Novation Launchkey 61 MK4 – 61 key Semi-Weighted, USB, MIDI Keyboard Controller with DAW Integration. Chord & Scale Modes, 8 Drum Pads, & Arpeggiator — Includes Software Bundle for Music Production

This keyboard controller offers everything I really need in my studio for composing and writing. While I do use a separate transport surface this has that built in if you need it. You can easily customize the pads for your VI drums. The keyboard plays and functions great. While I'd rather have 88 keys this fits perfect in my limited space. It comes with some good software and also allows you to customize its features via pc app. This has earned a permanent space as my main studio keyboard for writing and recording midi.

Just received my 61-key MK4. This is my first ever keyboard of this style. Overall build quality is very good. Infinite knobs and faders feel sturdy and well designed. Touchpads also feel very good and responsive with aftertouch. I don't have much experience with this style of keyboard keys, but on first impression the feel of the keys land somewhere in the middle/upper-middle with good responsiveness and weight- definitely useable. I'm going through the online manual and the layout seems pretty straight forward with a lot of built-in features which I do like and plan to use. The compatibility with Ableton seems very good as well- additionally their site states good compatibility with other software which I'd suspect it is. I've yet to update the firmware but that's on my list of things to do. Overall for the price and initial impression, this is a good buy. If I find any issues I will update.

Me being new to controllers, I did a solid month of comparisons, researching reviews, unboxing/feature videos, yada yada.... This always seemed to float to the top of everything within budget range. Even with holiday sales factoring in everything, I still bought this at full-price versus cheaper discounted products just due to quality of life perks and features that all seemed to make sense. My only gripe, which was kind of expected, but now realized, is that if you're not using a very popular DAW that is already in mind with auto-configurations from Novation, it may take some time and firmware updates to make everything less glitchy with the manual Remote/override signals. For example, my Reason 13 official integration works perfectly, but I was curious why it wasn't as out-of-the-box feature filled in mapping versus the other DAW integrations such as Ableton utilizing all the knobs and faders. I figured no problem and just manually add them on my own with the auto-learning. The signals between Reason and the hardware are being detected manually, but it is very flaky as of this writing (Jan '24), and a mapped fader for instance, only decides to work intermittently in the editor and playback. It's not a timing or latency issue, since the miniscule few Reason mappings out of the box are working perfectly fine (transport, track change, undo/play/record/stop, quantize and pads). So I'm assuming they ran into the same issues I have with the knobs and faders and decided to work on it more for a (hopefully) future bios/firmware update.

Best controller I ever had!

I owned a MK3. MK4 is definitely packed with a lot more features. I didn't quite understand why people say keys on MK4 is way better than MK3, but after 2 days of use I start to get it. A big downside is the control keys are very hard to press. What's worse is when you feel the click it doesn't necessarily trigger, sometimes you need to press even harder, and sometimes you can trigger it multiple times without letting your finger go. On my unit the Shift key is the worst, but it's also one of the most used keys. I know it looks better, but who cares. Another design choice that is a downside (to me) is they moved the pads to the right side. On MK3 I used to use the pads as an additional set of keys that's one octave lower than the regular keys. I can use tricks like a perfect octave with a pad-to-key span, etc. On MK4 this is not possible. Putting aside all the subjective rants, I think it's a decent MIDI controller to choose.

The LaunchKey is a beast! It's packed with so many functions and capabilities you'll be happy to have available at your fingertips. It also includes many must-have VST software bundles.

Excellent midi controller. You can stop looking and just purchase this one.

Great keybed action, and light-weight.

Great midi device, works well with Abelton, a lot to learn and as Im new to Abelton and midi controllers Im yet to delve fully into its capabilities. Quite a bit of free downloads and tones of stuff available to buy all purchased, It was initially marked as delivered with me receiving a package for another address and not this item, this was sorted out with a replacement organised to be shipped free of charge. Then the day that the replacement was organised I received the item. Great customer service, took 3-5 days to clear up the undelivered item issue and have a replacement organised free of charged.

A perfect workhorse for the modern producer. It seemlessly works together with Cubase. As a pianist/producer, I found the keys absolutely playable and it's light and travels easily.

I love the Novation Launchkey MK4 61 keys. I sold my Korg Kross 2 and replaced it with Novation Launchkey MK4 with Roland sonic cell. What an unbelievable combination for liveset. Nice keyboard feel and response and much better piano sound samples as compared to the Korg Kross 2 built in sounds. The keys are good enough to make some dynamics on you playing this instrument. It's a night and day difference as compared to the Korg Kross 2 61 keys, and that korg Kross 2 keybed feels like a toy as compared to the Novation Launchkey MK4 61 keys. I would give this a 9.5 out of 10 for the design and useability of this midi keyboard. I now understand the hype reviews on YouTube about this midi controller. Knobs and faders feels quality too. The keyboard is under 5kg which is a dream to just carry this on gigs. The slight concern on this keyboard is the USB-C port. I feel like if you are always plugging and unplugging this everyday, that USB-C port will be the first to give way. But time will tell if this can last a daily plugging and unplugging for years. The price of 255 pounds for this 61 keys I think made a big difference in terms of it's sales and popularity as this is a better midi controller for most controllers out there but with a much reasonable price.

Ottimo controller midi, funzioni programmabili, pesatura tasti buona (molto meglio di Arturia) e ottimo supporto da parte di Novation in caso di dubbi (mi hanno contattato più volte per una mia richiesta di chiarimenti). Top. Da rimarcare l'introduzione degli encoder infiniti rispetto alla MK3, così da agganciare al volo il valore del pan pot o di altri parametri.

One of the best keyboards/controllers on the market for this price range. It arrived with its original box and the delivery was smooth. The installation of the software (I'm on macOS) is quite straightforward, as well as the first firmware update. No problems to integrate it with Ableton Live, and the provided software bundle is a good starting point for aspiring producers. I really recommend it if you're looking for more than a MIDI keyboard. The drum pads are the same of the Launchpad series, and the half-weighted keys do their job if you're not a pianist. The only issue (if we want to call it so) is that there is no way with the management software to set the volume faders to reach maximum 0db in Ableton Live, unless you map them in Live, but in this case you will lose the navigation features. However, it's an issue that is not only related to this keyboard.