Review: Arturia Keylab 49

NUTS & BOLTS

As I alluded to earlier, the KeyLab 49 is startlingly well made. In an era where the majority of synths and keyboards are throwaway plastic affairs, the KeyLab is refreshingly comprised of plate steel and something looking suspiciously like timber, although I suspect it isn’t. Arturia enjoys the odd woody end-cheeky-bits, and the KeyLab range provides such. Due to this olde-worlde construction the 49-note version is heavier than your average plastic model, but, this adds a pile of gravitas to the overall feel of the unit. It’s a keyboard you’d keep in a road case when travelling, and be damned with the weight. Arturia has aimed this at gigging rather than sitting on a desk in the confines of a production workstation all its life, and I’m certain it will withstand the task over and over again. Being a player’s keyboard, it also offers channel aftertouch — such an important modulation source with synthetic sounds.

The top panel sports a healthy menagerie of buttons and sliders, along with 16 velocity-sensitive drum pads (the previous Analog Experience series only had four), and transport controls. The drum pads light up blue when you whack them, which is cool, and can be assigned to play chords. The transport buttons, like all the buttons on the unit give a solid click when prodded, and also light up blue — except for the record button, which lights up red, of course. For rotary tweaking there are 10 continuous pots which can be assigned to anything you like, but in their standard state address all the staples such as filter cutoff, resonance, delay and chorus level etc. There’s also nine 60mm faders. Why nine? Eight and a master, perhaps.

The actual keybed feels quite nice — at least in comparison to typical plastic controller keyboards hovering around in this price bracket. The keys are semi weighted and respond to the lightest touch with velocity levels on ‘1’. One thing I didn’t like was the rebound on the keys. Upon release they tend to wobble about — like that thing kids do with their rulers on school desks. But other than that, at this dollar it’s a damn fine keyboard.

To the back of the KeyLab are three controller inputs for sustain and expression pedals, and an auxiliary input which can be set to any controller number you like (in fact, all three pedal control jacks can be set to any controller). Of interest may be the MIDI out and MIDI in ports. Typically you’d use the KeyLab with your DAW and a USB connection, and the MIDI out port would be used when triggering other hardware via the KeyLab. So what’s the MIDI in for? I asked the same question. The KeyLab units will function as a MIDI interface with your DAW, enabling hookup of, dare I say, ‘classic’ MIDI devices. A nice touch Arturia. If you’re using the KeyLab sans DAW, you can power it using an optional 5V power adaptor, otherwise the unit gleans all its power from the USB connection.

WORTHY

We’ve already established I’m keen on one of these — the 61-note model is exactly what I’m looking for to replace a very tired Korg machine that’s been reliable, up until the last month or so. After looking around I didn’t fancy the feel of the $150-$300 price range in keyboards. They’re all seemingly ‘disposable’. My previous unit, after 26 years is finally beginning to give spurious velocity levels and the odd ‘blank’ note. I’m basically on the hunt for a replacement that will stand the same test of time. I believe the KeyLab will do it. It’s tough as nails, looks good, and it had a good feeling keyboard and a pile of useful ancillary input methods. Plus, like my old Korg unit, sports aftertouch. If you want a solid keyboard, and a very tasty library of analogue sounds thrown in, look no further.