Novation’s first keyboard for FL Studio gives a large number of application for $200 | Engadget-MyCyberBase

It’s onerous to imagine that (née Fruity Loops) has been round for twenty-four years. It’s even more difficult to imagine that it took twenty years for any person to make devoted {hardware} for the DAW. And that it was once some other 4 years ahead of a 2d corporate had a stab at it, after . Now Novation is taking its smartly appeared collection, giving it a gentle facelift and rebranding it as FLKey – the primary keyboard MIDI controller designed completely for controlling FL Studio.

FLKey is available in two sorts, the FLKey 37 and FLKey Mini. Novation despatched over the 37 key model for me to check, and I will be able to let you know that, bodily, it’s just about indistinguishable from the Launchkey 37. It’s were given the similar full-size keybed, 16 pace delicate pads and 8 knobs around the best. They even each have an identical quantity of buttons and pitch and mod wheels positioned reasonably awkwardly above the keys. The one actual distinction is that the FLKeys are grey as an alternative of black, and the labels at the controls are fairly other.

The construct is cast, however now not what you’d name rugged. I almost certainly wouldn’t take the FLKey out on excursion. The whole thing is plastic, and the keys have a slight springiness to them. The pads are pace delicate, and feature polyphonic aftertouch, however are a tad stiff and small. They’ll get the task achieved for finger drumming, however can’t evaluate with the ones discovered on an . There is a small display that offers you helpful data at a look, like preset names. And the 8 knobs around the best are clean and feature a pleasing quantity of resistance, however are reasonably small. They make sense at the Mini style, however at the 37 they appear fairly misplaced. Nonetheless, bearing in mind the virtually rock-bottom value of $200, that is all beautiful spectacular.

What makes the FLKey stand out, regardless that, is its out-of-the-box mapping for controlling FL Studio. With the pads and pots you’ll simply keep an eye on quantity and panning each from the mixer and channel rack, keep an eye on a lot of Symbol Line’s local plugins, and play chords with a unmarried button. You’ll be able to’t ditch the mouse utterly, however you’ll carry out most simple duties without delay from the controller.

Should you’re in detail conversant in FL Studio, likelihood is that 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 once nonetheless known as Fruity Loops. I needed to relearn some terminology and take a look at to unlearn some behavior I’d evolved after years of the use of Ableton Are living as my number one DAW. However after I were given over the preliminary hump, I discovered it quite simple getting the tough define of a observe down with simply the keyboard.

I if truth be told assume that the FLKey lineup gives deeper keep an eye on than its Ableton-focused siblings within the Launchkey collection, no less than in the case of generating a complete music from begin to end. While the Launchkey lineup turns out extra enthusiastic about Are living’s efficiency options, FLKey feels constructed extra with manufacturing in thoughts. That almost certainly has as a lot to do with the variation within the DAWs approaches as the rest, regardless that.

It’s tremendous fast and simple to fasten the keyboard into a selected scale, or to assign the pads around the best to the chords in stated scale. The latter is particularly helpful for me since I’m what’s frequently known as a horrible keyboard participant. It additionally takes only a unmarried button push to quantize a efficiency after you’ve recorded it which, once more, is tremendous to hand for any person like me who’s merely faking their method round a keyboard.

Should you’re sticking to FLStudio’s integrated plugins the knobs are frequently mapped to controls mechanically, regardless that, it sort of feels just a little random on the subject of what they if truth be told keep an eye on. That is almost certainly the most important factor with the FLKey (once more, almost certainly extra to do with FLStudio’s quirks than the rest) – consistency.

Ableton Are living was once constructed very consciously from second one with UI consistency being prime at the record of priorities, so mapping controls is a far more effective and extra predictable affair. FLStudio is a little more hodgepodge. Each plugin has its personal distinctive interface with controls scattered round, and now and again offered in oddly skeuomorphic techniques. In some plugins the mapping is totally nonexistent. As an example, whilst the buttons for converting presets paintings flawlessly in DX10 and Risk free, they don’t paintings in any respect in Sawyer or GMS. And the mod wheel doesn’t appear to do anything else in maximum plugins.

Additionally it is value temporarily bringing up that whilst the again is in large part spartan, there’s a full-sized 5-pin MIDI DIN there. So, when you are now not knocking out beats with FPC or slicing up samples in SliceX you’ll keep an eye on your {hardware} synths too.

FL Studios quirks will also be a part of its appeal. However it does make it onerous to construct on best of what Symbol Line has already achieved. Nonetheless, if there’s any corporate I’d think about making it paintings, it could be Novation. Through the years it’s evolved a name for its merchandise and including new options. So there’s a good probability that FLKey’s tough edges gets smoothed out.