I purchased the Keylab Essential 49 Mk3 and the Minilab3 a while ago. Correct me if I’m wrong but there’s a lack of regular firmware & feature updates on these controllers despite users requesting new features. For example, why can’t the main controller knob also select program changes? It’s as if Arturia releases a new controller and then abandons it to release and promote other devices & software. Is this what all synth companies do?
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Can’t say for all, but yes I have noticed this pattern with Arturia for many many years. There will be ‘dot’ updates and minor bug fixes for the first lets say 6 months then it gets ‘abandoned’ while they concentrate on the next big thing. They have way too many irons in the fire for a small-ish company.
However, bug fixes aside, I never assume that any manufacturer is going to introduce additional features above and beyond the ones originally advertised, that I paid for. It’s not even something we at all remotely expected until everything became firmware-driven.
Thanks for your comment. I agree I shouldn’t expect more features beyond what I paid for though Arturia does ask for “feature requests.” I’d at least like to be able to name the knobs & sliders I assign to hardware, something I was able to do on an old Novation controller/synth that I retired for the Arturia. I also realize that some of these features are offered on their more expensive controllers so why would they want to add them to our budget devices.
They did on the old forum, in so far as each product had its own “feature requests” subforum. There isn’t, as far as I have seen, equivalent subforums here. Not least because, I suspect, as the company’s product portfolio grew, there was no way in a thousand years they could implement the barrage of feature-requests for their dozens of products. Which in turn led to disgruntled posters complaining on the old forum that there was no point in having “feature requests” subforums if the requests were likely never destined to be introduced.
Now when someone asks for an additional feature, commonly they’ll get a reply from a staff member saying it’s been ‘logged’. Which in plain English means its been thrown into a Jira-board backlog and it may or may not ever get pulled into a development-sprint depending on competing priorities. Which to be fair to Arturia staff who comment here, is actually the most honest and true answer they can give.