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Author Topic: ATTN Keylab owners!  (Read 6686 times)

keybright

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ATTN Keylab owners!
« on: August 30, 2013, 02:50:56 pm »
I'm hoping you can tell me your honest opinion of the Keylab so far?  I'm a potential buyer and cannot find any reviews out there.

I'm interested in the keylab 49 to use with Logic X.

How are the pads?  Compared to other pads you've tried? 
How is the key bed and the aftertouch?

How is integration of pans/faders with 3rd party plug ins and the DAW of your choice? 

I'm between the keylab and akai max49

Thank you for your time.

New Oceans

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Re: ATTN Keylab owners!
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2013, 04:05:57 pm »
Hey man! I just received my KeyLab 49 the other day! First off, I think the board looks sexier than the Max49... But thats just me ;)

The pads on the board are excellent, I suppose they are similar to the ones on the SparkLE? Whatever they are, they rock, easily one of my favorite bits of this board!

The keybed, like on any inexpensive keyboard is debatable. The keys really don't feel like any board I can remember playing. This isn't totally a bad thing, but they are definitely different. As for my opinion? I think the action is fine, it plays perfectly fine at gigs with the keys velocity playing consistently, and for programming at home.

Integration with the DAW/Analog Lab/etc. (in my case, Omnisphere), is solid. Knobs and Faders are actually very sturdy, just like the rest of the board, and are easily assignable.

My one gripe overall, is Analog Lab's semi-consistent crashing. I finally registered on these forums to see if there are any fixes or reasons for it, because the patches are very solid, but I'm just a little afraid to try them live because of the instability.

So! All in all, I really love the board, just hope the software gets a few fixes. I am on Live 9 but I'm certain you will be able to run this solidly from inside Logic X!

Army Of Ninjas

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Re: ATTN Keylab owners!
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2013, 10:18:12 am »
I'm hoping you can tell me your honest opinion of the Keylab so far?  I'm a potential buyer and cannot find any reviews out there.

I'm interested in the keylab 49 to use with Logic X.

How are the pads?  Compared to other pads you've tried? 
How is the key bed and the aftertouch?

How is integration of pans/faders with 3rd party plug ins and the DAW of your choice? 

I'm between the keylab and akai max49

Thank you for your time.

I debated between all the major 49 key boards for quite some time before landing on this one.  I have been playing it for about 2 weeks so far and I love it.  The board is VERY sturdy and everything has a very "hardware" feel to it.

The pads are extremely nice.  I use it with poise for drum programming and I love it to death.  They are backlit and the led's are surprisingly bright.  The screen is good and bright, and so are the bank buttons, octave buttons, etc.

The action is quite nice imho.  I play a lot of synth shred and like it a lot for that.  They have a bit of weight to them but they aren't that heavy.  The feel a lot like my yamaha np30 digi piano but heavier.  I personally like them a lot better than the novations, m-audios, and akais that I have played.  The sheer number of rotary encoders is nice too.

My only gripe is that the pitch bend and mod wheels are a bit too small and placed too closely together.  However, they DO feel quite good to my fingers.  All the knobs and buttons, etc are rubberized and feel very good.  This is a solid feeling board and it doesn't give way even when you finger drum pretty hard.  I've noticed that pad controllers that give way when you play them often f$%^ up your velocities as the board flexes too much while playing.  This is NOT a problem on this board.

On a side note, the board looks great.  The side panels fit my studios look perfectly and the white color and metal construction are great.  I have been loving the board so far.  I only with that you could name the user-presets for midi configs on the board.  Just the number 0-10, sadly.  Maybe this will be patched in an update (I hope I hope I hope).

To me, the action feels a lot better than the akais that I have played, but that is a subjective thing.  See if you can play both and decide for yourself.  I can only tell you about my experience with the board.  But with my limited experience, I can say that I REALLY, REALLY like the board so far.

 

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