Another favorite software feature is Akai VIP 3. Switching between VSTs, especially in live settings, is never easier. The only complaint I have is the price. Otherwise this is as good as any MIDI controller can get. One of my favorite features — and a rarity among MIDI controllers — is the semi-weighted keybed. While these are light and springy, they don't offer the resistance and feedback serious players need.
You can enter notes and play basic chords on synth-action keys, but if you want to play complex passages, you'll be disappointed. The keys don't come back up instantly like in synth-action keys after you press them. Instead, the weight of the keys — depending on the octave you're in — affects how quickly they spring back up.
This leads to a much more authentic and enjoyable keyboard experience. Another plus is the MPC-like pads. You get great pads and great keys in the same unit — you can't ask for more. Read full review. Heck, it isn't even the best on this list. But it does everything that you ask of it, and it won't burn a hole in your pocket. If you're at this level, your needs aren't basic enough to be fulfilled by a mini controller. Nor do you know enough to make full use of an expensive Akai or Nektar Panorama.
You know full-sized keys and JUST enough controls to make making music more intuitive. The keyboard is synth-action and velocity sensitive. It doesn't have the feedback of semi-weighted keys, but for intermediate level players, the keys are sensitive and springy enough. The 8 backlit pads are small but highly responsive. Despite the limited soundbanks and small size, they make finger drumming possible. The faders and knobs don't have the chunky resistance of higher-end controllers, but they get the job done.
Not a killer feature but useful and missing from several competitors in this range. It's not all perfect, of course. The build quality is nothing to write home about. The key action will disappoint serious piano players. And durability remains questionable.
Despite its flaws, it worked wonderfully well for my needs at the time. The MK2 improves on every aspect of its earlier iteration. The end result is a astonishingly well-built and capable controller at a price tag that's affordable for virtually every musician. Let's start with the keyboard. Yet, they are quite comfortable. You don't get aftertouch but you do get three touch sensitivity settings. You won't enjoy playing Chopin on it, but for studio production, the keyboard works perfectly well.
The baby MPK comes with 8 rubbery, velocity sensitive pads. They're not as large and sensitive as Akai's APC controllers but they get the job done. Apart from the pads, you also get 8 programmable knobs. You can also choose between two sound banks.
You get the same functionality while saving space. Akai essentially packs in a huge number of features into a tiny device. Its dimensions are smaller than a laptop's and it weighs just about the same as an iPad Pro. Then there are the software features. There are plenty of flaws — the keys aren't great for playing and the pads could do with an upgrade. This essentially reduces the impact a pad controller can have in your studio or live performance environment. This is the reason why top pad controllers support Ableton out of the box.
You can remap them to support Logic Pro, but it requires a bit of effort. The APC40 continues on that robust tradition with one of the best designed and best-built pad controllers on the market. Everything about this unit screams quality.
The pads have a MPC-like responsiveness. And the knobs have a clickiness that makes using them a delight. This has also led to a reduction in pad size, which are now RGB backlit i. There is a huge array of buttons below the pads, plus a set of directional arrows to control the DAW.
The major issue which is true for most pad controllers is poor Logic Pro integration. There are few brands I trust more to make high-quality keyboards than Roland. Their controllers are never quite as jazzy as the latest Nektars, nor quite as hyped as Akais, but they always deliver where it matters the most: key quality and playability.
The key version of Roland's mid-range controller, the APro compare price Amazon , Guitar Center — is no different. This not only feels better, but also has a non-slippery surface — great when you're sweating after a long jamming session. That's not all. The keyboard has custom velocity settings. You can adjust the velocity curve to match your playing style. Turn it high if you really like a fast, responsive keyboard. Turn it low if you like to dig your fingers in and belt tracks out.
The keyboard isn't the only thing on offer, of course. Not everything is perfect. The dynamic pads are tiny, and the knobs move a little too freely. The faders also don't have the mechanical heft of the keys. But if you're willing to overlook them for the fantastic keys, you'll love this Roland.
And then there are times when you'd rather have something tiny that can squirrel away in a corner of your desk. It's just about a foot long and is so light that its official weight is in ounces, not pounds FYI, it's about 0.
Which variant you buy and how you use it will vary a lot. A lot of producers I know use the 8 fader variant as a makeshift mixer.
Others use the key variant as a highly portable keyboard. Given the price, you can even buy all three and change them around based on what you need at the moment. There some obvious flaws on the Nanokey.
The silicone buttons tend to get stuck. And the faders are plasticky. But it will complement one nicely. But it if you want something highly portable, or if you already have a full-sized keyboard and want something to complement it. Namely, have good and the right number of keys, have plenty of controls, and integrate well with Logic Pro. Keyboard controllers are great for composition. You get full-sized piano keys that makes it easy to play chords and melodies.
Pad controllers are great for launching clips and creating spontaneous compositions. If you want to hammer out a few drum patterns or take control of your music on the fly, you should choose this option. There is no sessions view like in Ableton, which limits what you can do with pad controllers. Hybrid controllers offer the best compromise between controls and composition. A good hybrid controller would give you between pads as well as full-sized keyboards. This way, you can launch clips, hammer out drum patterns, and compose entire tracks — all from the same controller.
Unless you have extensive piano playing experience, I would recommend that you stick to hybrid controllers. Another option — which a lot of pro producers follow — is to get a regular keyboard controller and pair it up with a dedicated pad controller. Think of a setup like this:.
This would give you the best of both worlds — a full-sized keyboard for composition, and a pad controller for controlling your DAW. Your best option is to spring for semi-weighted keys. These tend to be on the expensive side but offer better playability and comfort. If your goal is to just enter MIDI notes and play out a few chords or melodies, synth-action keyboards will work perfectly fine.
MIDI keyboards come in a range of key sizes, going all the way from 25 keys to full-sized key keyboards. Anything beyond 32 keys makes it difficult to keep the keyboard size and weight low enough for lugging around. But portability comes with its own compromise — smaller keys. Most portable keyboards reduce the width and length of keys to fit them into a small form factor.
This greatly impacts their playability, especially if you have fat fingers as I do. I usually recommend people to get a regular 49 or key keyboard for their main studio use, and buy an additional mini keyboard for carrying around. If you have a smaller desk, it could completely ruin your setup. So before you spring for a larger keyboard, measure out your desk. You should at least have 3 feet of extra space before you even think of getting anything beyond 49 keys. As much as the idea of a full-size key keyboard is appealing, it is just plain overkill for most musicians.
And with a computer screen and mouse, you have to struggle hard to achieve your balance. Here control surfaces help us, where you can play with subtle changes in faders and get a better mixing than computer mouse and keyboard. Obviously, a control surface can change the look of your studio.
If you managed to get a big control surface you can be able to change the whole look of your studio. If you are going to automate your songs then a control surface is a must for you. With control surfaces, you can easily achieve the best automation in no time. As compared to digital mixers with the same number of faders and controls, control surfaces are far cheaper.
You can get control surfaces with a fraction of the cost of digital mixers. I know, you are wondering which is the best DAW controller for logic pro x? There are many control surfaces are available in the market that supports Logic Pro X.
They are under your pocket length, full of features, and also have a great-looking user interface. This tiny powerhouse will surprise you in every stage of your recording and mixing session. Presonus Fader Port is a perfect combination of low budget and powerful control surface. You can get it with just a fraction of money than other standard control surfaces.
This 5. If you are searching for the best control surface for logic pro x then this will be my 1st recommendation. Presonus Fader Port has dedicated transport control. However, many control surfaces have dedicated transport controls but imagine a control surface you can hold on your hands when operating. This is an added advantage of Presonus Fader Port and makes you more comfortable in a long recording session.
Due to the doubling nature of dB , in the low ends, you struggle in balancing your faders on the computer screen. In the low ends like below dB, a very small movement of fader can change the sound dramatically. Here a full-length mm physical fader helps you to optimize your mixing. With hardware faders, you can play with those small volume changes without struggling with your computer mouse. Presonus Fader Port has not only mm standard fader but the faders are motorized too.
The motorized fader helps you to create some awesome automation in your tracks. Along with transport control at the bottom, Presounus Fader Port has a full range of dedicated transport and edit buttons. Presonus Fader Port has 24 buttons covering 40 different functions, and all these features you get in a compact 5. This feature is useful for musicians who record individually.
However, you have to spend a good amount of money, if you are going to own this amazing gear. Although, this is a high-priced gear even it is far less than a good digital mixer. There are digital mixers available in the market at a low price but they have some major limitations like non-motorized faders and lack of display panel etc.
If you go for one with the above features, you have to invest at least the double amount of money from Mackie MCU Pro. This control can help you in all the major operations in Your DAW. You can add effects on your DAWs tracks. Mackie MCU Pro comes with an inclined display panel for the monitoring of your recording process.
This display panel in this MIDI mixer controller is very useful for the visual monitoring of tracks. In Presonus Faderport you just get one motorized fader, but with Mackie MCU Pro you get 8 full-length motorized faders as well as a master fader for controlling the master volume.
With these full-length motorized faders, you can seamlessly and accurately mix your projects as well as do some amazing automation. Panpots and track buttons Solo, Mute, select, record : Mackie MCU Pro has 8 dedicated panpots above the faders as well as track buttons for each track. VPot Assign and fader banks : This area is just above the master fader. VPot assign is used for adding plugin effects on a selected track, assigning send, Equalizing a track, etc.
The fader bank panel is used to switch the track banks, and channels. As you know Mackie is known as one of the best manufacturers of audio mixers, obviously the look of Mackie MCU Pro will tell you about their rich history of manufacturing mixers.
A vintage-style finish makes it a beautiful gear for your studio. These 2 expansions will not only increase the beauty of your studio but also are very useful gears. And if you want to add some other functions like controlling sequencers or plugins of your digital audio interface then you can use Mackie C4. Many Hollywood studios use Pro Tools for the best workflow and quality.
I personally love Pro Tools as it is one of the fastest DAW and accelerates your workflow dramatically. But Avid is not limited to Pro tools or its award-winning Video Editing software. There are many more gears and software Avid has. And one of them is Avid Artist Mix. Avid Artist Mix is a versatile control surface and can increase your workflow dramatically.
If you get this control surface in your studio, it will not only increase the workflow but also give a charm to your studio. It comes with 8 full lengths ie; mm motorized faders and the same number of panpots as well as other track buttons like solo, record enable mute, etc. The one feature I really miss in this control surface is the master fader. Avid Artist Mix has a long display where all the operations can be monitored.
You can monitor each track individually in the display panel. The second thing we miss in Avid Artist Mix is a dedicated transport panel.
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Best logic pro x control surface free - http://replace.me
It was a tough shootout between the two, but the QCon lineup from Icon is definitely a heavy hitter. LEDs also provide a readout of the location of the pots. The transport buttons are backlit, perfect for even the darkest, vibiest studios. It connects via USB2. And it comes with a host of free software from companies like Harrison, Tracktion, and Bitwig. There are two footswitch ports that can be used in a number of ways.
You can even put a digital lock on it! Versatile, indeed. It has eight faders and knobs, and 32 buttons that can be configured to control pretty much every aspect of your DAW. This in-house design the Artist Mix was a re-badged Euphonix product has become extremely popular with music and post mixers alike because of its small footprint, powerful features and modular approach.
While a single S1 is a powerful DAW controller, and for Pro Tools users EuCon is the only way to get truly deep access to Pro Tools, when used in combination with an Avid Dock and the free Avid Control App one or more S1s can offer control approaching that offered by an S4 but fo significantly less outlay.
Find out why the Avid S1 was one of our products of The Mackie MCU is a popular control surface. What makes the MCU so popular is its simple modular design. To give you an idea of the size of the MTZ it is very nearly the footprint of an Avid C24 making this the largest control surface in this list. You may need a large desk to put this on if you are considering one. The MTZ visual faders are practically life sized and the main display can easily show 24 faders in the window.
Despite this, the S3 is a very good control surface. Check out our video to see it in action:. If you are looking for just a control surface then this may not be for you, though if you are considering a complete studio upgrade in which you change your audio interface then this all-in-one package may just be the perfect solution.
At the time of writing August There were reports that the Neucleus2 had been discontinued. Nucleus2 has not been discontinued but due to some recent regulations is no longer being sold in the European Union. It is a current product elsewhere worldwide. It provides several labeled encoders that control the parameters in the console 1 console plug-in emulations. Read: Review - Softube Console 1.
V-Control Pro is an application for Mac and Windows computers that connects controllers to software using almost any popular touch enabled device. The app can be run on multiple devices for up to 32 simultaneous tracks of DAW control and V-Console includes a V-Window feature that lets you control plug-in controls from the original plug-in screen with your fingertips with improved insert and plug-in edit pop-ups.
Price: Free lite version with limited features available. You can add effects on your DAWs tracks. Mackie MCU Pro comes with an inclined display panel for the monitoring of your recording process. This display panel in this MIDI mixer controller is very useful for the visual monitoring of tracks. In Presonus Faderport you just get one motorized fader, but with Mackie MCU Pro you get 8 full-length motorized faders as well as a master fader for controlling the master volume.
With these full-length motorized faders, you can seamlessly and accurately mix your projects as well as do some amazing automation. Panpots and track buttons Solo, Mute, select, record : Mackie MCU Pro has 8 dedicated panpots above the faders as well as track buttons for each track. VPot Assign and fader banks : This area is just above the master fader.
VPot assign is used for adding plugin effects on a selected track, assigning send, Equalizing a track, etc. The fader bank panel is used to switch the track banks, and channels. As you know Mackie is known as one of the best manufacturers of audio mixers, obviously the look of Mackie MCU Pro will tell you about their rich history of manufacturing mixers.
A vintage-style finish makes it a beautiful gear for your studio. These 2 expansions will not only increase the beauty of your studio but also are very useful gears. And if you want to add some other functions like controlling sequencers or plugins of your digital audio interface then you can use Mackie C4. Many Hollywood studios use Pro Tools for the best workflow and quality. I personally love Pro Tools as it is one of the fastest DAW and accelerates your workflow dramatically.
But Avid is not limited to Pro tools or its award-winning Video Editing software. There are many more gears and software Avid has. And one of them is Avid Artist Mix. Avid Artist Mix is a versatile control surface and can increase your workflow dramatically. If you get this control surface in your studio, it will not only increase the workflow but also give a charm to your studio. It comes with 8 full lengths ie; mm motorized faders and the same number of panpots as well as other track buttons like solo, record enable mute, etc.
The one feature I really miss in this control surface is the master fader. Avid Artist Mix has a long display where all the operations can be monitored. You can monitor each track individually in the display panel. The second thing we miss in Avid Artist Mix is a dedicated transport panel. However, Avid cleared that it is a control surface for mixing and not for recording controls.
Even, it should have a transport control. If you are finding a control surface that you could use in your home studio as well as outside recording then Novation Launchpad is for you. For budget home studios it would be a perfect fit. Let have a detailed look at the Novation launch control. If you are a music producer then you can now focus on your music production without worrying about the DAW handling by traditional keyboard and mixer.
Novation launchpad has eight 60mm non-motorized faders. These faders are good for mixing but the lack of motors in faders makes them useless in automation. If you want to add some automation to your tracks then you have to rely on your mouse and keyboard.
However, for volume balancing, 60mm faders work well. Novation Launch control can be used with Novation Launchpad. By owning both of them you get full control over your DAW.
Launchpad has assignable buttons that can be used as transport and edit controls. In fact, if you want a full-featured control surface, you need both of them.
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