Akai's MPC Sample is the rare piece of gear that has been sold out almost since it landed. It went on sale March 24, 2026 at $399, the cheapest standalone MPC the company has ever shipped, and then promptly vanished from shelves everywhere. The news this week is simple and, for a lot of beatmakers, overdue: as of June 13, 2026, it is in stock again in Europe, with Thomann and Amazon.de both showing availability.
What exactly is the MPC Sample?
It is a self-contained, battery-powered sampler, not a controller that needs a computer. The body is 23.6 x 19.4 x 5.0 cm, small enough to actually be portable, and it carries the parts you need to make a full beat on a train: 16 RGB-backlit, velocity-sensitive MPC pads with polyphonic aftertouch, three real-time control knobs, a 2.4-inch full-colour display, a built-in 3-watt speaker, and a built-in microphone for sampling whatever is in front of you.
Under the hood there is 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, with a microSD slot for more. It plays 32 stereo voices with disk streaming, carries 60 effects (granulator, ring mod, reverb, beat repeat, a colour-compressor and more), and does real-time timestretch and repitch. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is rated up to 5 hours wireless and charges over USB-C, with no power brick in the box.
Why does a budget sampler keep selling out?
Because it is the first time the genuine MPC workflow has come this cheap and this portable. The MPC name is not marketing here: the MPC60 (1988, built by Roger Linn with Akai) and the MPC3000 are foundational beatmaking machines, the boxes a huge chunk of hip-hop and house was built on. Every MPC since has been the same core idea, pads plus a sequencer plus a sampler, with the swing and feel producers chase.
Put that workflow in a battery-powered box that costs less than a pair of monitors, and demand was always going to outrun supply.
For connectivity it covers the essentials without bloat: headphone out, MIDI in and out on TRS minijacks, stereo audio in and out on 6.3mm jacks, USB-C, and a sync out to lock it to the rest of a rig. That makes it usable as a sketchpad on the move and as a sampler that slots into a studio when you get home.
Should you grab it now?
If you have wanted one since launch, this restock is the window. It has been hard to get for months, the EU stock that just appeared has a history of evaporating, and at $399 it sits in impulse territory for anyone who already owns a controller and a laptop and wants to ditch the laptop.
