AKAI Professional MPK Mini Play – USB MIDI Keyboard Controller With a Built in Speaker, 25 mini Keys, Drum Pads and 128 Instrument Sounds

I already had the previous Akai but I always wished it had a little more than just midi control since it was such a portable size. This is a perfect first controller or if you already have one this is perfect for a train ride to work or when you are stuck in the backseat of a car for a bit. It has voices (different instruments) built in for the piano keys and it has different sets of drums built in as well. There are even effects on the knobs and other features as well. With a nice little speaker and headphone 3.5 outputs you can practice all you want and even use a small recorder or compatible cell phone to record your progress. Fits easily in a backpack (or if you are like me an inexpensive durable case) and might just catch you making that next platinum hit you have been trying to put on the wall for years. Definitely check this out if your a serious producer or just a novice trying to have some fun. Very easily connects to your computer with USB Midi and even has room to add a sustain peddle. Great product for the money. You won't be disappointed.

Love this AKAI Professional MPK Mini Play. The software provided from AKAI is outstanding and there’s even a way to have the keyboard act as a MIDI controller to control MOOG software running on an iPad. Perfect if you need a quick keyboard solution to lay down some tracks into your favorite DAW on your computer. Highly recommended.

Got this primarily for singing in my home studio. Singing? Yeah, I have a little "toy" Casio for finding the right note for my sometimes wayward vocals and this tunes them in if you listen real closely (it's a very quiet speaker). I also have an Alesis V25 for playing soft-synths via Cakewalk. The Casio can't connect to my computer via midi as a controller (nor is it touch sensitive), and the Alesis doesn't have a speaker but the AKAI has both, plus General Midi Sounds which I thought had disappeared.Also for recording midi "keyboard" performances in Cakewalk, sometimes you have to set the latency real low to play in-sync with other trax which often causes crashing if using other soft-synths, but with this, I can use the sounds of the AKAI from the headphone output and simultaneously record a midi performance without using the crash inducing soft-synths, then try out different soft-synths from the midi track after the recording session via my Universal Audio Apollo Twin Quad Thunderbolt sound card. Kinda hard to explain to a novice or to my midi challenged friends but this works great for solving that problem (it's complicated, you need a mixer, etc). Also love that's it's small and just tucks away below my main monitor and can be carried in a laptop or anywhere when inspiration strikes.BONUS: Love the Hybrid synth you download after purchase. It works well and integrates in my Cakewalk by Bandlab DAW seamlessly and has lots of great sounds.CONS:- speaker is way too quiet, minus 1 star!- no looping?Does a lot for the pro home studio user who knows how to implement it's benefits but seems way to complex and quiet for a beginner's keyboard, so if you don't have much knowledge of midi, look elsewhere.

I love this little keyboard. Its size is VERY helpful to the current limited range of my hands. While I don't yet know all about all its features, the small keys help a lot and its size makes it very portable!Basically, the volume is what other reviewers have said it was -- much better with headphones, although it does have sufficient volume to play without them. The octave key is really an ingenious idea I hadn't considered before!! I'm still getting used to it, but it's a GREAT idea for keeping the size and weight down.The drum pads do work surprisingly well for something this small, and you get a good selection of percussion sounds!! Because of response time and the firmness with which you need to tap the pads, you can't really do fast or quick riffs, but they are much better than I expected.There's also a good selection of instrument tones!! And you can program various functions that I haven't mastered yet, but which appear to offer some truly amazing effects, especially for a keyboard this size. It would probably sound awesome used as a midi player, which I haven't tried but which you can also do.My only real comment is that you have to press the keys pretty firmly. They seem to require very deliberate key pressure, something I cannot currently do very well. So the keyboard seems VERY useful for composing and for melodies -- just not for playing key-heavy pieces, which I cannot do right now anyway. As such, it IS also perfect for beginners or for beginners to electronic keyboards.I absolutely love the battery efficiency!! Truly a plus.The unit as a whole has allowed me to use a piano keyboard generally, something I haven't been able to do for some time. For that, a big Thank You!!

This thing sounds great when plugged into an external speaker! The internal speaker, as noted by others, is weak. But the sound when you plug it into something is awesome! The instruments sound great if you take the time to tune them a little. I LOVE the eight favourites you can assign to the drum pads that you can call up in the middle of a performance. The drum pads are tight and responsive and the drum sounds are really good too. I looked at the newer model, but for over a third more cost, this works just as well. I have heard the new model has better instruments, but the ones with this one sound amazing, as far as I am concerned.I also picked up a Lekato looper pedal from Amazon at the same time to use with this, along with my little speaker, and now I can take it to portable jam sessions. The looper pedal makes this the most engaging intrument to play.The keyboard is incredibly small and portable and being able to lay down your own percussion track and then be able to 'play with yourself' in this manner is awesome! Something I have been looking for since forever.