If the switch is in the "BATT" position, the keyboard is essentially "on" and running off battery power, so it will produce sounds using its own internal workings. On the back of the keyboard you'll find a headphone socket (standard 3.5mm connector, as used on mobile phones etc.), a port for connecting a sustain / loop pedal, a USB port, and a switch labelled "USB / BATT". All in all, just with this basic functionality, it's loads of fun, and for an absolute beginner like me it's a joyous little thing to play with. The drum pads are pressure sensitive, so the harder you tap them the louder the drum sounds, but if you press the "full level" button they sound at maximum volume no matter how hard you hit them. As a full sized keyboard has more than 25 keys on it, the MPK Mini Play starts out as being somewhere in the middle of a full keyboard's range, so if you press the "octave down" button you'll effectively shift to the left a bit, and "octave up" shifts you to the right. The red joystick allows you to bend the pitch of a note, and below this the arpeggiator will play a note multiple times when pressed - you can configure the repeat interval by selecting a setting using the keys (explained in the rather skimpy manual.) There are buttons to move up or down through the octaves too. ![]() On the left of the keyboard you'll find various other controls. Of course, if you connect the keyboard to a speaker with its own volume control you could make things rather louder. As soon as I put the batteries in, the first thing I did was to press a key to hear what it sounded like, then turn the knob at the top to change instruments and press the same key again to hear how it now sounded, which of course I repeated 128 times much to the frustration of my wife (thank heaven for headphones!) The keyboard has a tiny built-in speaker but even on full volume, it's quiet - don't expect it to fill a room, but it's fine for sitting by yourself, tinkering away. The first thing you notice is that it is tiny! Powered by 3 AA batteries or by USB (more on that later) it's a dinky little thing, with 25 keys, eight drum pads, six knobs you can twiddle to mess with the sound, and 128 different keyboard sounds and ten drum kits to play with. It's safe to say that for me, the Akai MPK Mini Play ticks all of the boxes. Above all else, because this would most likely be a bit of a fad for me, I didn't want to spend an absolute fortune. I liked the idea of something that I could connect to my PC or laptop so I could do some fancier stuff if the mood took me. I also wanted something that could make sounds on its own, had a speaker so I could hear what I was doing, and could also have headphones connected so I wouldn't upset my wife too much. What did I want? I fancied having a mess with a keyboard, but I wanted something small, ideally small enough to stick in my suitcase when I go travelling away with work, so not something bulky or heavy, and ideally that could run off batteries. I own a ukulele, which I play really badly, and that's about it. I've never played a keyboard before in my life, nor have I ever produced music on a computer. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.įirst of all, the disclaimer. ![]() You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. ![]() ![]() This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice.
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