Novation’s first keyboard for FL Studio gives plenty of utility for $200 | Engadget

It’s arduous to imagine that (née Fruity Loops) has been round for twenty-four years. It’s even tougher to imagine that it took 20 years for somebody to make devoted {hardware} for the DAW. And that it was one other 4 years earlier than a second firm had a stab at it, after . Now Novation is taking its nicely regarded sequence, giving it a lightweight facelift and rebranding it as FLKey – the primary keyboard MIDI controller designed completely for controlling FL Studio.

FLKey is available in two varieties, the FLKey 37 and FLKey Mini. Novation despatched over the 37 key model for me to check, and I can let you know that, bodily, it’s practically indistinguishable from the Launchkey 37. It’s obtained the identical full-size keybed, 16 velocity delicate pads and eight knobs throughout the highest. They even each have the identical quantity of buttons and pitch and mod wheels positioned considerably awkwardly above the keys. The solely actual distinction is that the FLKeys are grey as an alternative of black, and the labels on the controls are barely totally different.

The construct is strong, however not what you’d name rugged. I most likely wouldn’t take the FLKey out on tour. Everything is plastic, and the keys have a slight springiness to them. The pads are velocity delicate, and have polyphonic aftertouch, however are a tad stiff and small. They’ll get the job executed for finger drumming, however can’t evaluate with these discovered on an . There’s a small display that offers you helpful information at a look, like preset names. And the eight knobs throughout the highest are clean and have a pleasant quantity of resistance, however are fairly small. They make sense on the Mini mannequin, however on the 37 they give the impression of being barely misplaced. Still, contemplating the just about rock-bottom worth of $200, that is all fairly spectacular.

What makes the FLKey stand out, although, is its out-of-the-box mapping for controlling FL Studio. With the pads and pots you may simply management quantity and panning each from the mixer and channel rack, management lots of Image Line’s native plugins, and play chords with a single button. You can’t ditch the mouse utterly, however you may carry out most elementary duties instantly from the controller.

If you’re intimately aware of FL Studio, chances are high you’ll be capable to get additional with the keyboard than me. I haven’t used FL Studio a lot since I used to be in faculty and it was nonetheless referred to as Fruity Loops. I needed to relearn some terminology and attempt to unlearn some habits I’d developed after years of utilizing Ableton Live as my main DAW. But as soon as I obtained over the preliminary hump, I discovered it comparatively simple getting the tough define of a observe down with simply the keyboard.

I really suppose that the FLKey lineup gives deeper management than its Ableton-focused siblings within the Launchkey sequence, no less than in relation to producing a full tune from begin to end. Whereas the Launchkey lineup appears extra centered on Live’s efficiency options, FLKey feels constructed extra with manufacturing in thoughts. That most likely has as a lot to do with the distinction within the DAWs approaches as the rest, although.

It’s tremendous fast and straightforward to lock the keyboard into a selected scale, or to assign the pads throughout the highest to the chords in mentioned scale. The latter is particularly helpful for me since I’m what is often known as a horrible keyboard participant. It additionally takes only a single button push to quantize a efficiency after you’ve recorded it which, once more, is tremendous useful for somebody like me who’s merely faking their method round a keyboard.

If you’re sticking to FLStudio’s built-in plugins the knobs are sometimes mapped to controls routinely, although, it appears a bit random when it comes to what they really management. This might be the largest problem with the FLKey (once more, most likely extra to do with FLStudio’s quirks than the rest) – consistency.

Ableton Live was constructed very consciously from second one with UI consistency being excessive on the record of priorities, so mapping controls is a a lot less complicated and extra predictable affair. FLStudio is a little more hodgepodge. Every plugin has its personal distinctive interface with controls scattered round, and generally offered in oddly skeuomorphic methods. In some plugins the mapping is totally nonexistent. For occasion, whereas the buttons for altering presets work flawlessly in DX10 and Harmless, they don’t work in any respect in Sawyer or GMS. And the mod wheel doesn’t appear to do something in most plugins.

It’s additionally price rapidly mentioning that whereas the again is essentially spartan, there’s a full-sized 5-pin MIDI DIN there. So, once you’re not knocking out beats with FPC or chopping up samples in SliceX you may management your {hardware} synths too.

FL Studios quirks may be a part of its appeal. But it does make it arduous to construct on prime of what Image Line has already executed. Still, if there’s any firm I’d think about making it work, it might be Novation. Over the years it’s developed a repute for its merchandise and including new options. So there’s an honest probability that FLKey’s tough edges will get smoothed out.