Hey everyone! Hope you're having a great day!

I have recently bought an Arturia Keylab essentials 49 mk3 and some times some of the keys don't work (from E key under the arpeggiator button up to the B key under the second fader). I have the split mode turned of and even the arturia midi center doesn't read these keys. I'm completely sure that there's no physical damage done to the keyboard I think it's a software problem and it's so annoying.
Sometimes I start playing the other keys and it gets fixed and sometimes I tweak the pitch wheel and it's fixed and sometimes I change instruments in Analog lab while I'm playing and it gets fix. But this time I did every possible thing(unplugged it a couple times) and it's still not registering these keys...

Has any of you ever faced such problem? It's really annoying I wasted an hour fiddling and nothing happened...
please help!!!

 

Unfortunately, this controller like so much other current entry level audio gear is cheap plastic crap. Welcome to the future. Planned obsolescence is the rule.

 

If it is not mechanical, it is probably a ribbon cable trouble.
It happens on cameras/lenses too.

You need disassembly.
Search for "arturia Keylab essentials disassembly teardown"

There are some vids about different failures (mainboard connector, keys, USB ...)

Good luck !

PS : you may ask a friend,family,electronic specialist ... too.
Not only Arturia.

 

I couldn't find any teardown videos of my model.
It has some other problems to like the lights not turning of after being AFK... you either have to unplug it or turn them of or dim them from the midi center... This wasn't a problem when I first plugged it in it all happened after I installed the midi center and analog lab... To me it seems more like there is some serious firmware issues...
Regarding the keys, I saw a video on YouTube where a guy took things apart (another model) and cleaned the key beds of the board... I'll consider an internal cleanup...

 

Another thing I thought I should mention is that there doesn't seem to be a way to flash the firmware (holding octave buttons while turning on the device doesn't work) so if any of you knows how to do a firmware flash please help!!!!

 

intermittent problems are hard to diagnose, but I agree it sounds like a loose connection. The data from the keyboard is transmitted to the circuit boards via ribbon cables, sometimes during construction they are not fully seated and work loose in shipping. also if they are dropped they cable can pop outsince the connectors can unlock due to the shock.

usually the keyboard is attached via a series of phillip head screws on the bottom, back and side of the keyboard. I've taken a apart an arturia keylab (version1) 25 key, and an 88 key current version. The ribbon cable repair worked for my problems. which were different than yours, one row of pads was not being recognized on mine.

 

firmware flashing is done thru the midi control center, at least for both my keyboards. thats the way I did it.

 

Guess I'll have to get my hands dirty and hope I can put things back in order without bricking the entire thing...

 

I just found out that you can do a reset factory by holding the first and the second button bellow the display while plugging it in(not the octave buttons)... I'll have to try all of these when I get back home... Thanks for your help!!

 

You have a warranty on the device, contact the Arturia support team and/or exchange it.

Arturia Keylab 49, dead keys - is there a fix?
https://audiosex.pro/threads/arturia-keylab-49-dead-keys-is-there-a-fix.58393/

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Last edited: Jan 11, 2025 at 10:50 AM