

Located on the top left corner of the keyboard is the 4-way pitch bend and modulation joystick, arguably the best upgrade on this instrument. Though seemingly small, the two octaves do provide adequate room to perform two handed chords as well, should you want to play them. Two octaves from C to C provide you with the perfect opportunity to play both simple and complex chords with one hand, while editing on your computer with the other. This new system holds a total of 25 mini velocity sensitive keys. The public spoke, they made their opinions on the original MPK mini clear, and after intent listening, Akai delivered. This new and improved model truly demonstrates what 5 years of quality customer feedback can do.

The Akai Pro MPK Mini MkII was released in early 2014. Lets define best as “the best value for a keyboard under $120.” With this as our heading, you’d likely be looking at the Akai Pro MPK Mini MKII.

In this article, we will not be looking at keyboards of that caliber (or rather, price-range). If you were looking for the absolute-top-of-the-line-dominates-all-others-ever-of-all-time-keyboard, you’d be looking at something that would most definitely break your bank. When searching for the best keyboard for making beats, “best” doesn’t always mean “the most features and capabilities.”
