And durability remains questionable. And then there are times when you'd rather have something tiny that can squirrel away in a corner of your desk. It's just about a foot long and is so light that its official weight is in ounces, not pounds FYI, it's about 0. Which variant you buy and how you use it will vary a lot. A lot of producers I know use the 8 fader variant as a makeshift mixer.
Others use the key variant as a highly portable keyboard. Given the price, you can even buy all three and change them around based on what you need at the moment. There some obvious flaws on the Nanokey. The silicone buttons tend to get stuck. And the faders are plasticky. But it will complement one nicely. But it if you want something highly portable, or if you already have a full-sized keyboard and want something to complement it. Despite its flaws, it worked wonderfully well for my needs at the time.
The MK2 improves on every aspect of its earlier iteration. The end result is a astonishingly well-built and capable controller at a price tag that's affordable for virtually every musician. Let's start with the keyboard. Yet, they are quite comfortable. You don't get aftertouch but you do get three touch sensitivity settings.
You won't enjoy playing Chopin on it, but for studio production, the keyboard works perfectly well. The baby MPK comes with 8 rubbery, velocity sensitive pads. They're not as large and sensitive as Akai's APC controllers but they get the job done.
Apart from the pads, you also get 8 programmable knobs. You can also choose between two sound banks. You get the same functionality while saving space. Akai essentially packs in a huge number of features into a tiny device. Its dimensions are smaller than a laptop's and it weighs just about the same as an iPad Pro. Then there are the software features. There are plenty of flaws — the keys aren't great for playing and the pads could do with an upgrade.
Namely, have good and the right number of keys, have plenty of controls, and integrate well with Logic Pro. Keyboard controllers are great for composition. You get full-sized piano keys that makes it easy to play chords and melodies. Pad controllers are great for launching clips and creating spontaneous compositions. If you want to hammer out a few drum patterns or take control of your music on the fly, you should choose this option.
There is no sessions view like in Ableton, which limits what you can do with pad controllers. Hybrid controllers offer the best compromise between controls and composition. A good hybrid controller would give you between pads as well as full-sized keyboards. This way, you can launch clips, hammer out drum patterns, and compose entire tracks — all from the same controller.
Unless you have extensive piano playing experience, I would recommend that you stick to hybrid controllers. Another option — which a lot of pro producers follow — is to get a regular keyboard controller and pair it up with a dedicated pad controller. Think of a setup like this:.
This would give you the best of both worlds — a full-sized keyboard for composition, and a pad controller for controlling your DAW. Your best option is to spring for semi-weighted keys. These tend to be on the expensive side but offer better playability and comfort. If your goal is to just enter MIDI notes and play out a few chords or melodies, synth-action keyboards will work perfectly fine.
MIDI keyboards come in a range of key sizes, going all the way from 25 keys to full-sized key keyboards. Anything beyond 32 keys makes it difficult to keep the keyboard size and weight low enough for lugging around. But portability comes with its own compromise — smaller keys. Most portable keyboards reduce the width and length of keys to fit them into a small form factor. This greatly impacts their playability, especially if you have fat fingers as I do.
I usually recommend people to get a regular 49 or key keyboard for their main studio use, and buy an additional mini keyboard for carrying around.
If you have a smaller desk, it could completely ruin your setup. So before you spring for a larger keyboard, measure out your desk. You should at least have 3 feet of extra space before you even think of getting anything beyond 49 keys. As much as the idea of a full-size key keyboard is appealing, it is just plain overkill for most musicians.
Nor will the EDM or hip-hop pieces they produce ever involve complex melodies that require simultaneous bass and tenor keys. Plus, larger keyboards are plain intimidating. On the flip side, anything below keys also impacts playability. For most people, keys represents the ideal size. It gives you access to four octaves of range. If you plan on playing slightly more complex pieces, you can upgrade to a key keyboard. But otherwise, 49 keys is more than enough.
In my case, I rely minimally on keyboard controls. I use my desktop keyboard shortcuts for most things. The keyboard is used mostly for entering notes, practicing melodies, and playing chords. A MIDI controller with more than a handful of control options is just overkill for my taste. Great for people who like a more intuitive approach to their music production. But production styles evolve. You might think that your style requires minimal use of controls, but that might change a year down the line.
If it has DAW control options built in, even better. This will give you enough room to adapt new playing styles. As a general rule, your budget will impact your choices as follows with respect to 49 key controllers :. Go for this range only if you want a secondary controller that emphasizes portability. Look for semi-weighted keys since this will improve the playing experience substantially. That said, there are some controllers that are designed for specific DAWs such as Ableton Push — designed for Ableton.
Just keep this in mind when you make a purchase. If the controller specifically says that it supports a specific DAW, it might be a good idea to pick something else. I can understand the confusion — MIDI isn't a specification you're likely to encounter if you're new to music. I'll answer some brief questions about MIDI controllers and keyboards below to help you figure out this product category better. The early s was exciting time for electronic music. The big names you know and recognize today — Roland, Akai, etc.
The major synths and devices that shaped music in the 80s and 90s were invented around this time, including the Roland TR drum machine, the Juno synth, etc. Think of the way Apple creates its proprietory connections and imagine an industry filled with dozens of such companies.
The founder of Roland, Ikutaro Kakehashi, knew that for electronic music to advance, there was a need for devices to talk to each other. So working with other manfuacturers, including Yamaha, Korg, etc. MIDI 2. For instance, you might have a MOOG synth.
If you want to play music using this synth, you need to connect it to a keyboard. MIDI makes it possible for the two devices to talk to each other. MIDI controllers can be in any shape or form.
They can be in the form of a guitar, a wind instrument, a drumpad, or most popularly, in the form of a keyboard. While each form might be designed to replicate a particular instrument, they all do the same job: pass MIDI instructions from one device to another. Just as you have everything from computer mice and keyboards to speakers and fans powered by USB, you also have a range of instruments that use the MIDI protocol to pass instructions from one device to another.
This information only tells the device in our case, a computer running a DAW like Ableton what notes it has to play, and how long it has to play them. There is no audio information yet — that has to be supplied by the other device. This essentially means that your C chord can take on any sound the other device is capable of.
It can sound like a guitar, a piano chord, an electronic synth, a ukulele, etc. It gives a great deal of flexibility and power to musicians. In a DAW, for instance, you might have two tracks. You can then copy-paste the note information created by your MIDI keyboard on both tracks. This will instantly give you a bass track and piano track. In fact, most of the time, I'm making music on the go my day job involves a lot of traveling.
I don't have any hardware with my except for a pair of headphones. This display panel in this MIDI mixer controller is very useful for the visual monitoring of tracks. In Presonus Faderport you just get one motorized fader, but with Mackie MCU Pro you get 8 full-length motorized faders as well as a master fader for controlling the master volume.
With these full-length motorized faders, you can seamlessly and accurately mix your projects as well as do some amazing automation. Panpots and track buttons Solo, Mute, select, record : Mackie MCU Pro has 8 dedicated panpots above the faders as well as track buttons for each track. VPot Assign and fader banks : This area is just above the master fader. VPot assign is used for adding plugin effects on a selected track, assigning send, Equalizing a track, etc.
The fader bank panel is used to switch the track banks, and channels. As you know Mackie is known as one of the best manufacturers for audio mixers, obviously the look of Mackie MCU Pro will tell you about their rich history of manufacturing mixers. A vintage-style finish makes it a beautiful gear for your studio.
These 2 expansions will not only increase the beauty of your studio but also are very useful gears. And if you want to add some other functions like controlling sequencers or plugins of your digital audio interface then you can use Mackie C4. Many Hollywood studios use Pro Tools for the best workflow and quality. I personally love Pro Tools as it is one of the fastest DAW and accelerates your workflow dramatically. But Avid is not limited to Pro tools or its award-winning Video Editing software.
There are many more gears and software Avid has. And one of them is Avid Artist Mix. Avid Artist Mix is a versatile control surface and can increase your workflow dramatically. If you get this control surface in your studio, it will not only increase the workflow but also give a charm to your studio. It comes with 8 full lengths ie; mm motorized faders and the same number of panpots as well as other track buttons like solo, record enable mute, etc.
The one feature I really miss in this control surface is the master fader. Avid Artist Mix has a long display where all the operations can be monitored. You can monitor each track individually in the display panel. The second thing we miss in Avid Artist Mix is a dedicated transport panel. However, Avid cleared that it is a control surface for mixing and not for recording controls.
Even, it should have a transport control. If you are finding a control surface which you could use in your home studio as well as outside recording then Novation Launchpad is for you. For budget home studios it would be a perfect fit. Let have some detailed look at the Novation launch control. If you are a music producer then you can now focus on your music production without worrying about the DAW handling by traditional keyboard and mixer.
Novation launchpad has eight 60mm non-motorized faders. These faders are good for mixing but the lack of motors in faders makes then useless in automation. If you want to add some automation to your tracks then you have to rely on your mouse and keyboard.
However, for volume balancing, 60mm faders work well. Novation Launch control can be used with Novation Launchpad. By owning both of them you get full control over your DAW. Launchpad has assignable buttons that can be used as transport and edit controls.
In fact, if you want a full-featured control surface, you need both of them. With bus-powered features and lightweight, it is perfect for outside recordings like concerts programs. Just plug it in with your laptop and make the magic happen. Imagine under 70 bucks you get 8 faders and also a transport control which you missed out in costly Logic Pro X control surfaces. This tiny control surface has eight faders, eight knobs dedicated solo, mute and record arming buttons as well as dedicated transport controls.
It has 8 non-motorized small faders and 8 dedicated knobs. These faders are not full length but can be used precisely in mixing if your hands set up on the faders. As well as you get dedicate solo, mute and record arming buttons for each track.
Its USB bus-powered device so you can use it with your laptop and iPad als o. Here I have provided the details of 5 best control surfaces Logic Pro X. I think now you have a clear picture of your future control surface. I personally recommend control surfaces equipped with dedicated transport controls and both the control surfaces have transport dedicated panels.
If you have any queries on these control surfaces then drop your comment below, I will answer your queries. Make sure to share this article with your social circle so that your friends could also choose better gears for their home studios. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Checkout Latest Price. Gautam Roy. Gautam Roy is a recording engineer and a blogger from India.
He loves music, writing and travelling. He is also an active investor and a successful entrepreneur.
