Review: Arturia Astrolab 37 vs Astrolab 61/88 // and a cheat to give it more hands-on control // Tutorial

Astrolab 37 is the much more compact version of the full size Astrolab stage performance instrument – it’s got the same brains and sounds, slightly fewer hands on controls, is lighter and has minikeys.

Like its bigger siblings, Astrolab 37 literally plays plugins in a box, over 40 of Arturia’s instrument plugins in a fully standalone instrument – which means you don’t need a computer or audio interface to make music. 

It includes almost 2,000 presets from all of Arturia’s software synths, and, if you own a license the software plugins, you can design your own sounds on a computer and transfer them over to Astrolab. 

You’ll find a broad variety of forms of synthesis here, including granular, samples, wavetable, FM, physical modelling, pianos, organs and electric pianos.

In this video I take a look at what Astrolab 37 can do, how it compares to the others in the series, how to create your own sounds using Analog lab and Arturia’s software synths, and pros and cons compared to the competition:

TIMELINE:

0:00 Intro

2:00 Overview

3:40 Synth params

5:40 Transitions

8:15 Differences

9:15 Screen encoder

10:15 LED rings

11:25 Part buttons?

12:00 Fewer LEDs

12:30 MIDI looper?

12:50 I/O

13:35 Sound macros

15:35 FX controls

18:10 Multi parts

19:25 Analog lab

20:15 Splits/layers

21:10 Hidden faders

22:35 MIDI control

24:30 Using multis

25:00 Playlists

26:00 Custom macros

26:55 Own the plugins?

27:25 Save to ASL

27:45 Caveats!

30:00 Arp

30:30 Scale & chord

31:05 Astrolab app

32:00 Sound store

32:20 Pros & cons

36:40 Some sounds

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