Arturia - MiniLab 3 - Universal MIDI Controller for Music Production with Full Software Package - 25 Keys, 8 Multi Coloured Pads - Black

this review is for the minilab mk3 black edition. The software bundle is excellent but there's a few things you need to know. 1. The model D piano has been replaced by the Native Instruments software bundle. The bundle is very good but awkward to set up. You will have to choose between 3 options of the bundle so think carefully because you can't change your mind. The plugins in all of the bundles are very good. 2. Arturia Analog Lab has been split into two versions - the Lite version which has a handful of plugins that are fully enabled and free versus the Pro version which costs a lot of money. Previously you had demo versions that were not practical. If you want to upgrade to the Pro version login to your account at the Arturia website to get a discount that is quite substantial and a better price than available at the online retailers. 3. It's not obvious how to actually get the free software that's included. The instructions on the box are incomplete. What you have to do is login to the arturia website, register the minilab, then download and install arturia software centre. Then come out of arturia software centre and go back to My Account on the arturia website. Click on My Products and scroll down to the minilab you have just registered. Click on more details and you will see unlocking codes and instructions on how to get the components of the software bundle. Star of the show is Ableton Live Lite. Although it's a restricted version you can do enough with it to have an enjoyable experience without having to cough up megabucks for the unrestricted full version. The hardware is very good too. I bought this because it has a 5 pin din midi out. If you want to control a hardware synth you need the 5 pin din because your usb port is used for power in. Although it's possible to route into a daw on the usb and straight out again to a hardware synth connected to the pc, it's a pain to set up. None of the other major brands have 5 pin din out at this price point. The keys are only slightly weighted. The pads are not as responsive as I'd like but are acceptable. Responsiveness of the pads can be configured in the other software available for download at the website. It has a chord mode but not a scale mode. The arpeggiator is acceptable but other midi controllers have got far superior options for it. Edit :- as soon as I wrote this akai released the mpk mini IV which also has the 5 pin midi and is at a similar price. Edit 2 : there's some confusion around arturia analog lab and what you get if you pay for an upgrade. The new version of arturia analog lab lite is called analog lab play. It has a few dozen presets taken from the arturia V collection. Some of these presets are excellent. Buying the upgrade to the arturia V collection will get you lots of software plugins recreating famous synths. They're some of the best on the market but cost hundreds. Keep an eye open for a 50 % off deal. The arturia website has good prices. But note there is no point in upgrading arturia analog lab play to analog lab pro. The names are confusing. There's nothing added in pro and seems a waste of money. The plugins you want will be in arturia V collection not analog lab pro. Also if you want to use max for live buy it via the ableton website. It's a lot cheaper there than at the m4l home website.

A great little midi keyboard that punches far above it's weight at this price point. It's simple to plug in directly to your computer via USB and hooks straight in to arturia plugins. The extra sliders and knows really speed up the workflow and function great. It's well built, I wouldnt throw it down stairs but I've never been concerned about it stopping working.

I'm giving this product 5 stars even though I believe it only deserves a 4 star rating which I will list below: What I like about this product: - the design and build quality is good for the price, the knob controllers don't wobble at all and feel high quality as well as the dials. the sharp notes however have quite significant wobble to them but overall this keyboard is very stylish as well as the mini screen adds a lot of character to the design. - there are endless features and possibilities that you may not find on other similar prices keyboards. - its plug and play for beginners and you cant start mashing away as soon as you plug it in. - you get a discount from Analog lab V if you own this and redeem the product key online on your account. - there are multiple videos on the website on how to use the midi keyboard with different daws The things I don't like: - properly setting up this midi keyboard took me hours to do, it is plug and play but if you want to utilize all the buttons and dials you need to spend a lot of time mapping them and tweaking with settings in the midi control centre and fl studio for me. - I'm using fl studio and i feel like the integration is good but there are keyboards out there with better integration with fl studio. I feel like this product has its main focus on mac users with a secondary interest in windows users. It took me a while of YouTube tutorials and tweaking settings to full be able to use all the features. I would also like to note that the youtube video from Arturia does not go in depth about this and I had to find information from third parties and forums. - some of the controls are a bit too over the top and redundant, for example the main is knob able to scroll through your plugins and open them, additionally, holding shift and and another button with both hands, I feel like its quite redundant and I don't think anyone would use it when you can for example just click on it with your mouse or use the spacebar.

The keyboard itself is fine. I wouldn't argue with the price at £89, it's worth that and I would easily recommend it. It's well made, the keys are good, and it's a pleasure to use. The software is a different matter. First the Arturia-supplied software is downloaded via the Arturia Software Center. The ASC is inconsistent. The MiniLab 3 includes a licence for Analog Lab V. It does not show under "My Products". For the MiniLab 3 Black edition, under my products it shows a button "Update All". But under the "My Updates" link it shows "No update available". So where is the missing Analog Lab V in ASC (which is working today on this Mac)? The web site today (20240820 at 22:14) on the product page shows "Analog Lab Intro" amongst the included software. But read below. Should it be Analog Lab V or Analog Lab Intro I am looking for? I contacted Arturia support and their response was equally inconsistent. First they informed me: "Indeed all of our software needs to be downloaded through the ASC.". Yet in a different email they state "Could you please try using the following installer?" with a link to the Analog Lab V package. And "As a side note, you will not find an option named "Intro" so you need to install Analog Lab V/Pro which is the same software." So the "needs to be" is not correct and nor is the name. I now have a product which is not visible in ASC. The ASC has dead links to parts of the Arturia web site. I found this out when I clicked the link for the "User Manual". I took screen shots and fed that back. It shows a lack of testing for something which could so easily be tested and fixed. I'm not really enamoured with the ASC. Hardware integration with Arturia's own software (the aforementioned Analog Lab V, and Synclavier V bought separately) is very good. They work like a charm. I had to fiddle a bit to get this working with Reason, but that works fine. The "tutorial" for Reason on Arturia's channel is not a tutorial for getting this controller working with Reason. It shows somebody who has already got it all set up controlling parts of Reason. I would call it a "short demo after getting the controller set up". Other software "included" is not actually included. You have to register at other sites to get it. It includes two pianos. While they are different, it's a bit boring to have two pianos. An Ableton Live Lite licence is included, after registering and going through some hoops at Ableton. I would describe these as "extra software which comes as free" rather than included. Included to me means "it's in the ASC, click here to install it". I think these problems are fixable and should be fixed, and this would give a much better experience to customers.

Goodness me, where do I start? I've had a gap from composing computer music for a long time. I'm going back to Fasttracker 2 days, and before that, the Amiga. You guys really don't know how lucky you are having this level of tool for your work. That being said... I have a PC that runs FL Studio, it also has a Audigy RX sound card in it (improves processing time). I also have a Yamaha keyboard workstation. I've been getting into using a DAW, and it's taken me six months of frustration and joy and stealing time in equal measures. I play and record all sorts of genres, it depends what I have in my head and what needs to come out. Arturia have been appearing in my FB and Insta ads, and then I heard a really great track, where the Minilab 3 was listed, and some software called Analogue Lab V was used. I have a full sized keyboard workstation, and there is a lot of twisting and turning trying different instruments and riffs out, between my computer screen and the keyboard. I really needed something directly in front of me, and even better if it could provide a degree of control of Fruity Loops studio. So the choice was either Novation or Arturia. As the Arturia Minilab comes with Analogue Lab V packaged for free, which includes a massive amount of great instruments as both a stand alone application, and within FL Studio, it seemed a no brainer at £90! I unpackaged it and plugged it in and literally lost HOURS on it immediately, occassionally a cup of coffee and some food would appear so I didn't pass out. It takes a bit of setting up, but wow, it used to take 8 hours on an AOL connection to get a 500Kb video. Obviously, now, there's video tutorials everywhere online instantly, you can't really go wrong. So, you get it out, plug it into a USB port on your PC, and it fires up and powers up. There's midi control software to set up the software as stand alone, so you can just use all the instruments and play live, which is very addictive. Or alternatively, use the VST app from within Fruity Loops, and if you're me, transport yourself back to that GOLDEN era, and bang out an absolute old skool belter! It's worth mentioning, that apart from setting my Yamaha Workstation up in Fruity Loops as a midi controller, I have never done anything like this before. I had it absolutely singing by the time I finally had to go to bed. I got up from my desk, and I didn't even know where I was for a few minutes whilst I decompressed. I've got a good quality recording studio here at home now for next to nothing cost-wise, and it's a joy to use. Think about it this way, if you just wanted to use it stand alone, buy a bigger keyboard from Arturia, plug it into your PC, get some really lovely speakers, and use it as a home instrument. It's £90, and I still can't quite believe what I'm getting. I'm really pleased with Arturia, and they'll probably have me as a lifelong customer. UPDATE: 27/9/23 - Arturia offered me a full upgrade of the package included with the keyboard, there's millions of studio quality sounds and it was less than £40. She's definitely going to leave me. I end up using my Yamaha workstation to do all the midi recording when I perform, and the Arturia for working out hooks and cycling through the instruments that I want to use. If you don't have a Yamaha like me, cost up a bigger version of a midi keyboard from them (with a bit more touch sensitivity), a PC or laptop, FL Studio, a creative audio card (or similar), and some decent speakers, and you'll have a fully fledged recording studio in your bedroom. My keyboard has a vocal input and guitar input, so I just output from that to the audio card, with almost zero lag/latency on live performance utilising the Creative ASIO drivers. I tell thee, if me and my mate had all this 30 years ago, we'd be famous now.

The build quality on this thing is really something. The encoders feel great, the sliders feel great, the touch pad mod and pitch bend are very responsive, and I think I actually prefer them over the more standard mechanical approach now. The drum pads also feel great, very responsive, the OLED display is nice. The keyboard itself is pretty standard, nothing to complain about. Where this MIDI keyboard really stands out for me though is the DIN MIDI out, the easy MIDI channel switching, and the customisation that the MIDI Control Center software offers. You can customise just about everything - each MIDI control can be set to a different channel, and you can even change the colour of each of the drum pads. The form factor is also very nice. It's compact, yet there is a nice amount of space between all of the controls. It feels comfortable to use, and really balances its small size with versatility. Would recommend.

The Arturia MiniLab 3 is a fantastic MIDI controller for music production! Its compact design is perfect for small studio setups or on-the-go creativity, yet it doesn’t compromise on functionality. The keys feel great, and the addition of assignable knobs and pads makes it super versatile for controlling DAWs and virtual instruments. Setup was straightforward, and it integrates seamlessly with popular software like my Logic Pro. The included software bundle is a huge bonus, offering an excellent variety of sounds to get started right away. For its price, the build quality is impressive, and the controls are responsive and intuitive. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned producer, this controller is a powerful tool that punches way above its weight. Highly recommend it!

I am relatively new to computer based music production having avoided it for many years due to frustrating experiences with cubase in the old days. I found cakewalk the easiest program to use when I delved into it last year. As my old Korg synth struggled to link with my laptop I looked around and settled on the Minilab 3. I have it for a few months now and am delighted with it. It was 100 eur and comes with some great included software. It is worth it for analog lab alone but abelton and uvi the grand are also worth downloading. As cakewalk is ceasing support I have moved over to abelton and the minilab works seamlessly with it. Analog lab has 500 presets and they sound amazing. Uvi the grand is a bit of a rigmarole to install but stick with it as it is well worth the effort. The minilab itself is portable, using the laptop for power and the keybed has a lovely feel for mini keys. It's one of the best things I have ever bought, I just need to upgrade my laptop now.