I still think the MPK49 was the right choice for me and am very happy with it. Whether it's better than the Remote SL really depends on your needs. Although I haven't used it, Novation's Automap system is probably really convenient and sounds like a must-have for some people. If you want to be able to control all your soft synth parameters from the hardware, a Novation controller might be the way to go. I know my soft synths pretty well, and I only tend to vary a limited set of parameters for a given piece of music, so I can just map them to any sliders or knobs I feel like for the song at hand. The MPK49's layout made more sense to me and I didn't feel like I needed Automap.
How do I use it? I am mostly using Ableton Live these days, and probably the biggest improvement to my workflow was using the 8 buttons to arm tracks 1-8 for recording so I can switch between different instruments in a multitracked project very easily. I don't know how well this would work in other software. On the MPK I am using the knobs and sliders for FX parameters/automation. I use a separate controller, a UC-33e for track levels, panning, and FX send amounts. Those could be all mapped to the MPK, but you'd need to use multiple banks to control everything and I don't like switching banks. I want each physical control to map to one thing in the software, otherwise it gets too confusing. So there isn't a single controller that provides enough inputs for me, however as far as a keyboard controller goes I'd definitely recommend the MPK49.
Re: How is the MPK49 holding up?
I still think the MPK49 was the right choice for me and am very happy with it. Whether it's better than the Remote SL really depends on your needs. Although I haven't used it, Novation's Automap system is probably really convenient and sounds like a must-have for some people. If you want to be able to control all your soft synth parameters from the hardware, a Novation controller might be the way to go. I know my soft synths pretty well, and I only tend to vary a limited set of parameters for a given piece of music, so I can just map them to any sliders or knobs I feel like for the song at hand. The MPK49's layout made more sense to me and I didn't feel like I needed Automap.
How do I use it? I am mostly using Ableton Live these days, and probably the biggest improvement to my workflow was using the 8 buttons to arm tracks 1-8 for recording so I can switch between different instruments in a multitracked project very easily. I don't know how well this would work in other software. On the MPK I am using the knobs and sliders for FX parameters/automation. I use a separate controller, a UC-33e for track levels, panning, and FX send amounts. Those could be all mapped to the MPK, but you'd need to use multiple banks to control everything and I don't like switching banks. I want each physical control to map to one thing in the software, otherwise it gets too confusing. So there isn't a single controller that provides enough inputs for me, however as far as a keyboard controller goes I'd definitely recommend the MPK49.