Brand new Keylab 61 mk3, all knob encoders failure?

Lab KeyLab
#1

Hi All, I teach Music Technology at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio. We just bought 15 new Keylab 61 mk3 for our labs. In initial testing, the 7-sided-knob encoders fail in Reason 12 or Reason 13 controls? You can assign the control to a virtual knob in the software, however, when you attempt to use it, the control just “jitters” back and forth between MIDI values of 58 to 65 (as read by MIDI Monitor App). Is this a known issue?

The 9 faders do map correctly and output the 0 - 127 value range, as expected.

The keyboards just arrived from Sweetwater today, and I have now confirmed this behavior on the first 2 keyboards I have tested. The firmware on the boards is 1.0.1

As we are upgrading M-Audio keyboards from 2006, we will have to return the 15 keyboards if they are truly faulty.

Any help or tips appreciated.

#2

Update, good news: I have downloaded MCC, the MIDI Control Center.

I updated the firmware to 1.1.1

The knobs on 1.1.1 are working after firmware update & power cycle.

Bad news:
However, the Display says to “Open A DAW”
but opening Reason 12 or Reason 13 does nothing?

The transport buttons do not work. Any more tips?

#3

I have used Settings > Global > to set the DAW to Reason.

However, the transport keys play MIDI notes?

The transport buttons trigger:
Stop triggers A5
Play triggers A#5
Rec triggers B5
Tap triggers nothing
Loop triggers D5
Rewind trigger G5
Forward triggers G#5
Metronome triggers F5

I will continue to search the web for answers.
Thanks in advance for any tips! :slight_smile:

Sad news too: The ‘jittering between 59 and 65 only’ behavior has returned to all 9 knobs on this controller. I believe we will have to return these 15 keyboards to Sweetwater as they are defective for use in our MIDI lab with Reason and Pro Tools.

UPDATE:
Well, if you go to USER 1 the encoders seem to function properly on Firmware 1.1.1

And then you can manually setup the transport buttons to work correctly. And then save the setup in MIDI CONTROL CENTER. It seems to be working through restarts.

Overall, it seems a bit underwhelming with Reason.

And the buttons are impossible to read unless you stand over the keyboard directly OR if they are activated.

With Pro Tools 2023.3 the transport does work if you USE HUI and set it up properly under
Setup > Peripherals > Send from Keylab 61 DAW and Send to Keylab 61 DAW

It’s getting late so I will report back tomorrow evening after a days worth of classes.

Kindest regards & All the Very Best to Arturia and fellow users. :slight_smile: :sunglasses:

#4

Did you also setup Reason to use KeyLab Mk3 as MCU or HUI as directed?

If using Pro Tools, Studio One, Reason or Reaper , there are several “DAW Protocols” available in the KeyLab MK3.
Set the KeyLab mk3 as MCU (Mackie Control Universal) or HUI (Human User Interface) controller in the selected DAW.

That should go back to normal once Reason is setup to use KeyLab Mk3 in MCU or HUI mode.
(it seems to be confusing encoders Absolute and Relative modes)

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#5

Hi Sean, Thanks for the reply.

At least here on my M1 iMac in the lab, I cannot see a way to get HUI mode in Reason’s preferences?

Nowhere in Reason’s 1540 page manual is HUI or MCU mentioned.

However, if you are aware of some M1 Mac tricks with Reason 12/13, I’m all ears.

Thanks again! :slight_smile:

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#6

Ok, that’s because in USER mode, you can decide if you want the encoders to work in Absolute or Relative mode (see screenshot below).
Without a common communication protocol, Absolute is the way to go. (Relative requires the DAW to be setup for it)

In DAW mode, encoders mode defaults to whatever DAW protocol you select, but you also have to setup the DAW to make sure they “speak” the same language.
While DAWs like Ableton Live, BitWig, Cubase, Logic, FL Studio already have dedicated scripts for KeyLab, Reason still uses either MCU or HUI protocols at this time. Therefore, you have to make sure the Reason is setup to use KeyLab Mk3 in either MCU or HUI protocol.

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#7

Great tips on Reason using Mackie Control and MCC!!!

I am VERY SHOCKED that using the MACKIE CONTROL setting in MIDI setup actually worked! Yeah!
And Reason Studios should at least include the MCU acronym in their manual.

Most of the list and even Apple’s MIDI setup are straight from OPCODE STUDIO VISION PRO era of MIDI, circa 1990. I am super amazed it is working.

Solution is:
In MIDI pref > Select Mackie Control in dropdown
THEN use Find and press transport buttons
change Master Keyboard Input to: Separated

I’m so glad I didn’t have to troubleshoot this in front of my students tomorrow!

Thank you again SEAN! :sunglasses:

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#8

Glad you found it!
Usually, in Reason, to setup the controller, you have to:

  • Open Reason “Preferences”.
  • Navigate to the “Control Surfaces” tab.
    There you can either Detect the control surface automatically (if Reason already has a script for it), or Add a control surface manually.

And yes, MCU stands for (Mackie Control Universal)

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