A Different Kind of Astrolab Review
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- čas přidán 8. 04. 2024
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I was told $1599 and its actually $1999. I really shouldn't do launch day videos anymore.
UPDATE: its $1999 at arturia and $1599 street. what in tarnation.
just noticed that on another video vs their site. seems like a kinda big change to make last minute!
Was really hoping for a lower cost
"Freakpig"😜
In Euro it is 1599…
TARIFFS explains this. Like ordering in America from Thomann
Amicus 😼
Can't wait to see the response from the very healthy and reasonable synthesizer community.
It's gonna be fair and balanced!!
Fuck it I’m doing it live , lmao
😂😂 and didn’t you stop doing gear reviews right at the right time @bennjordan
The synth community is on level with the guitar bros
😅😂❤ @bennjordan
As a guy playing in a coverband i will tell you this, There is nothing like it on the market for that pricepoint. The organs are great, pigments is one of the best VA engines out there, and it is duotimbral. Having the luxury of not using a midi controller together with a computer+soundcard (which might cost 1500$ anyways) is great. This will be a great 2nd synth for a normal working musician, a kind of auxilliary synth (at the moment i use a nord lead A1). Only thing that they have truly missed is more macro controls. It would really benefit to have 9 faders for the organ and other synth editing. I appreciate the simplicity but more control would be nice.
great insight, thank you
I suppose it saves taking computers / laptops gigging which aren’t really meant for that kind of life
Glad you like it. Have you seen the Akai MPC Keys 61? A lot of similar features except with Akai's plugins, a bigger screen and essentially a DAW built in
@@ManCalledMifI looked into Akai line as well… however, I’ve been an Arturia Lab customer since they used to call it Laboratory. I even have my Laboratory 49 controller in perfect working order still. So, I am very familiar with the Arturia Line, plus since I already own the Arturia V collection, I will have the ability to edit these sounds without issue.
I agree that this is a keyboard for performing keyboardist. Very tempted to have the AstroLab paired with the Korg Kronos for live gigs.
Finally! A synth with a thermostat!
Fahrenheiters! this comes from a country of Celsius!
Finally we can fulfil our childhood dreams of adjusting the thermostat without consequences
"Think about who this could be for" is solid advice for thinking about just about anything.
naming all my group chats "secular geartube" now
Ultra-trad gear tube over there, banging sticks and stones together, looking down on those technofreaks using string instruments.
1) Load sound setlist into the synth. 2) Carry synth to gig. 3) Perform.
If only it was $800. :)
100%. And with ability to customise those sounds just a bit - but not too much that it gets overwhelming/becomes a timesink.
indeed, it's a Stage keyboard, not studio synth. but damn, if you want performing, wouldn't something like Osmose make more sense? with all the expression you get I mean, for playing live.
There’s a whole secret history of worship musicians as early adopters of electronic instruments. Church music was such a big market for Moog in their modular/mini Moog era that they hired a preacher as a sales rep.
And thanks for a sane, reasonable launch-day video. The Astrolab looks nice! I don’t need it, since I already have a Keylab, but it looks nice.
621 reasons that Helmet looking kinda sus 👀
Those are his sponsors that helped him get to space. Surprisingly, only one is an actual business and the others are just those suspiciously wealthy furries that paid for 99% of the costs.
@@George_vvand one of them is from space!!!
Can we still hate behringer though? Is that still ok?
I enjoyed floating fox head Jeremy
Thank you, friendly space fox.
Is he a fox from space or a fox in space?
@@OG_Mereles yes
Spot on! I’m a cover band keyboard player and I’m a developer of cover sound packs for gigging cover musicians for various keyboards such as the Kronos, Montage, Fantom and Nord Stage 3&4 as my full time business.
I’ve been wanting to develop sounds for VST’s but there hasn’t been a uniform platform for them given the variety of computer gear, audio interfaces and midi controllers.
This platform ticks the boxes for me as a player and developer. It’s a great opportunity to get my foot in the door for to develop sounds for the V-Collection and Analog Lab and expand my product offering. In all the reviews, nobody has ever doubted how good the sounds are so I think getting one is a no brainer.
As a preset queen who just wants to jam some music on a really nice box, this thing looks so money. It looks absolutely perfect for live improv jams on a cafe patio for a lowkey tips-and-lunch gig. Space fox knows what's up!
Yeah or small gigs at bars/pubs too. More I look at it the more I'm tempted, would be nice to just make presets at home for the band since its mostly pads and simple bits anyway. Would be much easier to lug about over a studio logic controller + laptop + everything else that entails.
People are already saying what I was going to post. This is for performing with. Hands down.
I played in a worship band for 20+ years with Ensoniq workstations but stopped when I left the church. That was ~15 years ago. I tried to get back into live music playing (not a worship band, though) last year with a Deluge and MIDI controller and it wasn't great and I got discouraged. I was preparing to try again with a laptop, audio interface and Analog Lab V. But the AstroLab would be perfect.
I think you hit the nail on the head, this is great for "keyboardists" in bands that aren't necessarily making complex compositions as in most electronic music, and others with more straightforward reasons like that to have a quick sound with minimal tweaking.
Also I thought something like this might be coming because Arturia seems to push their plugins a lot more than their hardware (minifreak basically never mentioned except one update a year later), and I think a lot of companies are going this way, to sell "DLC" for the hardware market. I bet we'll see a lot more of this going forward, and a lot less of devices designed for cool free updates like Elektron does. But who knows!
Musical Horse Armor?
By the way, Jeremy, your videos are visually on a totally different level. Your works are bursting with the most spectacular, ingenious, visual ideas. Keep up the great work!
This hits me like Roland's VR-09 and stuff. Definitely hitting the nail on the head with church bands and generic sit-in keyboard gig needs in general.
Great video Jeremy ⚡️
If you can dial in your patches on the computer, send it over to hardware, and play it at a performance without a computer, that sounds pretty good to me. I’ve been wanting something like that for a long time. Is it like 100% pigments patch compatible?
The company I’ve been hoping to do this though, is Spectrasonics. If they made Keyscape into a hardware keyboard, that would be a knockout blow in the stage piano scene, I think.
I believe that the only difference with Pigments VST is the restriction to 8 voices of polyphony.
God, this channel just keeps getting better.
❤ you Jeremy.
Man this was probably the most refreshing synth review I've ever seen. This product is not for me, but you absolutely nailed this video Jeremy!
This could also be good for live performance for musicians who use V in the studio. If you can load the sounds you've used on your tracks, that's huge. I use V on absolutely everything, and if I had to play live tomorrow, this would be the easiest solution.
Excellent use of a Bo Burnham reference. Thank you for the review and perspective Jeremy!
Got no issue with the functionality of it: live keyboardist needs an easy access set of a wide range of keyboard sounds, set up in stage-friendly playlists, makes sense.
My issue is, hiding the ability to deep tweak those presets or craft their own if so desired behind a separate license for the soft synth collection. For 1600-2000 it should come bundled with the soft synths licenses.
Doesn't it come with Analog Lab Pro and the ability to deep tweak patches on your computer? Program your patches, load them onto the Astrolab for performance. It allows you to set up a powerful VST based system that doesn't require a computer for live performance. In my extremely cramped studio I can't have too many hardware synths. Looks to be geared to Arturia VSTs so if you use other VSTs ( I do ) that may be an issue.
The video I didn’t think I needed to see but did. Excellent reminder for me to have some perspective before shaking my old man fist while crapping my pants
I’m not a piano player. I’m not in a cover band. I’m not an “audio” engineer. I’m DEFINITELY not a worship music person.
I like playing with presets. I like having some control using the iPad app, I don’t need “ABSOLUTE” control.
I like this piece of gear. I’d like one. I’m happy to be flamed for it…
Paused the livestream to watch a talking fox :)
Just happy that for once a beautiful looking new release left me completely GAS free...not even a fart
You nailed it when you said that not a lot of people talking a lot about tech are players, with some notable exceptions. I do a lot of recording of my own band's songs using sounds from Arturia, kind of my go to for everything but orchestral stuff, which I don't use that much lately. So even though I am a DAW based producer, I also play my songs with other people, and it is finicky and laborious bringing the Arturia stuff to gigs, or even really setting it up comfortably in my rehearsal space while leaving it available for recording. So I totally see this thing working for me, if I felt like spending that money right now. I will definitely be watching the used market.
I ordered one. It’s perfect for me. I’m a pro musician in LA that gigs constantly. I use V-Collection plugins and a laptop daily with my Keylabs. I got this to save taking my laptop and laptop stand to gigs when I don’t need to. This is perfect for my Tuesday gig where the stage is really tight and my setup time will be greatly reduced.
I am playing keys in a band (not a cover band) and we use a variety of keys/synth sounds for our music. I use Roland system-8 for synth sounds which I can tweak on fly and a midi keyboard with a laptop as a second keyboard for more "fixed" sounds like piano. Having something like Astrolab will be much more convenient than midi+laptop.
As a gigging keyboardist, I can MAYYBE see using this on gigs. I have a nord electro 3, which has a great keybed but the synth sounds are OK. Analog lab presets sound pretty sick, I could have a lot of fun with this. Totally useless for my home studio though
This was a nice chill embargo day video, no hype, just some nice keys and some chat. Hope we see more spacefox
The children crave the Arturia Origin.
Real talk tho - You're 100% on the money. This is for Church Keyboardists, and the lvl 30 evolution of the Church Keyboardist: the Touring Keyboardist. Expect to see these on more and more stages over the next year or so as players either use this as their single board for smaller gigs, or as a 'catch all' board alongside something more robust/tweakable.
I bet literally no touring keyboardists use this, cause they all already have nords leant to them for free lol. This is for selling vsts
I think another important group for these types of keyboards (really a subcategory of cover bands) is wedding bands
The Astrolab is a perfect second keyboard, especially if you already own the V Collection. Laptops are notoriously unreliable on stage, so this lets you have Pigments quality sounds in dedicated hardware.
Analog Labs playlist feature is great for live use, I only wish they added a way to tweak the presets without having a license for V Collection. They can’t seriously expect every Astrolab buyer to also buy V collection just to edit presets on his keyboard…
I think you are very right about worship music. It is also for touring and session musicians. The hardware front end for selling packs jives sort of with the NI thing where all they are peddling is sound sets in Komplete updates. Also yeah, there is nothing to upset about. The hype was amusing, but that is what marketing is all about.
I sold my early version Kronos to a guy who is a degreed, professional worship music director at a fairly large church. He came prepared to pick it up with an empty case that had housed whatever he was using previously. My parents forced me t`o go to a Catholic church in a suburb of Rochester, NY, that always hired an Eastman School graduate as organist and choir director; the organ music was always cool. I learned recently that one of my favorite ambient musicians, Martin Sturzer has a music degree and a regular gig as an organist and choir director. Way back when I was into guitar playing and going to San Diego regularly for my job, I took a detour to the Carvin factor outlet (now Kiesel I think). Much to my surprise and delight, Frank Gambale walked in with a group of guys who were clearly in a band together. They were let into the back area and started hauling a ton of Carvin gear out the door into a truck; a giant mixing board, power amps, PA speakers, cables, etc. were going out the door. I asked Frank if they were doing a show in town that night, because hey if they were then I wanted to go! He said no, they were the worship band for his church and that the congregation was going to get a big surprise in Sunday.
Love the Vongon joke 😂
I think this is an amazing "second" keyboard to have on stage. It's really nice to have an instrument that can do anything.
Could also see it being really convenient in a rehearsal with a new band or new material when you are figuring out sounds, even if you end up making those sounds on something else later.
Plus you can give access to Analog Lab Pro to 5 people...and make your bandmates happy/involved.
Fox Jeremy is one of the few PNGtubers I trust.
Very thoughtful video with interesting viewpoints ... enjoyed it a lot! Thanks Jeremy ❤️
Love “Syn-cla-VIER”. If you can continue to load each Analog Lab for each update for years, it also makes sense.
I had NO IDEA foxes knew synths - at least this one does
Honestly, I love the Arturia range of sounds, use them almost exclusively on stage with my band but the biggest pain in the arse is having to run everything through my laptop. It's a major point of failure and the biggest time sink when setting up for a performance. The Astrolab was a no brainer for me, purely for the practicality.
If I want to get "deep" with the synths, I can do that at home with pigments, so ehhh. This is for me!
This is continuing Arturia’s business model of offering a vst version with the piece of gear you’re buying (like they did with the Minifreak). Makes perfect sense for people who use the V Lab collection in the studio and want to take the exact same sounds on the stage, which seems to be the case more and more these days (people need to chill about this but I’m veering off course).
this review's so real. I know it's not for me but i hope the people who want what the astrolab provides get what they need out of it, it seems really powerful in its niches!
Nice points! I do think it’s ok for a lot of synthheads as long as ya are ok with the constructs you mentioned. Basically:
- design tye patch in the V Collection or Pigments
- make sure you see it as an Analog Lab Preset
- send it to the AstroLab and be ok with only having limited param control
I am a more mundane synthesist so I’m ok with less live tweaking. 😂
But yeah I think you nailed some great “personas” (oh the smell of marketing there, sorry). 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
It’s the higher end version of why lots of bands have a microKorg on stage; they want a good sound right there and don’t need to tweak live.
Really appreciate the perspective and context you brought to this tempest in a teapot.
So we've get the microtransactions, now just waiting for the Battlepass reveal...
Like "pay real money to be able to unlock a preset for playing the keys every day"? How about a gacha system then?
Some kind of wash lighting is definitely the most important for a dancefloor, it’s like the base layer of a painting.
I can think of only one additional use case that is someone that is not in a cover band, makes their own sounds at home or in the studio with v collection and needs to use them on stage without having to worry about carrying a computer, audio interface and other stuff. In that regard I see the Astrolab being used somewhat like the Roland System-1/8, replacing multiple hardware synths in a keyrig, preloaded with patches that do specific things in a setlist. The Astrolab is definitely not for the home studio folks. For them is a lot better to just buy a Keylab and use the software in a PC/Mac. Anyways, This is by far the best take I have seen in "Secular Geartube" of this device.
This was both Informative and entertaining~ Has me questioning use-cases for instruments now, and feeling very bemused by watching a talking fox explain such things to me at the same time!
From one fox to another, I say "yipyip"~ ^w^
I don't know what kind of weird modular synth accident turned you into a fox and sent you into space, but I'm here for it.
Before I even start this vid, if he wasn't already established in Main Stage, I can see this working well for a live jam musician like Marc Rebillet.
I’m sure this keyboard will be popping up on stages everywhere. I just wish they included a mini split AC with that Nest Thermostat looking interface 🙃
I tell u who it’s for… me…. I’m a piano player who also does a lot of sound designing with synths… I’m a home based Muso who jams and goes to open mics…. So this is ideal… just wish you could layer more than 2 instruments.
I really liked this approach to the video
Really digging the fox head.
Wedding bands. I have a friend who has a moderately successful cover/wedding band. It blew my mind to accept into my heart that they were legit artists. They are. They make people happy and they are good at music.
Also, before I was a synth nerd, I was a bit of a jazz nerd. It's clear from my weird social media feeds that "worship" musicians, specifically African American church musicians are INCREDIBLY good at music and I love it even though I don't get it. It's like soul from the 70's, Gospel from the 60's and rock from the 80's and they are playing together (bands!) and rehearsing constantly (craft!)and their meme content is very good.
As a gigging keyboard player who is also a synth enthusiast (and who is not very tall or strong), this thing is the bomb diggity: 61 keys, standalone, a shit-ton of (good) onboard sounds, tweakability of said sounds in another interface, and no-frills hardware controls for onstage purposes. Oh yeah and it looks nice. I have a Juno DS61, an old-ish rompler that I would probably replace with the AstroLab eventually (or I'd have both stacked and be able to play anything ever). Practically speaking, fucking awesome. No, I wouldn't use this much for in-depth sound design, I'd rather get a Hydrasynth or something else to fill that niche.
I like a lot of the things Arturia makes. This one doesn’t appeal to me so much. But I think your analysis of who this is for is quite accurate.
I also think one category you left out is: song writers. Imagine that I like noodling with synths but what I really like doing is just finding a sound that randomly inspires me and writing. Some people just toggle through presets until something catches their ear. I do that more than I care to admit. Sometimes I don’t know what sound I want until I hear it. So while I like the ability to tweak everything, I might just sit down and write with less clicking and messing around with this. I might enjoy using the sounds I had in analog lab without having to open a DAW and at things up etc etc.
Ok. Loving the fox
Now if they had added a touchscreen like say the MPC/Force sized touchscreen that could get under the hood, this would have met the needs of SO many more customers...
Can't wait to see this show up in "Just got my first synth!" threads.
Real Talk: As much as I like the instruments in the V collection and think Pigments was worth every penny, if I had it to do over, I'd spend what I spent on it on Komplete instead and I'd buy a S88 over this.
Modx is about the same money as the astrolab, has most of the capability of the montage.
True
My initial impression of Astrolab is that it's kind of a grapeshot approach to an anti-Behringer device. Certainly, I'm intrigued by it. Especially so if I can make my own patches from the V-Collection and parse them over to Analog Lab, and then to Astrolab. That would be fantastic. This seems to be the thing '80s nostalgia acts have needed for the past 7 years.
Can you load fragments or coldfire into the FX slots?
Dude, my Casio watch brother! Great review and entertaining :) 🤜🏼⚡️🤛🏻
Thank you 4 telling us. Not 4 me, but I'm a weirdo stinky noodler with ambitions of some day learning to play the piano. No patch points. No mod matrix. No generative sequencer. Doesn't fill my neighbors with dread and outrage. I'd rather buy a knee high stack of volca modulars.
Happy for the peeps who this IS for though. Looks slick.
>Doesn't fill my neighbors with dread and outrage.
lol
this is definitely not a synth for me, but i appreciate them making something so radically different from their other hardware synths
Pretty much nailed it here on who this is for IMO. Great job!
Great vid! 😎👍🏼
I'm stoked that Instinct is out on streaming now. That song is magic. Can't wait for more from Leashes.
Bought some gear once from big box retailer, and staff said “these are big with those worship guys”… later discovered top videos on gear were from “worship” tube
I like the fact that Arp is doing the review
I have a Montage 8 and for some reason I still kinda want one of these. The modeled pianos and organs are nice. But this dropped right at the time I was looking at the Hydrasynth. I can't afford both LOL.
It’s a pleasure to watch your videos J. You’re at the top of your game!
I just got the Keylab essential 61, which is bundled with Analog Lab Pro. Reason I got it was to have something I could quickly compose/improvise on with full size keys. Going through and selecting some favourite presets and having the controls be very simple kinda makes the process a lot more streamlined. Fewer variables and no temptation to continually tweak sounds while trying to get a basic song structure down. I've heard Zoe Blade talk about how if she can make a chip tune that sounds good, she can take that song and replace the sounds to make it sound even better. That's kind of what i'm hoping to do but with analog lab.
I could imagine wanting to further streamline things and compose outside of a DAW, but idk... not really for me.
I knew it would happen while watching this. A whole new world of praise and worship video suggestions the next day.
Okay, those stickers on the helmet are epic. Also foxes are cool, totally not biased at all.
I definitely have to agree with you about the e-Piano versus this. When I first saw the launch email, I was all "wait a second, that's about the same cost as a decent Roland or Kawai, and have my 88 keys." If it's that big and it's going to take up that much room, I might as well let it take up another foot of space and get me my piano I've wanted for ages. Okay, I really want the Kawai NV-5S, but I'd happily "settle" for a Roland FP-30X (or 90X if I had the budget) because of two reasons: One, it's a tenth the cost, and two, I don't want piano movers wanting to kill me for trying to get a massive, heavy upright piano into an apartment. Could they do it? Piano movers are magicians, but it's hard enough to get an Ikea Billy book case still in the box into the place here (or a sofa in or out), and those are smaller than an actual piano.
Sure does seem like the device has a lot of promise who need (or would regularly use such) features in a portable box though.
My only real gripe with it is that it's only available in white. As someone with skin oil that literally stains things rather easily, I avoid such devices because I don't want to be cleaning it as much as I use it. I know it's a "more modern" colour, and it's kind of been their thing for a decade (with releasing "special editions" in black every now and then). At the same time, I'm also happy a company is sticking to their philosophies and being all "hey, it's kind of our thing, and we do make some things that are black, with white special editions"
What I immediately thought was "preset machine" and knowing about the marketplace, it seems like a revenue stream for a specific customer. Never thought about the P&W crowd though, that was very enlightening.
I notice Arturia gave it USB MIDI host and regular MIDI so you can plug in your favorite FaderFox. And there's space on top to put it. Next question is what can you do on it with MIDI CC? I haven't RTFM yet.
Very little
Jeremy, you made me buying the Keylab Essential MK3, tx 😅
Wow, they really have the day 1 push on for this thing... The opening screen here, "Who is this for?" is my big question. Obviously live/gigging, but what segment of that was this designed for? Many/most sets only require certain sounds and then only "close enough" for live in the mix. What pro would take this over a Yamaha/Roland/Korg/Nord with the keybed and sound set of their choice and sounds for the set(s) they play?
This is for any real musician that makes songs using their DAW and soft synths that then goes and actually plays live. Assuming you actually use the variety of instruments you can load on this thing, it is perfect because your preset if for your song. You don’t need to be a cover band. You know how hard it is to travel with 10, 20, 30 years of songs all made on different synths over the years? His is perfect for those 10 customers.
You’re right about most comments probably being from people who spend time noodling and tweaking sounds rather than actually just play music.
This is an innovative product from Arturia. Probably not for me, but kudos to them.
Another thought : can you imagine what a company can do if it manages to get all the Analog Lab instruments on a standalone (Linux-based ?) workstation? this may be the beginning of a lot more….😊
I get the concept and if they update the firmware as often as they do with their other gear to add some arranger, sequencer functionality and a way for people to port their own VSTs to it, it'd be very useful for use cases. From the time I flip the switch to the time I start producing there are many steps and points of friction that I'd hate to replicate in a live environment.
But in return i get the advantage of multiple pieces of gear that actually sound distinct instead of a samey, soulless, sterile, if very high quality, bloated preset soft synth box
The reason there are so many tutorials on making your mix sound good on CZcams is because very few soft synths, even wildly powerful ones, sound particularly rich or full or alive without a lot of careful tuning and mastering
After watching several videos on this and checking out the Arturia page for it, clearly not for me as well. Do want to say that this video seems to be the most on-point assessment of the synth despite the alternative approach to reviewing it. Thanks for this.
i wish they would make a Keystep Pro with the keyboard interface of the Keylab Essential or Keylab MKII. When i go to jam sessions i'm just as likely to need to create sequences as i am to perform riffs. Currently need two keyboards for that.
This was one piece of gear where I was like "ooh nice new stuff from Arturia... but totally not for me" It's very specific. Cool though, that rhodes sounds nice
Cheers to the 9-10 minute mark.
Thanks for the Qu-Bit Prism videos on your other channel. Love it🥰. Sorry for the hijack, but there is no option in your other channel for a Thanks. (in my case..)
Ahhh... Astrolab nice name, there is nothing more for me to say. When that comes in 10HP I'll take a look at it. Thx have a nice day.
Did you sneaky play Laura’s Theme in the for a second?
Hopefully the keylab mk3 follows these design cues.
gonna have to track down that bassoon trio ;)
I don’t think people are asking “Why did they make this” but rather stating “I would never buy this” , which you absolutely cannot argue with.
Good analyses, you hit the nail on the head I think. And yeah I see people being mad lol
When are you going to do a video on that LZX gear I see in this video?
its not mine, it's my partners... i have thought about doing a video on it but its so goddamn niche and expensive and hard to get i dont know if it would help anyone.
@RedMeansRecording They are still producing equipment, and they have a heap for sale on their website. Chromagnon is coming out soon. Might be a video in that!
It's a nord keyboard