Akai MIDImix

Strong agreement, and mostly negative: the 24 pots are too short and their steep, smooth sides make them hard to grip — Sound On Sound calls them awkward, MusicRadar aggravatingly tiny, Mixdown tough to get continuous control from, and owners on three forums say the same. They are 270° pots, not endless encoders, and have no centre detent, so values jump after a bank change; the Send All button Akai offers as the cure left reviewers puzzled and, as the user guide itself notes, does nothing in pickup/takeover modes. The nine recessed 30mm faders read as short but serviceable (one side-by-side found them slightly sticky), the buttons are bright and clearly labelled but momentary-only. The counterweight is sheer count — 24 knobs and nine faders is more than anything else at the price — and a minority of owners say the short knobs don't bother them. The recurring fix, reported independently on Reddit, Elektronauts and YouTube, is a ~$10 set of taller replacement caps.

“the shortness of the knobs, and their steeply angled sides makes them rather awkward to use”

Simon Sherbourne, Sound On Sound

“The faders are short, and the knobs are unfortunately not the endless variety, with a range of 270º. They are also aggravatingly tiny”

Martin Delaney, MusicRadar

“The MIDI Mix has very short knobs, and my fingers kept slipping off them before I could turn them properly.”

u/TizardPaperclip, r/musicproduction

“The knobs are short but don’t bother me. I like that they have a tiny bit of resistance, makes them not feel cheap.”

patmosmusicofficial, YouTube comment on Quentin Damour's comparison

“First I bought a $10 pack of knobs like the ones on the Novation. Easy to replace the small knovs it cones with.”

robjthmpsn, YouTube comment on Quentin Damour's comparison

Sources split, and the split follows the DAW rather than the reviewer. In Ableton Live the bundled remote script makes it plug-and-play: faders to volume, the knob rows to Send A, Send B and pan, buttons to mute/solo/record-arm, Bank Left/Right stepping through eight tracks at a time — every magazine and most owners call this the reason to buy it, and one r/ableton owner rates it far better out of the box than the nanoKONTROL2. Even there the caveats are consistent: no device or macro control, no on-screen frame or LED to show which bank you are on, and once you remap a button its LED stops tracking state. In any other DAW it is a generic MIDI controller mapped by hand — Akai's own support pages say it was designed for 1:1 Ableton integration, that manual mapping is required elsewhere and that LED feedback cannot be guaranteed. Akai's downloadable Logic Pro profile leaves two knob rows and the rec-arm buttons unassigned, replaces Logic's control-surface preference file, and owners report its bank buttons double-jumping and its lights staying dark; a Studio One owner found banking impossible; a Cubase reviewer mapped everything with MIDI Learn and was then happy.

Moderately positive. The box includes Ableton Live Lite (owners note it alone justifies the price), and Akai's free Mac/Windows editor lets you reassign every control's CC or note and MIDI channel and save presets to disk — Sound On Sound calls it a good editor and Bonedo lists it as a plus. The caveats are shared, not disputed: the unit holds a single preset with no way to switch or recall on the hardware (the top con in Sound On Sound's box), the editor can't make buttons toggle instead of momentary, the factory preset isn't supplied as a file, and changing the default CCs breaks the Ableton control-surface script until you send the defaults back.

“There are no onboard presets, but a free editor for OS X and Windows lets you reassign different MIDI channels or messages to the hardware controls.”

Martin Delaney, MusicRadar

“There is no ability to load and recall presets on the hardware.”

Simon Sherbourne, Sound On Sound

“would be worth it even just for the included live 11 lite. it's also an amazing and practical controller”

randolfo, Thomann verified buyer

“The Akai buttons only act as 'momentary' switches, and no way to change their behaviour in the Akai midi app.”

platinummonster9755, YouTube comment on Quentin Damour's comparison

Strong agreement on a plain fact: one USB-B port and a Kensington slot, and that is all. It is class-compliant and bus-powered, so there is nothing to install and no wall-wart, but there is no 5-pin MIDI, no sustain or footswitch jack and no SysEx, so driving a hardware synth or groovebox means a computer in the loop or a USB-host box (Elektronauts owners run it into a Digitakt through USB-to-DIN converters). Amazona's readers asked why something called MIDImix has no MIDI socket; nobody disputes the answer — the price.

“The computer’s USB port also provides ample power to MIDImix. If you connect it to a USB hub, make sure it is a powered hub.”

Akai MIDImix User Guide

“I have Akai MIDImix conected thru MIDI USB to DIN Converter”

HashTag, Elektronauts

Praised almost everywhere: 23.9 × 20.1 × 3.0 cm and 0.7 kg, powered from the USB cable, with recessed faders and low knobs that Sound On Sound reads as deliberately travel-proof. A footprint smaller than an 11-inch MacBook Air; a gigging r/ableton owner packs it with a Push and a laptop in one bag. The spread comes from the same compactness — the r/musicproduction side-by-side found it slightly too small to handle easily, and Amazon's mixed feedback on size says the same — and Amazona notes the 700 g is enough weight to keep it from sliding.

“The MIDImix has a footprint smaller than our 11-inch MacBook Air and is very lightweight”

Martin Delaney, MusicRadar

“I love the portability of the unit. Super lightweight but well-built. Traveling with it is way easier than with my old controller.”

u/throwawayneedbighelp, r/ableton

“I found it to be slightly too small to handle easily.”

u/TizardPaperclip, r/musicproduction

Moderately positive, with expectations doing the splitting. Amazona and Bonedo rate the construction very good and solid for the size; Thomann owners describe it as built like a tank, stable and durable after years of use, and it sits firmly on rubber feet. MusicRadar's counterpoint — it is all plastic and you get what you pay for, with the Launch Control XL more solidly made — is echoed by the Amazon owners who compare it to a toy and the side-by-side tester whose faders occasionally stuck. Nobody reports failures; the doubts are about feel, and Amazona wondered how the rubber buttons would look after a year.

“Quality is excellent - This thing is build like a tank.”

Theo E, Thomann verified buyer

“it's all plastic - you're getting what you pay for”

Martin Delaney, MusicRadar

“It's pretty stable and durable. The knobs are a bit short, but nothing too bad.”

Nick Jennings, Thomann verified buyer

Moderately strong agreement that it is a bargain: four magazines land on some version of 'hard to criticise at this price', owners on both Amazon and Thomann say they get a lot of controls for the money, and Live Lite is in the box. The dissent is specific and consistent rather than scattered — the Launch Control XL camp (Elektronauts, a pile-on of later readers in the r/musicproduction comparison) argues the extra money buys better knobs, smoother longer faders, tri-colour LEDs, device control and eight recallable templates, so the MIDImix is only the value pick if you truly don't need those. Sound On Sound also points at Akai's own APC Mini, which shares the Live mixer functions and adds a pad grid for the same price.

“MIDImix is an incredibly affordable solution, especially considering the bundled Live software.”

Martin Delaney, MusicRadar

“It has a fairly limited feature set, but at this price you get a lot of controls”

Simon Sherbourne, Sound On Sound

“Still, I would not buy a Midimix, Novation LaunchControl XL is by all means the far better MIDI controller.”

chain25, Elektronauts

“It's hard to find a more economical commercial offering”

u/mungewell, r/synthesizers