Arturia KeyLab MkIII

‘One keyboard to rule them all’ is very much the order of the day with Arturia’s 3rd generation KeyLab.

In August 2023, I reviewed the Arturia KeyLab Essential 61 MkIII. It was a decent, lightweight but fully featured MIDI controller with some new and well‑implemented plug‑in and DAW integration. Over a year later Arturia are bringing their premium KeyLab up to speed with a fresh MkIII overhaul. It makes me wonder whether the new KeyLab 61 I have here is just playing catch‑up or if it has more to offer than its cut‑price sibling.

Before I even got it out of the box I could tell from its sheer weight that this is a premium machine. You could fling the KE61 MkIII around with one hand, whereas this new KeyLab is a definite two‑hander. The underbelly is made of metal, with well‑placed feet, and so sits resolutely on your desk: unmoving, unbending and really rather handsome. Compared to the MkII, the refinement of the design is so classy that it looks like it comes from a different league. It feels more like a stage piano or synthesizer than a humble MIDI controller. So often, MIDI controllers are rather chunky bits of plastic; this is the opposite.

The one I have in for review is the 61‑keyed black version and it’s gorgeous. The off‑centred colour screen is set in a square of shiny fingerprint‑attracting plastic, surrounded by eight buttons with a lovely silver hi‑fi‑style encoder just to the right. Arturia have shaved off a bit of the depth, which helps it feel neater and slimmer, but at the cost of four pads and a row of what were probably useful buttons. On the left side, you have function buttons, transport controls and the remaining 12 pads. On the 61‑key version, the pitch and mod wheels are pushed up above the keyboard, which helps keep the width under control. The right side houses a row of nine encoders and nine faders. These are featureless and sink back into a black background making them almost invisible in low light as if designed by Hotblack Desiato himself. Thankfully, they are touch‑sensitive and so the display will tell you which one your finger is on. I feared I might have to resort to adding some Tipex to the encoders and fader caps just so I can see them more clearly.

Round the back, we have proper in and out DIN MIDI ports, three pedal/footswitch ports and a USB‑C connection that also provides power. There’s also a DC power input if you want to power it differently, but there’s no adaptor supplied in the box. I’m disappointed not to see any CV/gate outputs.

Round the back we find three quarter‑inch sockets for aux in and expression and sustain pedals, full‑size MIDI I/O ports, an external power supply input and a USB‑C port.

Turning to the keyboard itself, this is a new design, custom‑made by Arturia, with a semi‑weighted, synth‑action feel. It’s soft, bouncy and convincing under your fingers. It makes very little noise and feels much nicer than anything else within reach at the moment. Sadly, Arturia haven’t pulled in the polyphonic aftertouch from the PolyBrute 12, which feels like a missed opportunity for their premium controller. But we do have channel aftertouch, which is well implemented, and you don’t tend to set it off by accident. It also has release velocity, but while I understand the concept, I can’t find any way to use it, nor any mention of it in the manual.

Sadly, Arturia haven’t pulled in the polyphonic aftertouch from the PolyBrute 12, which feels like a missed opportunity for their premium controller.

Three Mighty Modes

The KeyLab MkIII has three layers of control. You have Arturia mode, which is custom‑designed for Analog Lab and the other Arturia software instruments. You have DAW mode for controlling the mixer and native devices within a supported DAW. And then you have User mode, where you can create custom MIDI configurations to control whatever you like.

If you just want MIDI control over third‑party plug‑ins that can MIDI Learn, then a User mode patch will do all that by default. In fact, the Arturia mode will do so too, but the display won’t show anything to do with the instrument you’re playing. For more nuanced control, the MIDI Control Centre software provides the tools you need to customise every control on the KeyLab. You can set up and name controls for hardware synths and other bits of gear that are easily recallable. You can also edit it all on the KeyLab itself, without a computer, if you don’t mind digging around in menus....