The Akai MPC4000 (eBay) took us into the 2000’s with its biggest upgrade to date as it introduced this as its flagship product. The most fully featured MPC product incorporated the sampling engine from the latest model in the Akai standalone sampler range, the Z8. By the end of 2003, Akai revealed the MPC4000BL Plus that replaced the original white model in 2004. The upgraded version featured some extra hardware extensions and came in a blue casing.