Arturia Keylab Essential 49 Ableton tutorial - connect, setup & midi map

Arturia's Keylab Essential 49 is a fantastically adaptable midi keyboard that is extremely useful when coupled with Ableton Live. This device has a great range of features, making it ideal as an Ableton Live controller.

This tutorial will teach you everything needed in order to use the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 with Ableton Live, including the processes of linking, setting up and midi mapping the Keylab Essential 49.

Article Contents

Does the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 work with Ableton Live?
Does the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 come with ableton Live included?
How to connect the Keylab Essential 49 to ableton
How to midi map the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 in Ableton Live
The Limitations of midi mapping the Keylab Essential 49
Why can’t I hear my Push in Ableton Live?

Does the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 work with Ableton Live?

To put it briefly, the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 is compatible with Ableton Live.

Ableton live provides a default midi remote script for the Keylab Essential 49, meaning it will work with Ableton Live as soon as you connect it (see the section below on how to connect to ableton).

All versions of Ableton Live, from Intro to Suite, are able to be utilized in collaboration with any equipment that sends MIDI data. This is applicable to all releases of Live, such as 9, 10, and 11. As the Keylab Essential 49 is a MIDI enabled tool, it will be completely compatible with Ableton Live.

You can create your own Ableton midi mappings with ease, giving you the power to control many of the features of Ableton Live with your Keylab Essential 49.

Does the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 come with ableton Live included?

Yes the Keylab Essential 49 comes with a free copy of Ableton Live Lite. Although it has unlimited usage, the available features are a lot less than what is available in the full versions of Ableton Live Standard or Suite.

There are three main versions with Ableton Live: Intro, Standard and Suite. Though Intro and Standard are both comprehensive, Suite offers much more, such as 70GB of library sounds, in comparison to Standard's 10GB.

If you're looking to make sure you have the full range of Audio and MIDI effects, we suggest you go with Ableton Live Suite, as it has far more than the Standard edition.

How to connect the Keylab Essential 49 to ableton

Linking and configuring the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 to Ableton Live is not too complicated, and once you have them paired together you can control the software's settings from your midi keyboard.

1. Connect the Keylab Essential 49 to your computer via USB.
First, connect the USB cable to both the Keylab Essential 49 and your computer.
2. Launch Ableton Live and open the MIDI preferences.
Double click the Ableton Live icon to launch the software. Then, in the top menu of Ableton, go to the Preferences menu by opening the ‘Live’ menu and clicking ‘Preferences’.
3. Select the Keylab Essential 49 from the list of available devices.
Click the the MIDI Sync tab, make sure that Input and Output for the Keylab Essential 49 are checked.
4. Ensure that the ‘Track’, ‘Remote’ and ‘Sync’ boxes are all checked.
In the ‘MIDI’ section of this tab, make sure the ‘Track’ and ‘Remote’ boxes are checked for both the Input and Output of the Keylab Essential 49 (Sync can also be optionally checked).

The Keylab Essential 49 will now be setup and ready to use with Ableton Live.

How to midi map the akai mpk mini in Ableton Live

After successfully connecting the Arturia Keylab Essential 49 to Ableton live following the steps above, you can now MIDI map the physical knobs, pads, keys etc on the device to functionality within Ableton Live by doing the following:

1. Select the MIDI Map Mode button in the top right corner of the Live window. The button should turn orange, indicating that the MIDI Map Mode is enabled.
2. Select the parameter you wish to control in Ableton by clicking it with the cursor, the parameter will become highlighted.
3. Move a control on the Keylab Essential 49, such as a knob or fader.
4. The parameter you selected is now mapped to the physical control which you moved on the Keylab Essential 49.
5. Moving the physical control on your Keylab Essential 49 will now move the position of the corresponding parameter in Ableton.
6. Repeat steps 2 - 4 for any other parameters you wish to map.
7. When you’re finished mapping, press the MIDI Map Mode button again to disable it.

The Limitations of midi mapping the Keylab Essential 49

With Ableton's midi mapping system, you can swiftly map your Keylab Essential 49, however, you must be aware of a few restrictions...

Saving your Keylab Essential 49 Midi Mappings is cumbersome

When saving an Ableton session, your mappings will be saved as part of that session. Therefore, if you create a new session, you will need to remap your controls.

Ableton MIDI mappings are one-to-one

Through a one-to-one MIDI mapping, each control on your Keylab Essential 49 can only be assigned to 1 parameter in Ableton Live.

Limited Ableton parameter options to map to

Ableton’s internal midi mapping mode is unfortunately missing many control options. Options such as selected track and selected device control aren’t possible using this method. You can see a list of all available Ableton midi mapping options here.

We have a great solution to these problems

If you're looking to get the most out of your Keylab Essential 49, our Ableton Midi Script Creator tool 'Control Surface Studio' is exactly what you need!
With it, you'll be able to:
- save and re-use your Keylab Essential 49's mappings across all of your Ableton Live sessions,
- map multiple Ableton parameters to a single control on your Keylab Essential 49,
- access many more Ableton parameter controls for your Keylab Essential 49, than Live's internal midi mapping mode allows.

Learn more about Control Surface Studio and see how it can help you by clicking here!

FAQ / Troubleshooting

Why can't I hear my Keylab Essential 49 in Ableton Live?

There are several possible causes:
1. Make sure that the Keylab Essential 49 is connected properly to your computer via USB and that the cable is not damaged.
2. Make sure that the Keylab Essential 49 is selected as your audio input and output device in your audio settings.
3. Make sure that the correct driver is installed for the Keylab Essential 49.
4. Make sure that the Keylab Essential 49 is selected as the input device in Ableton's MIDI Preferences.