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Arturia keylab essential 49


lmu2002

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I'm selling a guitar and was offered this Arturia keyboard as part exchange. I'm sure it will work just fine as a generic keyboard and controller but how do the arturia software intruments work in Cakewalk? Just like any other VST?  I'm currently using  M-Audio keystation 61 so the Arturia keyboard is not really an upgrade except for the faders and knobs. But I'm interested in the bundled intruments. How do users like them in Cakewalk? Is it easy to connect the controller with the Arturia synth parameters in Cakewalk?

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On 3/17/2021 at 11:01 AM, lmu2002 said:

how do the arturia software intruments work in Cakewalk?

I've been using keylab 49 essential since this past Christmas. The bundled software works great in CW. You can use the instruments inside of CW like any other soft instruments, or use the Analog Lab software and other instruments from your PC's desktop. Make sure that you are getting Analog Lab V! It is a beast - in a good way - and beats the daylights out of Analog Lab 4, even tho, it is good, too. Just , I think the "V" is way better, and I can't tell you why... it just is.

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Thanks Kevro! I did make the deal and looking/sounding good so far. Analog lab works nicely with the onboard controllers. Not sure how to make the controls working outside Analog lab though, transport buttons etc. But I will look deeper into that later on.

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4 hours ago, lmu2002 said:

Not sure how to make the controls working outside Analog lab though, transport buttons etc

lmu2002, I'm still workingn on that, as well. It has to be manually done, and I've tried to follow the instructions from both the manual, and other posts in here. I've not been successful, and after a sufficient amount of time, I'll try again.

I have read that others (in other forums outside of here) have been successful, but they did not post what exactly they did. Once its set up, they say it works great.

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One thing that is not initially obvious with keyboard controllers is that virtual instrument control, and DAW control surfaces, are two different modes.

Controllers that are well integrated with specific virtual instruments may work great out of the box with the plugins they were designed for, regardless of the specific DAW they are running on. But the various host DAWs supported are often footnotes on their marketing pages. And Cakewalk requires some special configuration for that to achieve limited compatibility. The last hardware manufacturer that had dedicated support for Cakewalk was Roland, because they owned Cakewalk at the time.

For example Arturia keyboard controllers are designed to work well with Analog Lab. Native Instruments keyboards work well with their Komplete or Komplete Kontrol. M-Audio and Akai have made keyboards to integrate with their VIP (Virtual Instrument Player). I have one of those VIP keyboards already, plus an Arturia keyboard on order.

Bottom line is that I am happy with knobs and sliders that provide real-time control over the virtual instrument that I am playing (more like a hardware synth), and feel lucky if I can get any transport buttons to start and stop Cakewalk. That part can be fairly easy, but there really is no one-stop answer to that other than fiddling around, and I haven't bothered to spend more time to go beyond that. I'm sure some have, and may be able to better answer specific questions about that.

My opinion is that if you want a full mixer control surface for your DAW, buy a dedicated device for that and set it up. I cannot make recommendations, but have heard the Azslow plugin used by some users here can be an effective solution to getting one set up in Cakewalk.

Example of AZController:

 

Edited by abacab
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  • 8 months later...

I literally just bought this keyboard. Am loving it so far! Analog Lab is AMAZING! UVI Grand Piano I haven't gotten it to work so far because there are already good pianos in my plugin library but Analog Lab coming with the MIDI controller is already a steal! I havent had any problems with the actual keyboard either

 

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