Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 49 vs Arturia KeyLab mk3 49

The Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 49 is the build-quality answer from both Reddit threads. The top-voted comment in r/synthesizers's "Best midi keyboard?" thread says flatly, of dedicated MIDI keyboards, "I'd go for Arturias. Their build quality is solid," and this is the size and price where that recommendation lands.

Eight RGB-backlit pads with velocity and pressure sensitivity, 9 knobs and 9 faders, and a 2.5 inch LCD screen give it a real control surface, and Arturia backs it with custom DAW scripts for Ableton Live, Logic Pro X and FL Studio. Scale Mode, Chord Mode and an arpeggiator are built in, and it ships with Analog Lab V and its 2,000 presets, plus two bundled pianos, at the time of writing.

The pads are good, not great, next to dedicated pad controllers, so a finger drummer coming from an MPC will notice the difference. There is no aftertouch on this keybed, unlike the premium KeyLab 49 mk3 above it. And at roughly double the Keystation's price, you are paying for the control surface and software as much as the keys.

The Arturia KeyLab mk3 49 is the step up for people who actually play the keys, not just trigger them. It adds an aftertouch-sensing keybed to the Essential's formula, which is the single biggest difference between the two Arturias in this guide.

Aftertouch means pressing harder on a held note adds vibrato or filter movement without touching another control. Around it sit 12 pressure-sensitive performance pads, 9 encoders, and sustain and auxiliary pedal inputs, in an aluminum chassis with a wood-accented body. It runs on USB-C, so it uses the same cable as most current laptops.

It costs nearly four times the Keystation and about 90% more than the Essential mk3, for aftertouch and build materials rather than a longer feature list. Its Amazon rating sits a little lower than the other two picks here, at 4.3 from 186 reviews, fewer ratings than either M-Audio or the Essential mk3 have collected. And that price puts it well past what a first controller needs to cost.