Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 Rose Quartz & Aquamarine: Keyboard Controllers for your Gender Reveal Party
3,8 / 5,0 | 
The Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 is now available in two spectacular new liveries: Meet the KeyLab Essential mk3 Rose Quartz and Aquamarine!
All about the Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3
Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 Rose Quartz & Aquamarine: Keyboard Controllers for your Gender Reveal Party
According to Wikipedia, the cultural phenomenon of so-called gender reveal parties originated in the United States in the late 2000s. At such events, the gender of an unborn child (who, fortunately, only gets to attend passively) is revealed in a more or less spectacular manner, often through special effects involving the gender stereotypes of pink and blue. Sometimes pink or blue balloons are released, sometimes there is some kind of explosion that rains pink or blue confetti on the jubilant crowd, and sometimes the secret is hidden inside a giant cake.
Expecting a child? Congratulations! Here’s an idea for a very special gender reveal party: why not hire a one-man band to perform on the Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 in the new ‘Rose Quartz’ or ‘Aquamarine’ special editions? Your guests are sure to get the hint!
While eye-catching special editions from Arturia are nothing new, these new paint jobs for NAMM 2026 are on a whole new level. As of today, you can order the 49-key and 61-key versions of the popular keyboard controllers in pink or baby blue!
Apart from the colors, everything stays the same. The controllers have nine programmable faders and rotary knobs each, eight RGB pads, and DAW transport controls. They also offer a built-in arpeggiator and chord and scale modes.
Like all Arturia KeyLabs, the ‘Rose Quartz’ and ‘Aquamarine’ editions of the KeyLab Essential mk3 come with the Analog Lab software, which includes about 2,000 presets from Arturia’s popular software instruments. They also support the NKS standard, so you can control compatible instruments and effects without having to assign the controls manually.
Price and Availability
You can now order the Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 Rose Quartz and Aquamarine from Thomann* for $191 / £172 / €195 (49 keys) or $234 / £211 / €239 (61 keys). And just in case gender stereotypes aren’t your thing, the black and white colors are of course still available.
More Information
Introducing the Arturia KeyLab Essential MK3 controller keyboards
[23 May 2023 / Stefan Wyeth] With the new Arturia KeyLab Essential MK3 series, the level of integration has been improved all around. This makes the user experience even more intuitive than before, so you can focus on the music.
Not only is Arturia’s own software more extensively mapped, but there are preconfigured DAW scripts for Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, and Bitwig Studio.
Compared to the previous model, the KeyLab Essential mk3 now features a larger 2.5-inch display with 4 buttons for easy navigation. Apart from the 5 dedicated DAW scripts, these keyboards offer wider compatibility with support for the MCU and HUI protocols.
When it comes to the creative side of things, Arturia has expanded the playing field with features like scale mode, chord play, arpeggiator (with presets), and a hold function.
Moreover, the 2 banks of RGB backlit pads promote spontaneity and the expression pedal input offers Sustain, Footswitch, or Expression modes.
Overall, the new KeyLab Essential series provides a good degree of utility, whether you’re an Arturia software user or not. The layout and features have been neatly designed to provide a transparent interface for music creation.
Pricing and availability:
Both the 49 and 61-key variants are currently available for order from Thomann in two colours.
Bundled software includes Arturia Analog Lab V, Ableton Live Lite, NI The Gentleman, UVI Model D, Loopcloud & Melodics.
More about the Arturia KeyLab Essential MK3:
- Official product page
- More from Arturia
Videos:
Note: This article contains affiliate links that help us fund our site. Don’t worry: the price for you always stays the same! If you buy something through these links, we will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!
This might also interest you
2 responses to “Arturia KeyLab Essential mk3 Rose Quartz & Aquamarine: Keyboard Controllers for your Gender Reveal Party”
And, who would have thought, again one more totally standard MIDI Controller with no endless encoders and with no with displays beyond them (for values and parameter names), ahhhh…..
I’m confused. Did they go straight from Essential Mk1 to Essential Mk3, no MK2?
I know there is the regular Keylab MK2, but that’s the “bigger brother” of the Essentials version.