I believe the main differences are, the actual keys themselves are sturdier and can take more punishment in the Akai as its meant to be piece of stage gear and designed as such, that the mpk261 does not have touch sensitive drum pad directly under the synth wheels which some people find annoying as you can accidentally trigger a loop etc, and to my understanding the mpk261 has the midi/mackie/hui programming done in the keyboard hardware for all the controls and not reliant on a software driver for some of them which might help future proof it in case of maudio not updating stuff.
 
These are the reasons I am looking at the mpk261 and not the maudio, but my information may not be correct, I did not have long to look at them instore, and do not own either yet, so may well be wrong.
 
The youngest sales assistant I spoke too did love the maudio code 69, he has one and uses ableton live with it, he love s the keys on the maudio, but I do not know his level of ability and he was a junior salesperson.
 
Dont know if this helps you at all.

So far, I am loving the NI S88. If you play piano, you will love the keys.
 
As for Komplete Kontrol integration, I'm still learning my way around it. For VSTi's with keyswitches and lots of CC controllable parameters, it's pretty awesome, but you will spend a lot of time setting up non-NKS stuff to make it worthwhile. As a pure midi controller, it is still a great keyboard.
 
Regards,
Dan

I am now going to commit to the Akai MPK261. The M-Audio Code 61 just has too many reviews of poor velocity quality. It is on sale with a rebate so I could have picked it up for $299 at Sweetwater. Now I will spend $500.
The Akai's key bed, drum pads, and quality helped me to decide. 
 

Glyn Barnes
I don't know if you have seen my thread http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3368341
 
It deals in the main with using the NI keyboards with non NKS soft synths and Kontakt libraries. It is is alot more capable in that regard than NI would lead you to beleive. I don't really use it to control Sonar beyond the transport controls and soft synth controls within Sonar.

Hi Glyn;
I am a 'non keyboard/piano' player and would like to ask you a question.
 
I am looking to find something to help me create MIDI parts (in particular guitar parts) and with the nice features that the NI S-61 has for helping to create 'chords' and with my very, very limited talent as a keyboard player, would this product be something that you might recommend for me?
 
I don't have any of the big NI libraries and NI support has indicted to me that they are not necessary for the S-61 to work, I would have to start looking into getting the necessary instruments to fill my needs.
 
Your thoughts and suggestions will be very much appreciated. Thank you.
 

FWIY, 
I have had my new Akai MPK261 since Friday and it is awesome for my needs. 
I programmed bank of pads for my Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums 2, and EZ Drummer percussion libraries. I also have full level control of the faders. The keys feel great. I really like this unit. 
It may not be for you but after many days of searching, this one is the best for my world. 

Del
Hi Glyn;
I am a 'non keyboard/piano' player and would like to ask you a question.
 
I am looking to find something to help me create MIDI parts (in particular guitar parts) and with the nice features that the NI S-61 has for helping to create 'chords' and with my very, very limited talent as a keyboard player, would this product be something that you might recommend for me?
 
I don't have any of the big NI libraries and NI support has indicted to me that they are not necessary for the S-61 to work, I would have to start looking into getting the necessary instruments to fill my needs.
 
Your thoughts and suggestions will be very much appreciated. Thank you.
 

I would say the chord, scale and arpeggiator functions are best suited to keyboard / synth styles. For this it seems very good but its not a feature I use a lot.
I can't see that it would be useful in putting together guitar parts as you are not going to get the right chord voicing and its not going to strum. There are VSTi and Kontakt libraries that will help. Orange Tree's Evolution guitars for example let you "draw" you strum pattern on a virtual fretboard than feed it with a chord which it will revoice to guitar voicing and strum acording to your pattern. They also have a factory library of strum patterns. These are NKS compliant so compatable with all S-Series keyboards.
 
Also check out the latest updates to Music Lab's "Real" series. These enable the construction of chord sequences and strums without having to touch the keyboard. There are some annoying limitations like no odd metres, I cant get it to do 5/4 or 7/8 for love or money but they have some very nifty features.
 
 
 
 
 

Glyn;
Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions it looks like more studying and evaluations for me!

You do realise you can use some of the features of the NKS software with standard midi controllers, of course you dont have the light guide and a couple of other features.
 
https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/komplete-kontrol-can-be-used-with-a-regular-midi-keyboard-video.228471/
 
Also things like Cthulu for chords
 
https://www.xferrecords.com/products/cthulhu
 
Or you could just invest some time in studying music theory, from utube sources like Pebber Brown, though this might put you to sleep
 
https://www.youtube.com/user/pebberbrown/videos
 
BTW, think I will get a MPK261, but not until next month, have had some budget blowouts..

Thank you Siluroo, this is good helpful information.