WORLD OF MUSIC ; PORTABLE KEYBOARD - Latest Portable Music Keyboards, Synthesizers and Music News

Arturia expands the KeyLab Essential mk3 range with a new 88-key controller keyboard – a new standard for stripped-back, multi-octave MIDI control.

Last year, Arturia unveiled mk3 versions of its KeyLab Essential range of affordable controller keyboards. In their third iteration, the 49 and 61-key controllers offered improved DAW integration, a redesigned interface and new features like the Chord and Scale Modes.

Today Arturia introduced their new KeyLab Essential 88 mk3, a full-sized 88-key controller keyboard boasting the same updated feature set as its 49 and 61-key KeyLab Essential range.

Adding to the 49- and 61-key models of the KeyLab Essential range, Arturia’s KeyLab Essential 88 mk3 puts a semi-weighted full piano range at the fingertips of musicians and producers.

KeyLab Essential 88 mk3 features a full-size, 88-note range, semi-weighted keyboard, designed for DAW production, hybrid setups, and controlling MIDI hardware instruments.

Above the keyboard, you will find a 2.5″ display and DAW controls, next to a 2×4 grid of pressure and velocity-sensitive pads and a bank of nine faders and nine full-rotation encoders, all of which arrive pre-mapped to parameters in your DAW and bundled software instruments such as Analog Lab V.

KeyLab Essential mk3 is equipped with custom DAW scripts for majors DAWS such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase and Bitwig. You can design your own customised mappings, or control other DAWs via the MCU/HUI protocol.

Arturia is hoping to make writing melodies and chord sequences easier with Chord and Scale Modes and a built-in arpeggiator. Chord Mode assigns chords to single keys across the keyboard while Scale Mode locks the keyboard to one of a selection of pre-defined scales, so you won’t be able to hit a wrong note if you try.

All KeyLab Essential mk3 controllers arrive bundled with a two-month subscription to Loopcloud and a software package that includes Analog Lab V, a software instrument that offers thousands of presets lifted from its V Collection bundle of synth plugins, and Ableton Live Lite.

New with KeyLab Essential mk3 controllers:

• New creative features: Scale Mode, Chord Mode, and Arpeggiator
• Custom DAW integration (FL Studio, Ableton, Logic Pro…)
• More versatile presets
• Easier controls & interface
• Expanded software package for beginners & pros

Arturia KeyLab Essential 88 mk3 is priced at £299. Find out more on Arturia website.

Arturia updates Pigments with a revamped sequencer, new presets, wavetables and samples – and you can now use its effects to process sounds from your DAW.

2024 NAMM Show: Today, Arturia has released Pigments 5, the latest version of their ‘Polychrome’ software synthesizer.

Compared to previous iterations, Pigments 5 the most exciting new feature here is a revamped sequencer. This adds a variety of new creative tools, including a one-click generative mode that will create a random sequence, as well as new playback options. In addition, Pigments can now save and recall sequence presets separately, allowing users to easily mix and match preset sounds and sequences.

Another interesting addition is the ability to process external sounds using Pigments’ Utility Engine. The broad and powerful range of processors included in the synth’s highly customisable effect engine has long been one of the instrument’s highlights, so having the ability to process sounds from your DAW is likely to add considerably to its appeal.

The other significant upgrade is one hidden under the hood: Pigments now utilises multi-core processing, which Arturia says will result in greater CPU efficiency.

Beyond this, Arturia has also tweaked the design of the simplified Play Mode view, which was first added with version 4. This offers an approachable, surface-level interface for the instrument – ideal for preset browsing. It’s now updated with a smarter look and better waveform visualisation.

Arturia has also added a significant amount of new sound content, adding 100 new presets as well as new stock wavetables and samples. There are also three new add-on sound packs available.

New in Arturia Pigments 5:

• Reduced CPU consumption – Pigments now utilizes multi-core processing for greater CPU efficiency, allowing more users to explore this powerful softsynth with ease.
• Process any audio with Pigments – You can now process external audio in Pigments from the Utility engine, by routing the sound to the instrument through the track sidechain input. Additional FX routing options have also been integrated.
• Updated interface – Pigment’s refreshed interface includes an improved play view, with new visualisers and other UX enhancements.
• Generative sequencer – featuring one-click sequence generation and new play modes, as well as saveable presets and sequence browsing.
• New curated content and sounds – a selection of 100 new factory presets, alongside new wavetables and samples in Pigments 5, comprising more than 1500 sounds.

The Pigments 5 is free to existing users. Find out more on Arturia website.

Arturia _Efx Refract, a new unison plugin, and makes it free for the holidays.

Arturia has announced Efx Refract, a stereo multi-effect “with versatility at its core”, and has only gone and made it free until the 4 January. It is the latest in a series of free music software giveaways this year, making 2023 something of a bumper freebie year.  And if you download one free plugin this year, we reckon you should make it this one…

Refract is a multi-effect with a unison-based architecture, meaning that the sound or note is multiplied and subsequent effect processing takes place in parallel. This results in that rich, phasing chorus-like effect you get when multiple signals drift out of phase, effectively meaning a bigger sound.

The first process, then, is the Refraction, whereby Refract takes your input and duplicates it to up to eight stereo voices. This spread of sound is then passed through Refract’s multi-effect chain… and here’s where it gets even more interesting.

You get five effects – BandPass Filter, Comb Filter, Bitcrusher, Distortion and Harmonizer – which can be added to each of those (up to) eight voices and processed individually, before being summed back together.

It is a unique setup that Arturia says, “allows for some wild, new and creative results”.

The company believes that some of the results you get with Refract’s effect combinations are quite surprising, telling us that it’s easy to create metallic-style reverbs, surreal shimmers, melodic bit crush effects and monster basses.

It is available to download now at Arturia website. Efx Refract will be free of charge until 4 January 2024, and will cost $99/€99 thereafter.