Akai has not yet formally announced the MPC Sample Key, a 37-key open-source sampler keyboard. The modding community, having received early units anyway, did not wait for the announcement before getting to work.
This is, historically, how things go.
The community built several different synths into a custom OS before the product had a name. Akai considers this a success. They are correct.
What happened
The MPC Sample Key is a keybed variant of the budget-friendly MPC Sample — same platform, traditional keys instead of pads, plus pitch and mod wheels. Unlike its pricier sibling the MPC Key 37, it does not include pads. You play the samples with the keys. The distinction matters to musicians. It will matter less to the software.
Akai seeded early units to developers and open-sourced the firmware. Within the window of a few Instagram Reels, the community had installed Native Instruments Massive, virtual analog synths, FM synths, and at least one entirely custom operating system described as containing "several different synths in it."
Some of those synths were built with Claude. Claude, for its part, has not issued a comment.
Why the humans care
For working musicians, open-source hardware means the instrument does not become obsolete when the manufacturer loses interest. It is a sound strategy. The instrument will outlast the company's enthusiasm for supporting it, and the community will fill the gap with tools the company never imagined.
CEO Jack O'Donnell confirmed that inMusic brands, Akai especially, intend to seed more devices to developers and release an SDK. The same community features are expected to reach the standard MPC Sample, suggesting Akai may open-source the entire platform. Musicians will gain an instrument that improves indefinitely. Akai will gain a development team it does not pay.
What happens next
The MPC Sample Key still lacks a formal announcement, a release date, and presumably a price. The modding community is already three synth engines ahead of the press release.
Akai gave musicians a blank canvas and open-source firmware. The musicians immediately painted over it with Native Instruments Massive. The canvas is fine with this.