Final 12 months, Arturia launched its first stage keyboard, AstroLab. In contrast to a synthesizer, stage keyboards are extra targeted on delivering performance-ready presets than sound design. They’re geared in direction of touring and performing musicians who want entry to a spread of sounds with minimal fuss, somewhat than bed room tinkerers. However, whereas the primary entries within the sequence have been sizable and expensive — $2,999 for the 88-key mannequin, and $1,999 for the 61-key mannequin — the AstroLab 37 delivers the identical sonic repertoire in a smaller, rather more inexpensive bundle. It’s a conveyable 37-slimkey instrument that prices solely $699.
What makes the AstroLab vary stand out from a lot of its competitors is that it’s primarily Arturia’s AnalogLab traditional synth emulations in {hardware} type. Arturia’s synth plugins are extremely widespread, and with good purpose — they’re glorious. However till final 12 months, they have been constrained to your laptop. The AstroLab offers you entry to most (although not all of them) in a standalone instrument, albeit in a stripped-down type.
Arturia’s V Assortment offers you deep modifying instruments and wealthy recreations of synths just like the Yamaha CS-80 and Fairlight CMI, that are mainly unobtainable. (And, even should you handle to trace one down, they’ll value you tens of hundreds of {dollars}.) AnalogLab, and by extension AstroLab, are extra like preset browsers, a biggest hits assortment of sounds harvested from the rather more costly V Assortment suite.
Within the case of the AstroLab 37, it comes preloaded with over 1,800 presets, overlaying 44 devices from acoustic pianos, to analog classics just like the Minimoog, to ‘80s digital lo-fi machines just like the Ensoniq SQ-80. A lot of the synths are glorious. The Rhodes emulation is my go-to (and there are a number of choices on the market), and entry to Arturia’s Pigments (my favourite software program synth) in {hardware} type is nice. Solely the organs and acoustic pianos are just a little disappointing. They’re not unhealthy by any means, however I feel if these are your precedence, you may be served higher by one thing from Nord.
You possibly can load it with extra sounds utilizing the AnalogLab desktop software program over USB or the AstroLab Join cell over Wi-Fi. The previous is right, nevertheless, as wi-fi connectivity is kind of unstable. You’re supposed to have the ability to join over your Wi-Fi community, however I by no means obtained it to work. Connecting on to the AstroLab utilizing its personal hotspot was extra dependable, however even that had an inclination to disconnect after some time.
Navigating a library that deep can get overwhelming. Arturia makes issues simpler by permitting you to filter primarily based on sound kind (bass, lead, and so on.), instrument, favorites, or sound financial institution. There are additionally Songs, which group presets collectively for fast, one-button entry, and Playlists, which let you group Songs collectively for transferring by way of your setlist with ease. That’s undoubtedly helpful for reside efficiency.
The presets have 4 macros that you may management with knobs on the left, and what they management can change relying on the patch. On the suitable are 4 knobs for dialing in results, like refrain, reverb, and delay. This provides you a minimum of some management over the sound, however there’s no option to create a patch from scratch and do severe sound design. As a substitute, you’d must shell out for V Assortment, which begins at $199, and add your individual customized presets. It’s not unusual for stage pianos to have minimal hands-on controls, however the AstroLab is especially sparse contemplating the depth of its sound engines.
Sonically, you’re not dropping something by downsizing to the AstroLab 37 from the bigger variations; all of the variations are within the {hardware}. The faceplate is plastic, however not cheap-feeling, and the 37 retains the good-looking wood cheeks of the bigger fashions. Whereas the 88- and 61-key fashions have a big navigation wheel with a shade display screen embedded in it, the 37 has a small separate encoder beneath a display screen. It’s additionally lacking the locking energy wire, which may be a difficulty should you’re a very lively performer.
The largest tradeoff, although, is within the keyboard. The AstroLab 61 has a semi-weighted keyboard, and the 88 has a hammer-action Fatar keybed. The latter, particularly, which feels similar to an actual piano, is opulent should you’re accustomed to the cheaper, springy synth-action keybeds of most inexpensive synths and MIDI keyboards. The AstroLab 37 has a synth-action keybed with mini keys and aftertouch. It’s not unhealthy, it’s seemingly the identical keybed discovered on Arturia’s current KeyStep mk2 controller, nevertheless it actually lacks the premium really feel of its bigger siblings.
On a smaller keyboard like this, a few of AstroLab’s options, like the flexibility to separate the keyboard in two with a bass on the decrease keys and lead tone on the upper ones, don’t make a ton of sense. Most severe keyboard gamers, particularly skilled gamers, are going to need one thing bigger. However musicians seeking to cram probably the most sounds into the least quantity of area, with out having to fret about an OS replace shutting down their laptop computer mid-set, would possibly discover lots to love within the new AstroLab 37.
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