2 layers to beef up tones-really sounds great doubling up a patch.
8 knobs to tweak tone is quite satisfactory in many instances to create dynamics etc
keybed felt good.
i just like the feeling of a standalone instrument outside da box.
What i dont like:
everything to do with analog lab and interfacing with computer to edit v collection synths etc. Its brutal. And im a pretty computer oriented person. Im sure i could and can add details if you want but its just simply a very slow tedious process to edit sounds and put them back on astrolab in any fluid way.
arturia introduce new bugs when creating new firmware updates. The arturia forum has discussions on this. For example, The HOLD button (shift+arp) wouldnt work after the latest update! That was final straw. I didnt even want to find out why. I took photos of it, packed it up, sold it! Haha.
menu diving with the thermostat was as dumb as many joked it could be. Unnecessary designs and workflow maybe to stand out, be different, go for a simple aesthetic but without practicality?
one might look at the blank space to the left of the knob and think itās ok, set a laptop or something there when you need it. Thats how i initially felt. But because they chose to do that and yet require a shift+arp to hold, or menu deep dive to change arp rate etc is just not well thought out in my opinion.
Am i crazy to think that having a default arp rate of 1/4 is not well thought out?. I think i can play anything at 1/4
the new firmware updates also suggested to me they really really arent thinking about the overall user friendliness and more about just getting other sounds on there. The approach seems more like theyre thinking of how to wow people with the presets when they walk into a store and demo it. But making it super functional is coming second.
So ive now gotten a keylab 49 mkii and am playing v collection synths that way. The keylabs keybed is not as nice for me but the same knob turning can be done. That thing that i feel like is missing with pure in the box setups is still there-it just feels a smidge inauthentic or something. But the astrolab was only a small step up from that because of the significant headaches interfacing with analog lab.
From a different perspective, using it 99% standalone for the last 3 months has been good. I donāt mind the UI, if not being life changing, The sounds are awesome and the 1% in the box that I have used was to make a couple of patches on pigments and import it. It works as it should.
I have come to an annoyance though. If I activate āremoteā on my push 3, whenever I press a button on push, the astrolab receives it as if a bunch of notes were being played at the same time, resulting on a gigantic ācabummā. Anybody experiencing something similar?
Thanks @sjvl for taking the time to write all of that up. Iām 100% with you on your ālikesā!
After poking around on the internet and digesting your dislikes for a day or so, I think that youāve helped save me some grief. Iāll skip the AstroLab for now. Iāve always dreamed of having a portable V Collection, but I dislike having a computer / laptop as the fix to that.
Perhaps an MKII will put the AstroLab in a better spot for folks like you and I, but for now Iāll cling tightly to my Minifreak and find something else with full size keys that I can carry around with me.
Could you share which Linux distribution and which kind of tool you use to do it ?
Iād like to give a try on that one day. I have the full arturia suite, so no astrolab but all other product, and if it work on Linux with wine with good latency I would be interested.
I have Ubuntu with lowlatency kernel (if you donāt mind about the desktop you can just get Ubuntu Studio). I use Wine staging from WineHQ and Yabridge. Itās a pretty standard Linux audio setup.
Analog Lab and all the synth presets I have tried run fine with no noticeable latency. I havenāt tried the effects but usually latency in effects is not a problem either.
Both, but im trying to have the AL receiving midi from P3s on a fixed track on my default template.
I created an instrument rack and assigned the 16 macros to the AL 8 panel knobs plus the 8 hidden ones. Unfortunately, I haven been having trouble setting up the connections. The AL goes crazy, if I enable āremoteā on its midi in settings on Push. Whenever I press a button on Push the AL just plays all voices simultaneously. As if I smashed my hands against the keyboard. Donāt know whos fault this is but it only happens with AL (even though I had this problem in the past with another synth but I managed to fix it). I also have a very complex default template on push so it also might be that.
But just receiving midi notes is great, since I want to tweak the knobs live anyway so itās all good. It really adds up to a groocebox like push because even though it has great synths, the flexibility and faulty of the AL is of another level. I also used as sample food and its also great for that, with or without external fx.I recommend
Small update.
I felt the keybed and instantly said no.
The user experience also felt like it lacked any sort of premium tactile draw.
This is compared to the Nord, my ob-6 or even digital synths like Hydra.
Anyone else waiting until Arturia release a big firmware update and fix this product?? Or release the leaked Mini and 88 versions, with a big firmware update that fixes everything
According to SynthAnatomy ( grains of salt provided ), Firmware 1.4 for Astrolab is now available. They say : āadding Pigments 6 and MiniFreak v3 supportā.
Now they added pigments 6 and Minifreak, they could release the 88 version with the fatar keybed like the keylab mk3 88 or the mini (hopefully) desktop module version
