Arturia MiniLab MKII
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Buy Arturia MiniLab MKII
| 11 760 ₴ |  | ||||
MIDI-клавіатура Arturia Minilab MKII | 3 699 ₴ |  | |||
MIDI-клавіатура Arturia Minilab MKII Inverted | 3 699 ₴ | | |||
Soft, keys, rather small Peds are tight, encoders are used only in software synths that are given for 20 minutes  DORMET: use Arturia MiniLab MKII few months |
A great option for the traveling musician or for those with limited desk space. It is also a good option for live sets, for this the manufacturer integrated the device well with Abletone Live, which, by the way, is included. Fits easily into a laptop bag or backpack. Sufficiently strong case, which also contributes to constant transportation. In general, there are no complaints about the build quality - the board is on a metal chassis, rather thick plastic, all without backlash and squeaks. Unless some encoders rotate a little smoother than others. There is one more problem with encoders - in third-party plug-ins the soft knobs do not turn correctly, most likely this is due to the fact that the encoders are not resistant. I am not a professional pianist, but I really liked these keys. Moderately tight, so far they do not make noise, generally the best of the two-octave devices in this price category. But the pads seemed more successful in Akai MPK Mini. Arturia's pads are somehow too tight, to extract the maximum velocity you need to knock with great force, which is very unusual when applied to a musical instrument. The kit comes with a license for Ableton Live Lite, which has quite significant limitations. Analog Lab is an excellent collection of vintage keyboards, in fact it is a set of ready-made presets, but for a small surcharge you can upgrade to the full version. The UVI grand piano sounds good, but I personally prefer the Contact Libraries. Good quality and design. The feeling of a professional instrument. Good key mechanics. Ableton Live integration for live looping or live sets. Flexible setting. Good price. Not very convenient pads for stuffing drum parts. Incorrect operation of encoders in third-party applications. Too truncated software, purely for review. Good quality has affected the weight.  Игорь Б.: use Arturia MiniLab MKII few months |
Virtual soloist for virtual studio
The MiniLab MK II is an interesting two-octave MIDI keyboard with pads and rotary controls. Perhaps the main charm of Arturia MiniLab MKII is its integration with Arturia software. This French company is well known for its near-perfect emulations of classic organs, pianos and synths like the Yamaha DX7, Buchla Easel V and Minimoog.
The best collection of virtual instruments on the market
In total, there are more than 20 instruments in their collection and they are all combined into one convenient shell Arturia Analog Lab: there all instrument presets are in one place, and the main controls are immediately configured for each preset. Arturia MiniLab MKII allows you to immediately connect to Analog Lab without dancing with a tambourine and easily control all this goodness, switching from a conditional modular synthesizer to a Hammond organ on the fly. With any other MIDI keyboard, each time you have to fiddle with MIDI mapping.
Wealth of settings
The additional controls of the MiniLab MKII are different from most similar MIDI keyboards. For example, 8 drum pads are not quite ordinary and work as additional keys for switching octaves, presets, or turn on the multimode in Analog Lab — then two halves of the keyboard control two different synthesizers. It is also convenient to control the sequencer in the Arturia Spark drum machine with pads. In general, there are an unprecedented number of options for customization, so changing the RGB lighting when switching modes helps a lot. Pads can be tied to traditional sampler control, but they are not the most convenient for hardware beats.
16 rotary controls
Plus, instead of the standard 8 regulators, there are all 16, which somewhat expands the room for manoeuvre when recording. For example, the top 8 can drive a virtual instrument, while the other 8 can be assigned to external effects and filters inside Ableton, Logic, Cubase, and any other DAW. And instead of pitch and modulation wheels, here we have a pair of touch strips with several modes of operation.
Comfortable and responsive keyboard
But the main thing is not even that, but the fact that in the second version of MiniLab, Arturia engineers completely redesigned the keyboard block. In the original version, the keys were tight and lacked dynamics. Here we also have a smaller version of the Arturia KeyLab senior line of keyboards with wide keys (a centimeter wider than other mini-keyboards), a pleasant stroke, high dynamics and sensitivity to velocity and pressing force. For the $100 option, the impressions are very positive.
Ableton Lite as a gift
Of the additional goodies, we note the ability to connect a sustain pedal and adjust the sensitivity of pressing (in fact, velocity curves are adjusted). Plus, along with a standard keyboard setup disk, the user receives a "fat-free" version of Ableton Lite, which can then be upgraded to a full-fledged Ableton at a discount. Also included is the UVI Grand Piano Model D virtual instrument, which is a sampled Steinway concert grand piano.
I liked the software package.