Keystage - MIDI 2.0 poly-at keyboard controller from KORG

Yes I came here after seeing the modules offered at NAMM.

So has anyone purchased this keyboard?? Reading back through the comments it does not appear to have been well received.

No one bought it?

If it hasn’t been selling well, I hope the takeaway for Korg (and the industry at large) is not ā€œnobody wants a premium MIDI controller keyboardā€ but rather ā€œnobody wants a premium MIDI controller keyboard where you’re frequently changing knob functions, but their positions keep jumping around because you used pots instead of encoders.ā€

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Just ordered the 61 Key. :smiley:

I just realized that with all my space constraints, gear flux, modular builds, etc. that instead of buying and shipping keyboards, I can just grab desktops, squeeze them into my small setup, and keep a nice, base controller.

I mean, I’ve done this in the past, plenty of times, but I somehow developed a distaste for it along the way. I think this controller ticks all the boxes though that might just bring all my oddball decisions into a nice cohesive yet flexible studio situation :slight_smile:

At the very least I think giving it a try will be a fun change of pace, and I happen to have a perfect set of things to control with it. It’ll be easy to tell if I can go this route or not now because of the way my gear is arranged (or disarranged :smiley: )

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I just haven’t gotten around to trying it in the store yet. The 61 key model is marked as Top Seller on the Guitar Center website.

Thinking of getting one as a partner for my Push 3. First though I want to keep learning how to use the Push 3 by itself before complicating my life by adding stuff to it.

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Wish it came as a 37-key model as well.

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I watched the pros/cons from the Loopop video. I’m shocked this doesn’t have catchup for the pots. My Alesis Andromeda from 25 years ago has this. I always called it ā€œturn pastā€.

This seems like a very basic feature. Looking at the firmware change log they don’t seem to be iterating very fast.

Midi 2.0 feels like the future but I’m not sure this keyboard is the answer. Probably best to wait and see Arturias answer to this. At the very least it will have endless encoders.

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I’m interested in that keyboard and… no sustain pedal jack, right? Is there a workaround? I don’t really need a damping pedal, more a sustain pedal :slight_smile:

A bit more research and I see that in the manual:

Maybe setting MIDI CC64 does the trick? Anyone who has one and a pedal would try?

I’m eyeballing one of these for poly AT duty. How did it end up working for your use case?

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Surprisingly well, but I still prefer to have full keyboard synths in the end. The immediacy of just rotating a bit, and instantly playing (or playing two at once) for me is kind of key.

As far as controller+desktop setups go though, I’d say that the Keystage has been the best of the 2-3 such setups that I’ve tried over the years. It’s easy to use, the keybed while light (same as Hydras) works well, and the PolyAT is delightful to use.

I didn’t use the audio interface, or do anything in depth like set up profiles. I just switch MIDI channel to change synths.

So my case was fairly simplistic compared to some.

It’s a nice controller overall, though I have used ones with better overall feeling of keybeds, but then they didn’t have PolyAT. That was the main differentiator for me.

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The poly AT is exactly what I’m looking for. I really don’t use soft synths and MPE isn’t a big deal for me atm so easily changing midi channels is probably the most important thing. I’m mildly looking at an osmose as that seems to sit somewhere between a hardware keyboard with AT like this and a squishy MPE controller (linndrum, roli, etc) but I’ve read mixed things on it as a controller.

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Got some examples of better feeling keybeds? I don’t need poly aftertouch but the feel of the keys are important to me. I’ll be playing mostly synth sounds but as you know, I have a desire to pick up my piano playing too. :blush:

I’m considering the Arturia Keylab 61 mk3 (not the Essential). Anyone has experience with both that one and this Korg?

I’ve owned them both and the Arturia has the better keybed. It has a better ā€œsynth-ishā€ action and the keys themselves feel nicer. And not to forget: The keybed on the Korg is very NOISY, couldn’t get used to it.

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Or the Hydrasynth Keys or Deluxe.

I just bought the Arturia Keylab 61 mk3 and the keybed feels great! I’d describe it as similar to the best Fatar actions I’ve played, even though it’s Arturia’s own design. I also found that I don’t need poly aftertouch, I sold my Native Instruments Kontrol S61 Mk3 that had poly aftertouch, because I pretty much never used that feature. I didn’t even consider the Korg Keystage just because of the noisy keybed problem. Over all, I like the Arturia Keylab 61 mk3 better than the Kontrol S61 Mk3 I had, it has more controls and better Arturia and DAW integration.

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The Korg is identical to Hydra. Same action, same company. It works well, but it’s just a touch too light for me.

For me, newer Fatar is spot on for synth playing. The Poly AT Fatar is incredible. (what’s in the Super Gemini) Also for non-Poly AT the Fatar beds in the Sequentials is perfect. Loved my Rev2s for example. TP8 or 9 I think?

I haven’t used the larger Arturia keys, so I can’t comment there. I was actually impressed with the KeyStep 37 mini-keys of all things (I hate mini-keys). So if that’s anything to go by, I would assume their larger keybeds would be pretty good.

I’ve heard that the Novation controllers feel pretty nice. I haven’t tried them myself though.

There’s nothing technically wrong with the Korg/Hydra keybeds. They work well, the pressure/Poly AT works quite well. For me, I like the keys to be just a bit longer, a little bit heavier, (though not hammer/full weight for synth playing) and the Fatars just feel exactly what I feel like a synth should feel like.

I’m not sure what’s in the Moogs (Grandmother/Matriarch) but those feel excellent too. I’m not sure if Moog makes those, or gets them from another keybed maker, but if any controllers have those keys, I would recommend them too.

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Thanks for sharing these experiences, they seem to be in line with the reviews. I think Arturia is the way to go for me.

Same for me regarding poly aftertouch, I thought it was cool on the Hydrasynth Explorer (which roughly compares to the Keystep 37 keys in my opinion), but I couldn’t find a practical use for it in my productions.

To be honest, I feel similarly about channel AT. I guess it’s a way to keep playing with both hands while still adding some expression, but it’s not really a deal breaker for me. The feel of the keys is most important.

Me too! For being mini keys they’re nice, but you can’t really play with mini keys. Plus, three octaves is too limiting for me. Even four on the Roland A49 felt like it forced me to press the octave buttons too much. Five octaves is the sweet spot to me and what I grew up with (Roland W-30).

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Yeah, you definitely don’t want to play with mini-keys! :smiley: I have it for testing 1V/Oct inputs on my oscillators mainly, but also occasional portable use.

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I just picked up a Keystage 49. I love the poly aftertouch (mainly using with a Waldorf M and Fred’s Lab Tooro). It’s also the thing that may finally unlock the ipad in my use case (as a standalone synth module) as the audio outs and volume control are a great feature. I grabbed korg module piano soundpack and that set up was automatic. Good stuff.

One thing that isn’t super clear is whether the transport controls function outside of a daw or if there is midi thru functionality. The start/stop buttons don’t do anything with devices connected over DIN midi (clock is going through fine). Also, with the keystage connected with DIN midi from Logic, I can’t get it to pass through start/stop from logic to midi connected devices further down the chain (digitakt 2 primarily). Has anyone been able to get in configured to send start stop over DIN? I was able to configure templates from the Kontrol software but didn’t see any transport settings.

After further research it looks like it doesn’t transmit or receive start/stop transport info with the play/stop buttons, if I’m reading the midi implementation correctly. It also doesn’t seem to have any midi thru capability. I’ll just need to re do my set up with the digitakt 2 as the first device out of logic.