Native Instruments Maschine Mikro MK3

Maschine Mikro MK3 is the little brother of the Maschine MK3, but unfortunately lacks many of the "hands on" controls that the big brother MK3 has and also has bad midi support.

It certainly has the best pads on the market and tight software for making beats if that is what you are looking for, but you are pretty much forced to always use the Maschine software since the midi features of the unit are very bad: all the midi mapping are currently fixed and you can't (at least for the moment) change them in the NI controller editor. Hopefully NI updates the midi features soon.

Using the Maschine software with this piece is also not that intuitive; you are still very much married to using the mouse especially when doing sample editing and deeper adjustment of parameters. When you actually lay down the melodies and samples though, it is fun to use and play. And like previously stated, you can't find better pads on the market in my opinion; sensitivity and feel of the pads is unmatched at the moment.

Unit is pretty lightweight and easy to carry too, If you are looking for portability but I suggest you get some kind of light travel case for the unit, even though the build quality seems good.

I'd say this is a good product for people who are getting in to beatmaking and maybe don't want to invest too much money for starters or for the people who need a very portable controller for Maschine. Otherwise I'd say go for the MK3.

I bought it as an extension to my keyboard (I am more of a piano player thus I prefer to compose using an 88 keyboard) . I really was not expecting for it to be use much, just to play around. However, I found myself heavily using it. It has a high quality construction. At first, I thought that because of the plastic housing it was going to be just a cheap looking instrument, but to my surprise it is very sturdy and high quality looking. I just love the feeling of the buttons and knobs.

Pro:
Excellent mobility capabilities. It is really easy to transport and works perfectly with a Surface Pro 4 Computer with a Core I5 and 8GB of ram. I found my self now continuing music production in airplanes, train and outdoors.

Cons:
It does not have a proper Audio interface. For the mobility part, it would have been really perfect to have a good Audio Interface so that you can listen with good quality on the go. Also there was random activation of some pads when I pressed hard, but then I realize that the sensitivity was to high. Problem was solved by reducing sensitivity slightly.

I'm using it as companion to NI S61 MK2. I get used to play drums on the pads and my keyboard does not have them. I was thinking between MK3 and Mikro and I selected latter because I have all of the MK3s commands on my keyboard already so I would pay just for duplication of they keys and displays.
Maschine is great for making ideas fast while composing or making beats that need a day to learn.