Load up VIP (with or without DAW software running), and you'll be able to switch between your software instruments without taking your hands off the Advance 49. And that's just the start - using VIP you can create custom key zone splitting and custom mappings, allowing you to work with your virtual instruments as if they were all part of the same keyboard workstation.

Perfect for live or studio

If you're a gigging keyboardist, you already see how easy it is to work with software instruments on stage with the Advance 49. And it's just as powerful in your studio - Akai's VIP software can be loaded as a virtual instrument in any standard DAW software. You can easily audition different sounds and software instruments without once reaching for your mouse.

Comes with 16GB of sounds and instruments

With the Advance 49 you also get a 16GB download of over 10,000 sounds from the sonic gurus at AIR Music Technology, SONiVOX, and Toolroom Records. In all, you get nine plug-ins covering a wide range of styles, making the Advance 49 keyboard controller a complete performance solution right out of the box.

What Akai Says...

This is the way to do it! Akai Professional's Advance Keyboards are like nothing else you've ever played. The Advance 49 gives you unprecedented playability and unrestricted manipulation of any virtual instrument with our exclusive interactive, full-color display, complemented by performance-friendly hardware controls. Available in 25-, 49-, and 61-key sizes, the Advance Keyboards deftly fuse the power of software instruments with the live playability of a keyboard workstation, so you can create like never before. The dividing line between software and hardware instruments is finally gone!

The Advance Keyboards transform computer-based plugins into an entirely hands-on playing experience. The keyboard surface features an integrated high-resolution full-color 4.3-inch display, providing real-time control and feedback of all virtual instruments. The screen instantly adapts itself to the selected plugin's controls, delivering immediate 1:1 access to the instrument and various editable functions. Better yet, the Advance Keyboards work with any VSTi virtual instrument. Using the Advance Keyboard's custom-designed Virtual Instrument Player (VIP) software application, your entire VSTi library is controlled by one application. VIP operates as a plugin inside any major digital audio workstation (DAW) or as a stand-alone application on both Mac and Windows operating systems.

Sophisticated but Easy to Use

Dedicated physical controls are thoughtfully included, with our RGB backlit, velocity- and pressure-sensitive pads on each keyboard surface. Rubberized pitch and modulation wheels provide simple, direct note manipulation with musically natural action. Easily-gripped, continuously-variable endless knobs let you make adjustments with granular or dramatic effect. Our custom semi-weighted, velocity-sensitive keybed supports aftertouch, making it the ideal keyboard for seasoned live performers and studio producers alike.

We Give You Everything You Need

Included with each Advance Keyboard is the Virtual Instrument Player (VIP) application. VIP gives you immediate access to any virtual instrument in your collection-with or without a DAW-a powerful way to play virtual instruments live or integrate them into a recording session.

VIP software users can also create setlists that provide on-demand access to your customized instruments for stage performance and studio work. By simply pressing a single button on an Advance Keyboard, you can adapt to song changes as the live performance progresses-without ever reaching for your computer. That's what you want! 

You'll also love VIP's facilities for hyper-fast 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 plugin. You can run as many instances of the Virtual Instrument Player as your computer allows. VIP runs as a VSTi, AU, VST 32 or AAX plugin, allowing you access to VSTi's in virtually any DAW, such as Pro Tools, Logic Pro X and Ableton Live.

With the Advance Keyboards, you get uninhibited access to any virtual instrument in your library without losing focus of the instrument in front of you. Nothing else can do that for you.