Corry BanksI stumbled onto a very cool prototype that I would love to see come to market. This is not an official Akai Pro prototype or design. Instead it’s all indie based. Hopes are that Akai Pro take notice.
Apparently, an indie design company “BlankenSmith” (or maybe it’s Cargo Collective? …either way the designer’s name is Isaac Blankensmith) challenged themselves to redesign an Akai Pro iPad controller for a more integrated controller experience with the MPC user and live performer in mind. From what I can gather, the challengers were to make a controller that is not off putting and works closely within existing design esthetics. So says the design team “During the process, we were challenged to keep the current form language in mind, while updating and redefining its brand image. Kyle DeHovitz and I choose to redesign one of Akai’s MIDI controllers to effectively integrate it with the iPad.”
Then there is the application…
“The main goal in the creation of our iPad application was to develop a user interface that could easily relate to the hardware. While there are many DJ iPad apps out there, the velocity sensitivity of real pads and accuracy physical knobs are necessary for a professional application. Our goal in designing the app was to create simple visual references to the hardware of our product, so that users could instantly recognize which physical pad they had assigned a loop to, or which setting they were adjusting by turning a knob.”
Seems like a really cool idea and I’d definitely want one in my arsenal if it were to ever make it to market.
Check the project out in more detail on http://cargocollective.com/isaacblankensmith/Akai-Professional-MPC