I have one of these and yes, TRS MIDI would make me love it so much more
Also worth mentioning that you really need access to a computer with the setup utility so you can manage your different configurations.
3 Likes
Right? I have too much hardware to use USB only controllers.
Also, welcome to the Elektronauts!
1 Like
agreed, but as someone else said here, i suppose all you need to solve the battery issue is lil velcro and small battery.
Best Mobile Midi keyboard/controller on the market for people with long/thicker fingers, like me. And i tried so many. There isnt a portable with full sized piano keys, sadly. Device looks cheap and maybe uninteresting, but its all about the functionality. I had to get used to pads playing instead of keys. But after a while it became second nature.
Most portable midi gear has too small keys for playing correctly.
As agreed, missing trs midi and built-in battery (although with aaa batteries it works also fine as of now). I use the cme bluetooth dongle to overcome the missing trs port, which works great.
Come on Korg, release that mk2!
1 Like
I know you said not to recommend anything not keyboard, but I must say that to this day I have not found a more compact MIDI note device than the Novation Launchpad Pro MKIII. 2 TRS MIDI outs, easy to change MIDI channel and pad layout.
Hard to beat that square-shaped form factor
2 Likes
would you recommend this if there wasn’t an intention of using it w/ a computer/daw ?
I use mine in a computerless standalone setup. It gives me MIDI notes for my Syntakt, Rytm and M+, I just switch MIDI channel from the LPP to select my target
(yeah, too old for “DAWless”, twas all DAWless when I started…)
Seconding the launchpad. It’s wonderfully portable and flexible with its custom modes. And the chord mode is the best implementation I’ve seen for such a thing.
1 Like
I must admit not really getting the chord mode. Any tips how you like to use it?
my strange avenue forward for portable midi controller(s) is as follows:
- general purpose:
- a nanokey2 w/ a midi usb host interface and small battery velcroed to it
but i was also on the hunt for some sorta chord controller and i stumbled onto the chordmonger (has trs-midi, but no battery) which i was really interested in, but alas, they’re hard to come by / so i started looking for other iterations (already having the theoryboard, but not exactly portable). the hichord looked sorta interesting, but overpriced and i didn’t want the synth part of it then i thought about the kortbot, but again, not too portable. i eventually stumbled upon 64 pixels’ le strum, specfically the:
- le grand strum
^ which is also battery powered w/ a 9v battery “and” has 5-pin midi <3
and i also saw the new chord feats in the mk4 iteration of novation’s launchkey line (trs-midi, but no battery):
- launchkey mini25 mk4
i’ll most likely keep both as i don’t have a proper portable midi kb except for arturia’s keystep black edition / not the most portable.
ps i am really curious about the launchpad pro mk3, but i’m curious to see what’s on the horizon for the mk4 edition of the LP line. 
It’s a bit weird at first coming from other chord modes like the MPC where everything is just hit button play chord. This is meant for more natural playing where you have a triad and stack something on top of it.
As major is easier to get your head around at first, switch the note mode settings to a major scale, then go to chord mode and do simple I IV V or ii V I or I V VI IV progressions just by using a row at a time. Ignore the triad button and use the root and two of the other notes in a row at a time.
Next step is realising you can add extra notes for extensions while playing the core triads or 7ths. The lighting up reference in the other rows helps work things out here.
Then the next step after that is running out of fingers and realising why they have that big stack of triads separating the notes and the custom chords. You play one of those and then stack notes on top of it with other fingers.
Then when you’ve got the hang of those triad bases, add some other ones to the custom chord section, then hit the freeze button so you can play extensions on top of them (rather than adding notes to them).
The sustain button (something I’ve been wanting on my MPC for ages and been asking for) makes everything sound a lot nicer. Thought I was mad wanting one all the time and then was made to feel normal by the Launchpad having one.
When making custom chords, don’t be afraid to jump up and down octaves as you add notes. But the best thing is having three or four notes in the one button chord but making it more natural by playing other notes on top of it.
In summary I don’t think it’s best used as a bank of chords you hit buttons to launch but as a natural chord / arpeggio playing surface that’s got save slots and triad buttons to free up your fingers when you run out.
A lot of that is probably obvious but I hope it helps! Still getting used to it myself but I can totally see why they picked the layout they did.
2 Likes
ah, thanks for explaining this. i looked into the chord mode for the LP pro mk3 and didn’t catch the ability to layer notes onto the triads. neat
1 Like
Just adding to this de facto discussion about mini MIDI keyboards (thank you @shigginpit for pointing to it):
4 Likes