The 25 note velocity-sensitive slim keyboard is nicely crafted with a well-built key bed. I must say I’ve had hours of fun using this as a creative tool.

When you open up Ableton Lite Live the MIDI is automatically assigned to the keys and editable parameters and you have a lot of wiggle room through the MIDI map within Ableton. I found this tool easy to get along with for the most part.

16 rotary encoders (2 of them are clickable).2 banks of 8 velocity & pressure sensitive pads with RGB backlighting.25 note velocity-sensitive slim keyboard.The USB Type B jack also powers this device, so there’s no need to lug around a power cable if you are making music in your portable studio. You’ll notice that the back of the device is incredibly simple, there is a footswitch Jack for sustain, a USB Type B jack and Kensington security slot. Once you’ve installed all the necessary drivers and software, it’s time to plug in your MiniLab Mk 2. The MiniLab MK 2 comes with a few bits of software to get you started, namely Analog Lab Lite, Ableton Live Lite and a Steinway concert grand piano provided by the UVI engine. The actual build of the MiniLab MK 2 is nice and solid it feels almost unbreakable, which is ideal if you’re producing in various locations. As soon as you get this bit of gear out of the box it feels approachable and makes you sweat with creative juices as you reveal it from hibernation. This is where you may need to spend time creating your own custom templates so you can do what you need but that will be hard if you do not understand how MIDI works.Whether you’re new to the MIDI controller world or a veteran, the MiniLab MK 2 by Arturia could certainly be a great asset to your set-up.įirstly, I need to mention how aesthetically pleasing this MIDI controller is. The issues you could be having could be that each preset may not be on a different channel or the controls within each preset are not a different CC value etc so even switching presets your controls remain the same channel/CC so will not be unique to that preset. You need to understand how MIDI channels, CC, Note data all works before you can really start to map things to different templates.

MIDI is a very simple and logical protocol so if it does not appear that way to you, then you will struggle with how you are wanting things to work. I can't help with the MINI Lab because I don't own one but I would suggest you really need to start at the very bottom and discover how MIDI itself works.

Ableton minilab mk2