MPK Mini Play MK3 25-Key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller

This MPK Mini Play MK3 is tiny and fits in my small overnight duffel along with a sustain pedal and stereo monitors (plus clothes and travel stuff)... amazing. I've owned many expensive full-size keyboards (like RD2000), and the synth sounds from this AKAI are surprisingly good and a reasonable General MIDI selection. Pianos, E-pianos, clav and harpsi are all good; organs are limited; basses are fine; string ensembles good but violin/viola not useful to me, drums are adequate, etc. The reverb is nice. The drum pads work while the keys are being played, so we've had two people playing on this tiny device... very fun. The keys are velocity sensitive (not weighted) and work fine for a 2-pound instrument. The joystick is very clever: push left to modulate volume (fade in, or volume dips for brass), right for vibrato, up and down for pitch shift. The octave transpose is essential (get the bass into the right register, get to the high strings) and designed just right. Too bad there isn't a chromatic transpose: for such a short keyboard, it would be nice to transpose on a song-by-song basis so we get the most of the keys that are here. The sustain pedal I like is item B08NSZFGC1, labeled Sovvid for $13. It works perfectly and is extremely lightweight. Most of my sustain pedals are very heavy, which is great for staying in place on stage but for travel this one is ideal. It is even lighter than a small footswitch. And it works with both electrical standards (normally open / normally closed). The lightweight speakers I carry are item B09PFGJ94L, Pyle 5.25" woofer 2-way active, though many other models (including active PC speakers with subwoofer) would work fine. Rated 300 watts (skeptica), these are plenty loud enough for a living room and they sound fine (but lacking deep powerful bass, as expected). Plug in the AKAI keyboard with a 3.5mm 15-ft stereo cable like Startech item B004G3WCNK $8. These Pyle speakers need a length of 2-conductor speaker or lamp cord to connect the passive speaker to the active one. In a pinch, the AKAI keyboard could be connected to a television analog audio input. The keyboard itself has a tiny speaker, but it's very limited.

If you're looking for a feature packed pro quality compact MIDI keyboard with a built-in speaker, built-in sounds, and battery powered to boot, this is it! Great for anyone looking for a MIDI you can use on the go, or for when space is limited. The built-in sound library and functions are actually all pretty good. The interface is very intuitive and on par with what you would find with other like MIDI keyboards. One thing that I want to note, if you find the volume of the built-in speaker low, hold the FULL LEVEL button on the left-hand side of your keyboard for about five seconds. A menu that shows v1, v2, v3, v4, and black bal with pop up. Turn black bal to 1.0 and all the rest to max. When done, hold the FULL LEVEL button again until you get to the original menu, and that should increase the volume of the built-in speaker. Connectivity and software integration is straightforward and very easy to get up and running. Great for both beginners and well-seasoned users. Battery life is also very good, and since you also have the option to plug it in, this thing is very versatile. All in all, very pleased with this device.

I love this thing. It's very good for writing away from your workstation. It is highly customizable as well with the software you can download from Akai. It connects flawlessly to my PC and DAW if I want to use it as a midi controller as well. For everything you get it is a good value as well. It's very lightweight to me, and I enjoy using it. However it does have a few problems. 1. the pads are iffy. They are very stiff, and to make them actually sound you have to tap them hard enough to sometimes hurt your fingertips. Tapping them that hard also makes them ring out other sounds from the other pads sometimes. 2. If you have big hands or fingers the keys are slightly too small to not hit other keys. 3. The built in speaker is no where near loud enough. 4. The joystick is a neat idea, but simply having the 2 expression wheels would be much better. Even two joysticks with only one function each would be better than the dual function joystick.

Love it!! It is small portable and great for music

I love the stand-alone feature and it’s portable, so it’s fun to use anywhere

I had this for about two weeks and I love it. I’m new to keyboards (I played a little when I was a kid), and this little guy is perfect. I leave it on the coffee table and pick it up when I’m feeling creative. The size is great and has been good for a beginner so far. The built in speaker and capability to be powered by batteries is another great plus. I also got a cord to connect with my headphones which is also great.

There aren't many options when thinking in midi controllers, built in sounds and built in speakers, AND portability. While most modern Casio or Yamaha personal keyboards got USB and can be used as midi controllers, none are as portable as this is. Except for the PSSA50 from Yamaha, which is the other one I was considering, but the lack of reverb and knobs made me move away from it. So I decided to give this akai a chance, and when I got it, I realized it is exactly what I wanted: -Super tiny and portable -Built in speaker (mono, yes, but good enough for playing around) -Built in very good quality sounds (many are really nice. The synth pads and brass are among my favorites) -4 knobs for tweaking with 2nd function each, you get 8 parameters that can be modified on the fly. This includes Attack, Release, equalizer for highs, eq for lows, amount of chorus effect, amount of reverb effect, filter and resonance, being these last two the most fun to use. -Arpeggiator. While it doesn't have a chord option, you can set amount of octaves, playing direction (let's say: random notes, notes up, notes down, up and down, exclude or include border notes. -I'm using 4 Epoch AA 1.5V lithium USB rechargeable batteries, they are quite new in the market but I can recommend them, I haven't had to recharge them yet and I'm using the keyboard on max volume for hours now. I'm still getting familiar with it, but first days with it surprised me quite a lot. I can recommend this keyboard if you want everything it sports.

The Akai Professional MPK Mini Play MK3 - MIDI Keyboard Controller with Built-in Speaker and Sounds is exactly as described and lots of fun. It is very lightweight. It functions great. The key sensitivity feels great. It plugs into my laptop and connects to my DAW without any problems. I especially like that I don't need to connect it to my computer or my DAW to make a little tune. It is well worth the money. I will buy it again if this one gets damaged.

I bought this akai Mpk Mini to use with my computer and ipad for songwriting. IUt does this very well. The keys have just enough weight to them to be playable and the drum pads are nice, however you have to hit them hard. The surprise with this one is that it takes batteries (not needed with computer use) because it has a full keyboard of sound onboard! This is a welcome treat because i can use it standalone for writing, and have even used it in a recording. The keyboard has several controls you dont see everywhere on a unit this small. Apeggiator, filters! and joystick pitchbend. very cool little keyboard.

All good, just hard to learn .

Parfait. Akai est une référence du domaine et celui ci ne fait pas exception. Il faut simplement penser à acheter une housse de transport en plus pour le ranger

Funciona perfectamente bien, es de un tamaño práctico, funciona con carga y a baterías. Tiene buen sonido y bastantes funciones, lo recomiendo.

The midi-keyboard is awesome - 1000000 outta 10.