It seems you’re having more problems than the rest of us, based on your description…
But if it is about the notes being produced with random delays, it can be improved (not fully fixed) by setting maximum value of the sustain pedal to 126 instead of 127 (only possible when pedal is set to “control” rather than “switched control”). This won’t light up the “Hold” button, and will help at least with this specific issue.
Please contact Arturia via their website to explain the problems you have with the keyboard. The more of us get in touch with them, the more chances we have to see a solution someday…
Contacted tech support. Their suggestions so far are to reset unit to factory specs, and reinstall 1.1.1 firmware which has not solved anything. MIDI monitor shows no MIDI activity when I depress the sustain pedal that I have used successfully with my KeyLab mk2. As others have stated, this is rather HUGE issue that has gone on
The Native Instruments S88 Mk3 is looking better and better…I can get around not having all the controls, as I use Gig Performer for live performances. From what I understand, the Fatar action is superior as well. I really think this issue goes way beyond a technical support fix around. I need fully operational sustain control, Fortunately, I have my Yamaha P-525 digital piano for a temporary band aid. My eyes are glues to this thread. Anyone know if any other topics exist on this problem?
I wish there were many more discussions online about this problem, to force Arturia to fix it.
I bought the Keylab 61 mk3 specifically for live performances, and so far it’s not only been a waste of money, but an absolutely insane waste of time troubleshooting, contacting tech support etc. This issue has cause major delays in my ability to prepare for gigs.
Looking at alternatives for you, the Kontrol S88 mk3 is certainly a good option.
If you don’t need aftertouch, the Roland A-88 mkII is a fantastic keyboard. It has 8 pads and 8 knobs (I wish they were endless encoders) on the side above the pitch-bend stick (this was designed to save space in a studio environment). It also has 3 pedal inputs, which is enough for most players. The feel of the keyboard is very subjective, but it’s the best fully weighted action I’ve ever played in this category of keyboards. I’ve had mine for a few years now and it’s super solid. The A-88 mkII was even good enough for Tony Banks on the last Genesis tour.
Yes they’ve sent me the same template earlier today. My previous email to them said explicitly to escalate the issue to the technicians because it needed to be investigated and not just treated with a standard response. And what did they do? They replied with a standard response…
One possibility is a scenario I’ve actually encountered in another context… Maybe the programmer who created the firmware has left Arturia at some point after version 1.1.1 was released, and none of the programmers that are left can figure out how to fix things… And then everyone’s totally screwed. That sort of stuff can very easily happen.
In addition to my keylab 3 88 (I already reported having the same troubles as everone here) I own a MiniLab 3. Since it also has a HOLD Button and an external Input for a Hold-Pedal I wondered how MiniLab 3 would handle the same issue …
And - surprise - MiniLab 3 works perfect, but with another approach:
the HOLD-Button is NOT connected to the sustain Pedal. The functionality is as described in the manual - BUT no connection to EXT Hold!
the EXT Hold Pedal triggers as expected:
In: B0 40 00 | Ch 1 CC 64 - Sustain
In: B0 40 7F | Ch 1 CC 64 - Sustain
with NO delay!!!
So my recommendation to Arturia Developers would be:
IMPLEMENT THE SAME FUNCTIONALITY AS IN MINILAB 3 - and everything would be fine.
Just sent Arturia technical support 3 separate short videos of a Korg, Yamaha and Roland sustain pedals MIDI information recorded by MIDI Monitor. I’m guessing that his response is going to be to download 1.1.1 again, restore my mk3 to factory again, all of which I’ve already done. I really hope this gets addressed very soon, as even though though I love the 3’s upgraded action, I’ll be forced to return it and take a closer look at the NI S88 mk3.
Contacted tech support. Their suggestions so far are to reset unit to factory specs, and reinstall 1.1.1 firmware which has not solved anything.
Yes they’ve sent me the same template earlier today. My previous email to them said explicitly to escalate the issue to the technicians because it needed to be investigated and not just treated with a standard response. And what did they do? They replied with a standard response…
Add me to the list of frustrated users experiencing the same sustain pedal issues,
I’ve just sent through my support request and have explicitly asked for them to provide me a different solution and not to suggest resetting the device or applying any templates.
I’m not holding my breath, but fingers crossed.
I wont repeat any of the above information, and have spent the last week or two trying various work arounds (though we really shouldn’t have to).
Though, I will say that the closest I have come to mitigating the issue (in DAW mode) is to use the Aux pedal port and set the max send value as low as a specific software instrument will allow it to go before it stops registering as a sustain signal. Of course, this is by no means a sustainable (no pun intended) practice, as constantly making changes to the send values really hinders one’s workflow.
Otherwise, even in Switched Control mode, something is happening in the devices internal logic that’s causing that latency that everyone has described.
I agree, it makes playing with a pedal a very poor experience.
Reposting as I’ve re-written this to be more clear.
Hi all,
After a lot of testing, I have found a workaround that has completely eliminated the sustain pedal issues for me.
This write up will specifically address set up in DAW mode using the AUX input, as DAW integration is one of the main reasons most of us bought this controller, and we are all familiar with the sustain pedal input on the Arturia trying to emulate a continous pedal by sending all the values between 0 and 127 to the DAW on each pedal use.
The same settings I cover below can be applied to the pedal settings in user mode. I am using a KEYLAB MK3 on Firmware 1.1.1 and Logic Pro 10.7.9.
Some background:
Aside from the obvious sustain issues (missing notes, weird, laggy note behaviour), I noticed that when using a sustain pedal via the AUX input and configuring it as such, my DAW was treating it as a ‘Damper’ pedal, and notes were playing softer and couldn’t reach full velocity while the pedal was depressed. This lead me to dive deeper.
Using a MIDI monitoring tool, I have found that when the following conditions are met in DAW mode with the pedal plugged in via the AUX input:
AUX PEDAL IS SET TO USE MIDI CHANNEL ‘ACTIVE’
AUX PEDAL IS SET TO USE MIDI CHANNEL ‘2’
AUX PEDAL IS SET TO USE THE SAME MIDI CHANNEL AS SET GLOBALLY ON THE KEYBOARD, AKA the ‘ACTIVE’ MIDI Channel (Set when pressing and holding the ‘MIDI Ch’ button and pressing a key that corresponds to a MIDI channel number.)
That the keyboard sends an extra ‘OFF’ signal on Channel 2 when the pedal is pressed and released.
I have concluded through extensive testing in different scenarios that this is the cause of the issue for me.
The workaround:
My workaround is as follows and you can make the changes you see fit depending on how you use MIDI in your own environment:
In this case, we will use Midi Channel 1. Make sure your keyboard is set to use this by pressing and holding the ‘MIDI Ch’ button and then pressing the first C key ‘labelled 1’ on the keyboard to change the active channel.
Plug your sustain pedal into the AUX input
Press the Settings button
Press the Global button
Select AUX PEDAL
Set TYPE to ‘Switched Control’
Set MIDI CHANNEL to 3
Set OPTION to ‘Gate’
Set CC NUMBER to ‘64’
Set OFF VALUE to ‘0’
Set ON Value to ‘127’
Now play around and see if the issue is gone for you.
As long as you’re not using Channel 2 or the Active channel for the pedal, the above should work.
I will share my findings with Arturia via my support ticket but please let me know if this works for you as well.
I’ve created a new topic for this specific workaround so it can get more eyes on it if it ends up helping people while we wait for an official fix. It’d be great if you can post your experiences here:
Best of luck, and I look forward to hearing your experiences with this workaround.
Arturia tech support have asked me to do all sorts of things with MIDI monitor, etc. but I won’t be doing any of that. I’ve wasted too much time on this keyboard already.
I’ve decided to give up until they release a new firmware. In the meantime, the keyboard is back in its box. I cannot return it, as I’ve had it for too long, and the shop I bought it from has gone under (PMT UK).
I’ve ordered a Novation 61SL mk3 as a replacement.
This Keylab mk3 has left me utterly bitter and defeated. Well done Arturia.
In my conversation with Arturia support it looks like they have now scheduled our issue to be investigated:
This issue is now referenced in our database.
• Our Q.A department will now review this issue in order to work on it along with our Dev Team and hopefully fix this in a forthcoming update / hot-fix.
I also recently received a meaningful reply from them where they acknowledged the issue, noted that it was present in an earlier firmware and that 1.1.1 was meant to address it but did not, and that they are actively working on it.
I also sent them a video - it describes the sustain pedal delay issue. I also give an example with another keyboard - how it should work. The video is here - https://youtu.be/dW-okn_9nDw
Waiting for their reply
So after relentless hounding Arturia tech support and sales, whom I directly purchased it from, I got a response today that may be promising. I’m not at my KeyLab mk3 at the moment, but if anyone is and can try this temporary workaround, pls post.
Thank you for your detailed follow-up and for sending the videos. I completely understand your frustration—especially with an important performance coming up—and I want to clarify that this is not an isolated case or an issue on your end.
We have been able to reproduce similar sustain pedal behavior on the KeyLab mk3 with certain pedal models, including the Yamaha FC4A and Roland DP-10. This has already been logged with our development team and is under active investigation for a firmware fix. The problem occurs when the unit processes the HOLD function in parallel with MIDI note events, which can cause dropped or delayed sustain messages during fast playing.
Temporary workaround:
In the MIDI Control Center, set the sustain pedal’s Max Value to around 120–126instead of 127. This prevents the HOLD LED from triggering and avoids the timing issues. The downside is reduced half-pedaling range, but it will restore stable sustain behavior until the firmware update is released.
I have linked your ticket directly to the ongoing bug report so your case is included in the priority review. Once the firmware update containing the fix is available, I will reach out to you immediately.
I understand the timing here is critical for your upcoming show, so please let me know if you’d like me to guide you through applying the workaround right away.
Has anybody implemented this “official” workaround yet? I use Gig Performer and so far I’ve experienced no issues using the sustain pedal input. I’ve run a few MIDI Monitor tests and I’m getting 0-125, which is where I’ve set the highest value. I’ll probably bump up the higher value a digit or more later on, but for now, I’m feeling confident I can use my mk3 for this Saturday’s gig with complete confidence.
I also got this reply. But that doesn’t work for me as I want to use the pedal in switched control mode. In the control mode there’s too much unnecessary info on cc64 which is hard to edit - it takes a lot more time. I also asked when to expect the fix. But the answer was - they can’t give the answer). I really think that the problem can be in the hardware design as thd software fix can’t take that much time. So my keyboard is back to the store, they we kind enough to give me a refund. Good bye, Arturia. That was not the best experience.
And then everyone’s totally screwed. That sort of stuff can very easily happen.
musicbysterling:
