Arturia has premiered Astrolab, a flagship studio and performance keyboard that ties all their soft synths into one package.
AstroLab is a 61-key, semi-weighted keyboard with channel aftertouch that contains more than 1300 sounds from Arturia’s Analog Lab software, a sample library from V Collection and Pigments and several virtual analog synths.
Arturia Astrolab
The easiest way for electronic musicians to get their music onto Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, Tidal, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pandora, Twitch & much more! Click the banner above or the Go Button to save 7% off of your signup! GO!
In pure French fashion, Arturia describes AstroLab as an Avant-Garde with design cues taken from sources from around the world. Let’s take the signature circular display that has been lifted from Nest thermostats for instance, as well as the illuminated rotary encoders from Native Instruments and an all-white aesthetic from Apple. The keyboard contains a vocoder engine that can be used with an external microphone, an arpeggiator, chord and scale modes and a 32-bar looper. The blonde wood side panels are actually plastic.
AstroLab Aims To Unify The Entire Arturia Ecosystem In One Keyboard
Arturia’s intention is to allow AstroLab to marry studio production and live performance into one keyboard that takes full advantage of their extensive sound library and software synth emulations. With 34 instruments to choose from and over 1300 presets, you won’t be wanting for sounds. However, wading through that enormous ocean of sonic flexibility will hinge on the Nest thermostat interface. You’ll most likely need to employ your computer to setup Astrolab accordingly and Arturia claims to have made that integration seamless with drag-and-drop playlist creation. This also allows you to take AstroLab on the road without the need of a laptop.
MIDI Designer Is Now Free!
MIDI Designer Pro X is now free to download! MIDI Designer Pro X is a professional-grade MIDI controller platform for iPhone, iPad and Mac. User-contributed layouts let you control everything from Ableton to Yamaha out of the box. Go beyond hardware and express your musical vision. Check out out now!
Arturia’s decision to place the Modulation / Pitch wheels in the upper left hand corner of the synth have already resulted in groans from our staffers and the keyboard doesn’t offer touchstripes or any other type of onboard modulation action at this price point. Navigating with the Nest thermostat, in leu of a large touchscreen, is an interesting choice and may ultimately become cumbersome when musicians are looking to maximize the speed of their workflow.
Arturia AstroLabe Features:
- 61-note semi-weighted keyboard with piano-size keys and aftertouch
- 10 sound engines: Virtual Analog; Samples; Wavetable; FM; Granular; Physical modeling; Vector Synthesis; Harmonic; Phase distortion; Vocoder
- Over 1300 built-in sounds
- More than 10.000 sounds via Arturia software
- Navigation wheel & screen for easy browsing
- 10 Preset Buttons for quick sound access
- 4 macro controls for quick editing: Brightness; Timbre; Time; Movement
- 4 dedicated knobs to control effects including dedicated Delay/Reverb
- Multis/Keyboard Split
- MIDI I/O, balanced stereo input, sustain, expression, aux 1 & 2 pedals
- USB-C connection and USB-A host
- Bluetooth audio input and WiFi for wireless control
- Arpeggiator, MIDI Looper, Chord and Scale modes
