Last year, Arturia launched its first stage keyboard, AstroLab. Unlike a synthesizer, stage keyboards are more focused on delivering performance-ready presets than sound design. They’re geared towards touring and performing musicians who need access to a range of sounds with minimal fuss, rather than bedroom tinkerers. But, while the first entries in the series were sizable and pricey — $2,999 for the 88-key model, and $1,999 for the 61-key model — the AstroLab 37 delivers the same sonic repertoire in a smaller, much more affordable package. It’s a portable 37-slimkey instrument that costs only $699.
What makes the AstroLab range stand out from much of its competition is that it’s essentially Arturia’s AnalogLab classic synth emulations in hardware form. Arturia’s synth plugins are incredibly popular, and with good reason — they’re excellent. But until last year, they were constrained to your computer. The AstroLab gives you access to most (though not all of them) in a standalone instrument, albeit in a stripped-down form.
Arturia’s V Collection gives you deep editing tools and rich recreations of synths like the Yamaha CS-80 and Fairlight CMI, which are basically unobtainable. (And, even if you manage to track one down, they’ll cost you tens of thousands of dollars.) AnalogLab, and by extension AstroLab, are more like preset browsers, a greatest hits collection of sounds harvested from the much more expensive V Collection suite.
In the case of the AstroLab 37, it comes preloaded with over 1,800 presets, covering 44 instruments from acoustic pianos, to analog classics like the Minimoog, to ‘80s digital lo-fi machines like the Ensoniq SQ-80. Most of the synths are excellent. The Rhodes emulation is my go-to (and there are a lot of options out there), and access to Arturia’s Pigments (my favorite software synth) in hardware form is great. Only the organs and acoustic pianos are a little disappointing. They’re not bad by any means, but I think if those are your priority, you might be served better by something from Nord.
You can load it with additional sounds using the AnalogLab desktop software over USB or the AstroLab Connect mobile over Wi-Fi. The former is ideal, however, as wireless connectivity is quite unstable. You’re supposed to be able to connect over your Wi-Fi network, but I never got it to work. Connecting directly to the AstroLab using its own hotspot was more reliable, but even that had a tendency to disconnect after a while.
Navigating a library that deep can get overwhelming. Arturia makes things easier by allowing you to filter based on sound type (bass, lead, etc.), instrument, favorites, or sound bank. There are also Songs, which group presets together for quick, one-button access, and Playlists, which allow you to group Songs together for moving through your setlist with ease. That’s definitely handy for live performance.
The presets have four macros that you can control with knobs on the left, and what they control can change depending on the patch. On the right are four knobs for dialing in effects, like chorus, reverb, and delay. This gives you at least some control over the sound, but there’s no way to create a patch from scratch and do serious sound design. Instead, you’d need to shell out for V Collection, which starts at $199, and upload your own custom presets. It’s not uncommon for stage pianos to have minimal hands-on controls, but the AstroLab is particularly sparse considering the depth of its sound engines.
Sonically, you’re not losing anything by downsizing to the AstroLab 37 from the larger versions; all the differences are in the hardware. The faceplate is plastic, but not cheap-feeling, and the 37 retains the handsome wooden cheeks of the larger models. While the 88- and 61-key models have a large navigation wheel with a color screen embedded in it, the 37 has a small separate encoder below a screen. It’s also missing the locking power cord, which might be an issue if you’re a particularly active performer.
The biggest tradeoff, though, is in the keyboard. The AstroLab 61 has a semi-weighted keyboard, and the 88 has a hammer-action Fatar keybed. The latter, especially, which feels very similar to a real piano, is luxurious if you’re accustomed to the cheaper, springy synth-action keybeds of most affordable synths and MIDI keyboards. The AstroLab 37 has a synth-action keybed with mini keys and aftertouch. It’s not bad, it’s likely the same keybed found on Arturia’s recent KeyStep mk2 controller, but it certainly lacks the premium feel of its larger siblings.
On a smaller keyboard like this, some of AstroLab’s features, like the ability to split the keyboard in two with a bass on the lower keys and lead tone on the higher ones, don’t make a ton of sense. Most serious keyboard players, especially professional players, are going to want something larger. But musicians looking to cram the most sounds into the least amount of space, without having to worry about an OS update shutting down their laptop mid-set, might find a lot to like in the new AstroLab 37.
