Arturia MiniLab MKII Reviews

Good product with a lot of sounds

The keyboard is very good but the (kind of) modwheel isn't enough precise. Otherwise great product with a lot of good sounds.

I use the keyboard in Logic Pro x and abelton live and it perfectly fits to those.Keys have relatively feels good and have consistent velocity but I can't say the same thing for drum pads. Pads feel hard and not that easy to play.But overall a good product definitely worth it

It really worths the price!

The controller is really solid made and has quite good built quality. If you're using Ableton Live, it comes with quite good midi mapping preset and of course, you have the option to customize your midi mappings and what I love about it is the limitless rotary 16 encoders, so you can adjust the parameters, no matter what's the current knob's position.

It also comes with really good software bundle! AnalogLab lite is more than enough if you are just starting the synth world! It comes with 500 presets which you can tweak around all the different parameters and mix different synths here and there!

I really recommend to have it as a handy gadget in your home studio!

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.

great to start making music

bought it to produce electronic music, it is very well built and the keys give a natural response when pressed (quite close to a real piano). the knobs are not super smooth but they are endless encoder that makes them a very nice addition compared to similar products. You get a nice selection of presets with it, however you need to install a lot of software to use them.

life changing.

along with the analog lab.. the sound possibilities are just fascinating

Great for the price!

Cool looking on the table, sturdy. Great support and feedback from the manufacturer. With product itself, comes software with good sounds. And this software made especially for this key station, so it saves a bunch of time because you don't need to bind any macros to the controller.

Knobs are working very precisely. Driver never crashes.

The only thing: velocity on the keys is not the best. Never know, how hard it needs to press to play with constant volume. But I think, it's more about size. Big sized key stations don't have this problem.

But for this price, you get even more than you expect.

Great small keyboard with pads and encoders

The main reason why I bought this controller was to have a small keyboard with endless rotary encoders. I don't like pan pots because it's hard to map them to your VSTs. So after a lot of research, I found that this Minilab was basically the only keyboard who actually had proper encoders!

I was also looking for a smaller keyboard to put on my desktop. Most keyboards with only 2 octaves tend to have a "cheap" feel, and move easily when playing on it (I'm a pianist). But here, the build is quite sturdy. You can really play on it and it won't budge. I must say some of the keys can be a bit stiff, but I feel that it gets better overtime.

The keys themselves are a decent size, and I like the fact that they're not hollow at the bottom (like most cheaper controllers). The pads are alright, but they're not as good as Maschine or Ableton Push pads because you have to press harder to trigger them correctly. But I don't really mind since I don't really use the Minilab to drum on it.

The cherry on the cake? This keyboard comes with a free full version of Arturia Lab, meaning that you get hundreds of great sounding presets from the Arturia VSTs. And it's perfectly mapped to the Minilab, so you can play and tweak the sound at the same time.

Overall a great buy. I actually bought Arturia's Keystep after that. They're a good combo.

Really good bundle

Very good midi controller, analog late and ableton really favour this bundle, not only the keyboard is actually sell built but the software included is so amazing, although you can only use the presets in analob lab 3 instead of being able to control every button like in v collection

Very very satisfied

This is a great piece of work, bought it for my brother, he's a rapper. Absolutely satisfied.

Very useful midi controller

Very useful and all in one midi controller.

Best mini midid controller

I had different mini midi controllers and this one is the best! Its very flexible, each knob can be assigned as you want, all pads also can be assigned. Especially if you work with Ableton Live - this midi controller will make your life easier! And of course its very beautiful and stylish!

Easy and Useful!

All in all an excellent product whether you need a portable controller, something compact for a home studio, or if you're just getting into computer synths/keyboard controllers!

Highly recommended.