MPK Mini MK3-25 Key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller with 8 Backlit Drum Pads, 8 Knobs, Music Production Software and Native Instruments Sound Package (NKS Integration)

From the husband: "I absolutely love this controller. The keys have good pressure sensitive feedback and the setup was super easy. I use Ableton and FL Studio and they both recognize the controller with simplicity and I didn't have much issues setting it up. Another awesome thing is that AKAI comes with some downloadable sample packs and VSTs for you to use in your DAW. I'm very happy with this device in assisting me produce music with much more ease and control than a computer keyboard. It's a good size that fits on your desk and is no wider than a computer keyboard. Highly recommend for entry level producers."

Pad quality is outstanding, seems very easy to bring around with you. (haven't done it yet) Sounds perfect all inputs are correct, setup was VERY easy (Youtube is amazing lol) if you know basic chords then this should bring up your music production to a whole new level. probably one of the best things i've bought of Amazon!!

Perfect for my sons bedroom. Easy setup, works well with his daw. Great sound. Great price.

I waited a couple of months before writing this review. There's a lot to dive in and I wanted to write a review short enough to read that contains everything you need to know. For your money you get two things, the hardware (the MK3) and some free software, MPC Beats. The MK3 is a 25-key USB MIDI keyboard. In addition to the 25 keys, there are selection buttons on the left and right, a joystick/knob, 8 drum pads, 8 knobs, and a teeny-tiny LCD for younger users with better eyeballs than mine. They keyboard has a tiny bit of weight to it, but you won't mistake it for a paperweight. Keep in mind that on its own, the keyboard does nothing, It only works when plugged into a computer, running software. The free DAW software Akai provides is MPC Beats. MPC Beats has approximately 9 million buttons and options, so don't expect to figure it out in an hour or even a day. There are so, so many features. You can of course make tracks, loops, patterns, and so on. There are tons and tons of free instruments available. It can get confusing as to which can be assigned to the keys and which are assigned to the drum pads. Fortunately there are tons of video MPC Beats tutorials online, which can teach you the ropes. The free version of MPC Beats has one major limitation in that songs are limited to 8 MIDI tracks and 2 "audio" tracks (which could be used for vocals or samples). If you're just wanting to create loop based music, 8 tracks are actually quite a bit. If you do eventually outgrow MPC Beats, you can upgrade to the pay version, MPC 2.0, which allows 128 tracks, all of which can be MIDI or digital audio. So, what's to say? There's a bit of a learning curve with the software and figuring out what all the buttons on the keyboard do. It has been a while since I played around with a DAW and so it took me a couple of days to wrap my head around everything. Again, there are lots of YT tutorials out there that will point you in the right direction, and the more you play around with things, the better you'll get. Physically the keyboard's looks may not impress your studio friends, but there's no reason why you couldn't create a hit song with this thing.

Bought this to give beatmaking/basic production a try. I haven't used it a ton, to be honest, but I still have some thoughts. It seems decent for a starter, though the how-to type stuff is pretty limited. The software provided absolutely loaded up my lower-mid-tier laptop. It seems to get much out of it you have to pay for a subscription. Those two reasons are why I haven't used this a lot. It feels very solid and durable, the action on the pads/knobs/keys is nice. It does work fine with my Acer laptop. There's a slight delay between hitting a pad and hearing it. I'm still giving this a four because I feel like this really is a decent starter, and I'm just not very good at using it yet.

This Mini MIDI is exactly what I was looking for. If you need something small to help you with your music projects, then this MIDI board is the way to go! Not too expensive and is compatible with all the music/audio programs I've tried using. I'd say its worth the price all things considered.

I would like to try the new mpk mini since I was delighted with this one, practical it works perfectly for me when I go on a trip and I have to work, it is comfortable and fits in my travel backpack, I need to try the new one since it looks amazing 😮‍💨

It's a MIDI keyboard, you need software on a MAC/PC/tablet in order to use it, and I have a lot of thoughts on whether you should buy it. As usual, I have a 2min version and a 5min version of my thoughts. Please at least read the 2min before you buy! 2 MINUTE VERSION PROS: it's a good MIDI keyboard, okay? The buttons do the things they are supposed to without breaking. It's well-built. The included virtual instruments are pretty decent (big CON on these down below). It's *highly* customizable. But. . . CONS: the keys are dinky. If you're expecting that, great, but I myself was expecting them to be at least a little bigger. Velocity curves are super janky out of the box. This is especially true for the pads. There are many undocumented features that I discovered through forums and tinkering. I could not find any supported software to configure the device, whereas previous models had full software to configure nearly aspect of the keyboard. The included virtual instruments sound great but do not come with VST versions for me to deploy in my DAW. The lack of documentation and supported software made this feel like a rushed product meant to secure sales. *Shrugs* Maybe the users and AKAI will create more documentation and discover easier ways to tweak this thing as it matures 5 MINUTE VERSION I'll start off by saying that I don't feel like I wasted money on this MIDI keyboard. Not by any stretch. But getting it to *work* has proven to be an investment of my time in addition to the buying price. First of all, do not buy this if you are learning how to play piano. Do yourself a favor and get something with full-sized keys. Piano is all muscle memory and you do not want to hurt yourself early on in your career. This doesn't have anything to do with the device itself but more pianos and keyboards in general. This is not a *learning* device for new piano players. But! It is a good *first* MIDI keyboard for producers because you will learn how these keyboards work, and learn how to troubleshoot them. The problem is, you have to troubleshoot it before you even start using it. The velocity curves are awful out of the box. The small keys with small travel do not help. If I do a CMinor run with the default settings, it is guaranteed that one note will be soft for no reason and one will be LOUD. Imagine this for whole songs, where you record the MIDI clip and then have to go through the MIDI data with a fine-tooth comb. That is actual production hell and please don't do that to yourself. To add insult to injury, there is no documented way to modify the velocity data in the keyboard itself, and there is no AKAI-supported software to do so. This documentation and this software exists for the Mk 2 version of this keyboard, so why it doesn't exist for the Mk 3 is absolutely baffling. It's a GREAT product, AKAI, so please include every little minute detail of what I can do with this thing in the packaging! I shouldn't have to bookmark forum pages that have documentation that is not included in the user manual or on your website. *Clears throat* Anyway, the velocity issue is most notable with the pads. You have to smack the absolutely dogcrap out of the pads to get them to register higher velocities. I was shaking my whole desk and still not hitting 100 Velocity with them. If you're drumming, especially with dynamic drums, this means everything will sound soft. Luckily enough, Ableton has a Velocity effect that can modify Velocity data as it enters the DAW. This fixed the keys as I could set a minimum velocity and maximum so the dynamics are more balanced. However, the pads still register too low on Velocity, so I ended up putting them on 'FULL LEVEL' so they always play at 127 (max) velocity. If I need dynamic drums, I go in and edit the velocity levels in the MIDI clip manually. I said earlier that this was production hell, and that opinion hasn't changed, but that is the only way the pads work for me because I cannot find any documentation on how to edit the 'pad' velocity anywhere. Keep in mind not every DAW has this ability, so Ableton is saving my booty here. For the keys, you can hold the FULL LEVEL button until a screen comes up with v1-4 and some numbers. You can increase V2 to increase the key velocity. Cool, right? Here's the thing: totally undocumented feature. There's a forum post about it, so if I go ham on these settings and that forum post gets edited or deleted, POOF. No documentation on the original settings and I will have to factory reset the whole keyboard. I hope you are seeing the problem now. Is it worth the money? Absolutely, not a dollar less. It's a wonderful product. If you buy it, be prepared for initial and ongoing troubleshooting to get it to work for you. If you are a budding producer, this will be great experience for you but will definitely prove frustrating. I hope they release official software for this soon, because I will be happy to edit this review when that happens.

Been wanting a mini synth for years. Never had the spare dosh to purchase one. Along came another birthday and instead of spending it on the usual, purchased something for me. Oh boy so glad I did. Although I've still a lot to learn, each time I have a bit of me time I discover another gem sound or technique on this incredible unit (For the money it absolutely brilliant) The software it comes with is also great - especially like the customisability of synth sounds and been able to tweak them. I know a year on I've still barely scratched the surface of what this can do, but it brings a smile to my face every time I plug it in, and away I go 🎹🎶 Happiness is

Urządzenie jest idealne do użytku domowego jako narzędzie do nauki, jak również do pracy

Tek kelimeyle harika bir ürün eksiği yok bence

Perfect for anyone who dabbles in MIDI without wasting all of your desk space on a full sized unit. I love using this for finger drumming, and you get enough keys to layer synth/piano parts in recordings for the most part.

good device but had to send it back for ios related issues