MPC Key 61's touch strip: all 12 modes, explained

The short version

Akai's manual opens the chapter with the hardware itself:

"To use the touch strip with MPC Key 61: 1. Press the Touch Strip button to cycle through the available Touch Strip modes, or press and hold Touch Strip to quickly select a mode from the touchscreen."

Twelve modes sit behind that one button: Q-Link, Pad Level, Track Level, Touch FX, Notes, Note Strum, Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, Sustain, Expression, Crossfader, and Off. Most of them are simple, a fader that controls one thing. One of them, TouchFX, is a different animal entirely: it's a real insert effect with its own nine-preset catalog, not a plain parameter mapping, and this article spends most of its length there because that's where the actual depth is.

SAM'S NOTE from the bench: I spent a solid week assuming Touch FX was just "the strip does effects" the same way Pad Level is "the strip does pad volume." It isn't. Load Touch FX and you've loaded a plugin, the same as dropping a compressor into an insert slot, it just happens to have a built-in remote control. Track that difference from the start and the rest of this chapter makes a lot more sense.

Opening the strip: twelve modes on one button

The full mode list, in the order Akai's own manual prints it:

"Q-Link · Pad Level · Track Level · Touch FX · Notes · Note Strum · Pitch Bend · Mod Wheel · Sustain · Expression · Crossfader · Off ... You can also press Touch FX to instantly select TouchFX mode for the Touch Strip. You can also set the default Touch Strip mode in the Hardware menu of the Preferences."

Two access methods and one dedicated shortcut: cycle with repeated presses of Touch Strip, jump straight to any mode by holding Touch Strip and tapping the touchscreen list, or skip the queue entirely and hit the separate Touch FX button, which always jumps straight to that one mode regardless of where the cycle currently sits. Once a mode is active, the physical gesture is the same across all twelve:

"Press your finger on the touch strip and move it up and down as an expressive control for the selected parameter. Press and hold Shift and press the Touch Strip or Touch FX buttons to configure settings for each mode, if available."

That Shift-plus-button combo is worth remembering on its own: it's the one shortcut that opens a settings window for whichever mode is currently selected, and it's the only way in to several of the modes' own config screens covered below.

Q-Link, Pad Level, Track Level: three quick utility modes

The first three modes in the cycle are the plainest, one line of manual text apiece for two of them:

"Q-Link: Select this mode to use the touch strip as a Q-Link control. To configure the Q-Link settings, press and hold Shift and press the Touch Strip button to open the Touch Strip Q-Link window in the software. Q-Link: Use this field to select which Q-Link is controlled by the touch strip (1-16). You can also press one of the 16 pads to select that Q-Link while the Touch Strip Q-Link window is open in the software."

That pad-to-Q-Link shortcut is a genuinely convenient detail buried in a one-paragraph section: instead of scrolling a number field to pick Q-Link 1 through 16, the window lets you just tap the corresponding pad while it's open. Pad Level and Track Level are shorter still, no config window at all:

"Pad Level: Select this mode to use the touch strip to control the current Pad Level. Track Level: Select this mode to use the touch strip to control the current Track Level."

Both are one-line, no-setup modes: select the mode, the strip is already wired to the thing its name says.

TouchFX: the mode that's actually an effect

This is the mode most people mean when they say "the touch strip does effects," and the manual is explicit that it's architecturally different from the eleven modes around it:

"TouchFX is specially designed for use the touch strip controller on MPC Key 61, but can be used on any MPC hardware and controlled using the onscreen touch slider or an external MIDI device. The effect you control acts like an insert effect on the selected output."

Two sentences, two important facts. First: the twelve-mode Touch Strip cycle described everywhere else on this page is Key 61-only hardware, but TouchFX itself, as an effect, isn't. Any MPC can load it into an insert slot and drive it from an onscreen virtual slider or a MIDI-learned control, no physical strip required. Second, and this is the part worth sitting with: "acts like an insert effect" isn't a figure of speech, TouchFX occupies one of a track's four insert slots exactly like a compressor or an EQ would. Loading it is the same two paths as any other insert effect:

"To load the Touch FX plugin, you can simply press and hold the Touch FX button on MPC Key 61. A window will appear with the included Touch FX presets. Tap a preset to select it, and it will automatically be added as an insert to the current track. Alternatively, you can load Touch FX as you would any other insert effect when using other MPC hardware: 1. Tap an empty slot in the Inserts section of any channel strip. 2. Double-tap an empty insert slot in the Effects window to open the list of plugin effects. 3. Tap the + or - button to expand the Harmonic category. 4. Select the TouchFX plugin."

Notice where TouchFX lives in the effects browser: filed under the Harmonic category, alongside chorus and ensemble type effects, not under a dedicated "performance" or "touch" category of its own. Once it's loaded, a Setup window handles the routing and envelope behavior:

"Use the Touch FX Destination field to select where the Touch FX should be applied. You can select the current Track, a Return, a Submix, or an Output. ... Touch FX Preset: Use this field to select the desired effect for the touch strip. ... Latch: Check this box to keep the current position on the touch strip even after you release it. ... Touch > Wet/Dry: Check this box to use the touch strip to control the Wet/Dry amount in addition to the Assigned Parameter. ... Attack: Use this slider to set the length of the attack phase of the envelope, which is triggered when you make contact with the touch strip. ... Release: Use this slider to set length of the release phase of the envelope, which is triggered when you release the touch strip."

Notice that Destination list, Track, Return, Submix, or Output, is broader than XYFX's own Location field, which this site's separate XYFX article already documented as Track, Output 1/2, or Output 3/4 only, no Return or Submix option. Two touch-driven effects on the same hardware, and they don't share the same routing menu. Attack and Release do the same envelope-shaping job here that they do on XYFX: a slow Attack eases the effect in as you land your finger, a slow Release lets it trail off after you lift, rather than snapping on and off like a switch.

TouchFX's own catalog: nine presets

Akai's own effects appendix lists the full preset catalog available inside TouchFX, none of them shared with the site's own XYFX coverage, which draws from a separate appendix entry entirely:

"TouchFX is specially designed for use with the touch strip controller on MPC Key 61, but can be used on any MPC hardware and controlled using the onscreen touch slider or an external MIDI device. The following effects can be selected:"

The nine presets, each with its own one-line description straight from the manual:

• Manual Filter: "a static, multi-mode filter without modulation."
• Beat Sync Filter: "a multi-mode filter with its cutoff frequency modulated by an LFO, which can be synced to the project tempo."
• Beat Sync Delay: "repeated instances of the original signal that decay over a period of time that is synced to the project tempo."
• Beat Repeat: "an effect that will slice and repeat the source audio according to a tempo-synced beat value."
• Tape Stop: "a tape stop effect that emulates the slowing down of analog tape playback."
• Phaser: "a phaser effect, created by multiple ganged all-pass filters to create notches, or sharp spikes, in the frequency spectrum," modulatable by an LFO.
• Comb Filter: "notches in the frequency spectrum, similar to the phaser, by delaying the audio signal and adding it back to itself."
• Washout: "an echo effect that is useful for creating transitions."
• Manual Flanger: "a flanger effect, a modulated delay that emulates the sound created when running two analog tape machines in parallel with a slight time misalignment."

Six of the nine are explicitly beat/tempo-synced (Beat Sync Filter, Beat Sync Delay, Beat Repeat all name it directly; Phaser and Comb Filter offer a Sync Speed option alongside a Manual Speed knob), which lines up with the site's own already-documented color convention from the XYFX article: beat-synchronized effects display in blue on the touchscreen, manually controlled ones in green, a convention the manual states applies across both touch-driven effect systems, not just XYFX's own pad.

A disclosed inconsistency: Beat Sync Filter's own default

One preset's own parameter table doesn't add up on inspection. Beat Sync Filter's Cutoff parameter is documented with this stated range and default:

"Cutoff 40.00-10000 Hz 34737.15 Hz"

The stated Value Range tops out at 10000 Hz, but the Default Value printed in the same row is 34737.15 Hz, well over three times that ceiling. This isn't a one-off typo in a single print run: the identical Cutoff row, same range, same out-of-range default, appears in the Manual Version 3.7 edition of the same table, confirmed by direct comparison. Every other preset's own default sits inside its own stated range (Manual Filter's Cutoff, for comparison, defaults to 2530.00 Hz against the same 40.00-10000 Hz range), which makes Beat Sync Filter the one documented exception across all nine presets, not an isolated transcription slip. Stated here as Akai's own manual disagreeing with itself, not resolved one way or the other.

Notes, Note Strum, Pitch Bend: the melodic-performance modes

Three modes turn the strip into a playing surface rather than a knob. Notes maps the strip to a scale:

"Select this mode to use the touch strip as a control for playing notes in the selected track. ... Root Note: Use this field to set the desired root note of the scale. Scale: Use this field to set the type of scale. Octave: Use this field to set the starting octave of the root note. Velocity: Use this field to set the velocity of the notes played with the touch strip. Number of Notes: Use this field to set the number of notes covered by the length of the touch strip."

Note Strum layers a strum gesture over whatever's already held down, guitar-style, with two independent behavior toggles:

"Select this mode to use the touch strip as a control for strumming the held notes, like brushing across the strings of a guitar to add expressive movement to a chord. Notes Sound When Strip Not Pressed: When this setting is enabled, you can continue to play notes from the MPC pads, Pad Perform window, or MIDI input sources and still hear them even if you are not using the touch strip. ... Aftertouch to Velocity: When this setting is enabled, you can use MIDI Aftertouch messages to adjust the velocity of the strummed notes."

Pitch Bend is the most conventional of the three, functioning like a keyboard's pitch wheel with its own relative/fixed toggle and a documented plugin limitation:

"Select this mode to use the touch strip as you would a pitch wheel on a typical keyboard to control pitch bend. ... Relative Mode: When checked, the center pitch is set wherever you first place your finger along the touch strip. When unchecked, the touch strip is fixed with the center being the unchanged noted. ... Note: Pitch Bend ranges are only applied to MPC instruments and not to third-party plugins."

That last line is worth flagging on its own: a pitch bend range you've dialed in for an MPC instrument track silently won't apply the same way if the track is running a third-party plugin instead, per Akai's own documentation.

Mod Wheel, Sustain, Expression, Crossfader, Off: the plain MIDI-CC modes

The last four active modes are each one line, no config window, mapping the strip straight to a standard MIDI controller number:

"Mod Wheel: Select this mode to use the touch strip as you would a mod wheel on a typical keyboard to control the MIDI CC1 modulation control. Sustain: Select this mode to use the touch strip as you would a sustain pedal on a typical keyboard to enable or disable note sustain. ... Expression: Select this mode to use the touch strip as you would an external expression pedal to control the MIDI CC11 expression control."

Mod Wheel and Expression are each pinned to a named CC number (CC1 and CC11 respectively); Sustain is documented as an on/off behavior without a printed CC number of its own. Crossfader is the odd one out among these four, because it isn't a fixed mapping at all:

"Select this mode to use the touch strip as a virtual crossfader. The center point of the touch strip is the center point of the crossfader. Move down to the A side or up to the B side. You can assign parameters to the Crossfader using Q-Link Edit > Crossfader."

That cross-reference matters: this site's own Q-Link Edit mode coverage already documents the Crossfader tab inside Q-Link Edit, where parameters actually get assigned to the A and B sides. The Touch Strip's Crossfader mode doesn't have its own separate assignment system, it's the physical (or virtual, on non-Key 61 hardware) control surface for that same Q-Link Edit Crossfader tab, not a competing feature. Off, last in the list, gets no paragraph of its own in the manual at all, it's simply the null option that disconnects the strip from every mode above it.

Not to be confused with: XYFX

This site's own XYFX article flagged this exact confusion from the other direction and deliberately stopped short of covering TouchFX's own controls. Restating it here from the Touch Strip side: XYFX is a two-dimensional touchscreen pad (one finger, two parameters, on any current-lineup MPC's screen), while TouchFX is built around the Key 61's one-dimensional physical strip (or a virtual/MIDI substitute elsewhere), one finger, one parameter, with a completely separate nine-preset catalog. Both are named as insert effects in Akai's own manual, both share the "live-performance effect" framing, and both get filed under different chapters with different controls. The two share a naming pattern and nothing else structurally.

Common mistakes

Mistake: assuming TouchFX is a strip-only feature. It's an insert effect loadable and controllable on any MPC hardware via the onscreen slider or MIDI Learn; the physical touch strip is Key 61's own way of driving it, not a requirement for using it.

Mistake: expecting the twelve-mode cycle itself on non-Key 61 hardware. The mode-cycling Touch Strip button and its eleven other modes (Q-Link, Pad Level, Track Level, Notes, Note Strum, Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, Sustain, Expression, Crossfader, Off) are introduced in the manual specifically as MPC Key 61 hardware; only the TouchFX effect itself travels to other units.

Mistake: looking for the Crossfader's own assignment menu inside the Touch Strip settings. Parameters get assigned in Q-Link Edit's own Crossfader tab, not inside the Touch Strip mode's configuration.

Mistake: trusting a Beat Sync Filter default that looks pulled from thin air. 34737.15 Hz sits outside the preset's own stated 40.00-10000 Hz range in both manual versions checked; dial in your own Cutoff rather than assuming the shipped default is meaningful.

A note on manual versions

Every technical claim above is checked directly against Akai's Standalone OS User Guide, Manual Version 3.9, cross-checked against Manual Version 3.7. Both manuals' own tables of contents confirm the Touch Strip chapter's page range: v3.9 lists it at page 104, immediately followed by Battery Usage at page 107 (a three-page chapter); v3.7 lists the equivalent chapter at page 99, with Battery Usage at page 102, the identical three-page span. That's a flat five-page offset (104 minus 99, and 107 minus 102 both equal five), consistent with the same flat five-page offset this site's own XYFX article already found across the immediately preceding chapter, reinforcing that this whole region of the manual didn't reshuffle internally between versions, only shifted as a block. Every mode name, mode order, and TouchFX preset name diffed identically between the two versions; the one confirmed content difference found in this specific chapter is the Beat Sync Filter default-value inconsistency documented above, which is present unchanged in both editions rather than something introduced or fixed between them.

Verdict

Found a TouchFX preset combo worth sharing, or a Note Strum voicing trick? Tell us what happened.