Tag Archives: Arturia AstroLab

Ho, ho, ho, NAMM 2026

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Time for a pre-holiday ramble. NAMM 2026 — also known as “Christmas in January” — is now one month away, January 20-24, 2026. Certainly, November and December product releases will be featured at NAMM 2026. So, dropping into stream of consciousness mode…

Behringer is great at stocking stuffers. The latest stuffer is the two DCO Behringer UB-1 Micro with replicas of the 3396 and 3397 chips once found in the Oberheim Matrix 6/1000. USA pre-order for about $71 USD. Shucks, might as well pony up another $40 and buy the three VCO Behringer UB-Xa Mini Analog Synthesizer at $109. After upgrade, the Mini is 5 voice and it has a 5-pin DIN MIDI input instead of a 3.5mm MIDI jack.

I also have a fondness for Sequential Circuits. The Behringer Pro VS Mini Hybrid Vector Synthesizer is a 4-voice hybrid vector synth, joystick built in for $119. All of these small format modules are much smaller and cheaper than the real deal and don’t take up as much space in a studio. Gosh, they aren’t more expensive than a good plug-in, too.

Sonicware continue to roll out new toys. The ELZ_1 play (now V2) is a small wavetable synth featuring the original Waldorf wavetables. The LIVEN series groove boxes cover a wide range of contemporary music styles. As to my own taste, I’m liking the LIVEN Ambient 0, LIVEN Evoke and LIVEN Lofi-12. Sonicware products are available in the USA through Amazon.

If you crave actual Waldorf tables and sound, check out the nicely-styled Waldorf Protein. The Protein has eight voice polyphony and is 4-part multitimbral. Even though it’s a new model, it just got its first update adding a 12dB filter option, more memory slots and 20 free patches by Kateryna Zavoloka. The USA price is $399 USD — quite reasonable. Eight voice poly is enough to be dangerous and I wish other developers would take note. Three or four voice polyphony ain’t enough for two-fisted pads.

Which brings me to the subject of tariffs. Yes, USA people, you are paying the tariffs. You are also waiting longer for product to arrive on these shores. Check Behringer pricing and you will see lower prices in Europe. Sonicware LIVEN used to be $199; they are now $259. Sonicware moved sales to Amazon because they got tired of chasing shifting tariff rules, especially cancellation of the de minimus exception.

In software-land, Steinberg are shipping new iOS plug-ins and apps. Cubasis gets a boost. iOS versions of the Verve and Etude character pianos join Iconica Sketch on iPad/iPhone. Verve is the Steinberg felt piano which lets you layer in atmospheric elements. Etude is a C3X which — to my ears — sounds more “played in” than the usual pristine Yamaha CFX samples.

Verve, Etude and Iconica Sketch can run standalone as well as AUv3 plug-ins. The new Verve and Etude are described as “designed for iPhone/iPad”. The introductory price is $15.99 (each). What’s the catch? The Verve download size is 19.8MBytes and the Etude download size is 18.8MByte. These are the sizes for the core apps — the full download will be much larger. I’m running Etude on a Mac Mini under HALion and that was an 18 Gigabyte download. (The Iconica Sketch core app is 20.4MB and the full download is 1.6 GBytes.)

Be sure to pick up Steinberg’s free HALion Sonic 7, Guitar Harmonics Essential, LoFi Piano, Novel Piano, Taped Vibes, etc. You can make a lot of music with Steinberg free stuff!

Audio Modeling always have new, innovative products (and holiday sales). SWAM instruments can get price-y, even on iOS. Thus, Audio Modeling have created the Discovery Series (“Explore. Invent. Discover.”) SWAM VariFlute is the first virtual instrument in the Discovery Series. VariFlute is an introduction to physical modeling letting you horse around with pipe length, diameter and material. If you’re missing Yamaha VL, VariFlute is for you. The introductory price is $9.99 and it’s only for iOS.

Too big for a stocking, but now more portable, there’s Arturia’s AstroLab 37. AstroLab is, essentially, AnalogLab in a box. The 37-key model is super light and alleviates my main concern about the 61-key model, that is, its weight. The trade-off, of course, is accepting mini-keys. The 37 is only $700 USD.

Speaking of mini-keys, I still find the Korg Microkey Air to have the most playable mini-keys. I’ve paired (literally!) the Microkey Air 49 with the 1010Music Tangerine via CME WIDI. CME has won me over for Bluetooth MIDI.

As to NAMM 2026 rumors and thoughts, I expect Korg to show up and show out. After dropping KRONOS 3 and miniKORG 700Sm, they haven’t brought much to the stage. Products like Kross need an update. Plus, Triton-based instruments like EK-50 and i3 need to move into the modern age. Can anyone tell me why i3 is more expensive than EK-50?

Yamaha USA Shop has a NAMM 2026 new gear page. The “Synthesizers and Keyboards” section has three new product slots. The first slot is MODX M. The other two slots say “Check back on on January 22, 2026” or some such. Yamaha punters will finally see the PSR-E483. The E483 will have a fraternal twin, too.

Pictures of an Akai MPC XL have leaked. Things looks massive and the rumored price is massive, too: $2,899 USD.

Yamaha STAGEPAS 100BTR mkII

Yamaha have updated the STAGEPAS 100 BTR. The mkII adds two USB Type-C ports: one port for your table/phone (USB 2.0 compatible) and a USB “power delivery” port. The mkII supports USB audio I/O and Bluetooth audio gets a bump to A2DP/HEP. The power delivery port replaces the 24V charging jack in the mkI models. Battery life, size/weight, and audio specs remain the same. MAP for the mkII is $400 USD.

I’m a committed STAGEPAS 100 (mkI) user. I have one at home (no battery) and take a battery-powered 100BTR to my church gig. The sound is clean and is loud enough for practice and personal monitor. The 24V power jack always seemed a little weird because it requires an external laptop-style brick. The mkII changes should make life easier for buskers.

Rather stingy, the instruction manual claims “This product does not come with a USB power adaptor or USB Type-C cable.” C’mon, man, these little STAGEPAS aren’t cheap. STAGEPAS 100 mkI models are on sale right now.

Copyright © 2025 Paul J. Drongowski

Floobydust: September 2024

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Floobydust from the the music tech world…

Arturia AstroLab update

Arturia Astrolab got a major update to version 1.3. The update adds several engines: Avid V (Roland TB-303 emulation), MiniFreak V, Augmented Brass and Augmented Woodwinds. The Mini V (Moog Minimoog emulation) and Wurli V have remodeled engines, consistent with V Collection X. There are 200 presets for the new engines with 90 new “tribute” presets thrown in for good measure. Of course, there are bug fixes and such.

Analog Lab integration got a boost. Astrolab owners now get a permanent upgrade offer to V Collection and Pigments. You need Analog Lab for detailed editing and the new upgrade offer takes the sting out of purchasing V Collection.

Personally, I’m glad to see Augmented Brass and Augmented Woodwinds. I took the plunge for Arturia’s Augmented Collection and still haven’t plumbed its depths.

Arturia AstroLab Update 1.3 playthrough video

Roli October 8

Roli have been announcing and teasing. They have rolled (pun intended) LUMI into the ROLI brand. Probably should have been that way from the start…

LUMI Keys is now called “ROLI Piano M”. As usual, one can expect to see a single unified website for all Roli products.

Roli are teasing a major announcement for October 8. All the usual hype about “there’s music in everyone,” “free the music”, “game changing” and a bunch of Gen [whatever} types reacting to a demo. The words “sleek design” and “talk to it” stand out from the videos. Who knows?

“We changed the piano. What’s next changes everything.
Join the list to be the first to know about the next wave of musical innovation for creators and learners, coming October 2024.” [Roli]

Two screen grabs above caught my attention.

ROLI, what is this?

I don’t know of any existing Roli product that looks like it. Maybe a stand or frame for snapping and holding your Roli modules together/ An integrated synth and speaker? I could really use one of them because I can’t take my Lumi Keys and Lightpad M out of the studio. Magnets alone aren’t good enough for gigging.

I’m happy to see Roli innovating, again, and not just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

Ableton October 8

Well, well, October 8th will be a busy day. Ableton are teasing “Move” for October 8. Ableton’s European trademark (application number 018907095) will be used in the following businesses:

  • Musical instruments, in particular electronic musical instruments; Sound effect devices as musical instruments
  • Computer hardware for music and sound production
  • Digital controllers for musical instruments in the form of audio interfaces
  • Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) controllers
  • Equipment for creating and editing music and sound, namely music sequencers
  • Music and sound samplers; bags for computers

The USPTO approved wordmark “Ableton Move” for publication on September 28, 2024 (serial number 98104829). The U.S. trademark is coming kind of late thanks to the USPTO diddling with the description of businesses. I kid you not — lawyers get paid to play with this nonsense. 🙂 [The new descriptions are mere swizzles.]

Yamaha Synth 50th Anniversary

Yamaha USA have published a special content site Yamaha Synth 50th Anniversary. You’ll find chronologies and Yamaha synth history.

It’s worth reading through the history sections as you’ll learn new interesting tidbits about synth — and stage piano — development. There are eight chapters although chapter 7 is labeled “Coming soon.” I noticed that the chapter about recent history mentions the stage CP pianos, but not the stage YC organs. No mention of Montage M, AN-X or Virtual Circuit Modeling (VCM), either. Hmmm?

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Arturia AstroLab: Yes, I played one!

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Right from the git-go, I thank Guitar Center Lynnwood for letting me plink away at an Arturia AstroLab. I dropped in to play before sufficient caffeine had kicked in and I wasn’t really feeling the music. Nonetheless, I was glad to actually play an AstroLab and not watch its demo videos. 🙂

Arturia AstroLab

AstroLab and I are not quite ready for each other yet. I really need the Augmented Brass and Augmented Woodwinds. The Augmented series are pretty sweet instruments and acoustic woodwinds, especially, are essential to what I play live. Still, thanks to playing AstroLab now, I will keep AstroLab on my radar screen.

AstroLab or Analog Lab?

In case you haven’t watched a few videos, AstroLab is Analog Lab in a stand-alone keyboard. That’s the short of it. Sitting down to AstroLab is exactly like sitting down with Analog Lab. Most of Lab’s collection of instruments are there along with a number of recognizable presets. I couldn’t perform a systematic check, but I believe Arturia have cooked up additional presets for AstroLab itself.

The big elephant in the room: If you have Analog Lab (or V Collection) on a laptop, why AstroLab? AstroLab is not cheap at $1,599 USD (MAP/street). You can get a pretty decent laptop and Analog Lab for $1,600. For that matter, you can buy Analog Lab V bundled with a KeyLab Essential MK3 for only $270 (MAP). Add on a laptop and you’re ahead of the game. [Analog Lab V is integrated brilliantly with the KeyLab controller series, BTW.] So, AstroLab needs to have significant value-added.

From my own perspective, I’m not wild about using a laptop in a live church setting. I once had a laptop balk in church and when I’ve got to play, I’ve got to play. I like the idea of Analog Lab running on a reliable, dedicated keyboard. On the down-side, AstroLab gives up KeyLab’s sliders, having no sliders at all. (To me, pads are MEH.) On the up-side, working at AstroLab is Analog Lab V déjà vu. And that’s a good thing…

Build

AstroLab is an attractive looking instrument. Visually, it would grace any stage. Dimensionally, it is not much wider than the 61-key keybed and, as a result, is quite compact. That’s why AstroLab’s heft is so surprising. At 22 pounds (10 kg), this instrument has some weight and you won’t be throwing it around with palm swipes. The KeyLab Essential 49 and 61 are only 6.1 and 6.8 pounds, respectively. I love my KeyLab Essential 49 for its light weight and portability. Thus, the relatively weighty AstroLab is a double surprise.

Arturia AstroLab Color Display Encoder

The build, encoder knobs, buttons and keys feel solid and durable. The integrated display knob, not so much. The display knob — what Arturia calls the “Color Screen Encoder” — feels like it rocks around and I feared a bit for its safety in my under-caffeinated hand. I would rather confirm selection with one of those solid-feeling buttons near the display knob.

One near-term suggestion: Ditch the cheesy-assed music stand shown on the Arturia AstroLab “Details” web page. It’s not up to the usually superb Arturia design aesthetics.

Display and UI

I was quite amazed by the amount of detail shown by the color display. You can easily recognize all of the virtual synths and keyboards by their familiar appearance. I didn’t have any trouble reading the instrument, patch, and parameter names. Text is legible.

As to the user interface (UI), you can dial around the menu system (literally). Patches are organized by virtual instrument, sound category (strings, etc.) and artist. The artist category lets you dial in a patch based upon a popular song or what have you, a feature that will be welcomed by cover-band players.

Arturia need to divide a few categories into separate, smaller categories. For example, brass and woodwind instruments are in the same, combined category. In order to find a clarinet, I must scroll through a bunch of brass instruments. It’s bad enough to scroll through a list of instruments, but, hey, lets focus the list and reduce scroll time. How ’bout separate categories for woodwinds and brass?

Splits and layers

My only other source of frustration was trying to create a split. I didn’t have time to browse the AstroLab manual before heading down to the music shop. Intuition alone didn’t cut it and I never succeeded in creating a split. Bummer.

Sounds

I took along this week’s music and a few of the jazz tunes that I’ve been working on. Genre-wise, it’s pop, not electronica.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a large number of patches that could fill-in for the Augmented Brass and Woodwind instruments. That’s a relief. Generally, patches sounded bright and I raised this point with the store manager. The staff had compared AstroLab vs. Nord and found more mid- to low-range with the Nord through the same monitors. Tweaks needed?

Some of the acoustic pianos sounded too bright and brittle. Fortunately, they could be tamed with the “Brightness” and “Timbre” knobs. I felt much better once I got into the Augmented Pianos. Nice work, there. I couldn’t assess piano sustain, not having a sustain pedal attached to the demo unit.

As to the keybed, it is comfortable to play. It’s another one of those “Compromise” keybeds which aim for a sweet-spot between acoustic piano, electric piano, organ and synth. I much prefer the AstroLab keybed to KeyLab Essential — by far. The keybed made playing electric piano enjoyable (something I dread on Yamaha MODX6). B-3 organ didn’t feel bad under the fingers, either.

I have only one small, probably correctable, quibble about the key touch. Sometimes a patch wouldn’t trigger (produce any sound) when using my lightest touch. This seemed to occur with synth-y patches and maybe setting the key touch sensitivity would make the instrument more responsive.

I did notice a delay when switching between “sampled” instrument patches. Arturia acknowledge this delay due to sample loading. Plan for it when playing live. Switching between modeled instruments is darned quick. I didn’t notice any drop-outs due to polyphony limits, but then I wasn’t pushing AstroLab very hard with splits or layers.

Conclusion

Earlier, I addressed the big elephant in the room — what you get for what you pay. Arturia want to compete with the Yamahas, Korgs, Rolands and Nords. In terms of build and keybed, they are on par. As to sonic value-added, the AstroLab is a work in progress (WIP).

Arturia are smart enough to know it’s a WIP. They need to fill out the brass and woodwind offerings, for example.

The big value-add is Arturia’s sound design. AstroLab is Analog Lab V (temporarily minus some goodies). If you want Analog Lab V in a dedicated keyboard, you got it now.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Arturia AstroLab announced

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Arturia have announced its new Arturia AstroLab featuring many (most?) of their AnalogLab instruments and presets: 34 instruments, 1,300 presets. You’ll find lots of pre-release demos on the Interwebs. I recommend the Arturia playthrough video which doesn’t have any yakking.

I’m excited by the AstroLab if, for no other reason, it’s the first significant alternative to the all-in-ones offered by the kaiju (Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Nord, etc.) The current sound set is very comprehensive even though a few Analog Lab instruments for AstroLab are still in development.

A few quick observations. The AstroLab is bi-timbral. That means splitting two independent voices or layering two voices. That might seem limiting, but I rarely use humungous stacks when playing live. The knobs (endless encoders) light up with the color matching the assigned layer or split voice. Neat. Piano and organ polyphony is 48; poly synth polyphony is 8.

There are four endless encoders to control voice parameters and four encoders to control the effects: effect A, effect B, delay and reverb. No sliders. The lack of sliders may raise eyebrows, but you can add a secondary MIDI controller through a USB-A port.

Speaking of encoders, you probably noticed that dial-like thingy in the middle of the front panel. Arturia have invented an innovative control which merges a big wheel with a high-resolution color display in the middle. The wheel turns left and right, and responds to clicks and pressure from the top. One may need to be a little careful so as to avoid inadvertent clicks while turning the wheel.

The keyboard is described as semi-weighted piano keys, channel aftertouch. Natch, one really needs to get the keys under the fingers to discover if the key-feel is really for you. In such a premium-level keyboard, I doubt if Arturia built in a cheapo keybed.

Internal storage is 22GBytes and only 7GBytes are used. That leaves plenty of room for expansion including the new instruments coming to AstroLab at some future date.

Sound editing is generally limited to what is assigned to the encoders. For deep sound editing, you’ll need a licensed copy of the relevant AnalogLab instrument (bundled or individually). In other words, separate software licenses are needed in order to deep-edit.

Physically, AstroLab is an attractive package weighing 22 pounds. That’s a little hefty for me, but is well within reason for a full 61-key instrument. The chassis is metal with molded end-cheeks. (That ain’t natural wood you’re seeing.) The goes-ins and goes-outs are well-provided for including 1/4 inch pedal jacks and 5-pin MIDI.

I see AstroLab priced at $1,600 USD (MAP or “street”) putting it up against Yamaha MODX, Korg Nautilus, Roland JUNO-X and Fantom-0, just to mention a few other products in this pricing tier.

I — for one — would like to try AstroLab and get a feel for the keybed. I’m also curious to hear and control the Hammond B-3 emulation. Would be nice to have sliders for drawbar control, but there is a nice, big flat area on the AstroLab front panel for my Crumar D9U.

A full demo on the new Arturia AstroLab with Bert Smorenburg — good to see and hear Bert!

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski