Arturia KeyLab mk3 49 vs M-Audio Keystation 49 MK3

The Arturia KeyLab mk3 49 is the step up for people who actually play the keys, not just trigger them. It adds an aftertouch-sensing keybed to the Essential's formula, which is the single biggest difference between the two Arturias in this guide.

Aftertouch means pressing harder on a held note adds vibrato or filter movement without touching another control. Around it sit 12 pressure-sensitive performance pads, 9 encoders, and sustain and auxiliary pedal inputs, in an aluminum chassis with a wood-accented body. It runs on USB-C, so it uses the same cable as most current laptops.

It costs nearly four times the Keystation and about 90% more than the Essential mk3, for aftertouch and build materials rather than a longer feature list. Its Amazon rating sits a little lower than the other two picks here, at 4.3 from 186 reviews, fewer ratings than either M-Audio or the Essential mk3 have collected. And that price puts it well past what a first controller needs to cost.

The M-Audio Keystation 49 MK3 is the plainest way to get 49 full-size keys onto a desk. It has one fader, pitch and mod wheels, and octave buttons, and nothing else competing for space, which is why it is the most reviewed 49-key controller on Amazon at over 6,700 ratings.

It is USB bus-powered, so it needs no external adapter and no drivers to start playing. The keybed is velocity-sensitive but not weighted or semi-weighted, and there is a software bundle in the box: MPC Beats, Ableton Live Lite, Velvet, XPand2, Mini Grand and Touch Loops, plus free lessons through Skoove and Melodics.

The tradeoff is everything it leaves out. There are no pads, so finger drumming or clip launching means buying something else. One fader is the entire control surface beyond the keys, so there is no per-DAW mapping and no screen. And the keybed itself feels light next to the step-up Arturias, since M-Audio built it for speed and cost, not for weighted piano touch.