What I bought?

[Serge_ml]

Hello.
I wonder what did I buy?
Recently I bought Arturia Minilab 3.
From the name it became clear that it should be more powerful than a generic midi keyboard.  Really, as midi keyboard it works fine. But what does Lab mean?

I read the manual on the MIDI Control Center. There is a long explanation how to open the control center and make various sorts of settings there. But at the same time, the keyboard is not connected to any music program (except MCC) and is simply silent.
It is completely unclear what result the changes in the settings give and why they should be done.
Can someone tell me what is the use of this?

[DrJustice]

The ML 3 is a controller, which can be connected to both hardware and software -synths. The MIDI Control Center software is not for generating sound, only for managing the settings and presets of many of the Arturia controllers and synths.

The ML 3 comes with a software bundle which includes Analog Lab Intro, Model D and The Gentleman. If you download and install those, you can play their sounds. You can also play any synth plugins running in your DAW  - if you don't have one yet, the ML3 bundle includes Ableton Lite Live. The ML 3 with its software bundle is all you need to get started with playing and recording.

To get the software in the bundle, you need to create an account and register your ML3 at the Arturia website, then the downloads will be available.

[Serge_ml]

Thank you DrJustice

Thanks for your reaction. Everything is not so bad.
Of course, I already created a login and downloaded all the programs, but I still don't know how to use these settings. They must somehow affect the synthesizers, but now I can only play the melody in my DAW.
Only on the keyboard because the pads are silent. So I started studying MCC.
I still don't understand how all these knobs and pads work, moreover, why change the settings?
Well, about the pads, I think that they are drums.
Maybe there are examples somewhere?

[Serge_ml]

Got it. For stupid people like me, you should have just given this link:
Overview - A first look at MiniLab 3's new features and workflow
https://www.arturia.com/products/hybrid-synths/minilab-3/resources