Akai MPK Mini PLAY

I use this small midi controller to control Reason 10. Because I am a ignorant without patience, I immediately started connecting everything, pressing keys wildly and turning knobs. The result was that not everything was controlled correctly. The next day I sat down for a while and with a little more patience (and a little help from google) everything turned out fine. Set up Reason properly and adjust Akai's software.

The result of all this is that the music I make still doesn't sound like anything, but that's not because of the MPK Mini Mk2!

It does exactly what I expect from a controller surface. 49 keys are just right. Less would be short. More would take up too much space in my humble home studio.

The keys, wheels, pads, faders and knobs feel good.

I still have to learn the finer things about the arpeggiator and such, but assigning controllers is already very easy.

I couldn't enter this review without rating "quality", but just to be clear: this is not a synth, it does not produce any sound itself, it is ideal for controlling the softsynths on your computer.

Great price and lots of options, there's nothing wrong with that. However, the Akai mapping software for Windows is very unusable and I don't think it is up-to-date. The firmware update also fails. The last available version is from mid-2014 (...) and yet the manual recommends updating or checking, but that doesn't work because of the message 'not connected'. I read on the internet that many users suffer from this and Akai support would be aware of that problem. There they don't get any further than 'that's right, but no need to upgrade'. That is not a solution but a conclusion. Unfortunately for Coolblue, I returned the controller and ordered another one.