I first received a KeyLab 88 immediately upon its release, but it was clear that there were problems. It’s unusual to review a product after it’s been on the market for this long, but in this case, there’s a good reason. Highly recommended for the mobile or small-sized (studio) musician who wants maximum control with a minimal footprint.A fully-weighted master keyboard at this price is unheard of. You will have to fine-tune that further in your DAW or use a more serious midi controller. Playing a tune is fine, but don't expect miracles (in terms of sensitivity). Drum pads can be assigned their own (individual) color which works very well and for the rest I mainly use it for tweaking softsynts. All in all, highly recommended and it also looks very good. Integration with Ableton is fine, Analog labs lite also works fine, but it is very lame that the full version is not included. This is an (ultimate) tool for small or mobile studios and this controller really excels! Enough controls, good layout. Drum pads ditto but hey! You don't buy this controller to play a full concert hall live.

Keys play like a synth keyboard, no flaws, but sensitivity leaves a lot to be desired.

I wanted mod and pitch, some drum pads to assign freely, at least 8 endless rotaries (4 is too little to quickly change things with soft synths) and preferably fitting in a (second) laptop bag and that is easy. I looked at the Minilab 1 for a long time, but it just couldn't convince me.

As wide as a 15 inch laptopĭrum pads and keys touch (but not very) sensitive 25 keys with pitch and mod above the keyboardįormat.

Grand piano model d arturia