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Sold my Korg R3 and am currently without a keyboard to play my rack synths, relying solely on the Electribe SX for now. Considering a few controllers, because I don't necessarily need another hardware synth as much as I just need the keys and some knobs, sliders, and pads, and aftertouch is a must for my Fantom and Trinity racks. Whatever software it comes with is just a nice bonus. I would also consider keyboard synths in the same price range (around $400 used), but they must have and send the aftertouch! I've found that most don't, which is why I'm looking at controllers.

Top 3 contenders:

Arturia Keylab: Love the build. Wood panels, lots of knobs and sliders, solid metal construction. Sick software package too.


Akai MAX49: No knobs, but damn those LED'd touchpad sliders are sexy. CV and gate outputs too. HOTTTTTT




Axiom Air: Meh? Nothing's wowing me about it like the other two, really. Has everything I need, looks nice, but nothing that makes me go "holy shit". Anybody tried one and/or the Ignite software?

arturia sexiest

Keylab but if you wanna go cheaper you can't beat the Axiom... My friend said the sliders on the Akai are hit or miss and kinda glitchy but that's only one guy...

I can't imagine a touchpad being as accurate as a slider, especially when speed is necessary.
I am biased against touchpads, though.

I've got the older Akai MPK49 and its great. The key bed feels especially good to me......BUT, you might want to check out the new MPK249 that they just announced...http://www.akaipro.com/tradeshows/wnamm2014

Pulled the trigger on the Keylab 49! This clinched it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLxK7TYibeA[/youtube]

Comes with 5000 presets from the Arturia V collection (Prophet 5, Jupiter 8, CS80, Moog modular, etc), including combos, all mapped to the controls of the keyboard for hands-on tweaking, with no fucking menu diving. Ridiculous.

I have the keylab, it is a very solid keyboard, it feels like a real instrument, the keys aren't so great (but they are enough good), I prefer the Akai mpk keys. You should look at Akai mpk49, it's made with a really solid plastic, (the bottom is in metal), the keys are a bit hard, but they are rally good for piano/e-piano session. This two are my favorite master keyboards!
Ps: if you want I can sell you thee arturia keylab software license for a cheap price!