Novation 61SL MKIII

Excellent!

Was deciding between Native Instruments and Arturia Keylab but chose this at the last moment and don't regret it all. Fantastic integration with DAW, onboard sequencer and great feeling keybed. Scales and arp, and aftertouch, what's not to like?

Good and Easy to Control Ableton

For using live sessions, this midi is good to play and going through ableton sessions is easy. It would be nice if they more quality in the keybed

Incredible Capabilities!

Novation has really come through with an incredible unit. This does more than any one person could imagine. Quality product, built strong. Feels amazing to play. Works well with Ableton and other hardware devices. I will be using this for many years to come!

Great Quality!

I purchased this for my son and he is delighted with it.

At first I thought that the keyed lighting thing was nothing more than a gimmick but how wrong I was. Not only does it make playing music enjoyable and cool (like Jean Michel Jarre does in his live shows!) but the colour lighting actually serves a function depending on the mode you switch to.

Quality keyed, elegant and practical a controller. Very portable and easy to use.

This is the ultimate midi controller

For whatever your purpose, the SL MKIII has you covered. I primarily have used it to control soft synths and piano plugins, and for those of you wary about semi-weighted keys, these feel really good. They aren't as hollow or as plastic feeling as the ones on the FL key and they hold up to a fatar keybed, albeit not the exact same feel. Highly recommended for home studio recording and for live performance. The interface is very intuitive and you can have all of your controls mapped in mintues. A number of plugins and hardware synths are supported and already mapped, and the SL MKIII can control multiple devices at one go. It's such a powerhouse! Fairly priced, and definitely worth the money.

Ultimate non-weighted keyboard

Very good, sturdy, premium MIDI-controller. Charming to work on, it's got that "vibey" entourage.

Built-in 8-track sequencer, arpeggiator, adjustable scales and more.

The only missing feature (for some) is weighted keys, BUT it's a feature usually (if not only) needed for full-sized 88 (or 76) keys keyboards to get that piano like feel

The definition for 'controll'

I can't really recommend it more.

It's a very malleable tool in the hands of control freaks, and it works with you not against you.

Pros:

Absolutely seamless integration with Ableton Live 10.

Plenty of freely configurable knobs, sliders, buttons and pads.

Plethora of connections to hardware synths, vintage and new.

Bundled with bunch of useful software.

5 crystal clear displays and LED key lights.

Etc...

Cons:

Keybeds don't feel as well as the rest of the hardware controls, although the aftertouch is very well defined, the key action itself doesn't seem to be well tuned to get most of the dynamics of a piano, even after fiddling with the sensitivity presets, this is my only gripe I have with it, or maybe I'm too used to my previous keyboard and I need more time to get used to this one.

In overall:

If you need a capable controller and you're not afraid to get your hands dirty...this is the one you need!

very useful for anyone who needs to play with ableton etc and to put scales and many more options to mapping and control special devices and to sync midi devices and external instruments by cv gates. nice. !!!i use this novation sl with the akai force and ableton software .

Well-designed and versatile.

Pros:

- Great sequencer;

- Templates editor (Components) runs on Chrome and it's very simple to use;

- Light indicators are very useful specially for those who are learning music;

- Good integration with DAWs such as Ableton live;

Cons:

- The Keybed is not as good as the previous model (MKII)

- It's not possible to downgrade the firmware;

- The user experience could be better which makes the Learning curve big;

Great for music theory training + sequencing.

As the title reads, the LED indicators on the keys help a great deal if you are trying to grasp music theory by showing you the scales and chords as you play, a feature previously only available to NI Kontrol which is nearly twice the price. Furthermore the indicators light up as you are sequencing which helps a lot.