For Those Considering The Keylab MK3!

Lab KeyLab
#1

Hi! If you’re considering buying any of the Keylabs, just wanted to post this to inform you of my experience. They don’t have reviews on the site, and have basically stopped responding to any of my emails/messages so if they’re reading this forum hopefully they will reach out to help resolve some of these too.

UPDATE: They have responded, but in all honesty, these criticisms I have of their system/build quality still stand and I believe are still valid considerations when making a purchase. Had I known these when I was first starting out to buy Arturia, I would’ve probably reconsidered.

1.) BUILD QUALITY: I owned the Arturia Keylab 88 (Mark 1), from 2019 -2023. There were countless frustrating issues with the velocity, sustain pedal and the pitch bend less than a year in. I stuck it out but eventually it got to be too much so I sold it and bought an Arturia Keylab 49 (Mark 2). I was thinking that maybe they learned and would have minimal issues on that keyboard.

Just recently, about a year after purchase, the pitch bend started malfunctioning. When I bend up, the value goes to 0 first before it starts going up to 127.
Take note that the first Keylab I had never left the house, and the second was used on just TWO gigs recently. I use it everyday but it stays at home, with a dust cover.

I have owned a Yamaha PSR that cost half as much as this, and 12 years after purchase, the pitch bend on that was still working. And it played on well over 30-40 gigs and was even rained on once! Crazy!

I cannot speak to their higher-end equipment. I don’t have the money to shell out for those and frankly I don’t think I ever will, considering the reputation that their gear has in my book. That said, would you really want to still buy the MK3? :man_shrugging: Plus no Poly Aftertouch. NI has it :grin:

2.) CUSTOMER SUPPORT: In 2022 and then 2023, I sent multiple support questions from the Arturia website. At one point, I asked them to change the email they sent support emails to my personal email, because they were sending it to my old one, a .edu email. I was told they would do so.

When I asked another support question later (I had to do lots of these due to the Keylab 88 MK I being such a fickle beast), I was surprised that I didn’t receive a response promptly as they usually did.

So I went over to my .edu email and LO AND BEHOLD, their response was in the inbox. I asked them AGAIN to send the responses to my personal, and this happened twice. Both times they said that they would do this (this was first Gaby from Tech Support, then Diego from Registration Support when I was about to sell the keyboard).

So when I sent them a recent support email asking about my recent pitch bend issue, I made sure to let them know PLEASE SEND IT TO MY PERSONAL EMAIL because I already know they keep messing that up. A week later, no response. I sent a follow up. No response. I came to the conclusion that they once again forgot or intentionally did not update my email address for support emails. Which is strange because their promotion emails and ads come thru just fine since my email is updated on the site. :thinking:

At any rate, since I no longer have access to that email that leaves my support null and void since they don’t have a ticket on the site either to check support status. I DM’d them to ask about this. No response.

All avenues exhausted, I believe that the only thing left for me is to sell this unit (repair cost is prohibitively high in my country, and it’s already out of warranty) and replace it with a more reliable unit, possibly Korg, Roland or Yamaha.

This is such a bummer to me, since I believed so much in their company. I’ve purchased so much of their stuff (FX Collection, V Collection, some of the Augmented series, aforementioned controllers) but apparently that’s not enough for them to consider me a worthy enough customer to right these issues.

Honestly if it was just 1) that was the issue I would be much less upset. However, with how they’ve acted, it makes me want to re-sell V Collection and just buy Omnisphere with the return :joy: Too late for that now anyway.

At any rate, just wanted to post this to let prospective buyers know about my experience. I’m a very non-confrontational person who hates the thought of conflict, but this has honestly cost me a lot of money and time, and I think others deserve to know too.

2 Likes
#2

I am left not understanding your point #2. Do you not have a user account at Arturia.com? I personally took a look and with mine, I can edit my name, address and email. I get rather confused when you say that you contacted them to send your support to your personal email address and not some .edu one that you had.

Are you saying that Arturia is using a different email address other than your user account to send support to and even though you have told them that they are sending it to the wrong email address and that the one inside your user account is correct they still insist to send it to the incorrect address?

#3

Yes, sorry I couldn’t articulate it better. I edited my email in my profile to reflect my new email I could be reached at and they still kept sending it to my old email. I informed them 3 times before to change it because I kept seeing their messages pop up in my old email’s inbox, and each time they said yes. But still no change.

I can’t access that email anymore since I’m no longer a student, and so their support emails (if ever they have actually been sending those) are inaccessible to me and therefore useless. Even though in my latest support message I specifically mentioned for them to please send it to my personal email and not my .edu one.

I had to look for an old thread that was in my inbox to be able to email them and finally get a response. Figures that the thread was them telling me that they were sending support emails to my personal address from now on. Lol

#4

Yes. I see the issue now and agree it is completely unprofessional of them.

Likely the support team have their own database system used for tracking of cases,. As they have not connected the two systems as you change the user account that is where I assume you are generating any support ticket, it would link to your user account in their own database and they wouldn’t see that you have updated your email address.

this is not an excuse for them or any justification for them not doing what they said they will do. I have worked in IT rolls and know how the system works and it can simply be them taking the easy route out and just forgetting to actually complete the job.

1 Like
#5

Exactly, them taking the easy route, which shouldn’t be. Pretty sure they took some shortcuts with the hardware too that’s why I’m having these issues. And it’s not like the Keylabs are cheap either.

I wouldn’t be so miffed if they had awful hardware but excellent customer support, or awful customer support but excellent hardware to the point that I would not even need to contact support in ages.

#6

The idea of spending hundreds more on MIDI Keyboard Controller over the StudioLogic SL88 at $500 blows my mind.

#7

Customers’ requirements vary. For a start, there’s no poly aftertouch on any of the SL keyboards. Also (of no interest in my case, but of interest to others), they are almost completely bereft of physical controls like pads and faders that integrate with DAWs and software like Analog Lab.

My. perspective is, SL have largely positioned their controllers as live-performers’ tools, which can be used as controllers in a home studio if you like. Arturia controllers are primarily aimed at home producers (evidenced by their controls and feature set) but which can be gigged with if you like. The perspectives are completely polar.

#8

I was actually debating between getting this or a Studiologic Numa Grand so that I could downsize my setup (I use a 2 tier keyboard setup). The dealer that supplies Studiologic doesn’t sell the SL88 where I live and I didn’t want to go 2nd hand. Maybe I should have just gone with my first instinct, but that would have cost me a lot more than what I ended up paying for my stuff.

That being said, Arturia put that price tag on that product, not me. They should have priced it at $200 for how reliable the equipment turned out. Whether or not people understand why anyone would buy an expensive MIDI controller, the fact stands that they advertise it as a “premium, professional product” but it got outlived by my friggin’ Yamaha PSR from 2010. Lol

1 Like
#9

Sadly no Poly-Aftertouch on ANY Keylab yet at this point (including the MK3). I was actually planning to buy a MK3 if they were gonna have that feature but with all this, I think I’ll just go with a different board in the future. I believe NI has it on the Komplete Kontrol, and the Korg Keystage has it as well

The DAW functionality and Analog Live integration of Keylab controllers are useful, but it won’t be a huge hit for me if I decide to go with a different keys setup. I just don’t want to be supporting Arturia moving forward.

#10

^^Yeah that’s why I bought the NI without any regrets, not long after the mk3 KL was announced. For my needs, NI are more in tune with what a premium midi controller should do.

#11

Jon. I am to take it you got the Kontack S mk3? I am now considering moving over to NI for a controller. For me its the hard side of do I buy into an older used S mk2 as I can live with the non polyphonic aftertouch and the dual screen layout. Just don’t know if I am buying into someone else’s used up controller, or start to save up for a new Mk3 as they are significantly more.

I am under serious thought on if I just return the KeyLab Mk3 as it’s inside my refund window. I am a bit disappointed on quality level inside the software/integration that I have with Logic Pro. I don’t want to spend $860 (cost here) for a controller that leaves me feeling like it’s not quite finished.

Of my issues that I have. For me there is the underlying transport control. it works for some things but not for others. I do like by comparison the NI has the main encoder wheel that you can use to move up and down the tracks and twist move along the timeline. I really feel that Arturia let me down by not doing this on the KeyLab (considering they effectively did that with the MiniLab3)

But then you have a button for Loop but cannot move it or set the start / end points. I don’t need a toggle.

But now with using this more and more, it seems that in DAW mode the controller is just letting me down. there is the issue with it now randomly changing modes from DAW plugin mode to DAW Mixer and with the location of the main encoder and the first set of encoder/fader the position of those seem to get bumped when trying to use the main encoder and you don’t know if it’s randomly adjusting the volume/pan of a track or changing some of the linked mini CC property. I have had a song that I was working on for three hours to end up with parts of the song wrong because they changed without me noticing and having to revert back to a previous version to try again.

#12

I bought the S88 mk3, yes. I bought it because the keybed supports poly aftertouch.
I going to have to confess I haven’t tried any software integration with Logic because I have a QCon Pro X for that with three slave units giving me a 32 ‘track’ motorised mixing desk.

The NI probably isn’t for you if you need something with very tight integration with DAWs and Arturia software, because that’s something that the KL is usually the best at.

#13

For me. it is not a tight integration of AnalogLab inside of Logic. I can honestly say that I would be just a fine using NI Kontrol plugin.

What I am mostly needing is a working integration of the control surface with LogicPro. So things like transport functions work. So I can edit the music that I make.

I have had quite a few conversations with some of the other artist friends that I have and I honestly don’t think they understand my production methods and how my brain processes everything. I am not the type of person who comes up with a 3-4 note idea and build up around that. Rather I am more someone who starts off with a whole mess of notes and ideas all on the page at once and then mold shape and trim all that sound wrong to reveal the right sounding bit that was inside the mess. So for me it’s the control surface and ability to contour and edit that is more important.

I look at AnalogLab as just another pallet of paint in the toolbox, and all the instruments inside of the V_Collection as just more potential idea sparks to work with. Just looking for the tool that makes my music life easier and thus more fun along the path of creation. Isn’t that what we are all effectively looking for.