Novation Launchkey 61 MK4 USB MIDI Keyboard Controller

I’ve owned and used quite a few MIDI controllers over the years, and the Novation Launchkey 61 MK4 has quickly become one of my favorites. The 61-key layout is a great size for my setup. It gives me enough room to play without feeling cramped, while still leaving plenty of space on my desk. The keys feel very good, and the overall build quality is much better than I expected for a MIDI controller in this price range. What I really like about the Launchkey is how well everything is integrated. The pads, knobs, buttons, transport controls, and display make it much easier to control my DAW without constantly reaching for the mouse and keyboard. The integration with Ableton Live is especially good, and it makes recording, launching clips, adjusting instruments, and controlling effects much more hands-on. The pads are also very responsive and feel great for drums, samples, and triggering clips. The additional controls give you a lot of flexibility without making the keyboard feel overly complicated. I also like that this isn't just a keyboard with a bunch of extra buttons thrown on it. It feels like Novation designed the whole thing around actually making music. Overall, I’m very happy with the Launchkey 61 MK4. If you're looking for a 61-key MIDI controller with good-feeling keys, excellent DAW integration, and plenty of hands-on controls, I think this is a great choice.

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.

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.

I previously owned the Launchkey 37 MK3, which was a great controller for producing music but not for playing most songs with two hands. After moving, I decided to upgrade to Launchkey 61 MK4 since I finally got big enough desk space for 61 keys. These semi-weighted keys are much better quality in comparison and a lot more pleasant to play. I love using the clip launcher in Bitwig Studio, which is my DAW of choice and has a great support for this controller, despite having some initial difficulties setting it up (see further). The knobs, sliders and DAW controls work great. I daily drive Linux, and it's mostly flawless except for one thing - sometimes the controller is not picked up by the system until I replug it. I use PipeWire and I'm not really sure whether it's a problem with my configuration, but I didn't ever have this issue with MK3. Also, the controller interfaces don't have MIDI and DAW in their names, they are just named "Launchkey MK4 61 Launchkey MK4" and "Launchkey MK4 61 Launchkey MK4 #2" respectively, and Bitwig didn't set them up correctly out of the box, so I had to do some trial-and-error to figure out which is which. In case anyone faces the same issue, the correct order in Bigwig is (see the attached screenshot): 1. Launchkey MK4 61 Launchkey MK4 #2 2. Launchkey MK4 61 Launchkey MK4 3. Launchkey MK4 61 Launchkey MK4 #2 4. Launchkey MK4 61 Launchkey MK4 That said, after performing this initial set up everything works great. Except for the occasional replugging issue that I mentioned above. For this reason, I took 1 star off. By the way, the first thing I did was updating the firmware version, which can be done surprisingly easy via a browser on the Novation Components website, which I didn't expect was even possible. One more minor gripe (though not a dealbreaker) is that this controller doesn’t have a dedicated button to switch between MIDI programs. The MK3 had a "..." button for this, which was useful for quickly changing programs in Qsynth. I should’ve caught this detail in the photos, though, so that’s on me. I'm just a hobbyist producer and piano player, and I'm still a beginner, so I can't yet review more advanced features that this controller supports. Nevertheless, I did a lot of research and this seems to be, at the moment, the best "neutral" controller on the market at this price range. By "neutral" I mean not married to a specific ecosystem like Native Instruments or Arturia, resulting in needless price markups for those who don't need those ecosystem features. So, if you don't mind the issues above (which shouldn't even be issues if you're on Mac or Windows), I'd say go for it!

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

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.

Good value for the money. Decent keyboard feel, lots of buttons, knobs and pads. No documentation, so the learning curve took some work. It's also not as plug-and-play with the version of Reason I use, but that's my own problem. It does have lots of integration with other DAW software.

Hem pro hem yeni başlayanlar için mükemmel. Tuşesi çok iyi. Yazılım entegrasyonları, yazılım desteği,hediye gelen yazılımları ile her türlü ihtiyacınızı karşılayabilecek bir canavar. Tek eksiği açma kapama düğmesi yok. Onu da açma kapama düğmesi olan usb kablo uzaltıcı olan aksesuar ile hallettim. Elektronik bilgim var. Kendim bile yapabilirim o da ayrı bir konu.

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.

The semi-weighted keys on the Novation Launchkey MK4 are indeed a highlight, offering a responsive and expressive playing experience that's hard to find in this price range. The fact that the knobs and pads also feel premium is just the icing on the cake. It's clear that Novation has put a lot of thought into crafting a MIDI keyboard that's not only functional but also a joy to use. At this price point, the Launchkey Mk4 is an absolute steal. The build quality and attention to detail are evident throughout, making it an excellent choice for musicians, producers, and composers on a budget

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.