Arturia MiniLab MkII 25 Slim-Key Controller

1.0 out of 5 stars

By Jammin jimmy - Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2019

WELCOME TO THE NIGHTMARE!!!

Okay physically the item, the controller actually is built very solid and appears to be a top-notch quality unit . however the company has designed a nightmare registration and security process that is ridiculous you got serial numbers unlock codes activation files plus drivers to try and deal with to get the unit to work it is really ridiculous in my opinion.... it 100% ruins this product. I would not order this product nor any other from this company as they have gone overboard in trying to capture your email information in order to Market more products to you in the future. I understand business is business but as a musician I don't want to deal with that kind of horse poop! PLUS, once you do get the product registered?? You can't sell it to anyone else. As your name is locked into the unit. And it will not work for anyone else. I buy and sell audio equipment all the time. I see this new type of security system as being a nightmare!! It took 2 hours of trying, downloading, registering, re-registering, entering in numbers and codes... FORGET IT!! I WILL NEVER ORDER ANOTHER PRODUCT FROM ARTURIA!! THEY RUINED THEIR PRODUCT WITH YHIS REGISTRATION PROCESS!! Jim

3.0 out of 5 stars

By Luis Torres - Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2018

Great build quality and bundled software, but very frustrating to control VSTs with knobs

I loved + the build quality + the feel of the keys/knobs/pads + the included AnalogLab software (lots of fun sounds!) I did not like: - VST control using the endless rotary knobs. This was extremely frustrating. If you plan to use your MiniLab to modulate settings for non-Arturia VSTs, then I recommend you go with a different midi controller with knobs that have min/max values. Here are more details about the VST control problems: There are two main modes for knobs: Absolute and Relative. Using the knobs in "Absolute" mode is very tricky because, without min/max bounds on the knobs, you don't know what the current value is; so when you change tracks, you either get large jumps in settings or (if you turn on "soft takeover" in your DAW) you have to spin the knob blindly to hunt for the "takeover" point. Using the knobs in "Relative" mode is also frustrating: instead of just sending one value for "+1" and one value for "-1" when turning the knob in either direction, Arturia uses a special system where the knobs send different values for how fast you spin the knobs. This seems clever, but none of the DAWs that I tried (Ableton Live and Reaper) actually support this. What this means is that, in "Relative" mode, the DAW will only recognize the knob's input if you turn it slowly enough to register +/- 1. There's one way around this: you can turn off "Knob Acceleration", so that no matter how fast you turn the knob, it only returns +/- 1. However, the result of doing this is that the knob is way too slow! For example, I have to turn the knob 5-6 full rotations to move a VST's knob from min to max.

5.0 out of 5 stars

By David Gazel - Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018

I recommed it. Amazing MIDI controller

Love it. Very good quality of the keys, knob, pads, pitch and modulation. The material is amazing, very solid and the painting is nice. I recommend it to 100%. Compatible with FL Studio 20 ❤️

3.0 out of 5 stars

By LittleHelper - Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2018

Didn't work

They are getting a solid three stars for customer service. They really tried hard to work with me and figure out my problems and they let me send it back when it was unsolvable after 9 months. Main issue was that a third of the keys didn't work. It worked fine with Ableton live lite (the keys that worked). I advise people to really think about what their goals are. I was just starting out and I quickly realized 25 keys wasn't enough for me as a pianist/ music producer. So I ordered a a-49 Roland midi keyboard. I also bought something with bigger pads (Akai).

1.0 out of 5 stars

By claude rioual - Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2019

NO SAVE-NO EXPORT. Upgrade $70.00

I sent it back. The free software doesn’t let you save or export work. Just finding the software on the site was a nightmare. Then to download you must navigate to other websites. The other sites request a password that isn’t given and so I spent additional time finding that I didn’t need it. Even though it kept saying - incorrect password. When I finally had everything installed ... and every program takes forever to install, and longer to uninstall. To upgrade the software they are asking $70.00. Are you kidding? So I’m going to send it back. I’m going to Guitar Center and get what I need.

3.0 out of 5 stars

By Sandra A. Leonard - Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2019

Third update! it got worse(will update again if I have to.)

at first ableton didnt register over half the keys of the keyboard ( spoiler it still doesn't!) when you do manage to be able to record with ableton, for some reason theres always 1 note that wont working, causing you have to re record OVER AND OVER some of my keys are becoming less stiff than the others, I fear they might break apart if I actually used this thing often, and on top of that crap NOW NONE OF THE KNOBS WORK, SOMETIMES WHEN YOU HIT A NOTE THE NOTE WILL KEEP RINGING OUT UNTIL YOU CHANGE WHAT PRESET YOUR USING SO MUCH SOMETIMES THE PADS DON'T WORK they designed this piece of junk so that you know you need a better one, and so i'm waiting till I have the money for a better one the keys are so cramped you can't play fast solos up and down it because of the first and last note, theres limitations to what chords/ scales you can and cant play because of how small it is.

4.0 out of 5 stars

By seadog76 - Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2019

Like with caveats

I’m an Arturia guy. I also have a MicroBrute, Keystep, Pigments and their V Collection 7. I got this as a desktop module for Ableton, and it’s pretty seamless for that purpose, allowing a great amount of built-in automatic control once you connect by MIDI (painlessly). The knobs are endless and have the right amount of pushback to offer refinement. The pads are tight for nice control. My one issue is that I wanted to take this on vacation to practice some songs. It’s great for one-handed use on stage, for sure. But any sort of two-handed playing is about 5 keys too short of any but the most basic one-octave riffs on the right, and too short for a standard G-chord on the left. So I ended up taking my Keystep instead (also one key short on the second octave right, but overall much more useful). I’d say if I want to “play piano” I probably have to size up to a wider bed. But for quick riffs where you can manually adjust the octave range up/down as you loop, this is great, super tough, comes with great software, and has nice responsive (springy) velocity keys.