$699 / €699, arturia.com
Upon its 2024 release, Arturia’s AstroLab was described by company co-founder Frédéric Brunas as “everything we’ve ever wanted to achieve.” Back then, I noted in my cover story for MusicTech that the story of the AstroLab, a keyboard that places presets from the Analog Lab software plugin into a computerless hardware setup, is really the story of Arturia.
The France-based developer was initially founded by Frédéric Brun and Gilles Pommereuil as a software-only company, but its offering soon diversified with hardware synths, controllers and more. AstroLab ties them back together.
Now comes the AstroLab 37, a far more modest offering than the original AstroLab, but with all the power when it comes to software. Over 1,800 presets across more than 40 instruments, onboard effects, ten sound-surfing preset buttons— it’s every bit as much AstroLab as its predecessors.
Arturia’s flagship software suite, V Collection, now stands at a whopping 45 instruments — Minimoogs, Mellotrons, Emulator IIs, the lot. Analog Lab pulls presets from across the V Collection range and condenses editing into Macros for quick, broad-strokes editing: Brightness, Timbre, Time and Movement.
Analog Lab is not a place for deep-diving; it’s a place for organising presets for quick recall and for optimising performance. In some ways, that might be enough for you to stop reading here, since this workflow won’t appeal to everybody. But if you’re the right type of player or producer, the AstroLab ecosystem might just be what you’ve been waiting for.
Since the release of the original, another AstroLab model sporting 88 keys has also joined the range. It almost goes without saying that the “future-proof” AstroLab 88 pushed the hardware side of AstroLab even further, maintaining the fundamentals of the workflow with a hammer-action keybed and updated CPU for extended polyphony.
Where can Arturia go from there? The answer is simply the other way: smaller. But rest assured — it’s no less impressive.
AstroLab 37 heralds the range’s diminutive side, proving the adaptability of the Lab ecosystem, from the smallest to the largest scale and from the most plumbed-in studio to the lightest of portable setups. I’ll go out on a limb and assume that while the original AstroLab may have assumed pilot duties, the plan was always to branch out in both directions from that 61-key starting point.
So what’s new? Well, the AstroLab 37 has to make tactical use of its size to prevent performers from feeling congested. It does this extremely well— in fact, it sports almost the entire panel feature set of its bigger siblings.
Build quality is astonishingly good for such a lightweight unit: Firm controls, wood-finish side panels and sturdy. I’m disappointed to find it can’t be bus-powered over USB when connected to a computer (even the titanic Arturia KeyLab 88 can be) but then again, this is not simply a MIDI controller.
The circular screen is still present in glorious technicolour, but the Screen Encoder is replaced by a smaller encoder beneath, which I prefer since it keeps the view of the screen clearer without my hand obscuring things. The eight encoders are here not endowed with light-up rings, but are still capacitive, meaning that just resting a finger on them shows their value onscreen, which is highly useful. As I found with the AstroLab 61, there is still some lag when changing presets, though not to the extent that it becomes truly disruptive.
As for the keyboard itself, for its size, it feels playable and remarkably spacious. However, not all of Arturia’s software instruments lend themselves to the same form factor. Augmented Piano depends on weighted keys, while synths like the Jup-8 V or SEM V need nothing of the sort to feel authentic. An organ equation like the B-3 V, meanwhile, will do well with semi-weighted keys. In this way, I can easily imagine resident users of Analog Lab using two or more AstroLab models at the same time; perhaps a double-tier stand with an AstroLab 88 below and a 37 on top, for keys and synths respectively.
Alternatively, the Lab ecosystem might take on an almost iCloud-like role when it comes to presets, with the same sounds accessible on two keyboards of vastly different form factors, meaning that players really can take their sounds with them, whatever the demands of the session: a large-scale gig or a pop-up songwriting session.
It’s interesting to note the timing of the AstroLab 37’s release. Recent months have seen the unveiling of many similar-sized keyboard instruments and controllers, from the microKorg 2 to Sequential’s Fourm and Telepathic Instruments’ Orchid— even Arturia’s own KeyStep Mk2. While these all occupy different roles, it indicates that more producers are looking for light-on-their-feet setups, which the AstroLab 37 caters to marvellously.
I will say, not least from the vocoder-ready microphone input on its rear, there is something distinctly microKorg-ish about the AstroLab37. And I don’t just mean the unfortunate fact that its— ahem— still un-deletable Artist Tribute presets remind me somewhat of the microKorg panel’s unnecessarily cheesy genre headings (don’t like Bruno Mars? Tough luck!)
But, of course, those Tribute presets, while they irk me, may inspire you. And they are by no means compulsory to use. On the subject of loading presets, the ease of use given by the AstroLab Connect app, which lets you browse and load presets wirelessly from your smartphone, is a boon, particularly in a live setting.
The AstroLab 37’s core currency, like the rest of the growing AstroLab range, is in its deployment of studio-crafted Analog Lab presets, and this it does excellently, with almost no palpable sense of sacrifice on account of its size. If anything, it might be the most impressive AstroLab yet.
Key features
- Over 1,800 presets
- 40+ instruments
- 37 slim keys with aftertouch
- 10 preset buttons for quick access and live usability
- 8 macro knobs
- Built-in insert effects, delay & reverb
- Vocoder with mono input
The post Arturia’s AstroLab 37 review: Big sounds, small footprint appeared first on MusicTech.
