After torturing myself for 9 months with the small 25 key CME “keyboard”, I finally got myself a decent MIDI master keyboard with hammer action. I love the Arturia Keylab 88 Mk2, the feel of it, and how it performs with Analog Lab. But the Bitwig “integration” absolutely sucks. So I had to switch back to Ableton Live to get a decent MIDI control experience. Together with the Launch Control XL it is a good setup. Now the only thing missing is a MIDI keyboard drawer, since most of the time I am actually using the PC for non music work stuff.
Speaking of PC, I also got a new PC after working only on a laptop (a 3 year old i7 based Dell). I couldn`t tell any subjective performance improvement of the 13. Generation i5 Intel CPU compared to my Portland i5 from 2013. But once I put 8 instances of Falcon with 8 programs each (that is 64 Falcon presets in parallel) I realized how much more powerful this new CPU is. On the old PC I could not do more than 8 Falcon programs in parallel. And with 64 now the CPU still only runs at 70% utilzation. It has some 20 cores or some such, pretty powerful and it is not even the top of the line (a $200 CPU).
The PC never stutters with music now. And the hammer weighted action 88 keys allow me to express myself musically better than ever before. And I havent even gotten Scaler involved yet. 88 keys should work well with control octave to pick Section C chordsets…
I am glad that you bought Arturia KeyLab MKII. It’s really a great keyboard, 88 being much better than my 61 keys.
Enjoy Bernd and send us from time to time some of your future excellent songs.
yeah, I am considering a keyboard stand. An alternative I have right now, putting the 88 keyboard on two chairs on the right side of my desk, but then I am not in the stereo field of the speakers when I play.
I was initially also looking at the Keylab 61, due to a lower budget, but I specifically wanted hammer action, since I am trying to learn how to play a piano, some day
Welcome to the Arturia Keylab club ! I I think they are really well built and finished, and work well with Live.
How are the new speakers working out ?
Nice piece. The Google Drive play button never works for me, but it does download. I’m sure you will be pleased to learn that de Coda was completely flummoxed by the progression.
You could use phones for mixing, and then turn to the front at the end to see how it sounds on speakers. I know headphones are anathema to most musicians, but they suit me because of my hearing issues … and look at the specs …
…I would say with any DAW. It works with Reaper with no hassle - the first controller that does not need a big setup. And yes, it is really well built (metal! and some wood imitation) and I bought my 61 keys for the same reason as Bernd, but with a lower budget - to learn playing piano. And it works quite… well :).
I am optimistic!
Since I stopped my Soundcloud subscription, and I dont want to upload just music without artwork to my Youtube channel, I improvised the sharing of the sound snipped through GDrive. But I dont like it either.
I need to look for a different platform where I can easily share my musical ideas. Any suggestions?
I am pleased indeed, that I once more escaped conventional notions of “Music”
Right, perhaps you saw my DT880 headphones next to the left speaker box in the picture above?
Except Bitwig. I am really flummoxed…especially since I cannot find anything on the Internet about how to make it work, which makes me feel as if only I have the problem, that otherwise it should be pretty straight forward.
My problem is that the knobs on the Keylab act very erratically in Bitwig…
a) there is a 1/2 second delay in any movements, and then
b) only 10% of movement in the hardware leads to a 100% oversteer in the Bitwig software. In Analog Lab and Ableton Live the knobs (enless rotators) work perfectly, so I know its not a hardware problem.
I think I saw something a few years ago about a producer did all his masterong on his iphone (yuk) because that i s how the majority of people listen to music these days. But I’m old fashioned and believe that you need to create several mixes dependant on how the music is distributed and the listening platform.
I think I also saw an interview with a producer who after mixing his production would review the mixes on
monitors
Hifi Speakers and
car stereo!
All this because of the different frequency responses.
Even now, of course, there are differences between radio broadcast, TV broadcast, film, and streaming. And we are now returning to vinyl with its fantastic frequency response.
I hadn’t noticed, but now I see them. Great cans and it was a coin flip between those an my Sennheiser pair. I did also note the sophisticated cardboard eco terminal support
“I can easily share my musical ideas. Any suggestions?”
I’ve not had cause to upload much (no output of note …) but when I have shared I either use a BT Cloud link or a link on my Linux server I use for my web sites. I have never used Soundcloud or YouTube.
“Launch Control XL”
Presumably there is now some overlap between this and the Keylab ?
You can try Metapop, NI sponsored platform. And it’s free.
I know, a lot of music over there is beatmaking things, but you can find “normal” music, too. Also a lot of experimentall.
You can even ask people to listen to your song and tell you what they think you could improve.
Did you try playing with Arturia MIIDI Control Center? I cannot guarantee, but maybe this or some other settings in this section could change the behavior:
Yes, I was experimenting with those exact changes you propose. And it made no difference.
But then again, in Analog Lab and Ableton Live they work perfectly, so I am convinced it is a particular issue with Bitwig. Very disappointed, given how long this controller has been on the market and how much time has passed for Bitwig to support this one
