A premium keyboard is not just an impulse buy. You want to work with this
keyboard for a while in your studio or on the road and you want to love it and
feel connected to it! The touch needs to be right and creativity just needs to
flow! These three keyboards made me feel that way. Today
I'm comparing three of the best premium 49-key keyboards out there. The Native
Instruments Komplete Kontrol S49 MkII, the Arturia Keylab MKII and the
Novation SL MKIII 49. Each of these are the premium keyboards, the top tier from
these companies. I'll put links to the keyboards in the description of the
video. Now if you're looking for a smaller keyboard, I've reviewed the top
six keyboards around $100 in a video here. If you've got a favorite 49 key
keyboard, leave it in the comments below or let me know which one of these you
like best. Let's get started with the Novation SL MkIII. It's hard to do
justice to a review of the Novation SL MKIII without mentioning Ableton Live
integration which is top tier. If you're an Ableton Live user, you can't go wrong
with this keyboard. Just press the In Control button and you have full control
of your DAW.
But what if you use a different DAW? Well, Reason users will be happy to
hear that integration is also excellent. For other DAWs there is a basic control
script. For FL Studio, with a little setup, you can control transport, mixer,
and auto map-enabled third-party plug-ins. For Logic, you can control
transport, faders and pans, the basic stuff. Now when it comes to Ableton Live, this
thing really shines! Now, all three of these keyboards in this video will let
you control Ableton transport functions like play, stop, record etc as well as
faders and pan, solo, mute - these are all standard. But the Novation keyboard
extends this further with clip triggering and control of Ableton
devices right out of the box. Although you can do this with the Arturia, the
Novation mimics the Ableton workflow in a hardware form much more intuitively.
Navigating the session view in Ableton feels just natural. Above all, the Novation
provides out-of-the-box control of Ableton devices. So there's no setup
required. Load up any Ableton instrument or effect and you've got hands-on
control right away with clear feedback on these screens. In my opinion, this is
the nicest keyboard for Ableton users who compose and perform with "session
view." And I'm going out on a limb here but if you're an experienced keyboardist
I feel that the SL MkIII offers a better overall experience than the
Ableton Push 2.
In session view you can trigger clips of course. You've got your fader controls
for the mixer here as well.
Controlling drums with these pads feels great. All right, so that's DAW control.
But next, the Novation SL MkIII is a sequencer and it's highly functional as
a sequencer for hardware synths. In fact this has the most thorough sequencer
functions of any MIDI controller I've looked at. If you've got a bunch of synths,
this will give you excellent control. So there are a lot of hardware templates to
choose from. I've got the Prophet 6 connected. You'll see a bunch of them here.
I'll select the Prophet 6 and let's test out the sequencer. So I can record some
chords in.
I also have controls of some of the parameters on the Prophet 6. So as I'm
playing I can modify the low-pass filter cutoff,
hi pass cutoff. And you can of course configure this. You also got the built-in
arpeggiator. Similar to the Native Instruments S-Series, you've got these
light guides here as well. And these can be used to set a scale, for example. So
the scale I've got selected now is D major. And you'll see that the lights are
just showing the notes that correspond to the scale of D major. There are a lot
of other features that the Novation has like zone control, custom templates,
and more. I can't go into all of them in this one video, but you should know that
for any one of these features, there are tons of options, tons of things you can
set, tons of customizations that you can do. On the back of the SL MkIII, you've
got a USB out, MIDI ins and outs, CV connections, and pedal ports - the standard
stuff. Now with all that this keyboard does, it comes with a bit of a learning
curve. Even some simple functions like turning on the arpeggiator can get
complex if you don't read-up or know what you're doing. I got stuck a few
times just trying to figure out some simple features because it just goes so
deep. The build quality feels really good but it's not up to the standard of the
Arturia Keylab MkII. The keybed feels good. It's synth-like, but I prefer a more
piano-like experience.
The pads feel really good for finger drumming, but they are mini. But they
actually feel better than they look, if that makes sense.
The one thing that the Novation keyboard does not do, which Native Instruments
and Arturia do extremely well is integrate with its own software
instrument package. Native Instruments and Arturia both include and have tight
integration with their own software instrument bundles. Let's take a look at
Arturia's next. These keyboards are not cheap and spending this kind of
money means you expect premium build quality.
I think the Arturia MkII really delivers in this area, especially
given that the Keylab is the least expensive among these three keyboards.
When you consider the features and software that the Arturia Keylab MkII
comes with I think you get more than what you pay for with this keyboard. I've
got the white version here but this keyboard also comes in black. The keybed
feels really good but I had to adjust the velocity for my liking. It was easy
enough to do.
The drum pads feel good as well. For finger drumming I do prefer Arturia's
square grid layout compared to Novation's two rows. The Keylab MkII
has one screen in the middle versus the five smaller screens on the Novation
keyboard. So not as many screens but i actually prefer the layout of the
controls on the Arturia. Arturia also tries to take care of all the most
popular DAWs without focusing on just one. So right here you can select your
DAW. You can choose from Ableton Live, Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, Studio One, Reaper,
and there's also a standard setting for other DAWs. Selecting your DAW customizes
some of the controls right away. And actually it comes with these magnetic
overlays for your specific DAW. I have the Ableton Live overlay on it right now.
Once you've selected your DAW, you get the standard controls. You've got
transport for play, stop, and record. You've got your mixer controls right
here. The faders feel really good - actually feel more sturdy and high
quality than the Novation keyboard. You've got also your nine knobs here for
controlling different parameters or mixer settings. Now while the Arturia
Keylab MkII has custom settings for several DAWs out there, it doesn't cover
all the bases for any particular DAW, the way Novation does for Ableton Live. The
Keylab MkII will allow you to trigger and record clips just like the Novation did
but the Keylab MkII won't give you Ableton device control out of the box.
You'll have to configure that yourself. Arturia has the standard DAW controls
but where it really shines is its integration with its own software Analog
Lab. And it's got a dedicated button for Analog Lab here. What Analog Lab allows
you to do is browse and audition sounds from Arturia's V Collection and load
them into tracks seamlessly. Analog Lab is a huge collection of vintage synths,
pianos, organs, and even presets from its wavetable synth, Pigments. The integration
is very tight allowing you to filter the full V Collection of sounds by type
and category.So for example if I want to just search for "pads" I can click this
button right here and in Analog Lab it's already filtered all the presets for
pads. And now I can just start exploring these different presets and load them up
very easily. As soon as you load up a preset with Analog Lab you have
immediate control to start adjusting the parameters and doing all the sound
design you want with these presets.
If you love vintage synths, and sound design, this thing is a dream! The Keylab
also works beautifully as a hardware synth controller, giving you full control
and customizability with the user modes. The user mode is kind of like the
templates that you can set up with the Novation keyboards. The user modes can
also be used to customize your software instruments to control them as well. And
you've seen here I've actually created a setup just for Nexus 2. If you want to
see me demo this with Nexus 2 and also run through the full workflow and all
the features of the Keylab MkII, you can check out my video here. If you're
really interested in this keyboard I suggest you watch it. Before we get to
the last one, if you're finding this information useful hit the Like button
and consider subscribing. Also, if you want to learn how to control ANY
third-party plugin with ANY keyboard in Ableton Live, watch my video here. Alright,
finally we have the Native Instruments S49 keyboard. Now at first glance it looks
like we have much fewer functions on this keyboard. There are just not as many
buttons, no faders, and no drum pads! So why do I keep seeing these keyboards in
countless studio pictures? Well I think it has to do with how well Native
Instruments keyboards integrate with their Komplete Kontrol software and the
NKS standard that so many software instrument companies have adopted.
Basically, you can much more easily browse and audition presets from tons of
virtual instruments with the S49.
And once you load it you can get basic control with the 8 knobs for
manipulating sound. This Universal control is what makes Native Instruments
keyboards so appealing. That said their Komplete Kontrol software is now
compatible with other MIDI controllers from other manufacturers. But you'll
still only get the 8 knob control. You won't be able to browse with this
all-important knob right here. This is what makes these keyboards special. The S49
makes the browsing and auditioning of sounds so seamless with this beautiful
color screen. Definitely the best looking screen among these three keyboards. But
the color screen is not just a gimmick. In addition to the deep integration with
Komplete Kontrol, you've got your basic DAW integration and mixer controls as well.
I love the visual feedback of your track levels on this screen. The S49 works
with Logic, Cubase, Garageband and they recently added MCU support as well. So
your basic functions like the transport controls for play, record, stop, and
setting tempo, the metronome, and other functions like undo, quantize, and things
like that, all work really well. The S-Series keyboards do fall short when it
comes to Ableton Live session view control. Without pads, you just can't
control clip triggering and recording. But the S-Series keyboards do give you
control of the Native Instruments Maschine software as well. And you can
do that right from the screen and with these buttons here. But no drum pads!
Native Instruments keeps their drum machine products separately. So you can
connect your S49 to your external hardware synths with the MIDI ports in
the back, but it won't offer you the customizability and flexibility of the
Novation and Arturia keyboards. I think the Native Instruments keyboards are
really great for musicians and producers who mainly produce on their computers
with software instruments. That's something to consider when making a
decision.
Like you saw on the Novation keyboard, the S-Series has light guides as well.
These can be used for the same kind of functions like setting this scale. But it
also works really well with Kontakt instruments like the one I've loaded up
right now which gives you different zones for different sounds or different
functions. In this setup we've got cellos, violas, and violins split on this
keyboard. I can't say enough about how well the Native Instruments keyboards
integrate with their software and make browsing and auditioning sounds so easy.
But that's got to be something that you really want. Now
you'll find lots of other 49-key keyboards out there and you should do
your homework before deciding on one. M-Audio and Akai also make good keyboards.
So what do I use? Well I primarily use the Native Instruments S88 MkII. It has
piano-action keys which I really love. I also compose at home mostly and I
don't play live. I don't think you can go wrong with any one of these keyboards.
Each has its own strengths and weaknesses and it really depends on what
you do most. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. If you
like this video hit the Like button and subscribe. if you haven't already. Keep
making the music that YOU love. And hey check out one of these videos next!