A MIDI controller is an essential tool that every home studio owner needs. While you can produce a whole track using only your keyboard and mouse, the best MIDI keyboard controller for Logic Pro X has no alternative. The audio market is littered with all types of MIDI keyboard controllers, which makes trying to choose the right model a daunting task. Well, you need not fear because we have designed this article to help clarify your doubts and also provide you with some pointers on the best MIDI keyboard controllers for Logic Pro X.

In our selection, we took some crucial features and factors into consideration, such as pads and controllers, software included, keys features, dimensions and weight. And from our very profound research, we were able to gather and include everything a prospective buyer needs to know before purchasing a MIDI keyboard controller.

From the in-detail table to the comprehensive reviews of each product complete with their pros and cons to our handy buying guide , everything included in this list has been aimed towards guiding your every step. More features: USB-powered model; backlit pads; built-in arpeggiator with adjustable resolution, range, and modes.

This keyboard controller from Akai packs a lot of features despite having a small footprint, which explains why it is so popular. So that the keyboard would be compact, Akai compromised on the number and size of the keys.

If you are a beginner, the small spring-loaded keys might not bother you. However, if you are accustomed to pianos or keyboards with heavier and larger keys, or you have unusually large fingers, you might want to reconsider your decision to go for the Akai MPL Mini.

In another measure to save space, instead of the regular pitch and modulation wheels, the device comes with a four-way thumbstick. The eight backlight MPC-style pads are probably the most appealing feature of this device, as they are also velocity-sensitive.

Other notable features include octave-down and up buttons, an inbuilt arpeggiator, a sustain pedal input, and eight knobs. The only version this keyboard comes in is the 25 keys, which might be a bit too limiting for some users. If you even find the 25 keys sufficient, keep in mind that the keys are not weighted and are much smaller than average. However, this keyboard controller is compatible with Logic Pro X and other DAWs available out there which makes it a versatile model that can be taken practically anywhere.

Which disadvantages must you keep in mind? While we are focusing on the 49 keys variant here, keep in mind that this one comes in three other options — 25 keys, 49 keys, and 61 keys. It feels sturdier and more polished than every other MIDI keyboard controller on the market; it is truly in a league of its own.

Akai intended to make a premium grade keyboard controller, and the high quality is easily detectable. Everything from the feel of the knobs and keys to the enclosure shows why this product is of the high-end category. It comes with full-size and semi-weighted keys, which do feel excellent. The controller features 16 MPC-style pads, which are incredibly customizable. This product also includes eight faders, eight switches, eight assignable knobs, one expression jack, one assignable footswitch jack, a pitch control wheel, and a modulation wheel, amongst more fancy bells and whistles.

This device has a reasonably solid Logic Pro X integration, with presets engineered to be suitable for almost every DAW out there. Viewed as the go-to organization for the best MIDI keyboard controllers, Alesis demonstrates again why they are rated so highly with this device.

The flawlessly organized keys are placed on one side of the keyboard with the parameter controls on the other. Measuring Provided that the 49 keys of the device are semi-weighted, every user should love the natural feeling response. The eight velocity and pressure-sensitive pads illuminate when being used, which comes in handy when the controller is utilized as a DJ keyboard.

With six buttons and four knobs, the Alesis V49 is not a device suitable for extensive producing and mixing. The general spec and feature assembly make the keyboard a good fit for both amateurs and more advanced customers. Whether you are a professional or just starting out, this keyboard controller is a worthwhile addition to your music studio.

It is a perfect option for Ableton Live users who do both music production and live performances. Just like all the Launchkeys, the 49 MK2 comes with the Ableton Live 9 Lite for unlimited pairing options and performance. It features velocity-sensitive keys that are full-size and 16RGB pads.

You also get 9 sliders and 8 knobs for controlling the instruments, mixer, and effects which are all mappable. Using it is a no-brainer especially with the Ableton Live. You might find it a bit difficult to set up if you choose to use another DAW. Being USB bus-powered with an average size, you can use it both in the studio and out for gigs as it is easily portable.

Its keys are plastic but semi-weighted to give you the best sound feedback. Its knobs and faders also have a nice touch and they are tight enough. The pads are solidly built to endure everyday use and abuse. You have to connect it to a computer or an iPad using the camera connection kit. Overall, this is one of the best conveniently priced MIDI-enabled keyboards with plenty of features and a decent software bundle for users of any level.

M-Audio is a company with a knack for manufacturing music equipment with great features at reasonable price points, and the M-Audio Code 61 MIDI Keyboard Controller is a typical example. Despite coming at a fairly affordable price, this keyboard controller comes with features that put it firmly alongside more expensive models.

Apart from featuring 61 full-sized, velocity-sensitive keys, this model also comes with 16 assignable velocity-sensitive trigger pads for clip launching, beat production, and more. The controller comes with directional and transport buttons, pitch bend and modulation wheel. The velocity-sensitive keys provide you with a nice feel and are very responsive.

It also features eight assignable encoders for controlling your plugins, virtual instruments, and DAW, including the Logic Pro X. An excellent performance needs the appropriate tools for the task. The M-Audio Code 61 features a unique keyboard with precise and clean action.

For optimum expressive capability, the natural profile keys are pressure and velocity-sensitive, reassuring to reproduce every nuance and subtlety of your performance. Nektar is a renowned brand famous for its distinguished technological approach that aims to offer users with tight integration with multiple DAWs and ease of use. The Nektar Impact LX49 packs a punch with extensive features and an advanced wide range of keys and pads. On its solidly built velocity-sensitive keyboard are knobs, buttons, faders, pads, and sliders built to last with a nice touch.

You will enjoy the satisfying click that all its buttons give when pressed. The keys are medium-weighted and sensitive enough for great performances. The unit also features a USB port for connecting it to your computer or iPad. The controller is super easy to use. Basically, it is a plug and play. Another plus for this unit is the 4 LED colors. You can use them in various ways including muting and unmuting drum sounds and triggering colored sounds among others. This means that you cannot control synths without going via your DAW.

The Arturia Keylab Essential is available in sizes 49 and 61 keys. The first things that catch the eye are the shiny silver pitch bend and modulation wheels, which Arturia has placed to the left of the keyboard as usual. If you switch to Chord Memory mode, each pad saves a chord, which can then be called up via this pad. The Chord Transpose mode goes a little further.

Here you can program your chord library on the 8 pads. Depending on which pad is active or selected, you can then play this chord transposed via the keyboard. Especially with regard to a live application, these three possibilities are to be rated very highly. Firing a chord quickly and programming up to 8 different ones in advance seems practical.

On the right are nine faders, potentiometers, and pressure switches. With this, you can switch between the three banks, on which you can save different commands for the faders, potentiometers, and buttons. The surface now looks much tidier. The workmanship of the Keylab is very good, all elements are properly manufactured and do a good job. Thanks to the three working modes Analog Lab, DAW, and USER, the Keylab is armed for several areas of application and offers the option of making all settings either on the keyboard or via editor software.

In this section, we will be providing you with a handy buying guide which answers the most common questions buyers are usually faced with. By the end of this part, you will be brimming with a lot of confidence about the purchase you are about to make. Manufactured by Apple, Logic Pro X is an outstanding software tool utilized by most music producers around the world. Even the beginners utilize this tool for making their first musical masterpieces.

The best Logic Pro X MIDI controller has various variations, and with such device, you can get the full recording with different tracks inbuilt in the library.

Going shopping for a MIDI keyboard controller without knowing what to look for is probably the biggest mistake anyone could make.

Before paying for a new MIDI controller for Logic Pro X, you need to take some important factors into consideration, which we will highlight below. Probably the most vital factor when picking the right controller for you is choosing the appropriate size as regards the number of keys. After that, there are 48 keys, 61 keys, and 88 keys, which is the maximum. Evidently, based on the research we carried out, 49 seems to be the size preferred by most music producers.

That is sufficiently big to be able to handle melodies across four octaves, yet will not consume a lot of space on your table. Some MIDI keyboard controllers come with full-sized weighted keys which can provide you with that incomparable feeling of a classical acoustic piano. They are much easier to operate and get used to.

The most crucial controllers are pitch and modulation wheels. In addition to these standard controllers, a MIDI keyboard can come with extra programmable ones that you can easily use as you want. Typically, they just use numbers to sign. If the model comes with several controllers, they can be separated into different groups. Besides, some keyboards come with regulators in a system of pads so that a user can assign a particular sound, musical phrase and more to a pad.

The pads are often utilized for drum beats, recording rhythmic patterns, and performance.

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However, today most of the digital mixers can be used as control surfaces too. But digital mixers are very costly and generally out of pocket for home recordists. The best option for home recordists is, using dedicated DAW control surfaces. These are cheap and when it comes to controlling the DAW they have more functions than any digital mixer. From just 1 fader to several faders and limited control to extended control, there are several types of control surfaces available in the market.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we recommended. Read more about Affiliate disclosure here. There are many reasons behind using control surfaces for home studios. Control surfaces make our workflow faster than operating with a keyboard and mouse. They are designed with dedicated controls for separate operations like the transport bar, faders, and assignable buttons.

These things make our workflow faster than the keyboard and mouse where we have to struggle with keyboard buttons to remember and slipping on the faders with the mouse. With controlled surfaces, you can extend the scope of your eyes. Yes, you can tune out your eyes from the computer screen and make some fun with analog-style controls.

Actually, an analog environment is a basic need of any studio. No matter how much this digital world captures the audio recording, the feel of the classic analog environment will always be in demand.

And a control surface can fulfill this demand in a better way. Control surfaces are a good example of a classic analog-style user interface with a powerful digital environment working behind it. Faders are used to control the gain of tracks in mixer and DAWs. The gain is measured in dB. When we increase the volume by 1dB the amplitude of the wave doubles.

This doubling nature of dB makes the faders more complicated in balancing low-volume instruments. 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. 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.

With bus-powered features and lightweight, it is perfect for outside recordings like concerts programs.

Just plug it in with your laptop and make the magic happen. Imagine under 70 bucks you get 8 faders and also a transport control which you missed out on costly Logic Pro X control surfaces. This tiny control surface has eight faders, eight knobs dedicated solo, mute, and record arming buttons as well as dedicated transport controls.

It has 8 non-motorized small faders and 8 dedicated knobs. These faders are not full length but can be used precisely in mixing if your hands are set up on the faders.

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For all other supported devices: An available peripheral port. Ideally, this should be a direct connection with the computer, rather than through a hub. Refer to the documentation provided by the manufacturer of your device. An installed driver if required by your control surface supported by the macOS version running on your computer.

In a standard control surface configuration you can use a single control surface, or several. This compressor plugin can either be applied to an individual track, or to a buss in your DAW.

If we look at the Logic Pro X compressor plugin below. This native Logic compressor comes with sidechain input instantly available. Importantly, you also get many options to tailor the sidechaining effect. You can also listen preview the sidechain input if you need to confirm the audio source.

This means we have side chaining instantly accessible in Logic Pro X whenever we need it on a mixer track via the compressor plugin. FL Studio 20 takes a few more steps to make the side chaining happen. While Logics compressor can select any audio track as the side chain input directly, FL Studio requires you to route audio signals between tracks first.

Firstly, in the image above we have channel 1 selected and right click on channel 8 cable input arrow at the bottom of the mixer strip. We are now feeding channel 8 with a sidechain signal from the kick.

The mixer of FL Studio is very flexible and highly customizable. Secondly, we add the Fruity Limiter as an insert effect to the bass ch8. In the Fruity Limiter activate the Comp-tab at the bottom. Press the mouse button on-top of the SideChain value box and drag upwards to select SideChain Input 1. Finally, if you set the compressor threshold to a lower value db and the Ratio to something like you will start to see and hear the sidechaining effect. In conclusion, the Fruity Limiter will now reduce the volume of the bass as soon as the kick hits.

Your sidechain effect is completed! Another common example of sidechaining is when DJs are talking over the music on the radio. When the DJ speaks, a limiter is activated upon the background music by the audio signal off the DJ talking. When the DJs finished talking, the silence on the voice track de-activates the limiter on the background music. The music will once again become the loudest part of the mix.

Want to learn how to set up volume properly on sidechained tracks? Then you can check this article where we discuss gain-staging and sidechain mixing. Importantly, in the article and video we discuss common problems when sidechaining audio. What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page. In Learn Music Theory in 5 minutes I will help you with a basic understanding in music theory.

Today we will talk about how to. Music Theory Everyone Should Know. Today I want to talk about the foundation to get some smooth sounding chord progressions. Importantly we will talk about. Learn all about the updated Sampler of Bitwig Studio 2. How to create cinematic sounds in Bitwig Studio? We show you how to do organic sound. Image Line finally released FL Studio version Today I will teach you how to make those big cinematic chords like Hans Zimmer.

You will learn about orchestrating chord notes from a very.