Arturia KeyStep Controller

C
oming in the
wake of last
year’s excellent,
multifaceted
BeatStep Pro,
Arturia’s latest
controller – a
simple-looking, 32-note mini
keyboard – might look a little
underwhelming at first glance.
However, for a sub-£100 controller,
the KeyStep packs in a surprising
amount of functionality and
an impressive number of well-
designed features.
too, including setting the CV outputs
to volts per octave or hertz per volt
and adjusting sync settings. Finally,
a sustain pedal input and power
input round off the connections.
The hardware itself is fairly
lightweight, consisting of a metal
base with a plastic top and rubber
controls. The keys are a ‘slim’
design, but are velocity and
aftertouch sensitive and are fairly
playable for a controller this size.
The keys are joined by a pair of
touchstrips that handle pitch and
modulation and, while these offer
nothing in the way of visual or tactile
feedback, they’re conveniently
placed and nice to use. The KeyStep
has clearly been designed with
portability in mind though, and on
that front it excels. At just under
50cm long and 15cm deep it’s far
from cumbersome and easy enough
to squeeze onto even a small desk
alongside a laptop.
Sequencer and arp
To call KeyStep a keyboard controller
only tells a fraction of the story
though. Alongside its standard MIDI
keyboard functions, the KeyStep also
features a built-in polyphonic
sequencer, arpeggiator and chord
mode. The sequencer has an
eight-pattern memory, which comes
pre-loaded with patterns but can be
overwritten by user input. Each
pattern can have up to 64 steps,
with a maximum of eight notes per
step. Notes can be inputted ‘offline’
As with the two ‘Steps’ that
preceded it, the KeyStep features a
range of different I/O formats.
There’s a USB connection, for
hooking the controller up to a
computer, MIDI In and Out ports and
CV Pitch, Gate and Mod outputs.
There are also mini-jack Sync In/Out
ports, which will work with pulse
clock devices, such as Korg’s Volca
range, or can send and receive DIN
Sync messages via a (separately
purchased) adaptor. Arturia’s MIDI
Control Centre software allows for
further configuration of the outputs
THE PROS & CONS
+
Flexible range of
digital and analogue
ins and outs
Compact, light and
very portable
Lots of control
capabilities for a
budget MIDI device
-
Clock source
switches are fiddly
and inaccessible
No power supply in
the box
It’s far from cumbersome
and easy enough to squeeze
onto even a small desk
alongside a laptop
Arturia KeyStep | Reviews
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FMU311.rev_arturia.indd 93 10/5/16 4:55 PM