Arturia AstroLab Evaluation: World-Class Synths in a Keyboard

However maybe AstroLab’s greatest trick for locating what you want is playlists and songs. These are grouped presets that you just’re in a position to bounce between with the push of a button. So for those who want a quiet pad from an Ensoniq SQ-80 for the verse and a razor-sharp lead from an MS-20 for the refrain, you possibly can group them right into a track, which turns the instrument sort buttons into direct shortcuts to particular presets. Songs are then additional organized into playlists. You simply press the arrow buttons beneath the display screen encoder to leap to the subsequent monitor in your set and cargo up one other batch of presets.

If you cannot discover what you want among the many manufacturing unit sounds or any of the numerous sound packs accessible from Arturia, you possibly can at all times design a patch from scratch in one of many devices as a part of the V Assortment. Then it can save you it as a preset and cargo it on the keyboard. Granted, this requires shelling out for V Assortment, nevertheless it regularly goes on sale, and for those who already personal Analog Lab Professional, which is included with AstroLab, you get a fair steeper low cost.

World-Class Smooth Synths

I am midway into this assessment, and I have never talked in regards to the sound in any respect. That is partly as a result of, properly, it is Analog Lab. It is an trade staple and sounds unbelievable. Should you’re not acquainted although, relaxation assured you are getting among the best emulations of classic devices accessible. While you evaluate the worth to even one of many iconic keyboards it is recreating, the worth is plain.

The Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Hammond B3 evaluate favorably with what you’d discover on a Nord stage keyboard, however for nearly half the worth. It convincingly delivers that percussive dizzying impact you’d get from an organ working via a Leslie and the graceful chime of a Fender Rhodes.

As well as, you get somewhat trustworthy variations of principally unobtainable synth gems like a Moog Modular, a Yamaha CS-80, or a Fairlight CMI II. To not point out mass-market classics just like the Yamaha DX7 and Casio CZ-101. Plus Arturia’s Pigments and Augmented lineup, which marry orchestral, piano, and vocal samples with a sturdy synth engine. You’ve got received entry to all the things from crunchy lo-fi piano and EDM bass wubs to hovering string pads good for scoring a sci-fi thriller.

The one actual weak spot is the acoustic pianos. They are not horrible and have positively improved through the years, however they nonetheless really feel a contact skinny and flat in comparison with the true factor. The probabilities that anybody would complain about them at your subsequent gig, although, are slim to none.

It is price noting that that is presently the one approach to get Arturia’s Pigments in {hardware} kind. That is one thing that will get me personally actually excited. I believe it is the perfect softsynth in the marketplace, and it could possibly simply go toe-to-toe with different giants within the area like Large and Serum.

Some will communicate of issues being a VST however constructed right into a MIDI controller derisively. However that feels reductive right here. For one factor, this is not just a few bare-bones digital synth. And the {hardware} it is crammed into is lush. The semi-weighted keys really feel unbelievable, they usually have aftertouch (although sadly not polyphonic). The pitch and mod wheels are strong items of aluminum, and the display screen, whereas small, is vibrant and colourful. There are even some good-looking wood cheeks on the facet. This appears and appears like a high-quality piece of drugs.