Is minilab 3 a good enough for travel keyboard with laptop?

Lab MiniLab
#1

I just got word that my KeyLab MK3 is not on backorder until some time in October that means likely November before they start shipping here in Canada.

In the mean time, to get me over the hump while I wait, I found a MiniLab3 alpine on sale for 1/3rd off to clear them out. I can live with there being no back keys as I know where they are on the keyboard so that is not an issues.

I am looking for a controller to use with a MacBook while out away from my studio to brainstorm ideas and get some rough compositions into the Logic Pro. Is the minilab able to work with the main Arterial software like Analog Lab Pro and the other instruments. Will it get some of the control surface mapping like the KeyLab gets to its eight encoders and four faders? or is it limited to what ships with it,

Also, I have a Pro-1 desktop synth that has 5pin midi. I see that the minilab does have a midi port on the back, it’s listed as midi out. Does this controller allow you to plug into both the usb-c midi to a DAW like Logic Pro for example, and have a 5pin midi connected to an external synth and allow interaction to both at the same time? wondering for what I am in the studio if I can use this controller with the synth so not to make it redundant

#2

I think the MiniLab 3 is really great for its price and sounds well suited to your needs.

It does have the Analog Lab and DAW integrations like its bigger cousins, as well as five banks of user mappings that you can customize in the MIDI Control Center app and switch between using the Prog pad on the device. It’s pretty flexible!

Yes, you can control your hardware synth with the DIN MIDI port while the MiniLab is connected to your computer. The only limitation that comes to mind is that as far as I know it sends the same MIDI messages to both the USB and DIN outputs, so you’ll need to be sure your hardware and software synths are listening to different MIDI channels to avoid triggering them simultaneously. It’s easy to switch MIDI output channels on the MiniLab 3: just press shift and one of the numbered keyboard keys.

Another nice thing about having the DIN port is that you can use the MiniLab as a MIDI interface if you want to sequence your Pro-1 from your DAW.