But maybe AstroLab’s finest trick for locating what you want is playlists and songs. These are grouped presets that you simply’re in a position to bounce between with the push of a button. So when you want a quiet pad from an Ensoniq SQ-80 for the verse and a razor-sharp lead from an MS-20 for the refrain, you possibly can group them right into a music, which turns the instrument sort buttons into direct shortcuts to particular presets. Songs are then additional organized into playlists. You simply press the arrow buttons beneath the display screen encoder to leap to the following monitor in your set and cargo up one other batch of presets.

If you possibly can’t discover what you want among the many manufacturing unit sounds or any of the numerous sound packs out there from Arturia, you possibly can at all times design a patch from scratch in one of many devices as a part of the V Collection. Then it can save you it as a preset and cargo it on the keyboard. Granted, this requires shelling out for V Collection, but it surely ceaselessly goes on sale, and when you already personal Analog Lab Pro, which is included with AstroLab, you get a good steeper low cost.

World-Class Soft Synths

I’m midway into this assessment, and I have never talked in regards to the sound in any respect. This is partly as a result of, effectively, it is Analog Lab. It’s an business staple and sounds improbable. If you are not acquainted although, relaxation assured you are getting among the most interesting emulations of classic devices out there. When you examine the worth to even one of many iconic keyboards it is recreating, the worth is simple.

The Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Hammond B3 examine favorably with what you’d discover on a Nord stage keyboard, however for nearly half the worth. It convincingly delivers that percussive dizzying impact you’d get from an organ working by a Leslie and the graceful chime of a Fender Rhodes.

In addition, you get reasonably devoted variations of mainly unobtainable synth gems like a Moog Modular, a Yamaha CS-80, or a Fairlight CMI II. Not to say mass-market classics just like the Yamaha DX7 and Casio CZ-101. Plus Arturia’s Pigments and Augmented lineup, which marry orchestral, piano, and vocal samples with a strong synth engine. You’ve bought entry to all the pieces from crunchy lo-fi piano and EDM bass wubs to hovering string pads good for scoring a sci-fi thriller.

The solely actual weak spot is the acoustic pianos. They’re not horrible and have positively improved through the years, however they nonetheless really feel a contact skinny and flat in comparison with the actual factor. The probabilities that anybody would complain about them at your subsequent gig, although, are slim to none.

It’s value noting that that is presently the one method to get Arturia’s Pigments in {hardware} kind. That’s one thing that will get me personally actually excited. I feel it is the perfect softsynth in the marketplace, and it could possibly simply go toe-to-toe with different giants within the area like Massive and Serum.

Some will converse of issues being a VST however constructed right into a MIDI controller derisively. But that feels reductive right here. For one factor, this is not just a few bare-bones digital synth. And the {hardware} it is crammed into is opulent. The semi-weighted keys really feel unbelievable, they usually have aftertouch (although sadly not polyphonic). The pitch and mod wheels are stable items of aluminum, and the display screen, whereas small, is brilliant and colourful. There are even some good-looking wood cheeks on the aspect. This seems and looks like a high-quality piece of substances.