Arturia KeyLab Essential 61 Reviews

Great master keyboard

This is what I've been looking for for years.

I use the Keylab in my studio and when I have to travel and compose music on the road. It's reliable, the keys are responsive and feel natural. And it also looks great in the studio.

I use it to control synth modules and a sequencer via midi as well as to play through Arturia's Analog Lab instruments and Vienna Symphonic Lybrary. If I had to buy one more midi keyboard one day, it will be one more of these.

Reasonable quality for the price.

I use this as my main midi keyboard. Having five octaves in a pretty compact keyboard has been great as someone who doesn't have a whole lot of space. The keys are nice, though it's a typical synth keybed. Nothing fancy beyond velocity and release velocity.

I like the layout, lots of faders and pots to map things too. Transport controls are super handy. I can't say I use the pads much though. The programming software is easy to use, and an update within the last year made it not take a few minutes to actually load. Which is nice.

My minor complaint is that the pots move veeeery slowly. It's the same on my keystep pro, so it might be Arturia's thing.

My major complaint is the midi keys sometimes get stuck on. For whatever reason the note-off doesn't get sent. It can be very annoying.

The big thing though is the inclusion of Aturia's analog lab. I think this makes the keylab essential and excellent product overall, especially for those first getting into making music who perhaps don't have as many synths and samples yet.

Very nice quality and features

I needed a midi keyboard for composing and controlling my VSTs. This keyboard not only has a nice feel but has all the controllers and faders needed. And I like that the design is sleek and nice as well. Thumbs up!

Unimpressed by the keys and pads, but SOFTWARE VALUE!

Overall good keyboard with good functions. Extremely good software value!!! That's really the best thing about it to be honest. Weightless keys are really not pleasant to play. They don't have enough force to bounce back well like good synth keys, but they don't stay down enough to feel like weighted keys either. Just overall not the best key experience. Pads are also underwhelming. Sensitivity to low velocity hits is quite bad. I've found that my AKAI MPK mini keys are better. All the controls are pretty good, do the job, and work great with analog lab. I wish i just got the smaller version of this to use with all the arturia plugins, and got a 61 keys standalone keyboard with better keys to play.

lovely arturia

nice and clean sound, perfetcly conditions.

Best option for start

Not the best quality or features, but still good keyboard with awesome plagins

Depending on your goal

If you want to play keyboard as a musician, I wouldn't recommend it. The keys are light and cheap, I dislike a lot the black keys, when playing they give almost no feedback. I definitly advice if you want to play piano/keyboard to go for a better keybed and keys.

Incredible for creative flow

Had my eye on this keyboard for my home studio after using a cheaper 25 midi keyboard for far too long. It's addition has had a huge impact of ease on my creative process and keeps me inspired.

Pros:

It's insanely lightweight. So if willing to invest in a quality, case portability won't be a back sore.

If you're big into Arturia VSTs this works very smoothly for filter & ADSR adjustment, easy to go through presets. For Abelton users being able to have mild control of the session if you find yourself recording down anything helps flow without pauses and speeds the process up ever so slightly, though best designed for live use.

Cons:

Though the quality is exceptional for the price, I do feel the keys could be a bit more heavyweight. Comfortable to play but would the feel just doesn't compare to piano keys.

Aware the Keylab MK11 accommodates to this (though double the price), the range of outputs is a bit small. Besides this this controller perfect for the electronic artist's home studio or live use. Well worth every cent.

Quick and fast way to produce

Quick and fast way to produce music.

Love it!

My favorite midi keyboard controller

This is by far my favorite midi keyboard controller. Nice build quality and has all the essential features for me.

Best budget Midi Keyboard on the market

Was really happy with this keyboards integration with my DAW and with the included Analog lab software. Was looking for something to replace my axiom 49 and much prefer the keys on this. 10/10