At the moment, if you want to kind of keep a keyboard layout while getting groovy hands-on control, you could look at offerings such as the Novation SL MkIII, ROLI’s Seaboard or LUMI, Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol, or the Akai Advance range. To understand the full benefits of using a MIDI keyboard with Live, you could also explore some of the more exotic creations that are on offer. In the future, you might be in a band or studio situation where you need to hook up to Cubase, Logic or Pro Tools and a keyboard will keep you more versatile than a grid of pretty lights. It’s never a good idea to get too dogmatic or too invested in one particular piece of music software.

Maybe the most important reason to keep a keyboard handy is that using it can impart transferable skills. If you have a keyboard at home already, make sure to give it some love from time to time and find it a space next to your fancy LED boxes.įor the actual playing of musical parts, nothing has ever overshadowed the basic keyboard, even if it gives you nightmarish flashbacks to childhood piano lessons.

Unlike Push, for example, a keyboard simply works with any music software on your computer – and maybe with iOS and Android devices, too. The good old MIDI keyboard might seem a tad redundant when we have so many high-tech ways to control Live, but it can still be one of our best friends.

Record midi ableton