Has Anyone Been Paying Attention to the Arturia Astrolab that has been Released?

[Diallady]

Interested in hearing everyone's input on this. Been watching some recent reviews.

 

[happyrat1]

Arturia.

Even if it does have onboard sounds I'll bet $500 that you have to connect to the internet to even turn it on.

They have the worst DRM in the world.

 

[happyrat1]

And it will keep on working until it's reached product EOL and then, an "update" will break it.

 

[Diallady]

So I take it that this was a loaded question? Can't wait to hear from the rest of the crowd. In all fair honesty I have to admit it caught my attention briefly. Seeing that I have the Analog Lab Pro VST and like many of their sounds, you can understand how easy it would be to take a double look.

 

[fazer]

Interested in hearing everyone's input on this. Been watching some recent reviews.

I have a Keylab 61, which is just a controller but a pretty good one. I don’t really understand the extreme difference in price between that and the Astrolab to be honest. I understand the Astrolab will require extra electronics to operate standalone, of course - but at 3 times the price? The Astrolab doesn’t even have a touchscreen to aid usage when not connected to a computer as far as I can tell. So after looking (briefly) at the Astrolab I came to the conclusion I wouldn’t be pursuing it any further. I have the Arturia Collection V software, which I like, so I don’t doubt the Astrolab will offer a great selection of sounds.

 

[Diallady]

So it did indeed peak your interest, if only briefly. Tell me about the Collection V. Are some of those sounds also in the Analog Lab Pro? For the money paid do you believe it was a fair price and how much HD space is required?

 

[fazer]

So it did indeed peak your interest, if only briefly. Tell me about the Collection V. Are some of those sounds also in the Analog Lab Pro? For the money paid do you believe it was a fair price and how much HD space is required?

The software I have is actually named the V Collection X and it’s a modelled collection of many analogue instruments (and possibly a few that were digital - not sure) which can be used by any keyboard that can send midi to a computer. https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/v-collection/overview

Analogue Lab is a cut down version supplied with Arturia Keyboard controllers and now the Astrolab. I’m not sure how the standalone version in Astrolab might differ from the version that runs on computers. Users can upgrade to V collection X at cost, of course but I’m not sure how this works for Astrolab owners - perhaps a greater price reduction? The collection takes around 3gb of drive memory on computers and currently costs around £500 (UK) as far as I know.

I like the Arturia sounds from the collection but I should also say that while I am an experienced guitarist I have far less experience on keyboards so you may want to take my thoughts in that vein. My main focus on keyboards is in learning to play piano at the moment so I have to be careful that endless experimentation with sound possibilities does not detract from that!

 

[happyrat1]

How many VST synths have I seen come and go in the past 2 decades?

At least 4 or 5...

Virtual Studio Technology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

They all failed to keep up with Moore's law and went discontinued and unsupported within 3 years of inception.

Holding my breath I ain't.

Plugins: How analog hardware still sounds better and why?

Many claim they have the ultimate hardware emulation plugins. Yet many producers still feel like there is still something missing. Why is that?

blog.mixanalog.com

It's SKYENSE PEOPLE!!!!

 

[fazer]

It’s a similar story with guitar modellers and modelling software. Anything using software seems to have no real longevity. The updates bring in revenue for the content creators and so the machine rolls on, I guess.

 

[Diallady]

And are the manufacturers of those long gone VST Synths still alive and kicking? Gotta understand I am really new to that world. Have a few I use on a pretty regular basis and really not in the market for more UNLESS they have a dynamite arp. That will get my attention every time. I really need to be learning my Nautilus AT, but it's too much fun messing with VSTs and choice sample packs.

 

[happyrat1]

I'm trying to recall the names of those extinct beasts.

Fortunately I'm a packrat for bookmarks...

Software Sampler, Sound Module, Plugin Host, VST Plugins and Instruments | Muse Research

Run virtual instruments and effects using the innovative, dedicated performance muscle of the Muse Research Receptor. Professional musicians rely on this hardware plug-in player for running virtual instruments and effects with road-worthy stability, speed and performance.

www.museresearch.com

https://peavey.com/product/musebox/

http://musiccomputing.com/

Seelake - AudioStation Overview

Home of Seelake AudioStation, the only Hardware VST Player

www.seelake.com

Peavey and Seelake still appear to be in the game.

And they are sensible modules. They're not bundled with some cheezy chinese keyboard,

 

[fazer]

Arturia.

Even if it does have onboard sounds I'll bet $500 that you have to connect to the internet to even turn it on.

They have the worst DRM in the world.

I have had no bad experiences with Arturia products or software personally. But I did find a thread on the Arturia forum complaining that someone’s purchased Arturia software deauthorised itself during a gig to a crowd of 5000 and then just refused to work again until reauthorised. I have no idea if this is a regular scenario but I will say I would feel rather let down if it became apparent I had to be connected to the internet to use the software. Have you heard of this before? I certainly hope the new Astrolab has no ‘automatic’ deauthorisation policy attached.

 

[Pete The Greek]

There is a review of the Astrolab at Sound on Sound. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/arturia-astrolab

It was preproduction firmware. I'm not rushing out to buy one.