improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2007 learn how and when to remove this template message this article contains embedded lists that may be poorly defined unverified or indiscriminate . please help to clean it up to meet wikipedia s quality standards . where appropriate incorporate items into the main body of the article . june 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message akai sales pte limited type manufacturer industry electronics founded tokyo japan 1929 ; 87 years ago 1929 headquarters singapore products hi fi equipment parent grande holdings 1999 present website www.akai.com www.akaipro.com akai chinese ; pinyin y ji japanese akai in r maji is a consumer electronics brand now headquartered in singapore . at its peak in the late 1990s akai holdings employed 100 000 workers and had annual sales of hk 40 billion us 5.2 billion but it collapsed in 2000 owing creditors us 1 100m . in addition to some development of musical instruments the akai brand name is also used to rebadge electronics manufactured by other companies . citation needed akai means red hence the logo color earlier also accompanied by a red dot . contents 1 corporate history 2 history 2.1 historical products 2.1.1 introduction of the on screen display 2.2 akai professional 2.2.1 ax series analog synthesizers 2.2.2 s series digital samplers 2.2.3 mpc series music production center 2.2.4 new ownership of akai professional 3 current products 3.1 video 3.2 mobile sound 3.3 home appliances 3.4 audio 3.5 digital 3.6 television 3.7 akai professional products 3.7.1 synthesizers 3.7.2 audio samplers 3.7.3 music production center 3.7.4 computer audio interfaces 3.7.5 drum machines 3.7.6 electronic wind instruments 3.7.7 effects units utilities 3.7.8 guitar pedals 3.7.9 ipod ipad keyboard controllers 3.7.10 midi sequencers 3.7.11 standalone multi track audio recorders 3.7.12 studio monitor speakers 3.7.13 usb midi midi controllers 4 see also 5 notes 6 references 7 external links corporate history edit akai was founded by masukichi akai and his son saburo akai who died in 1973 1 as akai electric company ltd. akai denki kabushiki gaisha a japanese manufacturer in 1929 1 2 3 or 1946 . note 1 at its peak in the late 1990s akai holdings employed 100 000 workers and had annual sales of hk 40 billion us 5.2 billion but it collapsed in 2000 owing creditors us 1.1 b. 4 it emerged that ownership of akai holdings had somehow passed in 1999 to grande holdings a company founded by akai s chairman james ting . the liquidators claimed that ting had stolen over us 800m from the company with the assistance of accountants ernst & young who had tampered with audit documents going back to 1994 . 5 ting was imprisoned for false accounting in 2005 5 and e & y paid 200m to settle the negligence case out of court in september 2009 . 6 in a separate lawsuit a former e & y partner cristopher ho made a substantial payment to akai creditors in his role as chairman of grande holdings . 4 history edit historical products edit stack of historical akai machines akai s products included reel to reel audiotape recorders such as the gx series tuners top level at mid level tr and tt series audio cassette decks top level gx and tfl mid level tc hx and cs series amplifiers am and ta series microphones receivers turntables video recorders and loudspeakers . tape recorder gx 630d many akai products were sold under the name roberts in the us citation needed as well as a & d in japan tensai and transonic strato in western europe citation needed . during the late 1960s akai adopted tandberg s cross field recording technologies using an extra tape head to enhance high frequency recording and switched to the increasingly reliable glass and crystal x tal gx ferrite heads a few years later citation needed . the company s most popular products citation needed were the gx 630d gx 635d gx 747 gx 747dbx and gx 77 open reel recorders latter featuring an auto loading function the three head closed loop gx f95 gx 90 gx f91 gx r99 cassette decks and the am u61 am u7 and am 93 stereo amplifiers . akai manufactured and badged most of its imported hi fi products with the tensai brand named after the swiss audio and electronics distributor tensai international citation needed . tensai international was akai s exclusive distributor for the swiss and western european markets until 1988 . akai limited its consumer hi fi product line in the united states and europe towards the end of the 20th century citation needed . introduction of the on screen display edit akai produced consumer video cassette recorders vcr during the 1980s . the akai vs 2 was the first vcr with an on screen display 7 originally named the interactive monitor system . by displaying the information directly on the television screen this innovation eliminated the need for the user to be physically near the vcr to program recording read the tape counter or perform other common features . within a few years all competing manufacturers had adopted on screen display technology in their own products . akai professional edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message in 1984 8 a new division of the company 9 was formed to focus on the manufacture and sale of electronic instruments and was called akai professional . akai s portable studio akai mg 1214 unit the first product released by the new subsidiary was mg1212 a 12 channel 12 track recorder in 1984 . 10 this innovative device used a special vhs like cartridge a mk 20 and was good for 10 minutes of continuous 12 track recording 19 cm per second or 20 minutes at half speed 9.5 cm per second . one track 14 was permanently dedicated to recording absolute time and another one for synchronization such as smpte or mtc . each channel strip included dbx type 1 noise reduction and semi parametric equalizers with fixed bandwidths . the unit also had innovations like an electronic 2 bus system a 12 stereo channel patch bay and auto punch in and out among others . the unique transport design and noise reduction gave these units a recording quality rivaling that of more expensive 16 track machines using 1 tape . the mg 1212 was later replaced by the mg 1214 which improved the transport mechanism and overall performance . ax series analog synthesizers edit ax80 main articles akai ax80 and akai ax60 other early products included the akai ax80 8 voice analog synthesizer in 1984 10 followed by ax60 and ax73 6 voice analog synthesizers ca. 1986 . 11 12 the ax 60 borrowed many ideas from the roland juno series but used voltage controlled analog oscillators vco as a sound source as opposed to roland s more common digitally controlled analog oscillators dco and also allowed the performer to split the keyboard using different timbres for different ranges of keys . the ax 60 also had the ability to interface with akai s early samplers through a serial cable using 12 bit samples as an additional oscillator . 13 s series digital samplers edit s612 see also sampler musical instrument akai the s612 12 bit digital sampler in 1985 was the first in a series of relatively affordable samplers already in 19 inch studio rack format but in black color . 10 it held only a single sample at a time which was loaded into memory via a separate disk drive utilizing quick disk 2.8 inch floppy disks . the maximum sample time at the highest quality sampling rate 32 khz was one second . s6000 remote s900 z4 the introduction of a professional range of digital samplers began with the 12 bit s900 in 1986 10 followed by the x7000 keyboard sampler in 1986 14 and the s700 rack mount version in 1987 . 10 unlike the single sample s612 however they allowed the use of six active samples at once had a built in disk drive and could be extended with six individual outputs via cable and a flash memory extension which added another six samples to the memory for multisample playback . the s700 x7000 sampler series were light grey colored which didn t change throughout the whole professional range of akai samplers . the 16 bit akai s1000 followed in 1988 . the latter was replaced by the s3000 series in 1992 1995 10 which notably featured a writeable cd rom on s3000cd and hard disk recording on s3000i and was followed by the s5000 and s6000 . additional releases of note were the z4 and z8 24 bit 96 khz samplers . 10 mpc series music production center edit mpc2000 mpc60 main article music production center akai also produced several digital midi sequencers and digital synthesizers such as the mpc range music production center a line of integrated drum machines midi sequencers samplers and direct to disk recorders that resemble drum machines . new ownership of akai professional edit in december 1999 one year before the application of civil rehabilitation act to akai electric company ltd. the brand of their musical instrument division akai professional was acquired by a company of the united states . the new company akai professional musical instrument corporation 8 akai professional m.i. was established in the same year however it was bankrupted in 2005 . 9 in 2004 following a us distribution deal the akai professional musical instrument division was acquired by jack o donnell owner of numark industries and alesis . numark including akai professional was acquired in 2012 by inmusic brands . an akai professional product that is somewhat sought after in current times is the model dm13 microphone . this small unidirectional unit was originally made for tape recorders as well as cb radio equipment . today they can be found in the arsenal of many blues harmonica players due to its high gain and high impedance properties . current products edit in early 2003 the consumer electronics company began undergoing a re exposure by marketing various rebranded video products manufactured by samsung . in the same year akai began to distribute home appliances such as hvac units vacuum cleaners water filtration devices and refrigerated store showcases . in canada akai portable dvd players were sold at the source by circuit city and at zellers a division of the hudson s bay company . video edit av receivers portable dvd players dvd players dvd recorders home theatre systems home theatre speakers vcd players vcrs mobile sound edit amplifiers cassette receivers cd changers cd receivers dvd changers dvd receivers car audio dvd players car audio speakers car audio tft monitors home appliances edit air conditioners air coolers air purifiers chest freezers dishwashers heaters ice makers microwave ovens refrigerators showcases vacuum cleaners washing machines water dispensers wine cellars audio edit stereo rack systems mini systems micro music players retro radios sound boxes portable music players tape deck digital edit wireless surround sound systems bluetooth mp3 player mobile phones television edit color televisions lcd televisions plasma television set top boxes akai professional products edit akai synthstation 25 akai professional a division of numark industries based in rhode island united states since 2004 is currently not affiliated with akai a consumer audio and television brand . synthesizers edit ax60 c. 1986 discontinued ax73 c. 1986 discontinued ax80 1984 discontinued vx90 c. 1986 rack mount version of ax73 discontinued vx600 c. 1988 3 oct. keyboard synthesizer with