App-store music software has a specific way of dying: not removal, just silence. A build every year or two to keep it launching, then nothing. iMPC Pro 2 has been in that state for a long while — its last major version, 2.0, shipped in 2017.
Retronyms released version 3.0 today, September 22, 2026. Free for existing users.
What’s new
AUv3 plugin hosting. The big structural one. iMPC Pro 2 can now be hosted as an AUv3 plugin inside AUM, Cubasis and the rest of the iPadOS host ecosystem — which means it stops being a destination app you bounce stems out of and becomes a device inside a larger session. On macOS (Apple Silicon) it runs both standalone and as an AUv3 in desktop DAWs, though the Mac build is reported to be crashing at launch as of release day.
Stem separation. An AI-driven splitter that breaks a track into four parts — vocals, bass, drums, and other. This is not included: it runs on a subscription at €8.99 monthly or €79.99 yearly, which provides 10 credits per month. Akai brought stem separation to the MPC hardware and desktop line back in 2024; this brings the same capability to the iPad app.
Everything else. Files app integration, drag-and-drop, flexible time signatures, and a notes section for synced lyrics. The time signatures one is quietly the most requested of those — an MPC-workflow app locked to 4/4 has a ceiling.
The pricing, which is doing two things at once
The app is on an introductory offer: $6.20 on iPad (normally $24.99) and $3.29 on iPhone (normally $12.99), for a limited time.
Then the stem separation sits behind its own subscription on top. That is the trade being made — a very cheap entry price, with the compute-expensive feature carved out as recurring revenue. It’s a defensible structure, since stem separation genuinely costs money to run, and it’s also the thing that will annoy people who bought iMPC Pro 2 in 2014 and understood it as a purchase.
Ten credits a month is enough to split ten tracks. Whether that’s generous or stingy depends entirely on whether you sample from records occasionally or constantly.
Worth knowing before you update
Retronyms acknowledges that 3.0 introduced new bugs alongside the features, and the macOS version’s crash is the visible one. A nine-year gap between major versions means a very large amount of changed platform underneath — nine iOS releases, an architecture transition on the Mac, a whole new plugin story — and a release of this size landing entirely clean would have been surprising.
If iMPC Pro 2 is load-bearing in your workflow, there’s an argument for letting 3.0.1 happen first. If it’s been sitting unopened on your iPad since 2019, this is the reason to open it.
The broader point
Sampling workflows on tablets have been in an odd position: the hardware is more than capable, the touch interface suits pad-based beatmaking better than a mouse does, and the software has mostly stagnated while the standalone-hardware market boomed. An AUv3-capable MPC environment that can also host itself inside a larger session is a genuinely useful thing to have back in active development — assuming active development is what this is, and not one large update followed by another nine years.
Related Reading
- Akai iMPC Pro 2 (iOS/macOS): update 3.0 brings AUv3 plugin support, stem separation and more — SYNTH ANATOMY
- Akai and Retronyms announce iMPC Pro 2 — CDM Create Digital Music
- Akai Pro brings stems separation to its MPC hardware and software — SYNTH ANATOMY
- Akai MPCs to gain stem separation — Sound on Sound
- Retronyms