Ableton Forum

First up I've never played a keyboard before but I've always wanted to.
I'm looking for a controller/keyboard for production not live performance and after much research I've narrowed the options down to an Akai MPK49 or Novation SL49 Mk2.
It looks like the novation integrates much easier with Ableton and seems to have more advanced features and more knobs to tweak.
The pads on the Akai look much more usable but I'm not really sure how much I'll use them.
I am learning towards the Novation but would like some more convincing from anyone who has used these keyboards.

I am also wondering how many keys I should get, if I end up wanting to learn to play then 49 keys would be the minimum however as it is for production is 25 enough as it's not hard moving up and down octaves.

I want to keep the size to a minimum, 49 keys would be the most I'd go to but I feel 25 would be more manageable however more limiting, so any advice here would be appreciated.

personally i dont think you can go wrong with any of the mpk range, nice solid built controllers.
My advice would be get the biggest you can live with. The mpk25 is a nice portable size but i found it to be too limiting for anything other than single sample and drum triggering. But it depends on how you plan to use it, if you are going to play in the traditional keyboard way then 49 or more will save you a lot of faffing. The mp49 really isnt that much bigger.
The keys are the nicest i have played in the semi weighted controller category,as for the pads, i like them, they seem to take a bit of bedding in from new and from what i have read here and on other forums arent quite as good as mpc pads or even axiom pads so if pad quality is your main concern then dont rule out the axiom range in your shortlist.

I'll look into the Axiom

I think they all range from crappy to mediocre... Oh for a truly superb midi controller keyboard...

No other suggestions?

I think the MPK25 is great. 4 banks of 12 drum pads, 2 banks of 12 endless rotaries, 8 assignable buttons, 25 keys with easy octave transpose. built in arpeggiator, note repeat and arp latch which can be driven from an external midi clock, i.e,. Live's.

Very nice bit of kit.

The MPK 49 has the advantage of the faders and the larger keyboard. but I have a 49 hey controller too and frankly its gathering dust now I have my workflow down with the 25 key version.