Good value, but not without drawbacks.
This is probably about as good value as you can get for a 25 key midi keyboard. It seems to be good build quality in a lot of ways, and has a lot of functionality. The Akai MPK mini seems to be the only logical competitor. I haven't used that, so I can't comment on the feel or quality, but each has their pros and cons. The Launchkey has more drum pads, so if you like working on beats, and want to be able to work with a full kit, this is the way to go. But, the MPK has an x-y controller, which this does not. It would definitely benefit from some type of analog style controller on it, even just a small pitch-bend wheel or touchpad would be make it the clear winner of these two.
It's designed to work out of the box with ableton, so it's well-suited to that, especially if you do a lot of live stuff, or just use the session view a lot, because it's set up to make a lot of the session view functions a lot more intuitive.
I use Bitwig these days. The LaunchKey is meant to work with other DAWs, though I can't comment on how well it does that because I don't use them. There is a publicly available script to get this working in Bitwig, but it won't work with older versions of the DAW, so be aware of this if you use Bitwig and are still using version 1, like I am. Bitwig has a great open scripting system, so I wrote a script for the Launchkey that works on the version I have. That brings me to my next point: the documentation for the details regarding MIDI is not great. I worked out a lot by playing around with it and using software to see what midi messages are being sent. There is also a "programmers reference guide" for the LaunchKey MK2, but it's for the full sized one, and some of it is a bit different on the mini. This makes scripting for it somewhat time consuming, with lots of trial and error until you work out how to communicate with it.
The feel of it is a mixed bag. Overall, I think it's good for the price, but it's not without issues. The buttons and pads feel good, and respond well to velocity. However, it's very easy to accidentally double-tap a drum pad, which can result in multiple notes being sent. I solved this in Bitwig by putting a 'debounce' function in my script. I'm not sure if this is dealt with in other DAWs. I did play around with it in Ableton and, if I remember correctly, there was nothing to protect against accidental double-taps. The knobs feel nice. They are stiff enough that you don't move them accidentally, but they move smoothly and easily when you turn them. I can't imagine knobs being any better without being motorised (or using LEDs for displaying position, like the BCR2000). The keys don't feel great to me. It feels like the resistance is provided by rubber underneath, or something. I have a Yamaha keyboard to compare it to, and that has nice satisfying tactile feedback. The difference between the two is significant, and it's like the difference between a rubber dome keyboard (the typing kind) and cherry mx reds. This does affect how easy it is to play, but you can get used to it.Read full review
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