MiniLab MKII : excellent little midi controller

I have absolutely no regrets buying this.

It works so well with my Arturia V collection, as well as with the Ableton Suite. I had no problems getting it to work with Sibelius as well.

I was a little worried before I bought it that my rock-climbing man hands might not like the mini keys, but my concerns were unfounded. The keys are nice to play, very expressive and seem to be able to take a beating. The whole unit is solidly constructed and honestly looks much more expensive than it was. I'm not much of a finger drummer but the velocity sensitive pads are of the same high quality are the rest of the unit. Having 16 rotary encoders is a real life enhancement. I was previously using a mouse :p

The pitch and modulation strips work well. The pitch bend auto-centers when you let go, as it should.

The modulation strip will stay at the value of your last touch.

Controlling modulation via a touch sensitive strip is actually better than having a wheel, since you can pick out individual values without passing through the intermediate values if you want. That just isn't possible with a wheel, so yay :)

So, I'd say if you are looking for a 2 octave midi controller on a budget the MiniLab is excellent value for your money.