What is Reddit's opinion of AKAI Professional MPK Mini Play – USB MIDI Keyboard Controller With a Built in Speaker, 25 mini Keys, Drum Pads and 128 Instrument Sounds?

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Your tools are your best friends when it comes to producing. You'll notice when music producing there's a lot of focus on the detail and mix of everything, you want your sound to be full of energy but not unbalanced making it unpleasant to listen to, this mixing skill is something you start to develop and ear for over time and the more information you get from other producers

You can get something like this where it is a midi keyboard and also has drumpads. This can help you use your live recording experience to have a natural drum feel and groove as well as you can play live keyboard, pad, and lead sounds with more expression than just placing them down on a grid.

There will be times where there is a focus on arranging your elements in a song and automating paraments that give your song movement and flow. It's important to know common synthesis lingo

You can use the onscreen keyboard to type in notes, if you don't have an external MIDI keyboard.

But you can get MIDI USB keyboards for cheap. That'll make it so much easier to use GarageBand.

Something like the AKAI MPK is cool... it has a keyboard and some drum pads so you can also tap in drum beats: https://www.amazon.com/AKAI-Professional-MPK-Mini-Play/dp/B07HDB12FM

That's $100 new, and you can often find them for super cheap ($40) used when someone upgrades to something else.

Akai MPK Mini Music Controller & Keyboard: $100-120
https://www.amazon.com/AKAI-Professional-MPK-Mini-Play/dp/B07HDB12FM/

Ravenspiral's Guide to Music Theory:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/5220863/Ravenspiral-Guide-to-Music-Theory

FL Studio:
https://www.image-line.com/

I'm looking at the Casio and Yamaha offerings and they are all bigger and heavier than I would like.

I think I just found a thing, though. The Akai MPK Mini Play, with built-in speakers. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HDB12FM/