Music software and hardware company Arturia announced today that their KeyLab 88 MIDI keyboard controller is now shipping. It was first announced at Musikmesse last spring.
KeyLab 88, the largest in the KeyLab series, comes with Arturia’s Analog Lab, a software synthesizer solution with over 6,000 presets derived from Arturia’s range of Analog Classics. These include the TAE (True Analog Emulation) synthesis-powered Mini V (Minimoog monosynth emulation), Wurlitzer V (virtually bringing back to life the well-known ‘Wurly’ electric piano), among others.
The first 3,000 units shipped come with two virtual instruments: Grand Piano Model D from fellow French developer UVI, and Pianoteq 5 Stage, a physical modelling-based virtual instrument that provides acoustic and electric piano recreations as well as chromatic instruments.
The keyboard also acts as a controller which is compatible with any third-party software or hardware. Customizable MIDI assignments are accessible via the LED screen or the included MIDI Control Center software.
KeyLab 88 also sports a music stand, and a rubberized, attachable shelf extension to create a work surface for holding a laptop, tablet, or another small synth.
Pricing and Availability. Arturia’s KeyLab 88 is now available to purchase for €699.00 ($699.00 USD) from any authorized Arturia dealer or directly from the manufacturer. More information is available on the Arturia website.
FIRST OFF I bought this controller keyboard brand new about 1 month ago. Loved the Analog Lab that came with it, really fantastic. It has a good feeling Keybed, but overall NOT as good as say the Nord HP or Stage action.
HUGE PROBLEM THOUGH: It randomly shoots off notes at 127 velocity for NO GOOD REASON.
I returned this after owning it for 3 days because of this. The OS already had a few updates and it wasn’t fixed. I CANNOT RECCOMEND THIS KEYBOARD, I really wanted to like it too 🙁
The 127 velocity was a firmware bug that has been fixed. They are working on another update now that will add more parameters to allow the user to adjust the velocity curve. If you like the Nord’s, then you will like the Keylab 88 as they both use the Fatar keyed.
How on earth does a “bug” like that, on something which is supposed to be a controller keyboard, slip through testing?
How can an 88key controller keyboard be released to the public lacking basic velocity-curve adjustment without depending on future updates?
Arutia is the answer to both of these questions.
If they sold houses you would need to wait for a future update to have doors and windows installed into what was marketed as “the best house the world has ever seen”! And then another so that they opened.
Hey Arturia,
Let’s see some updates on the Origin & bug fixes for the Brutes!
Finish what you started
I haven’t had any problems with my Minibrute. I really love my synth and the sounds you can get out of it.
Does it has analogs?
don’t buy from this developer .. they never maintenance their product .. all the product is BETA [ no final product ] … try visit the official forum .. to much problem ..
You know, I have to respect Arturia for beating everyone to the analog mono punch, and I’m sure their software is as good as everyone says, but no way in hell would I buy an 88-key controller from them. The keybeds, and quality control, and durability, thereof, have consistently been the weak point of their hardware offerings and that’s the element that makes or breaks a full size keyboard controller.
For 7 large might have been cool to include a nice piano sample or a pair of speakers along with a couple of inputs. When you look at the characters in the promo, it seems like those are the sorts of features they would want.
When is the two oscillator three octave Brute analog synthesizer shipping?
Man is that a terrible promo film!
DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY!!
Nothing they sell will work as advertised and they drop support for all their products while critical flaws remain un-addressed, moving on to the next new money making scheme and ignoring their customer base.
They are brilliant at marketing only ! They hire clever people for breif periods whilst developing new products and ideas but these “brains for hire” are temp employees and do not stay with the company.
It saddens me that they continue to exist in the marketplace and manage to convince folks to part with their hard-earned cash.
You have been warned!
Their Analog synths are fantastic, controllers rubbish – if they are still using the same crappy synth keys with bits of metal glued on the underside in full view then dont go near it, pads are also useless, good only for triggering on / off.
Their analogue synths goodness is down to one man ,Yves Usson! Again, a person who was hired by Arturia to design the analogue circuits and impart his wealth of knowledge for their disposal. The synths bad qualities are pure Arturia – right down to the infamous keys with bits of glued metal, poor production quality control, and disdainful support ( not to mention the fake plastic wooden cheeks they like to gloat about)!!
Their excuses are however top of the class.
They are a company who conduct their business in a similar fashion to those large nameless corporate entities which buy up smaller failing businesses and exploit the brand or assests quickly for short term profits and then quickly sell the company on at a small/large profit only to move on to the next victim.
Hey, Arturia is French. What do you expect? Pleasantness?
I have a Love/Hate with Artirua.
iPad apps – great sound, work great, featureful (audio bus, midi etc), bug fixes are on time.
Hardware – pretty good, no problems with my micro or minibrute, some reports say there are QC issues. My beat step broke fairly quickly, two of the pots randomly don’t work. Sprinkle hardware works but the software has some bugs. Editing CCs is a nightmare.
Software – CRAP. Analog Laboratory (older than lab) was completely unstable and never worked. The new Analog Lab is really great, but they removed the 2 layer editing feature and the VST doesn’t work with the keyboard at all in Ableton. And while their VSTs do get periodic updates, the UIs are desperate for an update in many cases.
Their support used to be atrocious, they’re getting better. It only took a couple days to get a beat step licenses transferred, as apposed to the month it took to fix a failing key on a new software purchase i made a couple years ago.
Yep – the bits you like are the bits that they hired a professional to do for them – the analogue synths (when checked, tested and assembled correctly) are decent, no doubt about it – far too often they are sent and sold broken.
Audiobus and midi on the iOS apps are things which are gifted to them – not developed by them. They merely implement the great work done already by the developers of those protocols.
I would not conclude that being able to transfer a liscence in two days was representative of great advances in their support. My own recent experiences have done nothing to dispell the reputation they have of being evasive, elusive and unhelpful – weeks go by without any response and when it finally comes it is an automated excuse – word for word the same excuse as given to another customer 3 years earlier, lol! The old messaging system failures…bla..bla..
Good companies can keep your respect regardless of things going wrong – as they always will. A decent company will use those opportubities to shine and show what there ethos is all about.
I just couldn’t recommend Arturia to anyone and feel good about it.
There’s a firmware upgrade that fixes the 127 velocity problem on the key lab 88.
Thank you Arturia. You’re back in my good books.
A
whats the ipad app?