This is really a bargain that has yet to be beaten.Essential keyboard controller with everything you need to make music, collaborate and jam in Ableton Live
With the Launchkey 49 MKII, you’re getting hundreds of dollars worth of software all for free. My overall thoughts on this keyboard is that it is definitely a solid choice for both the studio and live performance. You will find that this keyboard is color-coded to match Ableton Live. The most popular DAW to use for touring is Ableton Live because it is so user-friendly. If you’re a musician who is touring frequently, the Launchkey MKII 49 is a perfect choice. This is easily the best MIDI keyboard for the DAW Ableton.
The keys are your classic synth-action controller keys that you would expect to find.
You will get some free keyboard lessons from Melodics with the purchase of the Launchkey 49 MKII. A lot of modern songs are made from using samples and loops nowadays. Note: This is a powerful software that requires a lot of space. Addictive Keys is a super powerful piano plug-in that lets you get super in-depth. This is an expensive plug-in if you have to buy it. I am honestly shocked that Novation includes this with their Launchkey 49 MKII.
You will also find 3 oscillators available to tweak with this VST. It comes with 400 user patches and 200 pre-sets. The Novation V-Station is extremely easy to use and comes with 400 different locations to save patches.
This is a polyphonic synth that works for PC and Mac. This alone, in my opinion, makes the Novation Launchkey 49 MKII a good purchase. The Novation Bass Station is a great VST that actually costs a pretty good amount. If you haven’t heard of this synth before, it’s a great hardware synth that packs some amazing bass sounds.
This is a great software VST that is modeled after the Novation Bass Station synth. You don’t need anything other than this, especially when you’re just getting started. I recommend taking advantage of this software as it comes for free. It is also fairly easy to use as there are hundreds of tutorials on youtube. This gives you all the tools you need to instantly start writing your next hit song. This is one of the best free DAWs that you can access. The ever-popular free version of Ableton Live. Some of these are the free versions, however, they still allow you to check each out. They pack in some incredible software for free. The software department is where Novation really killed it. Here’s a video of someone unboxing and going through the Launchkey MKII 49. Costs have to be cut, and I believe Novation chooses to cut in the build department, rather than other areas. Keep in mind, this keyboard is much cheaper than both of these keyboards. I still don’t think it competes with the durability as the Arturia Keylab MKII or the Akai MPK2 series, but it is an improvement for sure. The build overall feels much more durable. The brightly colored drum pads are great for playing live as they light up the room. Novation made some nice improvements here and came in with a aesthetically pleasing design.
Before I purchased this, I owned the original Launchkey and there a couple of things that I was hoping that Novation would fix. The first thing that grabbed my attention would be the brightly colored drum pads. I also think that it defeats most of them, with a few exceptions that I will get into later in the review. In my opinion, it definitely stands up to the other keyboards around its price. With a low price tag and great MIDI functionality, how does the Launchkey 49 MKII stand up to its competition? 1.0.2.3 Novation V-Station Software Synth.