Arturia has announced the availability of KeyLab Essential Black Edition.
Available in both 49 and 61 key versions, KeyLab Essential Black Edition features a high-quality keyboard, backlit performance pads, faders and rotary encoders.
It also features a collection of music software:
- Arturia Analog Lab 3: a collection of over 6,000 keyboard & synth presets from Arturia’s V Collection software suite.
- Ableton Live Lite: an introduction to one of the most popular recording and performing platforms in the world.
- UVI Grand Piano Model D: a sampled Steinway.
Details on KeyLab Essential Black Edition 49 or 61 are available at the Arturia website.
we don´t need yet another controller keyboard. arturia should come up with a high-end keyboard workstation. roland has decided not to build a fantom-g successor. yamaha has decided not to come up with a motif-xf successor. their montage has nothing to do with a workstation because it lacks a sequencer that deserves the name. right now, only korg offers a high-end workstation (kronos). arturia should come up with an alternative.
I understand your objection, but it makes good marketing sense at a time when more multitimbral hardware synths have been appearing. Having a slider for each of up to 8 different patches has some serious potential. I learned on a workstation, so I have mixed feelings about it, because you can now do so much more with a computer. It depends on where you want to apply the most commitment. I’d be sold right away if the keybed was smooth and QUIET to play. Noisy keys really bite. I don’t see hardware workstations making any huge resurgence, because many people don’t want to lean so heavily on that one sonic world. You can partly blame all of the bitchin’ good plug-ins for that one. If Arturia can make a MatrixBrute, they can make a ROMpler-like workstation, but it doesn’t seem like their thing.
From what I gleaned from their brochure page it doesn’t even do any splits or zones for bi/multi-timbral play !
I have to agree. It should offer at least one split and probably two. That seems rather important, even if you’re doing most of your assignments in a DAW.
Can we get a 3-octave variant please? Seems like nobody makes those these days. I’d buy straight away if that were an option!
I’m still waiting for a KeyStep Pro…
Hey Arturia, does it improve the feel of the keys? What’s that? You’re telling me it’s still flimsy, squishy plastic crap with a new color scheme? Yeah, I thought so.
Full size Keystep!