Arturia KeyLab MK2 vs Essential: Is it worth the price difference?

hi in this video I'll compare the two tears of our Toya's large format keyboard controllers Arturia essentials and our Toria key lab mark - they look quite similar but the premium mark - version costs two and a half times more than key lab essentials so I'll look at the real differences between the two talk about pros and cons of each and also look at the competitive marketplace let's start with what they are both are designed to serve a few functions a couple which I think may get overlooked the first function is obviously to be a MIDI controller for software based instruments with an emphasis on a tight integration with our toria's software instruments and in particular analog lab which comes bundled with both keyboards and has over 6,500 presets of different types of instruments including synths pianos and organs the second function for both keyboards is to be a digital audio workstation controller with support for quite a few dawes including Ableton Live which is the hardest to support due to its grid-based layout the third function of both and I think one that isn't talked about much is that they are actually both quite capable standalone customizable hardware MIDI controllers with swappable Hardware templates that you can use without a computer and the fourth purpose and this is relevant just for the higher end mark - series is to be a hardware / software bridge between MIDI and modular gear and your computer now let's take a closer look at these one by one I'll be using the 61 key version of the cheaper key lab essentials and the 49 key version of the higher-end key lab mark - but both come in both 49 and 61 key versions and there are black versions of the mark twos as well in terms of hardware differences visually what you'll notice first are 16 pads instead of 8 there are more cord and dog control functions on the mark - including an additional row of buttons under the knobs and faders which are very helpful when controlling your DAW and analog clamp which will get to the physical build of the body itself is different between the two key lab essentials is plastic and the mark 2 is aluminum with real wood on the side the wood is less important to me but you do notice the difference in overall sturdiness and a premium feel on the mark to know frankly if I had to choose which of these to take on the road I would probably pick the essentials because it's much lighter than the mark to do to the aluminum body the actual keys themselves are different the mark two keys are taken from our Turia's flagship matrix boot synth and have after touch in this case vibrato and that doesn't exist here but the velocity sensitivity actually works quite nicely on both [Music] when you play the key lab mark to keyboard directly after playing the essentials keyboard these definitely have a more premium feel to them but I've had these for a while and I could tell you what would make me play better is probably more practice rather than a better key bed so if you have any doubts I recommend going in store and trying to compare them in person the knobs and sliders on both keyboards feel very similar but there's more travel here which gives you finer control the pads on both our velocity and pressure sensitive the ones on essentials actually stick out a little bit more and I kind of like that and the rest of the buttons are click here and feel a little bit more professional maybe then on the essentials but that's not a big deal in my opinion both controllers have three main modes either controlling analog lab 3 controlling your DAW or the user preset templates both cue labs support user templates where you can configure every single knob slider and most of the buttons to do anything you want with your software or hardware since there are six such presets on key lab essentials and 10 presets on key lab mark 2 so you can store different presets for each of your synths and because both controllers have both USB and MIDI outputs you can actually create presets that will control Hardware synths not just software ones and because you can easily move from one template to the other you can control quite a few synths from one central location as you create your own templates you can give each knob or slider or button its own name so for example in the user template here I gave this knob the name Rev to filter which is what it's designed to do control the Rev twos filter as an external synth and that's very useful with so many controls you might forget what each one does it's nice to get a reminder on screen you can also have each encoder fader or pad control a different parameter on a different mini channel if you want Plus you can customize the pad colors which is cool there is no MIDI learn on either device but on the key lab mark - you can program the function of every single encoder including naming them using these controls and the menus onboard with lab essentials you need to do that with the software on a computer and per 10 plate if you need that amount of control on the mark 2 you've got 3 banks of this group here so instead of these 27 controls you can swap between banks 1 2 & 3 each having a different function for each of these different controls both keyboards can be powered just by USB as they are here they do have additional 9-volt inputs in case your USB port doesn't have enough juice or you want to work directly with hardware since without a computer at all and neither unit comes with a power supply while we're on the topic of what both keyboards can do without a computer you've got onboard MIDI channel selection using this button here and one of the keys you've got octave transpose buttons on both as well as semitone transposition on both and both keyboards have an independent chord mode though the one on essentials is quite simple and this one takes it quite a distance the simple chord mode and that's identical on both controllers lets you hold this button set up a chord and then just play it with one key both keyboards have this simple chord mode it's a nice touch that the notes of the chord are written here and then the mark 2 has two additional chord modes the first is chord memory where you can program 16 chords into each of these paths and just play them directly and then you can make chords with your left hand play whatever you want with your right hand and then the second chord Bank an additional 16 chords lets you choose a chord it doesn't play it immediately unless you're in chord mud and then it will use the keys to transpose the chord and as I mentioned these pads are velocity and pressure sensitive so since performance two and of course you can use these to play percussion or keys or individual notes as well now one of the biggest selling points of both keyboards is the integration with our Turia's analog lab software so what is analog lab you ask well aside from making keyboards and synths or Toria really started out making software emulations of classic vintage hardware synths and electronic instruments over the years there V collection or a virtual collection has now grown and has recreations of over 20 different classic synths and a piano and the interesting thing about what they do is aside from recreating the sound look and feel of a synth they also add optional modern features to it in the form of additional panels or effects sort of like what the original manufacturer would be doing today if they created a new version of their gear with current technology analog lab is a collection of over 6,000 presets from all these instruments along with controls to their most important parameters in a unified and simplified interface if you own the actual soft synth you can open up access to all its parameters and I made an entire video comparing analog lab to V collection with a ton of sound examples so check that out for more info the integration between the controllers in the software is pretty tight you can see preset names on-screen and obviously on your computer screen as well you can choose categories again on screen or on the controller on the mark too you can also swap categories using these buttons and I think most importantly in this applies to both controllers is the knobs and faders come pre mapped for the individual preset based on what are the most interesting things you can control about it so for example in this stage 73 preset in control [Music] including the faders and arrived at a tone that's quite a bit different from the preset and having so many parameters pre-mapped this way solves in my opinion one of the biggest problems with software synths and that's the fact that it's no fun to go around the screen with a mouse and try and move knobs like I said you can drill down by category if you like and there's also a split or multiple synth option which lets you either split the keyboard into two different synths or layer them if you like okay let's talk about dog control or controlling your digital audio workstation when you put either controller in doll mode the encoders will control the pen left and right and the faders will control track level both keyboards have transport control a metronome button an undo button and vmk to adds a separate punch in an out button rather than just one button for both and it also has solo mute and arm buttons for the active track the mark 2 comes with overlays for popular does and both keyboards both support MCU and H UI or huy controls so they'll probably work with most dolls out there and the mark 2 has the added convenience of having these buttons become track selection buttons with both you can move back and forth between the tracks using arrow keys right here and in Ableton you can move up and down the scenes using this main central encoder the pads on both controllers become a small window into Ableton's grid on key lab essentials this represents one horizontal line on Ableton's grid and on the mark 2 these are two horizontal rows of 8 cells each if I turn on the metronome you can see it's quite easy to create loops live another one just using the keyboard toggle between them pretty simple so there's a pretty nice pens on workflow for live looping with this and as I travel around the weird you can see that what this represents will change as I go up and down so that's how the doll control mode works in both and as you can see there are quite a few standards and individual doll mappings in here last let's take a look at connectivity now as I mentioned both keyboards have both MIDI and USB outs you can use them to control standalone Hardware instruments and there are plenty of templates and knobs and faders to configure for each but if connectivity is important the key lab mark 2 really excels it has a MIDI in in addition to the MIDI out for additional pedal inputs for CV outputs pitch gate and 2 mod outputs for modular equipment as well as one CV input the last little tidbit advantage that the mark 2 has over key lab essentials is that it comes with a ground loop isolator which is pretty useful in case connecting to all that modular or external gear causes ground loop noise let's take a quick look at using key lab mark 2 within a modular setup I've got the mark 2 connected up to mutable instruments plates using the pitch gate and 2 mod outputs all impacting this one module just for fun I'm adding some reverb using Zee DSP there's no computer involved other than for power and yeah it just works I can play I can use aftertouch to control one parameter and then at the mod wheel set to a different parameter it's all quite simple and there's no need to have a computer involved you can just hooked up the mk2 directly to your modular set now aside from these four cv outputs the key lab mark 2 also has one cv input and it can take any incoming voltage and convert it to a CC message so in this case I've gone ahead and mapped the voltage coming in here to control one of the sends in Ableton and as soon as I connect it to an LFO which mass is generously providing here check out what's happening on screen I can play around with the LFO speed and base I can have it just modulate this part of the send so again quite simple and straightforward to get control voltage in converted to CC using the key lab mark 2 now if you've been on this channel before you know that we can use each of the expression pedal inputs that's four additional inputs as CV inputs using a trick that I showed in a previous video you've got to be safe when you do this but basically you use either a module like SBG or you control voltage in a way like I said I've expanded on this substantially in another video I'll link to it below but looking at this all in all you can get quite a lot of midi data out as CV and CV data in as MIDI through the key lab mark - so that's an overview of both key lab essentials and key lab mark - to summarize the differences this is much cheaper and lighter and the mark 2 has more dock controls more analog lab controls a better keyboard better build more outputs and inputs more pads and cord banks in terms of competition or alternatives the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol comes to mind which has a better integration with native instruments particular software and there's also Novation's new SL mark 3 which has a Elton sequencer one would hope that our Toria would also bring their sequencing know-how from the key step and be their bacon into this or make a key step pro but for now if you need built-in hardware sequencing check out the SL mark three from innovation it is however another price tear up compared to even the mark 2 so there's that to consider as well so that's pretty much it I've got a book with electronic music ideas tips and tricks like how to use the four auxiliary inputs on the mark to as CV inputs for modular gear that's on my patreon and check it out if you like it like if this video was useful ask me any questions you want in the comment section below subscribe to see more videos like this thanks for watching

Channel: loopop

Views: 628,803

Keywords: arturia, keylab, essentials, arturia keylab, arturia keylab essentials, keylab essentials, keylab mk2, keylab mkii, essential, keylab essential, arturia keylab essential

Id: sJRMsrI6Jvk

Length: 16min 26sec (986 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 22 2018