u/BeeInABlanket

So, after bootstrapping myself through the extreme basics of poking around in Ardour, I'm feeling like I'm running into the limits of what is reasonable to really do without having a purpose-built MIDI controller. All the general recommendations I've seen seem to revolve around the Arturia Minilab 3, the Novation Launchkey 25 mk4, and the Akai MPK Mini Mk 4.

As best as my research has found...

• The Minilab supposedly has the best keybed. Going price is $120.
• The Launchkey supposedly has the smoothest, most complete DAW integration (including in Ardour) and has 16 pads instead of 8, but the worst build quality of the three and the highest price at $130.
• The MPK Mk4 supposedly has a keybed almost as good as the Minilab's, but with better pads and physical pitch/mod wheels instead of trackpads, and it's the newest and most affordable of the three at $100.

I feel like I can't really factor in the included instrument or DAW software bundles for any of them given that I'd prefer to work with FOSS and avoid the headaches of non-native plugins as much as possible while I'm still learning.

Subjectively, I like the aesthetics of the MPK a bit more than the Minilab, and both quite a lot more than the Launchkey.

So I'm leaning heavily towards the MPK, but the sticking point is that the wording on the MPK's FAQ seems ambiguous as to whether all of its physical features are actually usable as a class-compliant device ("basic functionality is available to smart device users").

I've seen posts of people having to set up custom mappings for the transport buttons in Ardour since it's still relatively new (and frankly I feel like it'll be useful to get comfortable with learning my way around custom mappings anyways), but is there anything about the machine itself that doesn't work as completely in Linux (or Android, for that matter, in case I want to use the thing on my phone) as on macOS or Windows?

If it helps any, I do have a fairly old Windows laptop I keep around mostly to run the software for managing the keybindings and DPI settings for my mouse, so if it's only a matter of needing a spare Windows machine to do firmware updates or to use a config tool to conveniently edit settings without menu diving I've got that option still.