Akai Professional MPK61 MIDI Controller

I bought this after narrowing down to two controllers. I was looking at the Novation 61 SL MKII or this. Price ended up tempting me. I bought this for a mere $380.00 on sale here at Amazon compared to the Novation's $599 price tag. I must say this controller keyboard has great solid controls and great semi-weighted key action. I know some have complained about the keys being a bit stiff, but I find the keys to be a perfect balance. I do not like keyboards with light hollow keys which are too flimsy. I also don't like fully weighted since I do a lot of Electronica style music with 16th and 32nd notes which is a pain on the fingers with fully weighted keys. I use this keyboard with Ableton Suite 8 and this keyboard maps beautifully with Ableton controls. I especially like the Vyzex profile editor software that comes with it to easily setup control template profiles for the keyboard. This keyboard has a very solid feel to it and seems well built. The blue backlit LCD screen is very bright and clear. I love the built in arpeggiator on the MPK61 and the 8 different time division buttons for the different timings of the arpeggiator. Those are great touches. The 16 pads have great touch sensitivity as well with four bank buttons. I also like the positioning of the octave buttons for transposing. They are in a very convenient location while playing live. What can I say? This was a perfect fit for my Ableton work that I do. I also will be purchasing the Akai APC40 when I start going live and the MPK61 and the APC40 will work great together in unison with Ableton MIDI mappings. It really is a great value and great quality. Akai really builds very solid controllers and their tech support is very responsive.

The shipping was not a problem at all. The one drawback that I have is the drum pads and their response even when I adjust it to the full level. Its works well but you will have to adjust your playing to it, which means you will have to push harder on the pads. Some others complained about the feel of the keys being plastic and that is true but it works well for be. You may also want to be careful playing to hard on the keys because one of my keys, I have to press down hard to get the note to play though I have been having it for about 8 months now. Overall, it was a great purchase and helped me to elevate my musical talents in producing hip hop beats and rapping on them.

Best investment ever. He spends hours everyday creating and recording music. It is his passion and we researched very carefully before we purchased this item. We asked many professionals before we took the leap. I didn't want to get something that felt like an expensive toy that he would outgrow. He's headed off for college and wants a degree/career in music production. He really wanted the MPK49 but after much advice from his music teacher we went with the MPK61. He doesn't regret that now. The keyboard was lighter then he expected and even the bigger version is easy to carry around. We bought a carrying case for it for trips so it wouldn't get damaged.

I purchased this keyboard from Amazon on 09/05/12, and have used it probably an average of five days a week in a home studio environment sense then. It has barely even been removed from its stand. It hasn't been gigged with or hauled from place to place. After 17 paltry months of service, it's dead. As my wife pointed out, this keyboard cost nearly a dollar a day. At face value, that doesn't sound too bad, but, having used this keyboard for almost a year and a half, I can tell you that a dollar a day is highway robbery.Here's why.1) The keys on this keyboard are terrible. There is no other word for them. I am convinced that you could use them to catapult grapes across the room. They require an inordinate amount of force to press down, and they come zooming right back up with equal vigor. It is apparent that no one who has ever played a piano or a keyboard before worked on creating this product.2) The menu system is baffling. It is more confusing than learning FM synthesis. It locks you into keyboard setups that are somehow tied to various different DAWs, though none of them seem to work well. There is no preset for Logic, there are no updates for Ableton 9. Even if there were, you'd never find a way to navigate to them. This wouldn't matter, except these preset systems seem to affect the way that some of the transport controls work.3) The pads are, unquestionably, the worst pads I have EVER touched. They vacillate wildly between responding to nearly no pressure and requiring something resembling a right hook to fire. They are also not squares, which makes them double-plus difficult to use.4) The rotary encoders and faders aren't bad, but they don't feel very accurate.5) The keyboard has an onboard arpeggiator, which is, in theory, a great feature. However, as with the menu system, its use is mystifying. To this day, I still don't know how many patterns it holds or how to reprogram the one I have found. I don't even know if there are more patterns or if I am able to change the one it has. Documentation on this product is about as good as you'll find for leaves in your yard.6) The pitch and mod wheels are good and the keyboard does look nice enough.In summary, the Akai MPK61 is not a product I would recommend. It is neither pleasant to use nor particularly effective. It is, however, expensive, not durable, and quite confusing. Unrelated to this product specifically, but I bought three Akai products at the same time. They have ALL had problems. I could have gotten three poor quality products, but my experience with both the products and the brand has not been solid.If you are a masochist or you really like wasting money, this keyboard may just be the one for you. Or, if you wanted to make a grape catapult, it would probably work well for that. Otherwise, I'd suggest giving this product a wide berth.

I dont write reviews often but you really need to play this keyboard before purchasing it. Heres the deal:The Good - The layout of this controller is really good. The knobs and faders all feel solid and the board itself is very well built. The programming is super easy. I didnt even read the manual and was able to figure it out. I didn't get far enough to try the software that was packaged with the unit. It has allot of really cool features and looks good too. I really wanted to love this thing but............The Bad - The keybed on this thing is horrid! I played it for all of about 20 minuted and I couldn't take it anymore. It actually hurts to play. The keys are extremely difficult to trigger with velocities all over the place. The bottom two notes on the board I got were more difficult to trigger than all the others for some reason. There is a velocity curve setting available but I couldn't find a setting that worked for me. I cant imagine ever adapting to the amount of pressure it takes to move the keys either. Its a workout to play. My wrists hurt after only a few minutes.The pads aren't much better. I understand there is some type of mod you can do to fix the pads and if you buy this controller you're going to need it. They are unusable as is. Almost as bad as the keybed itself. The pads are small and again they are difficult to trigger. There are settings for pad sensitivity and threshold but just like the keys I couldnt find a suitable setting.Do yourself a favor and try this board out someplace local before purchasing. Some may like it. I know I wanted to, but Ill be sticking to my axiom for now.