Arturia KeyLab Essential 49 4-stars Reviews

Great keyboard some nasty cons

Pros:

+ The keyboard is of great quality; the keybed and the pads feel great

+ Analog lab is neat, just the software makes this keyboard worth buying

Cons:

- Compatibility is a major issue if you are using FL Studio. I had to install a custom script that someone from ImageLine forum uploaded to Github to get everything to work. This should have been done by the Arturia staff.

-The lights are ALWAYS ON. No way to turn them off without unplugging the keyboard. Waste of energy even if its minimal as well as just annoying.

A great entry keyboard

I was looking for a small keyboard, ideally with knobs and up to 49 keys, and the essential 49 checked everything on my list and even more — faders !

The fact that Analog Lab and Ableton Lite were provided as well was probably the tipping point, it seemed the best "bang for buck" keyboard I could purchase.

If at some point I need another keyboard, I would probably upgrade for weighted keys and a slightly better build quality on knobs but, as a beginner, I'm more than happy with this one.

Overall this is a no brainer if you want knobs / faders, more than two octaves and a great synth library. Plus, the faux-wood finish on a white keyboard looks great — it screams Arturia when you look at it.

Very good product

Despite some integration bugs with Ableton 10, this is an awesome keyboard with high quality finishing and key sensitivity. The additional software included is a great added value.

Good MIDI Controller, lacking some features!

I've bought this MIDI Controller for my home studio setup, mostly to use with Ableton Live.

The design (as with every Arturia product) is outstanding. Quality is also really good, but I'm missing more special functionalities to control the DAW. The actual DAW Command Center section is useless for me since I have Push2.

It would be great if they include the Arpeggiator function the KeyStep has into this controllers.

This midi keyboard is very good for it's price. It even works well in my Ableton Live 9. Midi-mapping also works fine with this keyboard.

The only bad thing with this, is that it takes some time to get going with it and use its functions. I haven't yet figured out how some of the settings works with my Ableton.