Santa (AKA my wife) brought me an Akai MPK Mini Play Mk3 for Christmas this year.
The Mini Play is a MIDI controller with the functionality of a standalone keyboard. MIDI controllers are usually designed to plug into computers and used to manipulate sounds in DAWs and plugins. On its own MIDI controllers do not have the ability to generate sound.
Because the Mini Play has a bank of sounds as well as a speaker it is like what is usually called an electronic keyboard. The Mini Play as a keyboard is made all the more versatile because of the headphone jack, battery power capability, and the sound bank and speaker mentioned before.
Who is this for?
This is the first time for me to buy a synthesizer, if you may call it that. I will because it has many of the traditional controls found on synthesizers to sculpt the sound.
It has digital instruments, everyday sounds as well as synth sounds. Especially with the synth sounds you can have fun sculpting.
This is very much a keyboard/MIDI controller for someone starting out with electronic keyboards and synthesizers.
Controls
It has controls such as filter, resonance, reverb and chorus, attack, release, EQ for low and high. It also has arpeggiator functions. Notably missing are the decay, sustain, portamento controls.
It also has drum pads and built-in sounds for percussions.
Plug in is simple. An old school printer port goes to a USB which can be plugged directly into a computer or charging port.
First impressions
I have played instruments (piano traditional and electronic, marimba, guitar, cajon) before but this is the first time for trying synthesizers.
My ideal was to have a standalone keyboard to just play and learn but also to integrate with a computer to make music. I had considered electronic keyboards with fixed sounds and synthesizers. But I was quite sick of normal sounds and had an urge to recreate sounds from my favorite songs from the 80s, predominantly New Wave, New Romantic genres. Proper synthesizers were intimidating and expensive. This was a compromise of function, cost effectiveness and versatility.
As a standalone it works great. Best with monitor headphones and plugged in to a power source. the sculpting is limited but enough for me to learn how synthesizers work. The drum pads are great. Again, having that extra function makes it fun. Using the arpeggiator with both keyboard and drum pads means I can easily whip up a beat and play some accompaniment.
The easy hook up to a DAW (MPC Beats included in price) was surprising. However, learning to use the DAW is a steep learning curve. But it is probably simple basic enough for a beginner like me.
Conclusion
This keyboard/MIDI controller was exactly what I was looking for, something to recreate the sounds and music I like and listen to. It is extremely affordable at under USD200. It is can be used anywhere to think of ideas because of the built-in sounds and speaker. But also I can connect it to a computer and a DAW (included) to record music.
It is easy to use. Mini Play does not have more than two layers of menus to navigate. The layout is easy to understand with everything labeled clearly. A quick read of the short instruction manual was all that was necessary to get started with every function.
Again, who is this for?
If you are a beginner to music creation and have that itch to scratch, and your itch has to do with pianos and keyboards then this is a good buy. Not the best build quality but it is as good as a sub-USD200 can get. Being able to play music without a computer is a bonus since MIDI controllers generally do not have this functionality. This is two devices in one machine. It is a MIDI controller and it is an electronic keyboard. It is a basic synthesizer for those who want to learn about synthesizers.
Buy it and have fun.
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