Nektar 61 Note USB MIDI Keyboard Controller

Fantastic midi keyboard for the basics

Over a year old now. Still works great and no problems with connection. The keys aren't super weighted, but for the price point and as a controller you can't beat it.

Amazing price and amazing product. Get this ASAP. I had trouble getting it to work at first, but I'm almost 100% sure it was because of I bad usb port. It works great and my DAW works better since I've been using this. I know that sounds crazy, but that's no lie.

I think this 61-key model is the best value for beginners. At roughly $100, this was the only model I found in my research to have 61-keys. The other models also had some MIDI mappable sliders, faders, knobs, and pads with the caveat of only 25 keys.This model does not have an extra inputs, but I have other MIDI gadgets so I just needed as close to a full size piano (88 keys) as I could find.It is a plastic keyboard but its remarkably solid. The form factor is very compact. The only connections on this model are a USB for connecting to your device and an input for a sustain pedal. I picked up the flat black style of sustain pedal from m-audio for roughly $20 more dollars.There are no speakers or built in sounds on this device. No headphones port either. It is intended to send MIDI signals to software on your computer or mobile device. There are loads of free "plugins" and "patches" available on the internet. This model may even have some included, I can't recall.I personally use it with Ableton Live as my primary DAW. For my sound library, I am using Maschine software with the Kontact library.The end result is that this inexpensive (but not "cheap") MIDI keyboard paired with a sustain pedal and the Kontact library are able to reproduce the sounds of a grand piano in a symphony hall (I'm referencing the "Noire" piano instrument)...or it can sound like bongos, retro synthesizers, drum kits, full audio clips, you name it.If you read this far, thank you for your time, but just buy it already!!There is nothing with better value per dollar until you're at the $500 mark. And even then the performance and studio quality instruments don't start until about $1100.Cheers

I got the Nektar back in 2021.If I do say so my self, the product didn't disappoint. I originally got this midi to just substitute for a real piano, so that I could play around and practice.A long with it I ended up getting a bitwig studio licence which was (temporary) nice.I love how the keys aren't heavy or to soft. They are well pressure sensitive, so there's no need to attack the keys too hard or worry about needing to be extra delicate with your strokes.The Octave and transpose buttons are a nice touch to get different sounds as well as the pitch dial. If your actively deciding to compose/record music which I don't necessarily do so much, as I mostly like to just play around.The eight buttons near the top right of the keyboard makes it easy for, a quick access recorder, track player, undo button pause play and rewind key. I assume the shift button is for selecting tracks.The volume knob makes for a nice touch so you don't need to go into your software to manually change how loud your midi volume is. With bitwig I find that this is very compatible and has lots of cool options for how you can make your midi experience great and funThe biggest pro for this keyboard I'd say is, there's no latency issues so far. And it doesn't collect dust. The keys when pressed don't have a delay which is nice it's something I've often found as an issue when using other keyboards. It's nice and sturdy as well. No loose keys and I've been using it for more then two years, maybe not as consistent as every day par say, but definitely a lot, yet I haven't seen any waring down on the keys, still has that nice color that it first came with.They keyboard itself has ports for foot sustaining. So I assume if you where to buy or had an attachment/ foot pedal for sustaining, then you can draw out the keys by using that instead of relying on holding keys and or editing your track in software. Which is very nifty.Lastly there is indeed an on and off switch, which I assume it's probably to use that as to not wear the hardware built on the inside of this lovely device.I give this a nice 5 star review as it hasn't let me down and I haven't personally found myself complaining about a single thing when using this keyboard.

awesome feel