Controller Keyboard Suggestions for DAW

[drawback]

Agreed, it"s difficult buying sight unseen, and having to order in, especially from out of country (or in your case, continent)! I feel your pain. You"re gonna have to follow your gut, or take a chance on the advice offered. Best of luck with whatever you decide, Mike.

[Mike Warren]

That's basically what I'm doing. Getting some opinions and then making the best decision I can come up with. Whatever I do, it will be a compromise.

 

One of the top contenders is the NI Komplete Kontrol 88 MK2, which isn't going to be available until some time in September, so I'm making that event a hard deadline to bite the bullet.

[o0Ampy0o]

Narrow it down to 3, buy all of them, try them and compare them, keep one or none and return the ones you don't like within the return window.

 

Although the budget is not a huge concern, I do object to throwing money away. The stores here typically charge a 20% restocking fee if they they will take it back at all. Also, they don't refund the cost of the freight, even if it was free freight since it did actually cost them. If the product or packaging is not pristine they may not take it back at all.

 

There is no legal obligation to take it back at all unless it's faulty, in which case they would supply a replacement.

 

Paying more for a good fit may be hard to swallow but it goes down easier than paying for a bad fit.

 

Of course this plan would have to take into account the store(s) policy.

 

It is a viable option if there are accessible sources whose policy leaves room for this (at least pre-Covid it existed in the USA), you have no other way to get your hands experienced and the expense justifies these things in your subjective outlook.

[Mike Warren]

I may have a compromise I can live with, or at least be on my way to it.

 

I visited my local musical instrument store today to spend some time on the Juno DS88 they have in the showroom. I wanted to see if its keyboard was going to give my hands problems. After an hour playing it my hands were no more tired/sore than if I was playing my Forte. The action is certainly more like a piano than my forte. I really liked the feel of the action. I couldn't connect with the sounds at all, not that it matters too much since I'm looking for a controller. I understand the keybed is the same as the A88 MK2.

 

Then I noticed a Arturia Keylab MK2 61 box in the corner and asked if that was an actual Keylab MK2 61, since they didn't have it listed on their web site. Turns out it had only recently arrived into stock and hadn't been put on the website yet.

 

The shop is happy to give me a credit on it for something else if I don't like the Keylab and haven't registered it, so I purchased it.

 

I'll put it through its paces tonight to see if I can control the action better than the Keylab Essential. A couple of hours should tell me if I'm going to keep it.

[Mike Warren]

Incidentally, I opened a support ticket with Arturia about the stuck notes problem with the Essential. They seemed surprised about it doing that as a firmware update a while back was supposed to have fixed it. They told me to try a factory reset, which I'm skeptical would fix a problem like that.

 

So before I did the reset I thought I'd try some more diagnosis, since I haven't used the Essential for a while. I connected it to my laptop and could not get it to fail at all. So I moved it back to my studio computer and it also worked properly. That was several days ago and has not played up since. Previously it was very easy to get one or more notes to stick. Just mash the keyboard and it would be 99% likely to happen.

 

Unfortunately, I hadn't confirmed the fault on my studio computer before I moved it to the laptop, so my best guess is that it was a USB issue that has been fixed by a driver update at some point.

 

Anyway, I'm no longer concerned about Arturias getting stuck notes.

[drawback]

Hooray! Glad to hear you"ve brought home the Keylab MkII 61.

 

Please set this thread to rest with your conclusions, if only just to satisfy my own curiosity (and perhaps ego).

[Mike Warren]

Please set this thread to rest with your conclusions, if only just to satisfy my own curiosity (and perhaps ego).

 

Well, the keybed is miles ahead of the Essential. Semi-weighted, although, IMO just barely. It's a little trickier to play accurate velocities on the pp end of the scale than on a hammer action, but not unworkable. I played for a couple of hours last night, most of which was using Austrian Grand, and I had enough control to be satisfied with it. Also, no stuck notes. I did have to adjust what I played somewhat because of running out of notes, but I still have the Forte available when I need it.

 

The integration with Cubase is much better than the Essential too.

 

So, yes, I think it's a keeper. I'll play with it again tonight to be sure, and on the weekend I'll build a slide-out drawer for it under the desk.

[Mike Warren]

I made the tray under the desk over the weekend.

 

 

[miden]

I made the tray under the desk over the weekend.

 

 

 

Nice work on your studio Mike, I recall the "construction" thread you created

[Mark Schmieder]

The table I bought for my computer years ago, had a tray that I was too cheap to buy at the time, then it became unavailable later on. Grr. Good to see you found one for your own table, at least!

[Mike Warren]

The table I bought for my computer years ago, had a tray that I was too cheap to buy at the time, then it became unavailable later on. Grr. Good to see you found one for your own table, at least!

 

I "found" it by making it myself.

[bill5]

Has anyone played the Roland A88?

$1000+ for a MIDI controller with no on-board transport controls? No and safe to say I never will. How ridiculous IMO.

 

Glad you found one that worked for you! I'm still looking but this thread helped.

[Jorf88]

I visited my local musical instrument store today to spend some time on the Juno DS88 they have in the showroom. ... I understand the keybed is the same as the A88 MK2.

 

I know you already got a different keyboard, but just for archival sake, I'll point out that the Juno DS88 and the A88 MK2 do not have the same key bed. The A88 mk2 uses the PHA-4 standard, the same as the FP10/30/60 (and X versions), as well as the RD88. The Juno DS88 uses the Ivory Feel-G keybed.

I was lucky enough to find a Juno DS88 set up racked right above an RD88 at my local Guitar center so that I could go back and forth for ~1 hour.

I concluded that the Ivory Feel-G keybed on the Juno was both lighter and faster. I like it more, even though the PHA-4 is supposed to be the technically superior keybed. I own an FP90 so I was already familiar with their PHA-50 keybed (superior to both of those mentioned above, but $$$).

 

 

Glad to hear you like the Arturia. I'm in a relatively similar predicament to you and I've been searching for a new board to go on my desk (FP90 won't fit). This thread has been somewhat helpful, except that I've tried an Arturia Keylab in the past and I didn't care for it. My search continues.

[Mike Warren]

This thread has been somewhat helpful, except that I've tried an Arturia Keylab in the past and I didn't care for it. My search continues.

 

Was it a MK2? The difference between the 49/61MK2 and the 49/61 Essential is massive.

[Jorf88]

This thread has been somewhat helpful, except that I've tried an Arturia Keylab in the past and I didn't care for it. My search continues.

 

Was it a MK2? The difference between the 49/61MK2 and the 49/61 Essential is massive.

 

It was indeed a keylab 61 mk2. As far as I've been told, the keybed in the Keylab Mk2 (the real one) is directly from the Matrix Brute, so it's supposed to be fantastic.

Granted, it was in a used gear room at a SamAsh nearly a year ago... I was testing it side-by-side with a Novation SL49 mk3.

I thought the keys on the keylab felt hollow, and very much synth-style and not remotely into the "semi weighted" category that they're advertised as.

I preferred the action of the Novation, but I thought that the price did not justify it because I still didn't love it, either.

 

The best feeling semi-weighted keybed that I've ever touched was an Alesis VI61, but that feeling unfortunately didn't translate to actually playing it. Its velocity curves are not good and the black keys are significantly more sensitive (and there's no way to fix it)... to the tune of using gram weights to produce a MIDI velocity of ~80 would result in a ~120-125 on the black keys, tested at multiple of its velocity curves. I can deal with a little inconsistency, but not that much.

That being said, I've never gotten the chance to touch a Nord, or anything with a TP/40L. Based on what I've read, I think I would really enjoy a TP/40L.

 

What I'm after is essentially a hammer-action that is extremely light (and thus probably not graded). I just like the way that hammer actions feel... like I can make a small finger movement and the energy that my finger has pressed down is translated into (real world) velocity in something that has real weight (and therefore inertia).

I really dislike feeling the springs constantly pressing up on my fingers with synth-style actions.

 

My big restrictions are size, because of how my desk is laid out. My speakers are in the rear corners on qacoustics stands, so I have more depth in the middle, which is awkward. If it's an 88 key, it can't be deeper than ~13" (and I'd prefer it more slim than that).

I long for the day when I can move to a different place and have a bigger office so I can finally get a bigger desk... but that day has not yet come, so space is my biggest constraint.

 

My fallback is a Yamaha p-121, but I'd really hoped to find something that had octave shift buttons. I use them a lot for maintaining good posture at my desk so that I'm not awkwardly leaning when working on a tuba line or a flute line etc. (primary use is tooling around with VI orchestral composition)

 

I use a Korg Nanokontrol2 for sliders and I'm perfectly happy with it. My current midi keyboard is a Nektar panorama T6 and I'm considering lighting it on fire when I replace it because I hate its keybed THAT much. (it's actually in pristine condition, so hopefully I'll get some cash for it).

[LarsHarner]

Hello, (did a search on Arturia to revisit this). I purchased a KeyLab MKII in June- I have it next to my Nautilus for when I don't feel like being at a computer. So far I really like it- I find for a midi Controller the keybed to be decent BUT- I was in Sam Ash in NYC a few months ago and they had the 88 MKII on display and I thought that one had a very good action.

 

What I like about it is transport controls and volume sliders for 8 tracks and the master for Presonus Studio One. It came with Analog Lab 5 and Piano V. I sometimes have to tweak Piano 5 to add EQ for my headphones/interface. Analog 5 has a lot of presets so I won't upgrade to V Collection .

 

The other sounds I use it for are Addictive Keys, Toontrack EZ Drummer (can play kit on the pads), and Rowdy Bass which came with Presonus- Presonus issued UVi grand so I also use UVI retro organ, as Analalog 5 has around 30 B3 sounds in it .

 

It was worth the $468 as it's great for my workflow and fits on my small space.