Arturia KeyLab mk3 Review

By Nate [KVR] on August 28th, 2024

Arturia, after introducing the Keylab Essentials mk3 in 2023 with a number of revisions to the design language and philosophy, along with its 88-key variant in early 2024, has now launched the long awaited KeyLab mk3. With the Essential line up representing their more budget offerings, the Keylab mk3 kicks things up a notch with a premium build and feature set. The available Keylab mk3 variants include the 49 key for €449 and 61 key for €549, both with a choice of black or white colour ways (our review unit was the black 61 key). By comparison, the Essential mk3 can be picked up for €199 and €249 for the 49 and 61 key versions respectively. No word on the 88 key as yet, although if the release window of the Essentials series can be used as a guideline, you could expect it to make an appearance early next year.

Design and Build Quality

At first glance, the design language is very similar to the Keylab Essential series, with the obvious addition of a colour LCD screen, an extra row of pads (albeit one row less than its predecessor, the mk2), an all-aluminium body, real wood side panels and overall more premium feel on the knobs, buttons, wheels and sliders. Everything feels smooth, sturdy, and solid with satisfying feedback on keys, button clicks, pads and more. Arturia has mentioned that special care was taken when designing the keybed, and it definitely shows. The keys feel luxurious to play and are incredibly quiet. They have a fantastic feel as far as synth style keys go, and despite being only semi-weighted, feel stiff enough, with enough heft, that piano players will feel right at home. Although not polyphonic, aftertouch is also included. It is one of the most satisfying keybeds in this class that I have used in recent memory and is definitely a key selling point for the Keylab MK3. The body in general is incredibly sturdy, and, considering this would most likely be the centrepiece of a desk setup for many a home music producer, the extremely compact form factor and low profile is a plus. For comparison, the Keylab mk3 is 14 cm shorter compared to my Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol 61 mk2, and about 1.5 cm less in height, making it feel significantly smaller. The wooden end panels, although purely cosmetic are a nice touch and the matte finish on the body looks great. The only gripe I had with the black version that we were sent, is that the glossy display section, while attractive, is a total fingerprint magnet. The white version could perhaps be a better choice then in this regard. Connectivity is adequate too. You won’t find any options for modular gear via CV, but there is MIDI I/O, a USB C connection to your computer and a wealth of pedal inputs for sustain, expression and aux input. The device is bus powered but an optional 12v port is also available (no power adapter was provided with the unit however).

Customisation and Settings

I was impressed by how much flexibility Arturia has included here in terms of the user programs and the tweakability of various settings for the controller. There are three program types, the Artura Control default, the DAW Control default, and User Control programs, of which there are six slots.  Each program has their own unique settings applied, so it’s easy to switch between different use cases and sets of preferences. There are detailed velocity response curves, limiters and sensitivity settings for the keybed and aftertouch, pad sensitivity settings, control mapping and customisation of the LEDs and much, much more. User assignable buttons, knobs, pads and faders can be set up directly on the hardware using the very capable LCD screen (although the very convenient MIDI control centre app can be used too). There is a lot of flexibility too in terms of routing options for MIDI signals and the ability to bypass the MIDI FX as well. With this kind of flexibility, the KeyLab mk3 can easily fill the role as a central part of your studio setup, and then hit the road and drive your live rig as well at a moment’s notice.

Creative Tools

The now seemingly obligatory chord, scale and arp functions are all present here on the mk3. As a reasonably adept keyboard player, I rarely turn on chord and scale functions on my controller, although I do see the benefit of including these. They work as expected, turn them on with a click, long press to edit the chords. There is everything you could need here, with an option to define user chords. The strum percentage option is a nice touch too. Scales are easy to dial in as well. The arp on the other hand is a lot of fun. Arturia have borrowed a number of ideas from the sequencer and arp section of their Pigments virtual synthesiser and implemented them into the hardware. There are plenty of modes including a random and poly modes, the usual gate, swing and octave options, and then a page of randomisation options including the ability to dial in trigger and skip probabilities, randomisation of gate lengths, octave, velocity and divisions, as well as ratcheting. It’s a lot of fun to play with, and since it is handled on the hardware itself, transmits MIDI via the midi out and can also be synced via the USB connection or the MIDI input, making it easy to record performances with the possibility of driving hardware synths too.

Installation and Integration

Setup is a simple affair. Required drivers, editors and bundled software can easily be registered and installed via Arturia’s Software Center. As mentioned, three different controller modes are available including one integrating with Arturia software, one for DAW control with Integration provided out the box for Cubase, Logic, Ableton, FL Studio and Bitwig, in addition to the 6 user memory slots. Switching can be done via the menu buttons above the LCD, or via a simple push of the ‘Prog’ key and a tap on the relevant drum pad that lights up. I found it very fluid to jump between the various roles I had assigned for the controller. On the DAW front, I tested Bitwig (V0.6 of the Bitwig Extension) and the functionality was well implemented, if not a little basic in some respects. It is very much the same experience you’ll get with the Essential mk3. The DAW mode consists of device and mixer profiles which can easily be switched. I do wish they had provided a means to switch remote control banks though, as well as change the focus of devices. The knobs were always assigned to the current banks of 8 RC values, with the sliders assigned to the next 8, although changing this requires a mouse click rather than a dedicated button on the controller. Slider and knob 9 is always assigned to the current track volume and panning which is useful, and track selection is easy using the main rotary encoder. Otherwise, arming, recording, muting, soloing and launching clips is a fairly fluid process. The feedback from the touch capacitive controls results in a pop up on the display to let you know what parameter the current fader, knob or pad is mapped to and track information is displayed clearly on the display.

Sounds and Software

The MK3 ships with a solid software bundle, including Analogue Lab Pro, Augmented Strings, Mini v4, Piano V3 and Rev Plate 140. Ableton Live Lite, a 2-month Loopcloud subscription and 40 lessons from Melodics are thrown in as well. Purchased separately, the software exceeds the cost of the controller itself and represents amazing value for money. Analogue Lab Pro is the star of the show here. The control integration is extremely well implemented via the dedicated ‘Arturia Program’ mode and is a joy to use. The experience feels very much like their flagship Astrolab keyboard, but is obviously 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 and banks of presets, with visual representation of the instrument themselves via the colour screen. Analogue lab has matured much over the years and contains a ton of very usable and inspiring patches, all very neatly tagged and categorised. Pairing it with the KeyLab is a fantastic way to discover Arturia’s growing library of sounds and create favourites at the touch of a button and if you are a regular user of their virtual instruments, you’ll appreciate the convenience of having every one of the 2000+ included presets pre-mapped and ready to play. The same functionality also applies to other Arturia software, so if you are for example, a Pigments user, you'll enjoy the same browser functionality and convenience of pre-mapped controls.

Conclusions

The KeyLab mk3 is a solid investment for any studio and ticks pretty much all the boxes of what a pro-grade MIDI controller should be. It is uncomplicated, intuitive, responsive, and most importantly, built like a tank. If you do pull the trigger and pick one up, I have no doubt it will keep you happy for a very long time.

Availability and Pricing:

The KeyLab mk3 is available in 49-key and 61-key versions from Arturia, Sweetwater and Thomann.

• KeyLab 49 mk3: €449
• KeyLab 61 mk3: €549

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