KeyLab Essential has been designed to be your best friend when you're making music. Whether on stage, in studio or while rehearsing and jamming, you need transparency and direct routes to the sounds you have in your head. KeyLab Essential is a lightweight and easy-to-use MIDI keyboard controller. But don't let its elegant appearance fool you it's huge on features usually found in more expensive keyboards.
Not only can you use KeyLab Essential to play your sound modules (inside or outside of your computer), but also control important functions inside your DAW. This will boost your workflow! KeyLab Essential automatically recognises and controls popular DAWs including Ableton Live, Apple Logic Pro, Bitwig Studio, Image-Line FL Studio, and Steinberg Cubase. On top of that, KeyLab Essential can control any DAW using the MCU/HUI protocol.
You can control your DAW transport with dedicated Transport buttons, use the knobs to tweak plug-in parameters, and adjust track volumes and pans by using the KeyLab Essential faders. A complete keyboard production studio, KeyLab Essential also comes with the incredible Arturia Analog Lab V - your very own vintage and modern keyboard collection, with access to over 2000 presets from the award-winning V Collection, ready to customise and play in an instant.
Whether you want a searing-hot synth lead or an ethereal string pad, a vintage upright piano or a complex, animated soundscape, KeyLab Essential gives you everything you need to perform and record. All the ingredients of the cocktail are there and ready to be mixed according to your own style.
Nine endless encoder knobs and nine faders give you hands-on access to numerous sound sculpting parameters inside Analog Lab V. Other V Collection instruments can also be remotely controlled this way, when you customise the settings in MIDI Control Center. Live sound editing should always be this easy!
You'll play KeyLab Essential's 49 or 61 velocity sensitive, synth-action keys. The eight backlit performance pads sense velocity and aftertouch. Plus there are Pitch Bend and Modulation Wheels, of course. Please note, that the front and rear panels of the 49- and 61-key keyboards sport exactly the same buttons, knobs, faders and connectivity. They're just spaced a bit differently on the larger models.
On top of that, Arturia's MIDI Control Center software (a free download) lets you map parameters directly to Key Lab Essential's physical controls to create custom configurations. You can then save these as user programs and recall them from the Key Lab Essential hardware.
Features
- 61-key velocity-sensitive keyboard
- Eight velocity - and pressure-sensitive RGB pads
- Two pad banks for a total of 16 functional pads
- Dentented and clickable main encoder knob for navigation
- Large easy-to-read display
- DAW Transport control via dedicated buttons plus Save, Quantize, Undo, and Redo
- Nine endless encoder knobs and nine faders
- Wheels for pitch-bend and modulation
- Hold button for hands-free (and feet-free) sustain
- Full-featured classic synth style arpeggiator
- Chord play memorises and plays user defined chords from one note
- Scale mode makes it easy to always play in the right key and tonality
- Hold, Arpeggiator, Chord, and Scale can be combined
- Octave and semitone transpose functions
- USB-C powered
- MIDI via USB-C and standard 5-pin MIDI output
- 1/4-inch TRS input accepts sustain, switch, or expression/continuous control pedal
- Included software: Arturia Analog Lab V, Ableton Live Lite, Native Instruments The Gentleman, UVI Grand Piano Model D, Melodics subscription, Loopcloud subscription
- USB-C to USB-A cable included