Astrolab Re-Review// After the Moon Dust has settled
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- čas přidán 13. 04. 2024
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• From The Studio - Hudba
i also like the aesthetic. my dad (Johnny Byrne) was one of the main writers on Space:1999, makes me happy to see the footage
Your father was a force! One of the first television writers whose name really registered with me because of 1999, and I was thrilled years later when he contributed to DW
Wow… that’s so cool. He brought joy to the nation and beyond! You must be very proud of him.
@@StarskyCarr yeah he was my hero of course! also wrote for Doctor Who etc. keep up the good work Starsky, always enjoy your videos! :)
@@RobertSaintJohn thanks for sharing, it's lovely when people remember his work
Loved that show!!!
This is the correct take. 😁 I think you nailed it when you said that we may all be in a bubble. Loads and loads of people play in bands - cover bands, wedding bands, worship bands, jazz fusion bands, school bands, garage bands. This is for them. It seems to be a stylish (IMO, anyway!) and fairly-rugged keyboard, loaded with classic and useful sounds covering any genre under the sun, and it comes in at a price that’s pretty reasonable all things considered. If you’re a keyboard player in a band who can’t afford a three-tier keyboard rig but needs a huge variety of sounds, this could totally be for you. 😁
It's definitely not for a keyboard player in a band that need loads of sounds. It could have been really good, but it's lacking features. Proper setlist switching and seamless transitions are the most important for live players and some of those sounds take a couple of seconds to load. If I had to bring this board and a sound is taking a couple of seconds to load, then I've missed all of my patch changes because I play in prog metal / jazz fusion bands and we can't afford to wait that long. But cover bands of tribute acts it could pass for sure. Hopefully in the future they allow you to do more things on your phone and give us a bit more controls in a version 2, because I'd love to be able to retire my kronos, but nautilus, fantom and montage, even modx do the same thing and more and won't allow keyboardists to miss haha.
@@DrawAndErase Fair enough, it makes sense that this may not work for you in a prog / fusion situation. And I too hope a future version would satisfy the synth nerd in me. But there’s a whole, whole lot of people in those cover and tribute bands. I agree good setlist support is needed - would like to think that can come in firmware updates, but we’ll see. I have a feeling they’re going to sell loads of these to church bands, as well as middle aged dudes who just want a quick way to get the Van Halen “JUMP” sound as a party trick in their living room. 😁
It would make a great addition for my Satan worship band.
Spot on!
People who play in church bands and weddings have $2k to spend on a keyboard??
MOre than anything thanks for the Space 1999 references. Scarily I recognised it from the explosions at the beginning.
LOL Me too!
Great video! Love it.
I absolutely love how you called people in the comments people who "don't get it". We need more honesty like that. You've tried it, they have not. We need more honesty from people who actually know what they're doing.
Well said! Arturia told us it was designed for the stage so criticising it from a studio point of view is just silly. For stage use you want it to look good, be mega packed with polished sounds, and have an uncluttered fascia with an easy to use playlist system. Bingo... sorted. 😎
Mine just arrived, sitting on my lap while I update it in front of my computer. It's so much nicer than commenters would have you believe. :P
Gonna get one! As a studio to live electronic musician, many of our sounds had to be sampled for us to take and play live, traditionally. It was like playing poor photocopy of the patch you worked on for hours to days. Just the way it was. So now in my music, a great many patches come from the Arturia V collection. I could technically take them live on stage but major nervous about relying on the laptop for live instruments! "whoops, little crash there - hold on a tick..." Now this. Brilliant. You don't need to program on the hardware. Do that in the studio, or wherever, save 4 macros for live performance and go out and play with amazing sounds - even Pigments live!!!
Great comment, and nice mention of the DS61 I have one and the Ds88 too... they never let you down...
Helpful, insightful, and a great 1999 gag all at the same time. Thanks, I have the lab V, and I need to make custom sounds. Sounds like I can stay put for now and just buy the missing new instruments and I can do that one at a time this way.....Thanks for a even handed Re-preview!
I have a minimoog, a prophet 5, a MS10, a grand mother, a Nord Electro, and access to exactly EVERY classic synth there is due to my bandmate. And I am gigging arenas.
I would (will) by the Astrolab. Both for studio and for live.
It’s all about speed and workflow for me. Love playing around with my synths but a few years ago I finally sold most of them just keeping the mentioned. My favs.
For live I’ve had a 6 keyboard setup with Prophets, Oberheims, minimoogs…
But they break on the road. And, i never, ever change my sounds while on a big arena tour.
Astrolab will be perfect (I hope).
Set the sounds. 4 macros. Drink beer. Play metal.
People dont understand that products arent everything for everyone all the time.
great honest re-hashing here, the audience appreciates it! also worth mentioning - the Juno DS is a worthy synth for the described purpose and actually is quite underrated in terms of customization it actually has quite a bit of capability if you take a deep dive. I find the biggest limitation being just the number of overall simultaneous voices, but only because I tend to layer sounds massively, like 8-10+ or more so sometimes you get a few weird notes dropping out when you get that deep, but with just 4,6 voice layers, it's never a noticeable issue
So many people complain about the lack of poly AT, yet I have never met a stage keyboard player that would have any use for it.
Completely agree with everything you said and I want one. I love editing sounds and tweaking, but sometimes I just need an inspiration machine and this will fit the bill perfectly. Its top on my list for purchase for sure
Seems pretty good to me, but that screen. I don’t get it. A larger screen with faster and easier navigation would be better. What if you want to look at your set list without having to scroll? What if you want to see more than a few preset names at once? What about longer preset names? A larger screen with more buttons for faster navigation and more options. A gigging musician would appreciate that I’m sure. The dial screen just seems a bit gimmicky. But the range of sounds is phenomenal.
Maybe it’s just a way of making it feel less techy .. maybe a big screen puts it next to the Fantoms etc? It’s definitely a risk.
i wish Arturia would release the Artist Tribute Tones that are found in the Astrolab, but not available for purchase on their site. there's quite a few in there.
Happy to see Space 1999 fans .
Great series, especially the first classic period.
Btw, I like the esthetics of this new keyboard ...
I don't dislike it... I just think it's too expensive for a 61-key version. Around the £1200 mark and I'd consider purchasing it seriously.
Yeah I think it’s sitting in a tough market. Perhaps the styling will be the differentiator (in a good or bad way!)
It will be in a few months no doubt.
'it's nice' .......great re-review
I love the Space 1999 idea!
Back when the Prophet 5 came out in 1977 Sequential started to quickly notice when they came back for service almost all of them still had the 40 original factory presets on board. Players were not over writing them with their own creations.
Most _players_ I suspect are just that - players. Not programmers. I certainly know quite a few people like that. They don't even know what an oscillator is, they just want an instrument that sounds good with lots of sounds they can pick from.
Not every instrument needs to have 80 knobs and a flat panel TV screen. Some folks just want to grab a preset that sounds nice and play.
That hair.. 😊 This is totally true on who this is for..
Always enjoy hearing your take on things also always enjoy when you throw in your songs that you make. I just got the chance to mess around with one last friday although its definitely not for me i do agree with who you say its for but still a lil high in price for alot of people i feel. Now if they release a similar version with full v collection and proper knobs they would probably get more of my money.
Great stuff dude, this ones not for me but love the cosmetics, keep on bringing it
Question for all those extreme sterility complaints about smudgy screen. What do you use for your smart phone ? Doesn’t that get smudgy too ?
Many musicians DO get really nerdy about sound when 99.9% of audiences / listeners won’t notice
I love the simplicity of the Korg SV2 because I can dial in anything in seconds, weirdly this reminds me of that - I don’t want all the knobs & menu diving, I want to play 🤷🏻♂️
I’ve the SV-1 for precisely this as well.
as a longtime V Collection owner I can say this is pretty much exactly what I wanted. I can tweak on the PC, take the machine with me when I play out. No fiddling with a laptop. Akai (MPC Key standalone) and NI (with the stand alone maschine) are playing to the same market. Hopefully the firmware catches up to Collection X soon and they need to make the PC edits stream to the Astrolab in real time still.
You fiddled on the PC before, so its a fail
Exactly!
@@jumpingman8160 for you maybe, I prefer editing the sounds on the pc
@@jumpingman8160 Eh?
If this was 25-30 years ago this would've probably my top-wanted synth. Seems great for small gigs and maybe even in the rack for touring. As it is now, it certainly looks nice, but it really didn't blow up my proverbial skirt.
AstroLab Re-Review // After the Memes have settled.
If you’re a live player (apparently who it’s aimed for) it’s a top board, boutique exquisite sounding top board, but lacks the multitimbrality, polyphony, and all around power to be a main board.
I’m not sure about the keybed I’d have to try it, but I don’t think it’s individually sprung, I’d wait for MkII for a more mature and sensible design and feature set, but I wouldn’t mind owning one for what it already does.
It will be interesting to see how much overhead there’s in whatever SOC is in there powering the thing tóquese if meaningful features could be added on upcoming updates, if only someone would date to do a tear down video LOL
Keep the screen/wheel memes coming people
Got to admit, i quite like the concept of this keyboard. It's not exactly an impulse buy, but I am thinking about it. It's got enough control to fiddle with on stage if you already know what sounds you are going to use.
Nice tie in for Gerry Anderson day too 😀
Cheers ✌️
Well said. Although this is not for me, because I’m not a live performer, it is great for people who appreciate good sound quality without having unique sound design. Not everyone is a sound designer, right?
Exactly, this device is for simplicity, portability and live performance not complexity, sound design or production. If users want to design sounds all they have to do is fire up a computer and Arturia software synth. If Arturia was to add a bigger screen and additional controls to modify the myriad of parameters available in their software, it would be $10,000 or more. Designing a decent physical UI for one software synth is expensive much less for all the Arturia software synths.
Well said. This is a powerful performance machine that can cover a wide sonic range. Musical theater, touring backing bands, House of Worship are all places where someone else sets up the programs and the players rotate in and out. For those applications, where music directors don't want the sounds adjusted after rehearsals are done, this is a great option. And the backup is still a single instrument. If I have three shows on a cruise ship, I can plan out the playlists all on one or two of these per show. It can switch from a mini style lead to Pigments pads to a Rhodes. Not many instruments can cover all that ground.
Loved the Space 1999 bits! Took me back to my childhood.
If you make synth pop, as I do and you use Arturia's V Collection all the time, as I do and if you have already edited your patches in your daw to produce the tracks, as I do, then this might just be a great solution for taking those tracks live with ease. The nerdiness has already been done in production and now you want to get out there and play the stuff, then this could be just the thing. It clearly isn't the thing if in depth timbre tweaking is a necessary part of your live preformance. Horse for courses, innit?
Also a Yamaha PSR SX-700 too
It is funny how crazy people get about gear I think it is a great step it is only the first version of the software people need to calm down.I like Arturia I use a laptop and Arturia controller 💯 ❤️
Can you visit/ revisit a full review of roland Jupiter x (the 61 key)
Or if you would seek out a vintage synth above it? Maybe compare it to some of the bigger league prophets and stuff
Yours was a good review. Everytime I go down the rabbit hole of synthesizers, I become overwhelmed by the choices, the number of knobs etc and it takes me away from actually making music. Even the Fantom and Nord seem overloaded. So I think for someone who prioritizes music over sound design, this is a good option. It's a bit pricey for sure, so I'm not buying one yet. Instead I picked up a open box Arturia Keylab Essential 3 61 key controller and will see how that works with Analog Lab Pro before making a bigger investment. (I think if AstroLab had DAW controls, I would have jumped right in.) Anyways, I could see AstroLab being a great way to get some customization without being overwhelmed. (That said, I wonder if having 30+ synths and thousands of presets might be its own problem.)
I’m admittedly not a fan, I agree that your take on who this is for is correct, but I came for Space 1999 and I was not disappointed! 👏🏻
More Starsky opinion videos! And cats.
THIS EPISODE: 😁
I think the price is a bit steep but besides that, it's great for quick gigs
I agree that visually, it is a really nice design. It's just not for me though. I'm a software-based, "in the box" guy. What I need is a serious update to my keyboard controller and/or a hardware synth that can also be my remote for the computer software. I do think that, at that price point, they really should include the full V-Collection X with it or, at least, a seriously discounted price for it.
For this price I’d still grab a Fantom 06 or Korg Nautilus. Grab a MIDI Controller you already have preferably with music stand and an older Surface Pro with Analog Lab Pro on it and get a FrankenLab ;) I paid $66 for a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 off eBay to do just this. Its got ALP, Ableton and Roland Cloud on it n works great with my NI Komplete S49 and Push 2
So it‘s a player, not a sound designer synth. Aha. But as a player I need a good keybed which the AL doesn’t have. I know those short-hinged black keys from the Akai MPC Keys and (decades ago) the Kawai K1. Simply unplayable.
thats exactly what my gaff looks like.
i think it is beyond beautiful, me as a guy who likes to program and hates computers - lost me, other than that it is a stunner and i hope they do well with it
I am going to be purchasing the MODX7+ which is now the same price. It also has a plethora of high quality immediately available sounds but I can also search on the fly for any sound, arrange sound sets on the fly, it has 73 keys for full piano and can layer up to 4 sounds and splits are quick and simple. The screen is about 3-4 times the size too. AND, you can edit anything quite easily. I just think it is WAY more bang for the buck. The MODX7+ is now $1,500.
You can layer and control up to 8 sounds in the MODX instead of 4 (but then you lose seamless sound switching) so it’s even better! If you sequence it it’s actually 16-part multitimbral.
@@lumer2b Thank you for the clarification I appreciate it. When I had my FA06 from Roland it was 16-part multitimbral, but I rarely exceeded 4 sounds layered.
It’s been interesting watching all the mass-hype, then all the backpedalling, on this one … ☺️
Haha.. no backpedalling here!
@@StarskyCarr No, not you - but plenty of gushing hype-beasts, lol
I think it's beautifully designed. I just don't get the pricing, considering the competition.
I don't mind what it is, just seems a bit expensive for what it is. Also, the fact that the macros change could be confusing. Maybe four more encoders that are hard-wired to parameters that are very useful to tweak in real time gig to gig, for pros AND amateurs alike on stage (like Filt. Cutoff, Res, Amp Attack, and Amp Release)? Maybe some sort of discount for people who already have V-Collection licenses might have been nice? Also, while I'm dreaming, perhaps next will be an update to the Arturia Origin, with an upgrade to an 8-10" touch screen that runs Analog Lab? Please?
What I learned is just exactly how many people are in other people's pockets. The whole thing was a bit embarrassing tbh. Aeturia really shelled out there.
Anyway, as far as the synth. I love Arturia and the V Collection very much, but I wouldnt want to be in this half-in half-out netherworld where I am supposedly can update the keyboard by connecting it to a laptop or whatever. It sounds like a right pain. Not to mention you have to pay extra which is so weird.
At the end of the day, you are right, we're probably not the right audience. But at that price, and with its limitations who is. We'll see I guess.
Obviously I’ve only been able to see this synth on the Internet, but my take is the same as yours. I like it’s design , different, but interesting & tasteful. And it does seem very much a preset focused device which where, as you point out, I think a lot of synth uses are missing the point of this keyboard . It’s no a do all complex advice just turn & play it. I look at it as a modern & far more versatile DX7 or D70...after all they had practically no controls but were great in their day to play. Only real criticism I have Is I think the price it bit high given its limited controls etc. Still , I’m sure this will do well for those that just want a keyboard to play & not be hooked to computer!
My two beefs with most of the release day content was few reviewers gave specifics on voice count which is a critical buying criteria. I’ve heard the action on the black keys requires much more pressure near the middle of the key than on the white keys suggesting it’s not a premium keybed. I think it’s overpriced given that to get full editing capability for all engines you’ll spend another $800 on VCollection & Pigments. If already have those then it maybe a good deal if you play live. But in the studio I’ll stick with my NI Komplete Kontrol Mk3.
Even without editng stuff, juno ds is way better bang for the buck!! You can grow with it!! Record, sequence, etc...
So... you have to pay for the VSTs separately? That sucks.
Yeah, I thought that was odd but then again Roland do the same. I wonder if it’s a technical thing, or commercial.
@@StarskyCarrWhat Roland does is not the same, not even close, you can fully edit the Zencore / SuperNatural / ACB / engines in the instruments without buying anything, you only buy a VST if you want the sounds without owning the synth (which companies give you free VST version of their hardware synths?). Arturia makes you buy the VST for editing sounds for the synth you already bought.
I understand what Arturia tried to do, but I don’t think it will have the number of buyers it may expect this will have and the price is completely off the market. I would have preferred to see them really step it up another gear with their midi controllers. Further, even for this rompler / controller, it should have no less than the number of controls on its previous midi controllers. I’d also rather see a large touch screen. My view is that a Roland System 8 is a better product for how hardware can interact with software and offers a lot more to a musician.
I actually love the aesthetic. It's very THX1138. And you're absolutely right. It's for people who like playing keys. In a way, it reminds me a little of the Kurzweil K2000. A really mighty synth that, by trying to do too much, doesn't really have any character of its own, which isn't helped by the sterile, too clean sound, but it is highly usable in the right situations. So not a bad synth, tho I think they've put the price point too high. But I haven't touched it and maybe it's got the best keybed of all time to justify that 🤷
And Arturia are very good at supporting their devices, so as sales occur and updates are added, for the right person, this will be very tempting
At the price point and to be "pro", it needs an internal power supply. Other than that, it seems cool.
A synth that was basically a fully editable hardware version of the V Collection would be a nightmare if you really think about it, and in the end no one would be happy with it. I can hear the moaning now.
Can’t agree with you on this as the roland system 8 is just that and its great.
They could have just put a large screen and all the parameters either as a knob of slider or a numeric input, then everybody could shut up that this is not a synth. The price is a matter of taste, different brands are priced differently.
With this screen and without the editing capability even if I have the money I will not buy it.
This video sounded a bit like someone who's being sort of forced to say nice things about this keyboard. It reminded me of your initial review of the OB-X8 where you were on the fence about spending that much money on a, let's face it, rather basic analog polysynth with that page 2 menu that bothered you so much. You never told us if you kept it or if you returned it/sold it?
BTW, I love mine because it sounds like an Oberheim and that's what I was looking for.
Haha.. In no way!! And yeah I kept the OBx8 but got a tonne of grief from people who were appalled I wasn’t 💯 loving it. I’m always totally honest. Theres no point in anything else as otherwise a review is useless. If I don’t like stuff or don’t understand it I won’t demo it. If I’m on the fence and like it but don’t love it I’ll demo and explain why. But any negativity is always met with unbelievable hostility. Not worth the effort, so if it doesn’t work for me it’s not on the channel.
You're easily one of the best and most trust worthy synth CZcamsrs in my opinion. F the haters and nay sayers! It must be exhausting to read people's bullsh1t sometimes! I've had plenty of hate directed at me back in the day when I used to make trance for a remix of Brian enos ascent I did. In the end it becomes more easy to ignore. People just like to complain!
@@StarskyCarr
Fair enough. Thanks for all your efforts, I still appreciate them very much. And that's why I'm a subscriber even though I might not always agree with you. 😉
Its strange when people get hostile over gear cause i don’t think people take into account that we are all making different music. I have an obx8 as well that i like but I would keep my take 5 over it any day. Cheers
FANTOM EX :far better !
Once again it's not just the usecase, it's the price tag. All the legitmate usecases everyone is talk about usually aren't people who can afford a $2k keyboard for those use cases.
Most people can't afford a macbook let alone a keyboard like this
From what I've heard, the keyboard isn't especially robust and playable. Another channel reported a key easily coming loose. That makes it less than optimal in a gig environment. I love Arturia plugins and use them regularly, but the lack of ability to alter filter settings etc. on the presets turns me off as a non-gigger. Shame, as I'd love to have something like this with the full ability to tweak classic synths. (This is something I get with my Roland Xm, which incidentally was marketed as a gigging synth.)
The macros are generally set to cutoff, resonance, envelope times and modulation - although it depends on the patch - you can alter all these and the fix without v collection - so you’ve got a fair bit of hands in control. Nothing like a fully fledged knob laden surface though.
@@StarskyCarr Thanks for the reply. What I'd really like is an Arturia version of the NI KK S61. I guess the Astrolab is aimed at giggers, less so at producers. Be interesting to see how live players get on with the mod wheels being set where they are.
People com[plain about it just being a "vst player", but that's really not very different from Native Instruments Komplete or Maschine. So I'm not sure what the issue is on that point. There are certainly fewer knobs & sliders for parameter access. But as you say - It's for performance. - I can imagine that, if you're able to tweak the sounds on your computer, then I could even see a pro using it for just performing your record. (I mean, I'm not taking expensive analog synths to gigs or on tour). I have plenty of other midi controllers. But sure, I could see a band taking this out & just performing their tunes with presets all set up to perform.
Way too expensive.
For sure the Astrolab must have been targeted to the ProSumer market (not quite “professional” level, not quite “consumer” level but rather a notch above consumer level)… in other words, it’s pretty much aimed straight up the center of the two extremes. I don’t see Arturia bringing in a lot of sales from this version of Astrolab if I’m being honest. And this coming from a rather big Arturia FanBoy (yes I own all of their VST’s and effect collections, as well as hardware). Time will tell if Arturia eventually leaks out who their target market really was, or if they even continue the Astrolab line down the road. Fair analysis mate… 👍🏻
I’m starting to notice some of the CZcamsrs backtracking from their initial reviews of the Astrolab. Clearly there is pressure to say positive review comments in order to secure early access to products, but not sure it’s worth it. Don’t get me wrong, you weren’t gushing over it like some, but still, I’d like to see some objectivity around whether this is the product customers of Arturia would want and some comparisons with other products where you can highlight how they may have differentiated themselves or missed the boat.
$1199 and everyone would have a different opinion. It’s too expensive for the value proposition. As an owner of the Keylab 2 and analog V it’s THREE TIMES the cost. If they gave you all of the sliders and knobs etc I could see the $1500. It’s a great piece of gear but it’s a luxury not necessity.
Its a Avant Garde Stage keyboardI
Yeah, carpet bombing is definitely a perfect description. Arturia did a great job with marketing for sure!
Got yourself a wee hair stylist these days? Fancy
Or maybe he spends all his money on synths and can’t afford a comb?
Haha.. I’ve no idea what you’re talking about! But I’m either chuffed it was looking cool, not arsed if it’s sarcasm… quite funny 😁 ! but secretly hoping it’s the former!
For me it's simple: 1. It's completely unnecessary for a home studio because you have a studio PC anyway and then just buy the VCollection. 2. For a good keyboard player it has a far too simple, poor keyboard.
3. It can be used for keyboard players who don't care about good playing technique and who definitely don't want to use a PC/Notebook and only want a digital preset synth.
Honestly i understand what Arturia tried to do and who will buy this keyboard. It's not the point. The keyboard seems to do well what it's made for. It's juste strange for me to see Arturia missing a large part of consumers. The synth lovers and the V collection lovers. If peoples are passionate about this product it's because they really like the concept off a V collection in a standalone package. But every body as a different view about what it should be. Astrolab is not open enough for me. Maybe it's not a problem for Arturia and the target. It's a problem for me and it seems to be the same for a lot of people interested by this kind of product. I can't stop thinking they oriented the product in this direction cause of the complexity to implement more controls on it. The result is not a fail at all. It's just what it is and it could be much more. That's the point I think. And sorry for my English I'm French by the way.
£1200? LOL. I dont think so somehow.
1 - Arturia made a product that makes you buy their VSTs
2 - You will need to buy their VSTs if you want deep editing
3 - Arturia also assumes people gigging only use Arturia stuff
4 - Not indicated for those who like to tweek various parameters live on the spot.
5 - You are better off with either a Workstation (Montage/Modx/Fantom/K2700) or a far better midi keyboard and laptop/tablet
1. You don't get it.
2. You totally don't get it.
3. You absolutely don't get it
4. You're broke.
5. You probably have never made anything people like.
Arturia made a product for people who already own their VSTs.
A $1.6K "synth" controller that does NOT have faders... nope. Seriously, why? All that wasted space next to the wheels is insulting.
That keyboard action looks (and I assume plays) awful. I’ve one of their expensive Keylab offerings and it’s got cheap steal leaf springs under the key tops. Dreadful.
It's a bit disconcerting that, these days, you need to make a follow-up video to politely explain to a certain sub-set of your viewers that they're a bunch of idiots.
'I can buy a keyboard controller, the software and a laptop for the same amount of money!'
Purchasing a comparable Arturia KeyLab mkII 61 with the V Collection and Pigment will leave you around €250 for a laptop. Good luck with that.
The Dr Mix video was the first Astrolab video I saw, and it became clear almost immediately who the target audience is. This thing is intended to just sound good and give instant gratification.
Just because you, the commenter, aren't in the target audience, doesn't make this a bad product. I'm not the target audience either, but I think it's brilliant nonetheless.
Just anutha rompler. Good for peeps which grandpa's ages ago whoreshipped the M1, or rather not.
The M1 had much more functionality. She could layer lots of gay's on top of her, or besides.
Anyways, it will be as designed the "M1" of this Century.
French style.
The issue for the non Synth-freak, is the limitation in bread and butter sounds. And the pre labeling of controls, limits how they can be used to interact, or rather to know what they actually do. A larger display, and touch button or soft buttons, could have helped a lot in making sure it would be flexible enough for stage use.
The load times aren't great either.
The first issue they can probably fix (it has an usb master port, so if internal storage is limited in terms of sounds they are unable to model with the built in CPU, it should be possible to expand the storage).
But the controls + display remain as limited as they are.
If the price was much lower, it would have been a different matter. But that is probably not realistic. So with a better design, in terms of ways to interact with the unit, and the feedback, without adding a lot in bill of material, they could have made it a much better product.
I don't know who I would ever recommend it to.
If they made a "desktop" module version of it, then that would be a very different matter, because then it could work as an expander for other stage keyboards, and then the lack of bread and butter sounds, could be solved by using it with something that has that covered.
But the biggest issue remain. An entry level Apple Macbook Air + a midi controller with at least the same quality level as the keys of this, cost less. It loads sounds quicker. It offers a lot of flexibility in terms of the option of using instruments from other makers to complement the sounds missing.
So for anyone with this budget, that is the recommendation I would give, over this, any day of the week.
And that same recommendation would probably stay true even if they released a module version. that macbook air, would outperform it for less money.
So in reality, this is quite a pointless device.
It is not the real-time controller equipped V collection in a box, that would make for some synthists (and some stubborn "dawless" musicians).
It isn't a stage keyboard, that blows a computer + midi controller out of the waters. In either speed or price. It isn't more reliable.
it would be better if instrument makers accepted Computers and iPads, as superior devices for the computing power, and focused on making good controllers, and suitable apps, or stage GUIs.
There might be some specific sound processing or synthesis, where an FPGA would could handle a process with lower latency then an ARM cpu with an OS running on it and the software inside of that. So if companies makes FPGA processor equipped all digital units in this price or slightly higher, to solve a latency issue with computers, well then that would be one thing.
Or if they used something like the ELK os, to build ARM equipped synths with real time controls, at a lower price, that could make sense.
Arturia could develop a competing format to NKS, with more real-time controls, and a built in system for making previews of user presets (NI could solve that in their komplete kontrol software, so they could fix that issue quite quickly).
They sould outsmart NI by making their units in formats that NI refuses. A kontrol unit with just some pads for key-switching, fingerdrumming, and preview playing, would make it a much more compact offering, that could be used at a workstation for mixing, or to komplement any stage keyboard, or to be used with controllers like linnstrument for a different layout, or to be used with various or keyboard MPE units, or with a Kawai VPC-1 that outclasses any other piano keyboard kontroller, in terms of feel.
That would make a lot more sense to put R&D money in to, rather than a hardware sound-player, that is way to expensive and without the stability or speed that would offer any benefit over using a computer. And with a keybed that some reviewers dislike.
Imagine also developing an AUv3 hosting app for it.
We should always try to steer companies to do smarter choices.
And pretending that there might be an actual audience for a product like this, where it actually makes sense over getting a computer and a midi controller, or even an iPad and midi controller, is just a way to encourage companies to make the wrong decisions. And to fool ourselves in to potentially misleading someone we are trusted to guide, to make a foolish decision.
It's for people that want an aesthetic. There are far better things you could spend that amount of money on that don't box you into a bunch of barely editable presets.
This generation of synths is terrible. All the Roland stuff requires reauthorization every 30 days even when you buy the plug out on a perpetual key, and it seems Arturia now want their piece of the “continue to pay me more for software after I sell you a keybed without a screen or any knobs” market. I am buying a Fantom XR and calling it a day. 2000-era synths were the last ones worth owning as they have adequate connectivity without the intrusive license garbage. Hard pass.
PS, can we stop saying 10-12 sound categories translate into “50,000,000,000 sounds!” It’s not a new sound if based on the same instrument and engine, and we all see that you have 950 ambient pianos that differ only in eq settings. Anyways, toxic synth guy rant over.
It's an expensive midi controller for the Arturia VST V collection.
You'd be better off buying a laptop and a cheapo midi controller and getting the V collection on discount.
And for all those people saying this is for gigging. Seriously. A laptop is propably the LIGHTEST bit of kit you will take on the road.
it is not a midi controller, it runs the sounds onboard.