Arturia AstroLab Synthesizer

General

The AstroLab is Arturia's latest... synthesizer? Drawbar organ? Stage piano? With over 30 embedded Arturia plug-ins, it's actually all of that at once, even if Arturia refers to it as a stage keyboard with semi-weighted piano keys.

The Arturia AstroLab: A Massive Box of Tricks

The Arturia AstroLab is home to a massive selection of sounds that come from Arturia's own sound engines. Besides a CS80, DX7, JP-8, Prophet 5 and, MS-20, it harnesses the sonic prowess of a 2600, a Synclavier, a Wurli, and many other legendary units — over 30 in total. That said, since you're getting presets that can only be tweaked in terms of four basic parameters, the Astrolab isn't a fully-fledged synth. Thankfully, the number of presets go through the roof and give you everything you could ever ask for. Also, if you happen to have a software license for one of the built-in synths, you can always hook up your laptop and still create custom sounds from scratch.

So, What Is It?

While it clearly has the potential to be one, the Astrolab isn't a real synthesizer. Based on the same logic, you could say that the Astrolab has the potential to be a drawbar organ thanks to the built-in B3, but isn't really a drawbar organ either. It also features Arturia's Augmented Grand Piano, but still isn't your standard stage piano. All things considered, it's more a synth than anything else, where the sum of all parts make it a bit of everything. The presets, the fat list of built-in sounds, the clean interface...it's all aimed at gigging musicians who don't want to fuss with a laptop while they're playing live.

Other Perks

The Astrolab also gets full marks for aesthetics and practical features. The clean control lay-out combines with faux-wooden side panels and, uniquely, a round display. On top of that, you're looking at a microphone input for the built-in Vocoder, and the option to add a music rest and a set of wooden legs for on-stage use, which completes one of the most interesting bits of kit for pro-level keyboardists on the market right now.