Arturia KeyLab 88 MkII 88-key Weighted Keyboard Controller Reviews

I've been using this keyboard now for about 7 months and am quite happy with it. The key bed is definitely on the heavy end, nothing light or springy if that's your thing, but the velocity can be adjusted with the included software.
A bit disappointed that the transport controls don't work natively with Bitwig or Reason, which I knew going in, and i know there are scripts etc that can extend that functionality, but I usually just map controls on a per song basis anyway. The midi control center takes a few minutes to understand (you have to drag your settings up to the top box for some reason), but once you have that sorted, there's an amazing amount of flexibility and customization available.
Overall, a great piece of kit to build a home studio around, I'll be using it for years!

I purchased this to replace an existing 88 key non-weighted controller in my home studio. I am also a large-scale commercial studio owner. The feel is exceptional and immediately adds to feel of truly interacting with a sound. The build is very solid and it's an attractive piece. Of course because it's Arturia the drum pads are also very solid.

Really love this and love the color! Red or Gold would've been perfect also, but this one look so nice and the feel and touch are second to none. The natural wood accent adds even more sophistication. Me and my husband have a matching pair! It was that nice, he had to have his own and now we can duet like we've always wanted.

I just got mine in today (the black one, as I prefer to be looked at as little as possible) and spent a while testing things out, and I love it! All of the controls feel great and, with very minimal setup time, work perfectly with Logic (my DAW of choice). The primary reason I got this is to have a flexible (and light weight) controller with lots of controls on the surface that I can map to whatever I need. I make a lot of tracks in Logic and I play live shows with MainStage. This is a fantastic controller for both of those. The construction is very solid. The body is all metal with wooden side plates and weirdly high quality rubber feet. I suppose that's the dumbest part of a keyboard to like, but they just feel very sturdy. It makes me wish I had it sitting on a table instead of a keyboard stand, so I could take full advantage of them! I love the included laptop stand and music stand. They hook on to the keyboard and are quite sturdy. The laptop stand will hold any laptop you put on it. The music stand is definitely sturdier than most. It's plexiglass (or whatever that is), so it does wobble a bit, but it's much better than any other stands I've seen like it, and I have no worries that my iPad will fall off of it. The music stand even has a hole in the center to fit an iPad charging cable. I didn't realize that was a thing, but it fits perfectly, so now I don't have to keep the iPad upside down with the cable coming out the top. The music stand is off center (to the left) to make room for the laptop stand. I don't mind this, as I usually play musical theatre gigs, and I have yet to play in a pit where I'm not somehow cramped or compromising my playing position due to space restraints. But, it might be worth it to know, if you care about that. If you look at the first picture on Sweetwater, you can see the 6 little silver screws sticking off the back. The three on the right are for the laptop stand and the 3 on the left are the music stand. So, your music will be centered in the center of the 3 leftmost screws (around E3/F3). I love the fact that you can change modes in seconds with the main knob. I can go from fully specialized as a mixer/transport controller for Logic right into a customized controller for Kontakt or Pianoteq (or any other instrument) to record a track, and then right back again for Logic controls. Another perk that I didn't even realize before buying it is that it can be bus powered, which is great to save on cables for gigs!

The only real negative I find with this is the keyboard action itself. This is 100% my personal preference though, and truthfully, this is a very small negative that I will happily get used to. They keys are a little heavy for my taste. I am a pianist first and my ideal action is that of a Steinway grand. Obviously no keyboard can approach that (yes, I love Kawai's GrandFeel, but I can't justify $2k for a keyboard with no other controls and not enough pedal inputs), but the Arturia certainly isn't my favorite of the choices I do have. It reminds me a lot of Roland action. I don't have a Roland board to side-by-side compare, but it just has that heavier, ever-so-slightly mushy feel. I prefer the action of most Kurzweil boards (Fatar TP-40L) and the Yamaha MOX series. They are definitely on the lighter side (great for organ playing as well), and just feel like they have a faster response. With this and Roland boards, I feel like the keys just take slightly too long to return to neutral. All that said, the action on this is very sturdy and certainly not of a lower quality in any way. It's just slightly heavier than I prefer. It's minimal (and the other pros are so much better than the competition), so I will deal with it and not love it any less. I'm not a fan of any of Arturia's software/instruments, but I only had to open their MIDI editor once to set the keyboard to Logic, and I haven't touched it since. I suppose "I probably won't use your included VSTs because I don't need/like them" would be the most "Karen" of things for me to call a negative.

My primary keyboard before this is a Kurzweil Forte. I love that, but that is overkill for a MIDI controller in my home studio, and I wanted something with more flexible controls dedicated to a DAW's functionality. I'll certainly still use my Forte for live gigs, but even given how light this is (or at least how much lighter it is than the Forte…) and how much more I can do with it, I might use this as my primary MainStage controller for theatre gigs as well. I did also look into the NI Komplete Kontrol S88. I haven't tried that one in person and the integration with Kontakt (which I use frequently) looks amazing, but I couldn't settle for the fact that there are so few physical controls on the S88. It's very hard to beat having 9 faders, 9 knobs, 16 drum pads, and transport controls (among many others). Plus, this one is cheaper and made of metal.

As for Sweetwater, if you don't already know how amazing they are, where have you even been? I just ordered this mkii as a demo version as well as a guitar not too long ago as a "blemished" item. I have been searching and still can't find this supposed "blemish" on the guitar. As for the mkii, the only way I can tell it was a demo unit is because the box had clearly been opened before and retaped. However, the packing inside was like new, and the keyboard itself is flawless with not a scratch or blemish on it. So, 2 items that you could have fully lied to me and told me they were brand new/perfect and I'd never know the difference, and yet I managed to save a few hundred dollars. Both items shipped out the day I ordered them and were at my door (halfway across the country) within 3 days. I will never order audio gear from any other company. Period.

It was a toss up, also considering the S88mk2. Really can't go wrong with either one. In particular, for me I liked the Arturia's music rest and the shelf that attaches. Very handy. Also, not sure if NativeInstruments can do this - the Arturia gives me User modes controlled by the big knob. A guy on YouTube showed me how to program one of the User modes to work with KompleteKontrol instruments. I mapped eight of the 9 knobs on the Arturia to control the KK instruments just like I would be able to if I owned the S88mk2. I do own a NI M32 which gives me the same control and I use it on my iMac. The Arturia is hooked to my M1MacMini. I've never been a big fan of using the pads for finger drumming or beat making, but a YouTube orchestrator uses the pads for keyswitches, which is a good idea. One of the main reasons I moved away from my previous midi controller was to gain better velocity control. These keys are very nice and I am using the custom profile that Arturia allows. Plus they also have exponential, linear, logarithmic, and global. Nice.

So far, so good. Love the feel, the cool look (specially if you choose the white color) and its friendly user features.

Straight to the point, highlights for me:

. Powered via the USB cable to the computer (you may also use it with DC power chord, chord is not included)
. Keyboard buttons, faders, rotary knobs can be easily integrated to your DAW of preference (it literally has them listed for you to choose from; for example, Logic Pro, Ableton, etc.)
. Keyboard features can be in tune with your workflow: makes it easier when producing music just scroll/touch functions directly from your Arturia Keyboard
. The focus is unashamedly DAW-centric, the compatibility broad, and the software package is genuinely valuable
. ABOVE ALL, THE PRICE: amazing price for the quality sound, practical and amazing features

I highly recommend to buy (specially if looking for a professional but yet stylist, practical and modern studio workstation keyboard... this is the one!).

To get the keys out of the way first, what you have likely heard about this controllers key action is true: it's heavy. Likely heavier than any other MIDI out there and certainly heavier than any real piano I've ever played. With that being said, I mainly use this for production and it's GREAT! The weight of the keys along with aftertouch allows for more expressive input compared to previous MIDI's I've owned when laying down chords or a melody. For piano players, quick licks pose a bit more of a challenge but I look at it as practicing with ankle weights on. When I return to a real piano or any other keyboard for that matter I'm off to the races although it takes a minute or two to adjust to the weight of whatever other keybed I'm playing on. Net positive I'd say, but it all comes down to application and preference.
Moving past the keys, it's safe to say I agree with most other peoples opinions here in that the pads and controls are awesome. Super easy integration with DAW's and Analog Lab while the pitch & mod wheel feel very solid. Overall, if your main use of this would be for live performance or for leisure I would recommend trying it beforehand (although I know it's practically impossible because this MIDI doesn't seem to be in stock or on display in most/any physical music stores). However, if your main use of this would be for production, I can't recommend it enough!

Absolutely the best MIDI controller I've ever had. Built to last and the weighted keys are exceptional. Pads are real responsive and easy to program. Just what I was looking for.

I am very pleased with my new Arturia Keylab 88 MKll so far the best Midi controller I ever had.. all the way around including the software fantastic..

Have been playing keys professionally for 40 years and have played several cool brand models like Yamaha Motif and Nord Stage. A couple of years ago started checkin out the newer Nord Stage 3 fully expecting to upgrade from my Nord Stage 2 that I've owned since 2015. This keyboard has been an absolute solid with most excellent built-in sounds and always reliable on the road. But when I found out that Nord did not provide an upgrade path to migrate custom programs created on the Stage 2 I really had to step back for a minute. Had already literally spent hundreds of hours creating and modding custom programs for live gigs and was faced with doing the same drudge again upgrading to the Stage 3. That's when I began researching MIDI keyboard controllers - and was really skeptical about heading down this path. What I found was that the new Apple MacBook Air M1 with Big Sur running MainStage was really powerful enough to drive a new keyboard setup and from what I could tell MainStage had all of the capabilities of the Nord plus some. And all my research on MIDI keyboard controllers kept drawing me toward the Arturia KeyLab 88 MkII. So on March 1, 2021 took the plunge and bought a new Arturia KeyLab 88 MkII from Sweetwater, picked up a used Arturia AudioFuse audio interface on Reverb, and got a new MacBook Air from Apple. Gotta say that although MainStage has a learning curve, am super impressed with the capabilities of this app. And the Arturia KeyLab 88 MkII has been a dream to play. The Fatar keybed is amazing and really feels more like an acoustic piano with a great weighted-key feel and really expressive aftertouch. Although it plays a little slower than my Nord Stage 2, it's still fast enough to play passages like the synth lead and piano outro in Rosanna. You should also know that Arturia Support has been outstanding over the past couple of months. They have been responsive, educating, and super patient with this green newb. Man I cannot give enough creds to their team of support techs. So although I'm building all my custom song patches from scratch again in MainStage my work won't get left behind in my next keyboard upgrade.

I waited 2 months for stock to arrive at Sweetwater, and was able to snag a limited edition black model rather than the standard white. Give yourself some time for the unboxing. It is packed VERY well, with a box inside a box, inside a box.
I have had this keyboard for about a month now. Long story short, so far this has been the keyboard I have been looking for. I like the feel, although keep in mind I am coming from a synthesizer keyboard. I did modify the velocity curve a little bit; I really need to work on my dynamics.

The DAW integration is really cool. I've been using Studio One, and had to turn a knob/slide a slider a little until it picks it up; after that first time it has worked great. I like Abelton Live Lite but I upgraded to the full V-Collection instead of it. The piano V2 sounds great, and now I have a collection of vintage synths at my disposal – including the OB-Xa I always wanted.

I was also looking at the S88, but was concerned about the negative reports I was reading. Either way, I was going to spend a lot of money on a keyboard without the ability to play it first. Kudos to to sales engineer David Yanes for his guidance, and for answering all of my questions. I couldn't be happier!

This is by far the best midi controller / keyboard I've owned yet - and having owned a few, that's saying something. Special thanks to my incredible sales engineer, Charlie Davis - always there with great advice and product guidance.

My Steingraeber Grand Piano has been flooded here in the Philippines on XMas. Thus I needed a replacement and logically this is the Arturia Keylab 88 MKII ... hehe ... well the truth is that I read about physical modeling and got excited about its promise and capabilities. And the most beautiful, most affordable and most versatile controller on the market is just this one. I was a bit worried about the action and in the beginning my thought was "ouch this is so spongy". But I got used to it in the mean time and I love the action. Even my previously broken little finger on the left hand is grateful for this action compared to the demands of the flooded grand piano. I ordered it with Sweetwater because you can't get it here in the Philippines and it took only 7 days from the time of ordering until I got it in a remote province of the Philippines - outstanding.

I really love this keyboard! The MIDI capability is fantastic and way to extensive to get into. Put it this way, you can attach a Pig's head to a Dog with this controller, hook your equipment up six ways to Sunday. Love the action and the Laptop platform. If you have Arturia's full collection with Keylab, you'll be able to dump a lot of gear. And thanks to the wizardry and conscience of the great Robbie Resnick the Sweetwater sales Guru, the keyboard was packed in three boxes that were heavier than they keyboard itself. I honestly haven't seen a better pack job. The driver that delivered it was struggling to get it up to the porch, and when I met him at the door his voice was up a couple of octavos. But it handles easy after uncrated, easy to take to gigs. You'll love it!

The promotional video for this sums it up nicely, it's a heft piano like instrument with all the buttons you need to interact with your favourite software package.

The software bundle is good enough that once you add a laptop, it's basically a musical instrument. The laptop perches nicely on the accompanying shelf to the right of the keyboard.

The software bundle includes Arturia Piano V, Wurli V, and Vox continental V, as well as Analog lab (large bunch of presets) and Ableton live lite. I added a... korg mono/poly soft synth and that made for a pretty complete instrument.

Though the keys are quite heavy, when playing piano V (or soft synths) it's evident that they register even at lower velocities. Though I find the default settings too "stiff" for my fingers in arturia Piano V I have no souch trouble playing quick passages on synth sounds.

Recommend for someone who wants a full size piano feel in a strong midi controller with plenty of dials. I think for alternatives to this you'd really need to step up to a keyboard workstation with similar controls (e.g. kurzweil pc4).

I never would have though I would like a midi controller. The Keylab MK11 did it for me. I'm a professional piano player and I have to say that it really hurts my wrist when I play this keyboard, that's how realistic this keybed resembles an acoustic concert piano. So if you have soft fingers and you are more use to soft keys, this is not the keyboard for you. It literally feels like if you playing an Steinberg piano, trust me.
The interaction with Cubase is great, (I have not use it with Logic pro X as yet). It also came with Ableton Live 10 and other great sounds as well. I'm really impressed. I owned the Yamaha Montage 88 and now I'm strongly considering selling the Montage and use the Keylab mk11 as my main keyboard and I think that's a huge thing for me to say. I really recommend this keyboard and so far so good.

I was classically trained, played for the orchestra on $ Steinway grands before. Very picky about the action on my keyboards. Would never compromise. Always the first thing I look for.

Needed a new controller for worship at my church. I did not try all the keyboards to know if one was better than the other, but had really good experience with Arturia in the past, and based on the reviews pulled the trigger.

The "fatar" action is nice. No, its not like the same graded, weighted action as the more expensive pianos by a long shot, but I can tell its an improvement. I would imagine you can only do so much at that price range, and without really long hammers. I am impressed, and happy.

Love all the buttons and knobs to remove the need for additional controllers, which was another selling point for me. The action is nice.

My only gripe is minor: why did they put the mod wheel UPPER left?

Regardless, it's nice!

I love the weighted keys on the Mk2 88. It feels great to play and also the stand and the little extended come in handy especially when your running something like MainStage or Ableton. All in all a great purchase.

I waited for Arturia to update their original KeyLab 88-note controller, since they had already released the 2 smaller unweighted 49 and 61 key versions. The MkII has all the same brains and control features of its little brothers, but with a nice feeling weighted keyboard. I will confess, the feel took a little getting used to, having used a big Yamaha stage piano for 15 years, but using it on a gig, I didn't give it a thought while I was playing. What I don't miss is the weight. My Yamaha, 70 lbs., the Arturia is 32 lbs. So nice.

It comes with a software package with a bunch of synths, piano, electric piano, etc. (haven't really tried those out, but the YouTube demos sound great) and Ableton Live 10 Lite, which I'm using as my live rig DAW. So literally you could buy the MKII, fire up the plugins and be good to go. I plan to use the sliders as a mixer for layered sounds, or control filter cutoff, effects level. Just need to spend some time to set that up, but it's designed for such things so I'm not worried. Speaking of controls, they all feel real solid, unlike the cheap feeling sliders and knobs on many other controllers. I'm sure I'll do something fun with the pads eventually.

It has built in presets to customize the controls for several different DAWS, like Live, PoTools, Logic, etc. (not Reason, sadly). Also, I was really happily surprised that it came with a music desk and a laptop desk piece that both clip on the back, very intelligent sturdy design and not cheap plastic add-ons. The whole keyboard is really solid.

positives:

+ pretty, with the white paneling and wood panel accents.
+ keybed is fine. quiet physical action, fully weighted.
+ supports continuous (half-pedaling) sustain input when configured.
+ rotary encoders are continuous which I think is more convenient.
+ works with just USB bus power, convenient.
+ channel aftertouch works, neat when mapped to something subtle like a vibrato.
+ nice built in music stand and laptop shelf on the right side, convenient.

negatives:

- I was hoping all the extra knobs and faders would be more useful for controlling things than I've found them. They work, but you have to look back at the computer to see what they're controlling and when they latch generally; so unless your computer screen is also near the controller it's less useful (my computer is off to the side, not behind my keyboard)
- the keybed feels "fine" but I can see why people call it "spongey". it doesn't have a pronounced tactile hammer force change, compared to an old roland a90 keybed I used before.
- the keybed is the same as other $ controllers, so could've gotten a cheaper controller and a some different midi controllers to stack on top, instead of this all-in-one unit.
- some odd gimmicky features like playing chords with the pads seem useless and clutter up the panel.
- the pitch and mod wheels are way up in the top left of the controls, not close to the keybed where you'd want to manipulate them when playing with one hand.

Overall I'm still happy with it. I think you're paying for all-in-one-ness and the looks over functionality though, so keep it in mind when comparing with other Fatar keybed midi controllers.

After having this for months I've come to like this midi keyboard a lot! The built quality is solid, the software is you turn it on and it just works on my PC. The DAW control and Analog Lab integration is solid and works flawlessly! I've absolutely have had no issues with firmware or drivers for this keyboard, you turn it on and go!!

I don't know if my fingers have gotten stronger or what but the keys don't bother me as much now. In fact it has made me a better player being that I have to press in control because the keys are very expressive, I can't bang on them and the velocity be the same for all notes like I was use to on my Triton.

It's worth the money get it!

The Arturia Keyoab 88 MKII is solidly built and all the knobs and faders have that "just right" amount of resistance to them that makes them a pleasure to operate. The buttons provide an audible click that you might not want heard during recording, unlike the piano keys themselves which have a duller thud sound that is less audible than any other hammer-action keyboard I have ever laid hands on. The mod is nice but the pitch wheel is awkwardly placed where thumb control is all but unworkable when trying to use it and play musically. The drum pads work nicely including aftertouch but for my personal taste they could take a little lighter touch to activate at its lightest setting.

Playing on the piano keys is a rather interesting experience. With that, the Keylab's feel at first play feels like they are mounted on a bed of foam rubber, making fast crisp playing nearly impossible for my 64-year-old slightly arthritic hands. HOWEVER, when playing slow gentle passages there is no better keyboard than the Keylab as it provides supreme control over dynamics when played with a gentle loving touch.

One niggle that is not a big deal is the bank switching while controlling a DAW. The little display gives you no feedback at all where you are. It should say something like: Tracks 9-17 so you know where on Earth you are instead of hoping you don't move the fader of the wrong track by mistake.

I personally could not see gigging with this keyboard as it is a bit heavy to be regularly hauling around at around 36 pounds without a case. It belongs in a permanent place in your studio where the solid build will give you pleasure as a controller.

I did not install some of the software because I already have their instrument suite and I'm not interested in Ableton. Their software for setting up options on the keyboard is top notch. The Keylab's three modes: Analog Lab, DAW, and User, are all tremendously useful and the first of these modes suggest that you are basically all in with Arturia as that one keys directly in to using their Analog Lab to play presets from their instrument suite.

All in all, I am very happy with this keyboard. The solid build, the feel of all the controls, and the music stand and laptop tray are all very well thought out and useful even though I don't have a laptop -- there is always a need for room to put something like an Elgato Stream Deck. No keyboard is best suited for every type of music, and the Keylab is best suited for gentle thoughtful musings unless you have powerful hands.

So am I pleased with my purchase? Absolutely. Could there be improvements? Certainly. If you can, you should lay your hands on this beast before shelling out the money.

First, there's no other controller like this on the market. Arturia have clearly paid attention to the needs of gigging keyboardists who use VST instruments for live performance. Of prime importance are the assignable buttons, missing from nearly every other controller on the market, and critically important for switching sounds/patches during a live performance. Build quality is EXCELLENT. Size and weight are EXCELLENT. Laptop shelf and music stand are GENIUS. 76 keys would arguably be even better, but these 88 keys fit into my Gator 76 key case, and that's just LOVELY.

Now for the bad news. The keyboard action of the Fatar keybed is easily the worst action of ANY weighted keyboard I've ever used (e.g. Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Casio). I can hardly believe any reasonably experienced player would give it a positive review. It's that bad. Super slow, super spongy. Feels like the keys are sitting atop memory foam. Rebound speed is very slow, making playing feel incredibly laborious, like you're constantly pushing the thing to play in time. There's no discernible bottom to each keystroke, almost as if the keys were hydraulic - almost certainly NOT the action anyone is looking for. In the future, if I see the word Fatar, I RUN in the other direction.

I do wish I had a chance to play this keyboard before purchasing. Not carried in stores, so I took a risk and got stung for it. Gave it a couple of weeks to get used to the action to no avail. Quite sadly, my KeyLab 88mkii is now simply collecting dust thanks to the unforgivably poor action. The real disappointment is how much I love everything else about this controller.

Its pointless to mention the pros as we all know and read it does everything exceptionally well but one thing, the Action. Some seem to have little issue with this. Foremost I am a guitar shredder and prefer faster exciting music in general, whether Metal, Classical or Theatrical/Epic Trailer music. And I can Shred on this keybed however my opinion is somewhat oxymoronic. On one hand the heaviness forces one to stay within a certain rhythm, you acquire a certain feel to play fast and keep in time. Though this may seem a little robotic and what another reviewer may have meant by finding it difficult to show expression. On the other hand the sponginess and slow recoil makes it hard-put to maintain a precise tempo. How can both be true? Well imagine tap dancing in quicksand. It will certainly force you into a particular movement, however consistent precision would be challenging. Particularly when the pinky comes into play, based on simple physics it just won't maintain the same velocity property at higher speeds. It certainly has its advantages as well, as another reviewer's analogy to wearing ankle weights. Which brings us yet to another reviewers comment in "cannot be your only board". It will only make other boards more difficult to get used to. Personally I still love it, it's gorgeous, built like a tank and offers all those controllers so many brands are so stingy with. But TBH, If Id known about the Nektar Panorama Id may have gotten that instead. Id come to the realization that for the price point the Junk Komplete Kuntrol sells for I may as well just buy a full on Pro keyboard thats Control surface friendly. As of now Im patiently waiting the arrival of my Fantom 07. You see the keyboard tray of my Malone desk can only hold so much weight and my Axiom Pro 61s keep dying (cant believe how much they are priced for on EBay being discontinued for nearly 2 decades now). I have a two tier Ultimate Support stand and my Axiom doubled for top tier as well as front of console, which is the only reason Id choose the Nektar over the Arturia which would be too heavy. So the Fantom 07 is a killer upgrade. However along this same thinking its a shame to waste my top tier on solely a MIDI keyboard. Don't get me wrong, it pairs nicely with my Kurzweil PC3LE8, but now im drooling over a used Korg Kronos LS to really make the most of my studio. Sadly leaving the Arturia out of the loop. So what im saying is dont let the 3 star review get to you, it all depends on ones personal needs. I agree the Fatar keybeds are overrated, they will certainly make faster more complex passages a challenge in precision timing & velocity, but you can certainly Shred on this beast and it will only make you a better player. I plan on adding a vid of me doing just that at a later date, Shred till Im Dead, and then some lol

I bought this controller many months ago, and since, I have been trying to convince myself I love it, but sadly, the keybed itself is quite disappointing. The controller aspects of this instrument are amazing, and I love using it for DAW control. I have the smaller synth action Keylab 49 mkII as well, and with the identical controls, it feels like home to be on either. The synth action is incredible on those particular controllers. I am a pianist first, but I am not too picky with weighted key action. I regularly play on a Yamaha P45 and Nord Grand (both ends of the digital piano cost spectrum), and either are a joy to play. The Keylab 88, however, has to squishy or spongy of a quality to enjoy at all.

I have updated the firmware to 1.3.1+ which addresses some velocity issues I was having. I have tried every imaginable (useful) configuration of velocity curves both on the board and on my VSTs, and I just can't get it to feel dynamic or expressive enough. There always seems to be a disconnect between the instrument and the sound, no matter which VST I use, or which computer. I have a new M1 Macbook and an old Macbook pro, and the Keylab just doesn't seem to want to connect to either in a musical way regardless of buffer size. I wish I was not outside my return window, but alas. I also wish that for just a MIDI controller, $ would get a good keybed. My Yamaha (with internal sounds) plays better.

I say all this to the pianist who does composing in a DAW: try another controller, or at least try this one in store at good length for some time before sinking a grand into this thing. I wish I had listened to the other reviews about the action. All of the features besides the action are wonderful - the music stand, the laptop stand, the build quality, the Analog Lab offerings; the feel of all the faders/knobs/wheels/pads is premium. Sweetwater is also wonderful for shipping this thing in tank-like packaging. I originally tried buying the same board from another retailer, and will never make that mistake again. It came smashed because it was poorly packaged. Sweetwater cares, and my dude, Nick Church cares about making sure I am satisfied. I just wish I hadn't given this keyboard so much of a chance before it was too late.

I almost can not believe how terrible the actual keybed is on this beautiful Keyboard. I wanted to love this controller so much because I have Arturia software. If a company puts as much thought into a Keyboard as this, and then simply goes on the cheap for the actual Keybed, then all the bells and whistles, the encoders, faders, pads, DAW controls, connectivity, workflow are rendered useless on the 88 mkii, because the keys are too sluggish to play organ, synth, and every other form of non weighted keyboard music and because they are too slow on the bouce back to play fast Piano music. This means that this particular Keyboard is not good at anything besides marrying itself to Arturia's software which then can not be employed in any full measure because of the unbelievably terrible response and over all heaviness of these keys. The Keylab 61 mkii is a great midi controller as is the 49 key version. If you want to play with any real time speed at all, you will absolutely avoid this product. The real answer is the SL-88 Grand and the Keylab 61 mkii together. So that when paying good money on software, you can actually get your money's worth with Keyboards that actually function as advertized. Listen to the reviews that say how heavy and slow these Keys are and wait for Arturia to come out with a Mk3 88 weighted key midi controller. This is a lemon product because of the keybed, full stop!

I'm completely torn on whether to keep this keyboard or not. The Arturia integration is GREAT and it really does have the best combo of knobs, sliders and buttons out there. But the keys are SO heavy. I've been playing this a few weeks and just played my piano (which I used to think had pretty slow action) and it feels like a player piano!

It's hard to quantify but it feels like keylab's keys are 2x slower/heavy than a normal piano. If I stick with this keyboard, I'll absolutely need another keyboard on my desk for synths and things I want to play quicker. But that seems like a shame. I might go the other way, and get a more realistic 88 key controller (that's a lighter and faster than this beast) and then get the 49 key keylab for the knobs, sliders, etc... and use THAT for synth'y stuff? Who knows. But I'll say this, there's no way this can be my only keyboard -- the keys are WAY too slow.

Might differ for you, but don't say I didn't warn you!

I've lived with this keyboard for a while now and after complaining to myself I realized that it might make me feel a little better or save someone else from the same fate if I just shared the fact that this really well built keyboard that has every bell and whistle you could want suffers from the worst playing keyboard I've ever owned. It's too heavy to get a good rock organ or clav feel, but the weighted keys feel more like pushing an oyster cracker into a bowl of soup.

More than any way that I can describe it is the most important fact of all. It's just not fun to play. Sure, it's a controller keyboard and it has a job to do, but I started playing piano because I love it. This keyboard makes playing a chore. A joyless way to record some notes onto a track. Thank god I don't use it for live performances.

It is impossible to overstate how horrible the weight and action is on this MIDI controller. I would have given this a 1 star rating except for all of the faders, buttons, pads and knobs. Like another reviewer already wrote, if you can not use these things to their full extent because the keybed is too slow and heavy, then what good do they do?? I couldn't re-pack this and send it back to Sweetwater fast enough. One can not play delicate passages with this Keyboard, neither can one play medium to fast passages. I'm not sure what kind of music this thing would excel at! I wanted to love this product but the actual Keys themselves killed any sense of joy, no matter how many ways it can control the sounds. Other manufacturers also use the FATAR TP100/LR keybed and those products are also slow and heavy, but I have read other reviews that say that it is how Arturia houses the Keys and that NI's iteration (for instance) is less robust and easier to play. This Keybed has 2 sensors per key, whereas their better Keybeds use 3 sensors per key. Arturia is a great company whose name is being sullied by this total fail-lemon product. 45 years of playing Piano tells me all I need to know. It is difficult to understand why Arturia ever decided on this keybed for their flagship MIDI controller.I agree with the other reviews here that say to wait for the 88mk3 or to simply look else where.

The controller side of this controller is good, but the keyboard response is very unusual. It's has a heavy feel, at the same time you will have no problem hitting note-velocity 127 with moderate pinky action. Which makes it really hard to control. I am a pianist, so I always play weighted keys, and I happen to have a avant-grand which made it possible to compare side by side. Playing softly the velocity levels are on the keylab are way to low. Below 50. In the velocity range 90-127, it is almost impossible to control, the differences in touch are way to small to make it controlable. I know that this is not a problem with my controller, I have listened to some of the demos on youtube, and you hear quite easily that everyone have a hard time controlling velocity. It is so bad, it is a wonder that it passes any kind of quality control. The only way to make it usable in some fashion is to cap the uppermost velocity at 105, and the lowermost at 35. Then the controller becomes playable in some weird way. Of course, playing sounds that are fixed in velocity is OK

After spending days deciding on a MIDI controller, and choosing the Arturia KeyLab 88 MKII, I have some mixed feelings.
The positive:

1. The piano keys (to my inexperienced fingers) feel great!

2. There are lots of controls.

3. The integration with LIve and Arturia's plugins works well.

4. The industrial design is great: It has a music stand, a laptop tray, and optional legs.

The negative:

1. The display is much smaller than the competition. You don't know what any particular control will do till you move it and see what the display or the computer screen says is changing.

2. The display is small: Changing any settings via the keyboard requires you to master a tricky sequence of button presses, knob turns, and knob presses. Tedious and error-prone.

3. The software that lets you change settings via the computer is broken, poorly-maintained, and poorly-documented. Despite what the manual implies (as of this writing), it does not support live editing. You must change settings in the app, then do extra steps to download all settings to the device. If you hit carriage-return to input a new preset name (perhaps only on an Apple Silicon Mac), the app crashes. I have exchanged a long stream of messages with Arturia support for close to three weeks. They respond quickly and very cordially, and can reproduce the issues. However, as far as I can tell, although the crashes may in time be fixed, the live-editing issue may not.

4. (minor) The display is very sensitive to the viewing angle. If you are sitting down, with the keyboard on a table, you cannot read it if you are directly in front of it. Moving slightly to either side helps.

Had I to do it over again, I'm not sure if I would choose this model. I hope that Arturia decides to improve the software support for changing device settings.

Rating it a "needs improvement" because the usability of the controls is compromised by the brain-taxing user experience--either on-device or on-computer--required to customize them. I hope that Arturia can find the resources to invest in the device-setting software.

The Fatar keybed is trash imo coming from a 20 year old Korg Triton Studio this keybed is trash! You literally have to beat the keys to get a response. Get luck trying to do any runs with this thing. You will keep people up late at night because the keys are loud from pressing so hard. I've had it for a couple of weeks will write an update after a few months.

The only reason I'm keeping it is because of the tight integration with Analog v and the DAW control with Studio One. That's it otherwise it would be going back!

I used to own a 9 foot Steinway Concert Grand Piano, it was a 1929 model D from New York. I never compare any keybed to that Piano because it would never be a fair comparison. However, I also have owned and played many fully weighted Keyboards and this is by far the absolute heaviest action that I have ever played. In other words, this is not me being unused to weighted keys, it is this Keyboard being slow and sluggish, PERIOD! Even the sensors are weak and sluggish. It is incredible that Arturia uses this truly awful keybed for their flagship weighted MIDI controller. This Keyboard can only sell based upon all of the DAW control, the encoder knobs, the faders, the 16 multi function pads and the many buttons. If one can not employ these wonderful controls because of a terrible keybed, then these controls (no matter how many) are rendered useless! If all one wants to do is to play "pads" and you already have some Arturia software, then this Keyboard is an ok option, but not a great one. However, if you have any desire to play medium to fast consecutive notes, then stay far away from this product and any other product using the FATAR TP/100LR Keybed. I have been composing music on Pianos for over 50 years and in all that time, I have not encountered a slower or heavier Keyboard action. I have a Yamaha P-515 with wooden keys and a lot of folks say that it has very heavy action, yet when compared to the Keylab 88mkii, it is like playing "Air Piano". Since 1978 I have espoused the view of "Weighted Keys for all Piano or Electric Piano Music" and "Non Weighted Keys for Organ, Clavinet and Synthesizer Music" But, this Keyboard is not good for any kind of Music because of the fundamental constraints of this Keybed. If a Keyboard does not excel at any kind of music (and believe me, this keyboard doesn't) then how can the suggested retail price be justified? Lastly, MIDI controllers have no built in sounds and so if you own a library of sounds, you will want to really hear what the various samples actually sound like. With the Arturia Keylab 88mkii, you will never exploit your own sound library even if you have Arturia software!! I have the V Collection 8 and it is just weird that I needed to buy a weighted key contoller from a different company in order to get the most out of the "Piano V" the "Wurli V" downloads, and every other electric Piano sound I have that Arturia makes. The cheapest and best solution to all MIDI controlled sounds is what another reviewer already said, and that is to get separate Keyboards. One for Piano music and one for all other kinds of music. I am not exaggerating at all about this FATAR Keybed. It has 2 sensors whereas their better Keybeds have 3, that I know of. Wait for Arturia to make an 88mk3 or look elsewhere. These low star reviews speak the truth!

I'm surprised this has such high ratings. I really wanted to like this. The design is excellent, feels well built, and looks classy with the wooden legs. But ooof, this was an immediate disappointment.

I bought this mostly to use for electric piano VSTs, specifically Arturia's own Stage 73 and Wurli instruments from the V collection. I wanted weighted piano action keys, as I was getting concerned about using my synths as MIDI controllers. I needed something I could lean into a bit more.

As soon as I pushed the first key down, I knew something was wrong. I have a piano and am comfortable with weighted keys. These are something else. Very sluggish and heavy. I found it difficult to play in time, or play moderately quick pieces. The velocity response was terrible. And about 50% of the noted resulted in a "blip" sound instead of correctly triggering a sound. This was with Arturia Stage 73 V, their own software.

I updated the firmware and played with the velocity settings to no avail. Using a synth as a MIDI controller, I did an A/B comparison to verify it was not an issue with the software or my computer. It worked fine with the other keyboard.

The MIDI issues may have just been on my unit, maybe it was a lemon. But the keybed and velocity issues are totally unacceptable. This would not work as a piano/EP controller, or for fast synth work (bass, leads, anything but pads).

I don't understand Arturia's choices with keybeds. The other, synth-action, keyboards have slim keys, which is annoying in its own right. The 88 key is "like tap dancing in quicksand" as another reviewer aptly described it. I wish they could figure this out. The build quality/aesthetic/integration with the V Collection is very promising, but the keybeds absolutely ruin them for me.

I purchased my Arturia Keylab 88 from Sweetwater in 2017. The software for the controller cannot be updated with Mac Sonoma or Ventura. It has been very unreliable since I bought it. The customer service from Arturia is VERY poor.

Very frustrating when trying to play songs to tempo. Fingers become sore after an hour.
Tried looking for solutions for reducing the weight, but takes too much time and effort.
Planning to buy a different model.