Akai Professional Fire (Controller Only) - USB MIDI Controller for FL Studio with 64 pad RGB Clip/ Drum Pad Matrix

If you already have FL Studio (not the mobile version) this should be plug and play, if you are getting the version that includes FL Studio Fire Edition then you may have to do a bit a messing around to get everything registered and up and running (20 mins tops). Once plugged in it is a dream, ties in really well with FL Studio and so many things can be done from the Fire without breaking your flow to reach for mouse/keyboard. Initially disappointed that it doesn't work with FL Studio mobile (which was what I was used to) but the Desktop app is probably a lot more powerful and hasn't taken long to get used to. Sexy piece of kit, I love it.

Feels well built. Works fine with FL studio. Loving it!

skills req. ease of use related to existing nav. I bought by research and my way of learning. I like a physical connection with my music. prod as well as screen.price very inexspensive for the quality of build. build strong.recommend older benniner/ iniates would suit well.image-line good developer plenty of shelf life.

Bought this to use with Bitwig, by using the Driven By Moss script, and it works very well. The hardware itself is good up to a point, but you can tell why it costs under £100. In fact, I wouldn't pay more than £100 for this to be honest. The pads are a kind of velocity sensitive, but nowhere near the sensitivity of a Launchpad X's pads. Probably why there's a big price gap between the two. If you expect to do nuanced finger drumming on these you will be disappointed. Light to medium taps end up around 30-50 percent velocity, and hard / firm taps around 100 percent. I'd suggest setting the velocity to a fixed value & just tweak it manually afterwards. Transport buttons are nice to have but are super-clicky, and feel cheap. As do all the other buttons. The knobs do their job fine though. All in all, if Akai did a v2 with better quality buttons & more responsive pads then I'd gladly pay over £100 for it, as its enjoyable to use as long as you know the limitations.

If you have FL Studio it is absolutely amazing. I tried to get it to work on BitWig and Abelton and it works after a fashion but I found it frustrating to set up. It is however Brilliant and well worth the effort in getting it to work on other DAWS! For the price you cannot go wrong!

I was struggling to develop a way to perform live, until this thing. I think it is great. You can use this as a launchpad, as a keyboard and a sequencer. Buttons are a bit mushy and hard to press so it's awkward to use at first. But It's easy to use once you get used to pressing harder then usual.

Mine came without the promised software so I returned it. It did work with Free Linux alternative software though.

My son loves this item. He is making he's own music. There's alot of different settings & sounds. For beginners to advanced. If you are interested in music, which he is & doing @ college, a great item to have.