Which 61 key midi controller?

Chuffola Frets: 2125
07 Oct, 2024
Looking at various options and am attracted by the Arturia Keylab Essential 61 but would welcome any thoughts.

I’ll be using primarily with GarageBand. I’m also mainly looking to use vintage virtual instruments - Rhodes, Wurlies, B3, Mellotron etc.  There’s some decent sounds within GarageBand but what’s drawing me to the Arturia is the inclusion of Analogue Lab V, which looks excellent and also includes loads of other vintage synths. 

At around £220 for the package it seems a bargain. Anyone use it?
Comments
TTony Frets: 28786
07 Oct, 2024
Chuffola said:

At around £220 for the package it seems a bargain. Anyone use it?
I do, and it is.

[edit]
Unless you're in a hurry, I'm expecting some more black-Friday-ish sales from Arturia.  Might not change the price of the kbd, but might give you some other deal options on the bundles.
Don’t get the MAudio Oxygen … mines been really faulty and now several of the knobs have packed in

i reckon the notation ones look more solid
Chuffola Frets: 2125
07 Oct, 2024
Good to know @Littlejonny ;

Cheers @TTony and good call re Black Friday




I will never have enough patience to wait until then….
Nektar LX61 for me. I had one, loved it, and have the LX25 for messing about it. 
Chuffola Frets: 2125
11 Oct, 2024
Arturia arrived today. Oops.

What a brilliant thing it is. And Analogue Lab V is worth the price alone. Fun weekend ahead!
Bod Frets: 1487
12 Oct, 2024
Chuffola said:
Arturia arrived today. Oops.

What a brilliant thing it is. And Analogue Lab V is worth the price alone. Fun weekend ahead!
Enjoy!  The Arturia hardware is brilliant and Analog Lab is fantastic too - is it the full version?  I bought a 25-key MiniLab 3 and it came with the intro version, but upgraded to the Pro in a sale.  I think I paid £35 so keep your eyes peeled.
Teetonetal Frets: 7910
12 Oct, 2024
I have the mk1 keylab, it's been great, easy to use and lasted well.
Chuffola Frets: 2125
12 Oct, 2024
Bod said:
Chuffola said:
Arturia arrived today. Oops.

What a brilliant thing it is. And Analogue Lab V is worth the price alone. Fun weekend ahead!
Enjoy!  The Arturia hardware is brilliant and Analog Lab is fantastic too - is it the full version?  I bought a 25-key MiniLab 3 and it came with the intro version, but upgraded to the Pro in a sale.  I think I paid £35 so keep your eyes peeled.
Its the full version. Quite incredible value. 
Chuffola Frets: 2125
14 Oct, 2024
Update. It's not the full version... Its all the presets from the Analog Lab V - to unleash the full synths then you do need to buy the full version (I think?)

However, I know nothing about synth programming and the presets are fantastic. There's more than enough in there for me with hundreds / thousands of them (I'm not a synth player and don't really want to go down that rabbit hole...) and there's plenty of adjustment available within each preset.

If I see an upgrade for £35 I'll definitely get it though!
Octavio Frets: 193
14 Oct, 2024
Chuffola said:
Update. It's not the full version... Its all the presets from the Analog Lab V - to unleash the full synths then you do need to buy the full version (I think?)

However, I know nothing about synth programming and the presets are fantastic. There's more than enough in there for me with hundreds / thousands of them (I'm not a synth player and don't really want to go down that rabbit hole...) and there's plenty of adjustment available within each preset.

If I see an upgrade for £35 I'll definitely get it though!
£35 for an upgrade to V Collection X?
Chuffola Frets: 2125
14 Oct, 2024
I'm now confused. I think it is the full version of Analog Lab V - that seems to be presets only. 

I'm assuming @Bod had a lesser version and the £35 upgrade was to the full Lab V that I have. 
Octavio Frets: 193
14 Oct, 2024
Chuffola said:
I'm now confused. I think it is the full version of Analog Lab V - that seems to be presets only. 

I'm assuming @Bod had a lesser version and the £35 upgrade was to the full Lab V that I have. 
Do you have an option to updates to V Collection X? That's usually €599 on its own.
Chuffola Frets: 2125
14 Oct, 2024
No. £299 for me to upgrade. I don't need anything like that level of control though. The presets are fantastic, there's loads of them and I can still tweak everything I want. 

For example, in the Rhodes presets I can swap out all the fx pedals, adjust stereo spread, movement, reverb, delay etc. That's enough for me!
Bod Frets: 1487
14 Oct, 2024
Chuffola said:
I'm now confused. I think it is the full version of Analog Lab V - that seems to be presets only. 

I'm assuming @Bod had a lesser version and the £35 upgrade was to the full Lab V that I have. 
I had Analog Lab Intro and upgraded to Analog Lab Pro for £35 which basically gave me a larger library of presets. 

Analog Lab is essentially just a load of presets that use the synth engines from their V Collection.  You can only edit them if you own the full version of that particular synth engine.  So, for example, I have the full version of Pigments, so can open up Analog Lab patches for deep editing, but can't for any of the others.