ARTURIAKeyLab 61 mk3 White — 61 Key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller with Analog Lab Pro Software Included

I upgraded from the KeyLab Essential mk3. The different is TOO good to be true. I am so glad I upgraded as the essential feels like a cheap/toy keyboard honestly, while this one feels like a premium synth.

Two improvements important to me:1) Keyboard Action is much more consistent white to black keys. MkII had me always hitting higher volecity on black keys.2) Aftertouch is more useable for me using customized Response Curve the Mk3 allows.Fewer pads (12 vs 16 for mkII) but I use for switching articulations, so 12 is fine for me. I like the new look, screen and control knob. The excellent Pitch and Mod Wheel are unchanged.

Took me four years to get this and is well worth the wait

Since my DAW doesn't integrate super well yet (ever?... Studio One), I haven't tested the Arturia VST integrations a whole lot. What little I did was pretty glitchy in my DAW.But it's still four stars because I didn't even buy it for that purpose. What I needed was the maximum # of full sized, reasonably playable keys that could fit in the space I have available for a controller. I also needed it to be slim, because I find it really distracting to be reaching up 4 inches to the keys. A lot of small, full-size keys controllers are just too fat that way.If that's something important to you, you'll be glad to know that the surface of the keys on this unit is about 1 3/4" from the desktop.So the whole thing looks and feels sleek. A lot of us creatives are very distracted by 'ugly,' and a bit inspired by beautiful hardware. There is zero ugly here.The play experience is pretty good. I've been using real pianos and fully weighted digital pianos for a pretty long time now, so synth/semi-weighted action doesn't feel "right" to me, but it is good enough for my purposes.A word about the interface. If you're like me, you'll be initially confused by the 'Back' button. It only goes back in certain contexts and for a lot of others you have to hit Program. So navigation is a bit quirky until you get used to it. I have sent my feedback to Arturia and they were warmly responsive. The gist: people expect a 'back' button to take them to wherever they just were in all contexts. Hopefully we see that smoothed out a bit in a future firmware update.But it's really not a problem for me since I usually just turn it on, hit the main encoder to go into DAW mode and start playing (after running the appropriate software of course).

Great purchase

Fantastic MIDI controller. This is my first Arturia product and I am very impressed. The build quality is fantastic and extremely solid. The software that is included gives you a well rounded selection of synth sounds and effects and the inclusion of Ableton Lite is a nice touch. I did end up picking up more synths and upgraded Ableton but that was more due to personal enthusiasm than the bundled software lacking in any way. Pick this up - you won't regret.

I bought this to use as a MIDI controller for my computer's DAW. On opening the box, there is printed instructions to go to a specific Arturia website address for setup guide. The printed web link on the box didn't not exist. I was able to just go to the Arturia website support area and download the manual and the supporting configuration software called MIDI control center. First thing I did was attempt to upgrade the firmware through this app. It became stuck at 75%. I had to force quit the app, which bricked the KeyLab. I then tried reloading the firmware a second time and that time it did work. Whew. Then when making assignments for a User mode on the Arturia MIDI Control Center, it froze. I had to go to the Mac Activity Monitor to see it was in an endless loop and then force close the application. This continued for several times until I rebooted my computer and that seemed to resolve it. So I pressed on configuring the KeyLab. This was straightforward and on a positive note, very flexible. I also loaded the Logic Pro configuration from Arturia and this worked great in allowing the KeyLab to communicate with Logic Pro. The final issue I had was that any movement of the modulation wheel on the KeyLab resulted in a random flurry of MIDI CC messages to Logic Pro that would eventually settle down if I didn't touch the wheel for about 5 seconds or so. I am guessing the potentiometer in the modulation wheel was defective and sending spurious data to the KeyLab board. I was able to circumvent this by turning off the wheel in the MIDI Control Center and use a fader instead for CC#1. After going through all of this, I decided that I really had lost confidence that the hardware and software was of good quality and had been throughly tested. It is sad, the keyboard controller looks nice, does everything in functionality that I wanted. But I decided to return the unit for a refund and will choose another product instead.

Arturia KeyLab 61 mk3 has solid construction and high-quality finishes and is equipped with a decent semi-weighted keyboard. Integration with Analogue Lab Pro is fantastic, slim and compact layout, tons of customization options. The keyboard is tethered to your DAW and can’t be used stand-alone without a laptop. The browser functionality allows for quickly scanning through types, instruments, genres and banks of presets, with a visual representation of the instrument themselves via the color screen.