I sure am familiar with this controller. It's a nice and compact controller that is more rugged than it seems. Though it lacks features common in other controllers, there is much you can do with the MPK Mini. The arpeggio functions are quite nice in such an affordable controller like this. I especially like the "order" option where it will repeat the arpeggio pattern based on the order of the keys you play rather than just up or down or alternating. Combine with the "latch" function you can go hands free after you play the notes and it will repeat the pattern until you play a new pattern or disable the latch. The controller can have multiple "programs" you can setup and switch to during performance to change your pad and knob assignments. The knobs can have whatever CC parameters you want to use to control other gear or a DAW, but the down side is you have to use the AKAI MPK Editor software on a PC/Mac to setup the CCs and custom program setups. The pads are fairly responsive and support MIDI velocity but they aren't super precise. Same for the controller joystick. My MPK Mini has some drift on the joystick so I had to assign its MIDI CCs to something other than pitch bend to avoid things sounding out of tune. I'd rather have had wheels instead of a stick but I know the choice was based on size and cost. The keybed is okay. It's fine for general use but it has a cheap feel to it. Given the price and size, I guess it's not too bad and it is velocity sensitive (no aftertouch though). The lack of 5-pin DIN MIDI ports or even mini-jack MIDI ports does kind of suck. You only have USB MIDI and therefore require a computer, phone, tablet or USB MIDI host to MIDI converter to use it with 5-pin DIN MIDI gear. Not ideal but again it's not super powerful but gets the job done nonetheless. Overall I liked the MPK Mini (mark 1) well enough to buy an AKAI MPK Mini Plus which is pretty much what I need in a general purpose MIDI controller without shelling out $$$hundreds for another Arturia KeyStep Pro 37 (which I do have anyway). The MPK Mini Plus adds the assignable wheels, includes an OLED display to allow you to setup "programs" without the software editor and of course expands the keyboard to 37 keys. It also adds a one track sequencer and has 5-pin DIN MIDI and USB MIDI. You can't use both DIN MIDI and USB MIDI at the same time though. That sucks. What else do you want to know about the MPK Mini?