I own an Arturia keylab mkii 61 and I can say that mapping is very easy and flexible.
The keyboard comes with standard mappings for Arturia’s own Analog Lab as well as for Studio One, Cubase and some other DAWs, plus you can make your own keyboard maps, which I did for Cantabile.
So I read through the Arturia manual. I know, you’re not supposed to RTFM until all else fails, but…
There are a few non-assignable buttons like octave,MIDI channel, etc. But, the faders (all 9) are configurable, even with drawbar mode (DRAWBAR MODE!) And everything else can be configured and stored in 10 different user mode banks. The pitch wheel (aluminum) cannot be reconfigured—it is always a pitch wheel. However, the mod wheel (aluminum) defaults to cntl 1, but can be configured to any cntl/nrpn/rprn.
Many reviews seem to rave about build quality (aluminum, not plastic; keys seem to be plastic over metal) and keyboard feel is not hammer action, but that is available in the 88 key version.
I couldn’t find anything about SYSEX implementation. It’d be nice to know if you can send text to the display.
I’m leaning pretty heavily to the Arturia rather than the Akai. Guess I should read the Akai manual first.
FWIF I have a Keylab 88 - just about anything is assignable; the Arturia software to do that is pretty intuitive.
I have a child to sell. Just saying. It sounds like a good keyboard.
Just as I was getting ready to click the 3 easy payments on Sweetwater (that is how I get my stuff), I recalled that when I played the Hammond (long ago), VK-7, Electro 4D (that was a nice one), the drawbars were on the left. B3 and C3 upper drawbars were on the left hand side. I was planning on selling my MPK261 on Craigslist to absorb the cost of the Arturia MKii. However, do I want my drawbars on the right? No. Not really.
I am going to wait a year, and see how the MKii reviews. I have an SL-88 on the lower tier and I am gong to magnetize (black duct tape and magnets on the bottom) an Icon i-Controls - Potable 9-Fader MIDI Controller to the left of the SL-88 display. I mapped My MPK261 as 8 of the 9 drawbars before, but never used them because of them being on the right. Hated reaching over my right hand. Didn’t feel right.
Still, I love my Arturia V collection and, yes, the MKii 61 seems to take it, in this case.
Yep. I’d love to have the drawbars on the left. And I’d love to have some real estate on which to set my Babyface like on my Novation. Oh, well. Think I’ll wait until after NAM and see what new models come out.
Lots of folks have said nice things about this inexpensive 9-slider controller:
Terry
That looks very cool Terry! I have some pictures coming that will show how I made my own Studiologic Mixface. Mixface 250.00 and my Icontroller is 70.
Just noticed that those who own the Arturia V6 collection (like I do) get their new synth for 70 bucks. I had some paypal funds left from an ebay sale, and I got it. (Pig Mints). I am going to try it out after my holiday gigs are done.
Here is my setup. Just used it last night and it went really well! Nice little controller! It is held in playce with 6 small neodymium magnets duct taped to the bottom.
Love the mic cable John!! and the rig too …
I, as Dave, also like the mic cable and the rig. I also like the chick in between the two guys by the tv. What’s her name? 
Oh, and the controller too.
Red is my favorite color. The guys got it for me because I always wear a red shirt to practice.
That’s, actually not a chic (nah! I’m just playin’). This party got crazy. This event planner’s wife arranged a couple of young (adult) females dressed in french maids outfits to come in and dance nasty lifting up their skirts and grinding with each other, to our music. They were only supposed to mingle flirtatiously with attendees. These pictures were before we started. All I could think was, “After years of playing for church, this is what I have come to?”
Then there was a lock down because there was an alcohol driven fight outside and someone called the police as it was said that one of them had a gun. The police helicopter came out. This was last night. It was crazy.
How did such a respectable (country club) party go so south? It was fun but we were stuck there until 1am when the lock down was cleared. We are not young, and our “play til 2am” days are over. Tomorrow night is another Country Club, but they have infinitely more etiquette, and are not a bunch of gun wielding cowboys.
I LOVE the drawbar control and the IKmm Leslie. That is what playing a Hammond is all about. My God, what a difference! Even the singer’s wife said, “Hey, did you add a new sound or something, because the keys sounded great!”
Very cool John.
Are you sure you were not in Memphis? That is a normal Tuesday night here.
BTW…what program is on your laptop screen? Looks familiar but can’t make it out. A DAW?
I’m going to buy myself red mic cable
Its Ableton Live Suite. I launch our backing tracks with the mpk, and C3 is running behind it. 2 audio interfaces to accomplish this.
It was a country music gig, and I’m not a fan of country.
Back to classic hits tonight.
Hey! Yeah! It would look nice with your Nord!
For a long time, I had an assortment of different colored midi cables and instrument cables. I can’t seem to find the colored midi cables around here anymore (and I only bring one hardware keyboard now anyway since switching to vsts).
MPK 249, 261 and even 225 users may find this newest abstracted-controllers rack for the MPK series interesting: C3 Community Racks Exchange
All the controllers (except pads and pedals) have been abstracted for free assignment across several instruments. Easy to edit and make changes to. Enjoy!
Terry
