I tested a bunch of MIDI keyboards side by side and in this video I'm sharing my top six so which
one has the best key feel the best drum pads how about mixer and virtual instrument control I'll
cover everything including the pros and cons for each and even some features you never knew you
needed let's get started with one of the newest keyboards in this list the MiniLab 3 I've used
several mini keyboards through the years and I found that the MiniLab 3 by Arturia has two
standout features and the first one may totally win you over the artoria mini laab has the best
key feel of all the keyboards in this list the keys are larger than all the other keyboards
here and have an excellent down weight and upweight making this the best keyboard if
you're a Pianist or used to more traditionally weighted keys yeah I actually measured the
down weight and upweight for these keyboards it makes a difference if you know you know
now let's check out this second standout feature and then I'll talk about some
drawbacks the mini laab has the best virtual instrument integration only
rivaled by the Native Instruments M32 in this list it comes with Arturia's own
Analog Lab software that gives you hands-On control of so much right out of the box
[Music]
if you love Vintage since or if you've already invested in Arturia VSTs this is the keyboard for
you with with the endless encoders and the faders you get a total of 12 tactile controls more than
any other keyboard in this list and with endless encoders the virtual knobs in your plugin always
match the physical knobs on the MiniLab controller and as you turn a knob or touch a fader you'll see
the parameter you're controlling and the value right on the screen now with Arturia's Analog
Lab software you can use the ninth black knob here to cycle through through presets and load [Music]
them the screen also shows you parameters from your daw's plugins the DAW feedback
on the MiniLab is excellent so what's not to like well the drum pads aren't the best in this
list Akai are better also the drum pads have a secondary function as transport controls stop
play record I prefer dedicated transport controls for optimal efficiency the for faders are useful
to have but check it out they don't control your first four track volumes as you'd expect
en Ableton Live for example they control a single active tracks volumes sends and pan the Mini Lab
has good compatibility with the most popular dos for Ableton Live you have basic clip and
scene [Music] triggering [Music] but FL Studio users won't get extensive channel rack control
we'll explore the FL Key later in the video for that the MiniLab has nice arpeggiator
and chord features comparable to other keyboards in this list but for the ARP you will menu dive
a bit to edit it this is one of my favorite new keyboards and as a Pianist I truly appreciate the
key feel by the way the keyboards here range from $99 to $170 and the MiniLab comes in
on the lower end at $109 that's a good price for what you get especially considering the software
package included I'll put links to the best prices for these keyboards in the description and the
first comment below all right number two and this one might surprise some of you you probably see
this keyboard's little brother a lot the Akai MPK Mini is everywhere it's very popular but it's also
missing features but just recently Akai released this the MPK Mini Plus and it gives you all the
features the regular MPK Mini was missing but that comes at a price let me explain the MPK Mini Plus
is $169 at the top end of the price range of this list but if you want great drum pads and another
unique feature I'll get to in a sec you'll be happy with this keyboard the MPK Mini has 37
keys the most keys of all the keyboards here in this list so that makes it the biggest keyboard in
this roundup do the extra keys make a difference yes for sure it's so much more comfortable to
play with more keys but the Native Instruments and M-Audio keyboards also offer more than your
typical 25 I'll get to those in a [Applause] bit [Music] so let's talk about the drum pads if you
want to do a lot of finger drumming with your keyboard this is the one to get the Akai drum
pads are my favorite the stiffness and feel is excellent and aai always includes that useful
note repeat [Music] button now the key feel isn't as good as the MiniLab and and these are the
narrowest keys here but this keyboard has a very cool trick that none of the others has a builtin
sequencer the built-in sequencer allows you to program drums or note patterns to send to your
DAW or to an external synth with the MIDI outs you get more connectivity for external synth with
this keyboard most keyboards here have MIDI outs but they are even more useful with this built-in
sequencer
and that's not all the mpk Mini Plus also has dedicated transport controls which are
missing on the regular MPK [Music] Mini the do features are decent with mapped
DAW plugins but you don't get the excellent feedback on the screen like other keyboards
here another reason to get the MPK Mini Plus over the regular MPK Mini is the included pitch
and mod wheels much better than the single joystick you get with the MPK Mini but you
get that too now with all the encoders you've got here you actually don't get mixer control
with Ableton Live and this keyboard won't give you the virtual instrument integration that the
Native Instruments and Arturia keyboards give you chord scale and R features are included on this
keyboard but honestly the best features of the MPK Mini Plus should have been included on the
MPK Mini but hey if you're into Akai keyboards and want the best drum pads this is the better
Akai keyboard to buy but wait a sec you can get almost all the same features that this keyboard
has at a much lower price with the Oxygen PRO keyboard let's look at that next by the way if
you're new around here I'm Sanjay C I have tons of videos about music production and the latest
gear reviews consider subscribing if you haven't already I'll be sure to make it worth your while
this keyboard is still one of my favorites because of the price to feature ratio you
get a lot for your money with the M-Audio Oxygen PRO Mini this keyboard has faders and knobs and
32 Keys the keys are a bit shorter and narrower than others in this list but the feel is [Music]
decent now you only get four knobs but they map nicely to your dos [Music]
[Music] plugins and the fader automatically map to your first four track [Music]
volumes faders are a nice feature because because you can adjust multiple faders at
once with just one hand they've actually built in the configurations for different
DAWs right into the Oxygen PRO Mini so you have Ableton MPC Beats Protools
BITWIG Studio One QBase Logic Reaper and Reason and FL Studio so choose
your DAW and you're ready to go you've got transport controls arpeggiator cord
and scale features and for Ableton Live you even have clip and scene triggering [Music]
and check it out you've got pitch and mod wheels instead of strips on other keyboards but remember
the MPK Mini Plus also had the wheels so the Oxygen Pro takes a lot of boxes for $119 so
what's the downside well the knobs are not endless encoders they have a start and stop
point so they don't communicate as efficiently as endless encoders and you've just got four of them
so you don't have as much control of plugins by default also this keyboard does have a loud
clicky sound when pressing down on buttons I don't really care for that but I'm nitpicking here this
is an excellent keyboard for the price but one thing I love to have on a keyboard is missing
tight integration with virtual instruments let's look at the Native Instruments M32 next because
that really excels in that area by the way I've been using Universal Audio's virtual instruments
to demo many of the sounds you've heard so far and they are sponsoring this part of the
video Universal Audio plugins work with any DAW and they've created some amazing instruments including
the Mini Moog the Polymax Synth The Monster Opal Morphing Synth The Waterfall B3 Organ The Ravel
Grand Piano and my favorite the Electra 88 Vintage Keyboard Studio if you know me you know I'm a
sucker for electric piano sounds and this one is special because you get a full Studio of control
with it pedals processors mic and speaker options and it sounds so good the Polymax Synth is their
vintage inspired synth that gives you an easy way to create anything from warm sounds to piercing leads
and it includes UA's effects built in Universal Audio is well known for their plugins and now
with these instruments you can put these keyboards to good use you can try any of the Universal Audio
instruments for free using the link below and they are also included in their Spark subscription plan
which gives you lots of effects plugins as well these are plugins I actually use in my
music and you'll hear more sounds from these instruments throughout this video so let's
get back to the keyboards we can't talk about keyboards without including Native Instruments
this is the M32 it has 32 Keys like the Oxygen PRO it's a little longer in size but still very
[Music] minimal there's something about the Simplicity of Native Instruments keyboards that
keeps me coming back and if you use complete control and have one of the complete bundles
of instruments you will really appreciate having this keyboard but that simplicity comes with some
drawbacks and this key board is still missing some features I'll get to that in a sec first
the M32 integration with Native Instruments software is second to none and because Native
Instruments opens their NKS standard to other software makers you have excellent virtual
instrument and effects controls with tons of plugins including those from Arturia Nexus Waves
UA Output and more don't underestimate that it's super easy to scroll through through presets and
audition sounds through tons of NKS compatible plugins with the additional encoder knob here
that other keyboards don't have this makes the M32 a great second keyboard to own team this up
with a bigger keyboard from another company and you can have the best of both worlds the
M32 is also compatible with the most popular DAWs including Ableton Logic and QBase now
what about the M32 drawbacks well there's a big one it doesn't have pads it's the only keyboard
without drum pads in this list that might be a deal breaker for some of you Native Instruments
really wants you to buy one of their machine products to get drum pads control of course
you can just play drum sounds on the keys another missing thing is onboard ARP scale
and cord features Native Instruments handles those features through software instead so
you can only use them if you're running the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol software
now you can do a lot of that stuff with your da so it's not a deal breaker for me but the M32 is
also missing a MIDI out the only keyboard in this list without it so you won't be connecting this to
any hardware since but that's not what it was made for the do features are basic you've got transport
controls and the eight encoders will control your mixer you have some clip triggering for
Ableton Live but without pads you can't zero in on a clip the the M32 typically sells for more than
other keyboards in this list but it's hard to put a price on those exclusive unique features that it
offers now here's something to keep in mind I've realized this after reviewing tons of keyboards
there really isn't one keyboard that has every feature that will satisfy every person's needs
so choose what works best for you it's much more important to be making music anyway get what you
think you'll really use and beware of keyboard envy there are some features that you may
not even need for example most DAWs already have an arpeggiator feature you may not need it on
your keyboard so what if a keyboard was made for your particular DAW it should be the best
right well that's what Novation has done with the LaunchKey and the FL Key let's start with
the one built for Ableton Live and then I'll talk about FL Key which is built for FL Studio Novation
really optimized the layout of the LaunchKey for Ableton Live clip and scene triggering is just a
[Music] breeze the pad colors match up to the Clips in Ableton Live and your knobs auto map
to your devices in Ableton as well or the mixer pan sends session view device control
everything is here it even includes the capture midi button which uses the Ableton Live feature
that captures what you were playing even if you didn't have record activated the ease of
controlling the mixer the pens the sends all topnotch for Ableton users but where
this keyboard falls short is the key feel the keys are soft mushy and pretty uninspiring for me as a
Pianist this keyboard actually has the worst upweight of all all the keyboards
here so yeah it's far from a solid piano key feel so what about the drum
pads although they're a little small they feel excellent the knobs are not endless so they have
that start and end point and there's no screen on the LaunchKey Mini so you don't get any nice
feedback from your do that some keyboards here offer the LaunchKey Mini typically sells for less
than other keyboards in this list so you'll save a few bucks too all in all this is a super compact
keyboard that will do wonders for your Ableton efficiency and even includes a nice arpeggiator I
should mention that you can use this with Logic as well so if you use those dos it's worth a
look now the FL Key looks identical with the button and knob placements but Novation has
reconfigured this keyboard to work with FL Studio and they've solved a problem no other
keyboard has done so well controlling FL Studios channel rack you can play drums with these pads
and you can also switch the mode to a sequence mode to start creating beats this is a feature
you won't find on other keyboards and if you use FL Studio you'll love this this keyboard
has transport controls and they've also given us a note repeat button as well which is not
on most keyboards the FL Key also auto maps to the plugins in FL Studio [Music] by the way this
keyboard also comes in versions with fullsize keys and with those versions you get a little
screen that gives you some feedback from your doll and helps with added features as well like
the LaunchKey the knobs are not endless and the keys feel about the same as well the FL
Key includes some chord and scale features but does not include an arpeggiator which would
be nice considering they included a MIDI out this keep keyboard really excels at channel rack
control which is unique to FL Studio and other keyboards in this video just give you general
control of FL so for an FL Studio user this may be just what you're looking for like I always
say buy what you can afford and just start making music don't wait until you build the
perfect studio and hey if you're looking for headphones at any price point I just dropped
a video listing the best I've ever tried you can watch that video right here the best price
for all these keyboards are linked below Make The Music You Love and I'll see you in the next video