Arturia MiniLab 37 – More Keys, Same Cool Functionality
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Arturia MiniLab 37 · Source: Arturia
Arturia MiniLab 37 · Source: Arturia
Arturia MiniLab 37 · Source: Arturia
Arturia MiniLab 37 · Source: Arturia
The Arturia MiniLab 37 expands the affordable line of lightweight controllers, but does it add anything over and above a few more keys?
Arturia has very firmly established itself as the leading MIDI controller manufacturer. Between the KeyLab, KeyLab Essential, KeyStep, KeyStep Pro and MiniLab ranges, they have something for almost everyone’s needs.
KeyLab controllers are incredibly well featured and amazingly well built. I have the KeyLab 88 Mk.3 as my main studio controller, the only 88-note controller that has ever been able to usurp my beloved Yamaha KX88 in terms of feel.
The Arturia MiniLab 37
It’s also very well specified when it comes to controller features for plugins and DAWs, in particular when controlling Arturia’s own extensive software suite of instrument plugins. And this feature permeates the range, right down to the MiniLabs. Now we have a new one to consider, the MiniLab 37!
Available in black and white editions, the MiniLab 37 takes the feature set of the MiniLab 25 and gives it 12 more keys! And honestly, that’s about it. Arturia have obviously felt that users have wanted more keys, and so here is that option.
Just like its smaller sibling, the MiniLab 37 features velocity sensitive slim keys, eight velocity and pressure-sensitive, RGB-lit pads, eight rotary controls, four sliders, touch-sensitive pitch bend and modulation strips, buttons for transpose and octave shifting, a chord mode and built in arpeggiator with a hold function.
Connectivity
On the rear, there is a USB-C port for power and MIDI, a regular 5-pin MIDI port, a pedal input and a Kensington Lock socket. As mentioned previously, the unit is available in black or white and both versions sport fake wood panelling on the end cheeks.
The display now sits in the centre of the MiniLab 37 with its single, clickable rotary control. It’s a small screen, as you’d expect, but fire up any Arturia instrument plugin, and you will see the patch name displayed. You can use the central rotary to scroll through the instrument’s presets, clicking it to load them up.
It will also display parameters for the rotaries and faders, with their mapped functions and settings. If you spend a lot of time in the V Collection ecosystem, this will fit right in. The pads are also multi-functional, doubling up as DAW transport controls and Arp selectors as well as drum pads or clip launchers.
The pad colours can be customised, which is a nice touch, especially if you’re marrying them up with DAWs like Ableton Live. The unit will also function as a clock source, so you can still use it with hardware synths or modular, but the Keysteps have much more functionality.
Honestly, it is hard to get too excited about a basic MIDI keyboard controller, but if you’re looking for an entirely affordable and portable controller keyboard that has the expanded range of a 37-note model, then you can do much worse than the MiniLab 37.
More Information
The MiniLab 37 is available now for €139.00 for both white and black editions.
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