Ok the problem is no one asked Arturia to launch a controller at a price that you’re suggesting is too low for the expecations of those of us who are disappointed with its facilities. This IS their premium controller. The Essential line are their budget controllers. There is no other line we can buy.
That gives (some of) us a ‘right’ to be dissatisfied with a new product that mostly isn’t worth ugrading from a Mk1 or Mk2. It’s been six years since the Mk2. The Mk3 is barely any evolution at all, and in some objective ways, is worse.
I can see both sides of the argument and can see where Arturia is into a sum no win situation. I had the pleasure of trying out the MK2 unit when I was looking for a new midi controller. It was a great unit, be it the one I tried was used and 49 keys. I personally decided it was far smarter for me to return it and order the 61 key MK3 becuause.
It had a better user interface with Logic Pro (my DAW of preference) with a larger screen that shows me the selected instruments.
The Touch ID on the encoders and faders to tell you what they control without the need to change the values.
The included software was far better (though now in hindsight it was irrelevant as they are offering the V_Collection sale)
I can see the side of the MK3 has removed functionality that the MK2 had. So with the features added, there or features removed. So does this make it more of a side step rather than an innovative improvement? The business end of the design by saying they have the KeyLab Essential is a budget version of the controller. I’d say your are on some level correct but I the build quality by comparison is far less, and puts it in line with the home user who wants to get into music but really don’t have the money to buy upscale. There are other brands that sell for less but are doing this by stripping out functionality. Arturia with their full keylab line is gearing more towards the higher end pro-sumer and professional user to get the bigger market sales.
I myself am reaching upwards in my budget to buy the MK3 to get a better build quality that this offers over the essential line, but wouldn’t be buying this if the price was $2-300 more like. The NI S line is.
Yea, it would be nice if they could offer more for less but I’d rather have what they offer and have them go bankrupt by selling at a loss.
I would be grateful if you could elaborate a little more when you stated that Arturia had spoken to 20,000 users. If you can’t that’s fine. I just wanted to know did the rep mean Arturia customers or Keylab MK2 users specifically? 20,000! That’s a very big number for any company to quote for a specific product. I certainly wasn’t contacted and no-one I know with an MK2 was surveyed/contacted – were you? Arturia have all our contact details. When was this reach-out and over what period?
If anyone reading this thread was contacted by Arturia or a proxy on their behalf for their views on a (yet to be released) MK3 please let us know and when this was.
I agree that there is a market spot for a model above the KeyLab MK3. It would make sense to make it a completely new product that you’d put in the same class as the PolyBrute12. it would be a low volume product that they wouldn’t likely sell very many of but would do it just for the marketing end of things.
I love music and do get out to see bands whenever possible. I prefer the smaller more intimate shows where you can actually see the people playing. I see what instruments they play. You see an awful lot of Roland of some form or another, and a fair number of Novations. I have only seen one Arturia.
If you pay attention, you see an awful lot of MacBooks hooked up to those keyboards, so I will bet that an awful lot of musicians out there have moved over to some form of DAW based music virtual instrument library. Now if Arturia went and courted those and had a midi controller that was built on a metal frame like the KeyLab with high end encoders, faders and upped the game with the Full Polyphonic Aftertouch and maybe even MPE (or as has been pointed out, put out a full midi 2.0 class unit, then actual artists will be fine paying the $13-1500 to get a full kit controller that would be a midi version of a large hardware synth.
It would pay to get the recognized {A} on the back of a keyboard facing the audience so aspiring new talent would look up and see that letter and think that is what I need to get. Sure, they will buy the KeyLab MK3 but does that matter? Name recognition is everything.
I have been reading and watching many reviews for MIDI keyboards; each has pros and cons.
I finally decided between the NI K S49 and Arturia KeyLab Mk3 49.
The S49 offers a beautiful screen and polytech, but if I have to be honest with you, I don’t think my use case will matter. It’s not worth the extra 300 stones, and the trade-off of not having pads or sliders was the nail that…
I’m not a Pro player… I am just starting by teaching myself how to play. I played the trumpet for 11 years, and my basic music theory is rusty, but that’s not the point. I just want to have fun experimenting with one of the DAWs. Before I even began looking for keys, I happened on IK Multimedia on Humble with a great offer for 30 stones for what and plus sucked into purchasing some other software that, to be honest, I do not have enough “cat lives” even to begin to explore fully. On top of that, I found a DX-7 plugin that blew me away because back in the 80s, I was thin as a straw looking over one of those boards.
One of David Bowie’s songs, “Rubber Band,” inspired me to take it easy and not complain about what a reasonably priced keyboard costs, has, or lacks. I don’t have to purchase any of them since I can make music with a Rubber Band or a blade of grass and be happy with it.
We all want everything (x,y) in our devices, and if you can afford it, good on you. However, if you are creative enough, a Rubber Band and a blade of grass can work just as well.
My wife ordered my Arturia KeyLab Mk3 (White Ver.) earlier today. I’m looking forward to playing around with my DX-7 plugins.
I certainly wasn’t. I would love to have been given the opportunity to help steer development, even as just an unpaid volunteer as part of their UR programme. I find it hard to believe many of their ‘20,000 users’ already had Mk1 or Mk2 KeyLabs and said yeah this Mk3 with realistically no additional functionality, fewer pads, a tiny screen and no CV/gate sockets is precisely what I’m going to trade my existing Mk1/Mk2 for.