Arturia Keystep 37 Reviews

A premium product

Easy to use, the functions are logically grouped. Controls are excellent quality, as is the keybed. The keybed actually feels like the one on Minifreak which is amazing. The bottom of the keyboard is metal and adds to the overall quality and rigidity. I think this is the best for 3 octaves mini keys, unless you need the capabilities of keystep pro which is much more expensive.

C'est ce qu'il vous faut.

Si vous êtes à la recherche d'un séquenceur/ARP/contrôleur CV pour un modulaire ne chercher pas plus loin il est parfait.

Il est aussi très bon en utilisation en DAW, et ce malgré qu'il vous faudra un peu chipoter pour bien le faire fonctionner dans le votre.

Not for me

Good device and excellent build quality. The fact that it has an on/off switch is a nice touch.

However I dislike almost everything about it... The most annoying feature is the way all the buttons are blinking hard in your face when activated -- even the octave+/- buttons. In a dimly-lit studio this is infuriating and that's what had me eventually get rid of it.

Also, everything feels difficult. The rotary buttons are hard to move; setting up the device is not obvious; nothing quite works the way you'd expect and reading the manual is necessary.

It's not trying to be invisible, as a controller should IMHO; instead it's trying very hard to get noticed. It gets in your way.

Surprisingly powerful

Weeks later and I'm still discovering new features. Getting started is easy, but you can get lost in it's features. Highly recommend for anyone needing a sequencer.

Arturia is quality!

The Arturia Keystep 37 is a high quality USB Controller that feels great to the touch as soon as you take it out the box. The keyboard is packed with a lot of great features, you're gonna love it if you pair it with an analog synth.

Having said that, I was looking forward to assign some knobs to control some parameter in my DAW and it's not meant for that, it's mainly geared for someone that already has an analog synth already, so that's the only reason I gave it 4 stars. Other than that, I highly recommend it!

hmm hmm

I was skeptical about Arturia products. But I am very glad that midi-controller helped to change my attitude towards them.

Good keyboard. I only wish that i could enable or disable individual inputs and outputs for MIDI and MIDI-USB to avoid feedback loops.

Arturia Keystep 37

Handling : Delivered perfectly

Features : It is by far the best midi keyboard in this form factor. if you are making music with external synths or modular gear it will get you covered for sure. it has a sequence/arp that can do transposing and a lovely chord mode. Full size midi out and cv outs makes it amazing in the department of connectivity :)

Quality : Plastic upper body is sturdy and metal lower body adds weight overall great build quality. Keys feel nicely weighted and knobs are smooth

Total : After Arturia minilab mk2 this was an amazing upgrade I really love this keyboard and use it day to day

an excellent little keyboard

I bought this mostly for the size. As far as I can see there are very few compact, three octave MIDI controllers around, and most smaller controllers have those silly tiny keys whereas this has somewhere a little larger which makes playing much nicer. It is comfortable to play, with enough resistance to allow expression when used with something sensitive to velocity.

The overall build quality seems excellent and nothing stood out as wrong or odd. I have removed one star for features due to the fact that there seems to be no way to dim the LEDs behind the buttons, and I find this quite distracting and uncomfortable in darker rooms as the lights are really quite bright!

One other thing, which may be changeable via some settings that I have not been able to find, is that if used for sending pitch voltage it seems that the higher voltage cutoff is a little badly placed with the keys. If I am in the middle of the keyboard's ranger then I run out of notes when I get to the higher keys, and so if using 1v/octave synths I have to have the controller set an octave lower in order to be able to have adequate playing range. I feel like the voltage range should be set around the middle range of the controller. It's not really a problem (except for meaning I always have to have that octave- LED on when playing synths!).

Honestly I didn't really dig in to the sequencer and arpeggiator a lot as I bought this mostly for playing the keys, but from what I have explored they work perfectly well and the sequencer seems excellent.

No issues with MIDI connectivity, or really anything else that I have not already mentioned. I've had this a few weeks and overall am very happy with it as a compact controller!

Keystep 37

A great product with lots of cool features. The only complaint would be the touchstrips. While they are better than on some other products, a traditional wheel would have been better. Still very much recommended!

my experience

It' s very useful and compact. material feels quality. but it still doesn't have the touch of a grand concert piano. I think the Kontrol A or S Series is more successful in this regard. Another very useful feature is the chord mode.

Especially great for people that do not know chords / scales

The chord mode is great but the Scale mode is the real benefit for me.

It helps me play in key without having to dive into music theory as much. It's easy to switch between scales, just as it is easy to switch between midi scales.

Can highly recommend, both for use with a DAW and for DAWLESS use; the Arpeggiator and sequence mode are great for getting ideas started!

The only flaw is the switch on the back; if you want to change the clock you have to use small pins; i'd rather had a switch or even just a button.

Excellent piece of kit

As an owner of the original Keystep 32 and Beatstep Pro this complements them both because of the display, additional keys, easy MIDI Control Mode, New Arp and the delightful Strum-Chord Mode which brings a new dimension to live play.

All the usual Arturia hardware plus points on build and features.

Chord Mode takes a small bit of getting used to but you soon get the hang of it.

It is a great addition to my ever-expanding home studio

Absolutely great, the keys are not bad either.

I love this midi keyboard. I have a Minilab mk2 already, which serves it's purpose, but this one was much better for me as a companion to Volcas, NTS-1, whatever you want to externally control without going through a usb midi-din converter.

37 keys is very nice to, and as a traditional pianist the keys are not too bad either. Of course I would prefer full size and weighted keys, but then I would have bought something else. This is perfect for what it does, and still playable. Some of the better mini-keys I have played.

This does take some time to figure out, with the sequencing and strumming functions, and some messing around, but it honestly does not take too long to figure most of it out.

Nice and sturdy

Use:

Easy to setup. Works well with Ableton Live and as a standalone sequencer.

Pros:

price, build quality, ease of use

Cons:

none

Unit screams quality. Build quality especially. Knobs are solid, included cables are nice, and I enjoy built-in arpeggiator and sequencer already.

It will take time to get used to smaller keys but boy I am going to have fun with this input device. Well done Arturia!

Amazing keys

Very good and compact keyboard. Keys feel great, much better than those from the Arturia's KeyLab Essential line: they don't have empty spaces on the front, and also have aftertouch. The keys are smaller, but in this case it's better because the keyboard is more compact. 3 octaves is perfect for me in terms of trade-off between size and flexibility.

Sequencer and arpeggiator are a lot of fun. Not all features are intuitive, so you'll have to read the manual or watch some tutorial videos, but it's not hard.

They also added an on/off switch, and replaced mini-USB with the full-size USB Type-B.

In summary, this is a perfect small keyboard for drafting melodies.