Korg - microKEY2-49 USB MIDI Controller - 49 Key - Black

I bought this 61 noter as a supplementary USB connected keyboard to mount on my desk whilst using Ableton Live on my Mac Mini - you can never have enough midi keyboards!! :-)Now, just to clarify, for those that might not know, this keyboard does not make any sounds on its own. It relies on other devices to make the noises like computers etc running the right software to make your music happen. This keyboard generates signals called midi as you press the notes etc and these are understood by specific software running on the computer you've connected it to as musical notes to pass on to 'virtual instruments' running on the computer or perhaps other hardware 'synths' etc also connected to the computer.This keyboard does come with a download code for some music making software courtesy of Korg.Anyway, to have 61 keys in this footprint is really useful!The keys are, of course, mini (or micro) but you soon get used to their size and they are very playable with a nice feel.The pitch bend and mod wheel have a great feel too!The velocity sensitivity is excellent. You can tweak the velocity sensitivity 'curve' (amongst other things) using the excellent Korg Kontrol Editor app, available as a free download from Korg.I would advise getting this app anyway for this keyboard - there's all sorts of exciting settings that can be tweaked!It works natively out of the box without any additional drivers on Macs so I also use it as a convenient keyboard for my Mac Book Pro too.A nice midi keyboard at a great price!

I have a number of software synths on my iPad but until I bought this I had no real way of playing them properly (read, messing about with them!). This was designed to pair with iOS devices, and it does so perfectly. You'll hear and read about people going on about latency, and that's right, it's a thing. But, what most people with latency issues do is make the mistake of also having the speaker be wireless. That's too much. If you have this keyboard connected using Bluetooth LE, and then either use the speakers in the ipad or plug directly into the aux input on some speakers, you'll experience pretty much negligible latency. Is there any at all? Sure, a tiny bit, but I'm not a high-speed concert pianist, and for 99% of people it will be imperceptible. There are plenty of YouTube videos of people playing this fast and it keeping up.They keys themselves, while small, or perfectly playable, and the unit itself is sturdy enough, even on your lap. I got the 61 key version which is quite long, but also the best value for money in my opinion. Even then it's still good in the lap, but if you don't need or want that many octaves, you can save money and get less. You can still use the octave up and down buttons to go up and down the scales.Batteries on this last ages, but you can connect via USB to both power it and completely eliminate any latency whatsoever. Best of all worlds.

I am impressed with this keyboard, having connected it to the Windows laptop on arrival and composing a soundtrack in minutes - It feels great. However I am having problems connecting it wirelessly to the iPad which is why I am giving this 4 stars instead of 5. Once I work out how to connect it to the iPad that would be awesome and I may change to 5 star depending on how easy it is - So far Im not having luck with that. However as keyboard for a windows pc or laptop, this is excellent and simple and gives you lots of nice software with it aswell.

I find this MIDI Controller to be just the thing I needed for my music production. :) I can get my ideas down quickly and then fine tune them in my DAW's MIDI Piano Roll. Typically I can have an idea, then lose it because it would have took too long just to manually draw in the notes and length, and it's just so much faster with a MIDI Controller. It's got 2 octaves, a Modulation/Pitch Shift analogue stick, octave shifting buttons, a simple single note arpeggiator and a sustain button with tap functions to control the rate of the arpeggiator. It's got a fairly good feel, despite it's small size. It connects through USB, and supports anything that uses MIDI input. Feels better to use than some Yamaha keyboard I once played on too. All of the aforementioned details does justice enough for my 5 stars.But wait! There's more! You get a license key with the MIDI controller which works as a login to access a bundle of music software for free, apparently totalling up to the value of $1100 dollars. I recommend accessing the included software bundle and registering the products. It's going to save you money. The software included is quite a generous offering, and would make me want to rate it with an extra 5 stars. It's a huge saver. I love Korg products in general but the inclusion of this was a great move for Korg. 5/5 stars. :)