Audiopilz: *slaps roof of YT channel* Full Tracks, Extended Jams, Sample Packs: www.patreon.com/audiopilz Follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/audio.pilz/
Me: "I'm thinking of going to Vienna for a weekend break and seeing the sights". My colleague: "Oh wow. What would be your first port of call - the Schönbrunn Palace, the Kunsthistorisches Museum"? Me: "Klangfarbe".
On a more serious note, I visited Vienna in 2018 to see the amazing Bruegel exhibit at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. I intended to stay for three days, mainly because I don't much like big cities. Long story short, I ended up adding on another week to my visit because I enjoyed the place so much! Seriously, a big city with a wine growing district located within the city limits?!?! And if you don't know what a flak tower is, be prepared to see one of the most frightening buildings anywhere in the world. They absolutely REEK of evil!
What about that one all $800 digital one voice beige synth that a bunch of sunthfluencers shilled for a few months back? That was definitely worthy of bad gear
Well this didn't take long, and it absolutely deserves a spot here. Hardware manufacturers are going to keep trying to make hardware tied to a single-user license in order to make money off of the used market. The fact that Arturia is trying this again even after the failure of the Origin shows how convinced the industry is that there is gold in those hills. I hope consumers won't go for it.
Every episode is an instant classic, except for when you own the specific gear, you just ignore those video(s) just like you do with the flaws of said gear.
@@MrTomaat23 I pay closer attention when it's gear I own (or plan to own - I've bought stuff because he covered it); I figure I'll learn stuff about how to get the most out of it.
I'm guessing their vision was more like hey let's do like Teenage Engineering and make something totally useless that some rich dudes are gonna fall for instantly. Arturia does make very cool stuff otherwise though, maybe they needed a quick cash influx.
Yeah, the idea is to have a compromise between a stage keyboard and a workstation. The issue being that both of those will have a massive amount of extra functionality depending on what you'll want to do on the fly at that moment and this is the common denominator of both.
@@sub-jec-tiv Probably only in the US. In Europe i never experienced any sort of music in churches, other than people just singing. But there where never any sorts of instruments involved, other than maybe the church organ.
Everyone: Wow, a knob per function midi controller for Pigments would be amazing! Arturia: Here it is!! A..... 4 knob controller. That will be one kidney please.
@@AudioPilz *gasp* My people! 😀 * * - I am after all a guitarist who generally knows which note is on which key, but expecting me to make them come out of a synth in a musically useful manner? You gotta be kidding me.
@@mrz80 have you looked into the Linnstrument? (I've been vaguely considering one even though I _can_ play keys, just because it's so much more like playing my bass.)
When you follow a channel like this one, after a while, you can learn to tell when a musical instrument is able to stir the flames of creativity in the performer's heart. You can hear and feel how the instrument magically becomes an extension of the body and the mind of the player, granting them the ability to will their ideas into song and emotion. And for the person listening to that performance, time stands still, as they witness the sublime fusion of instrument and player, of man and machine, of spirit and matter. This, my friends, this is not one of those times.
As many people said: more than 10 years later they still can not do something better than the Virus Ti2. This keyboard is just a variant but it is not an evolution, it does not solve a problem. If you have a controller you can just bring your tiny laptop any way and run the same sounds with unlimited polyphony.
I don't think this is in anyway intended to be anything at all like a Virus. That would have been an Origin (which was a literal contemporary of the Ti2.) This is clearly much more like modern interpretation of a stage piano.
@@AudioPilz Sure they can, but at least you'll only have the Astrolab and a keyboard stand to carry on your endless journey home from whatever random port they shove you ashore at.
I fell victim to all the hype and bought one. It's a good keyboard to always have set up for a drive-by-playing. There is a good variety of presets, but if you wanted to use it in a live setting you would need to do a lot of planning ahead on your computer. It's fun to split and layer different sounds, and is simple to navigate the menus, but the lack of UI edibility is definitely frustrating. The CPU limitation is very present. Some presets crackle if you play them too hard, which is why I would probably never use it live. I hope Arturia improves it with updates so I don't end up feeling like it was a waste of money.
Must confess when I first saw these coming out I put one on pre-order - a few weeks later I came to my senses and cancelled. After seeing your video I’m glad I managed to overcome that particular attack of GAS.
For all your VST in a box needs we present the disASterLAb!...complete with a ring doorbell display so you can watch your front door whilst playing at home! ....Disclaimer: the lack of knobs may lead to Knob twiddling withdrawal symptoms
Dear Florian. I would like to thank you for all the hard work and time you put on your videos. I suffer from severe depression, and I found that my mood changes ever time I hear “Welcomme to Bad Gear!”. Sincerely I appreciate it. Thanks again and keep the good work. Sincerely Sid PS Let’s do an episode if possible on the Alesis ‘nano’ synth line. I would love to watch an episode from you on the nanobass or nano synth!
On a serious note, you could buy a laptop with better performance, an Arturia Keylab 61, Arturia Minifuze 2, and Arturia V-collection X for around £200 more, and then gave significantly more power, plus all the benefits of Astrolab. WTF were Arturia thinking?
As a concept, I think the AstroLab is actually very good. It is meant for performers. Not even 'Alleinunterhalter', because it lacks the auto-accompaniment and multitimbrality. Arturia are also very good at making desirable products, and I think they know what they're doing. However, it is not an instrument for the typical synth-head, who freaks out more about features for maximum expressiveness. If you got a bunch of people jumping up and down, nobody is going to care about your polyphonic aftertouch. The impression I get is what most people dislike about the AstroLab is that it isn't the instrument they want it to be.
Every time there’s a Bad Gear video, the whole world stop spinning for a split second, markets drop down a point, people take a bow. Oh. And what a lovely french accent. This is the only YT channel worth our collective time. Period.
So basically this is a Roland Juno DS-61 with more bougie design, aftertouch, and some nicer sounds, but less polyphony and twice the price tag. And the Juno actually has some onboard programmability if you’re willing to menu dive.
They missed the opportunity to make a board with loads more controls, two versions of the keyboard, fast loading times, an onboard multitracker and make it so people just download the virtual instruments they need at some sort of reasonable price.
Midi controller + Lenovo legion go (screen only) + analog lab license = perfect cheaper alternative. It really is mad that the astro lab is so expensive when you can literally get a better experience for significantly less money.
Yep. It's a performer's keyboard. For someone who doesn't want any other gear on stage. And loading times can be worked around if you're in a band. Loading times have always a bit of an Achilles heel with Arturia, TBH. All their VSTs have that problem, so I'm not surprised this has it.
Loading times can be worked around in a band? I don't care about loading times in my daw, on stage in another story. I guess have the guitarist play chords while we wait indefinitely for the next patch to load 😂 Better to get a used XP-50 or a Triton ftw
Come for the memes, stay for the jams. Oh, and the visuals. They’re great. Oh, and the production values are top notch. Oh, and the humor. Gotta love the humor. Oh, and the delightfully cynical perspective. Some much to love! Keep up the good work!
Roland was so close to actually making the plugin-hardware integration come true but the HW is too limited, sad because I like a lot how they executed the plugout concept.
@@AudioPilz I think the Astrolab would work live, but only if you were in a slavishly devoted cover band who had to be note- and timbre- perfect every song, every performance. Any expectation of on-stage musical inventiveness goes right out the airlock without a spacesuit.
That’s something that Yamaha does with their edrum kits - the iOS apps wind up being discontinued, and if you have one of those kits, it’s either do a lot of button pressing combinations going in blind to change parameters, or finding a used Android device to use as an interface because it’s still possible to find the Android equivalent online. It’s too bad as the apps make editing those a breeze.
This really could've been cool but saying they dropped the ball would be a serious understatement. They should've been $1000 at the most. I'm sure it'll drop sometime soon like what happened to the Akai Force
I love the mass number of sounds you can get out of this thing. Especially, if you have all of their plugins in the collection. I will stick with my hydrasynth to avoid the cost and the bugs, tho. Thanks again for another epic episode of bad gear.
I wouldn't want to be stuck on a gig and be limited to the sounds in analog lab... This whale is gonna flop, and they're gonna be forced to include the licenses for v-collection to sweeten the deal. That is, unless all the yuppies take the bait and keep the price high.
When I first saw this keyboard.. I knew you were going to cover it on the channel… But this soon?!?! Impressive!!!!!! *checks thermostat while playing*
Somehow I suspected Astrolab to be on your table. "The keyboard doesn't react to MIDI properly.- What does Arturia expect me to do? Actually play it? Award worthy lines! No lubricant reminiscent to astro lab's name appears to me yet but this time's suggestion: Soma '"The Rumble Of Ancient Times", an 8 bit desktop synth indeed named that way (& located at Klangfarbe).
That load time is unforgivable if you're performing live. Sounds good, but that's a performance issue that I couldn't vibe with as a live looper that needs to get to presets very quickly sometimes.
It is a gorgeous form factor, and being able to use software like Pigments without a computer is very exciting. I have been an Origin user for 14 years now, and once the loading time is finished there is no hiccup when loading different patches. Cheers!
It not being able to sustain notes after changing patch is oddly pathetic for something at this price point, my mid-2000s yamaha clavinova can do that, not to mention, load its sounds instantly
If I'm just gonna be running VSTs on ARM64, then what I really want is just a straight up Android tablet with physical jack plugs built in providing AC and DC-coupled sound interface channels (so I can run VCV Rack on the tablet and integrate it directly with a real modular synth rack). This is probably just me though (any reasonable person would just buy an iPad).
It's like a minimalist clone of Akai MPC Key 61 but with a better keyboard and worse everything else, and no sampling, editing and pretty much everything else. I want to love it, and I'm sure it has it's niche use, but the ARM and Loading times seem eerily familiar to me (An Akai MPC Key 61 owner who is already painfully aware of the non-streaming-sample-loading times) so My electronics background is kind of suspicious of them probably using a similar architecture with the similar limitations. Ok I'll show myself out now...
The MPC Live, Key 61 etc are all using an ARM design which is quite old now. It's noble of them to keep updating the firmware and developing the ecosystem but they would be able to do a lot more if they moved to something newer.
dude that use of picard being tortured is next level sublime.... I dont remember the episode exactly but they tortured picard to the point where almost saw what wasnt there....
It's essentially an ARM SBC running something like Analog Lab under linux (something you can't do with REAL Analog Lab V on a REAL computer, but I digress...) so processor resources are on the skinny side. Tho that's not MUCH of an excuse, 'cause Roland and Waldorf had been cranking out boxes for decades now that can do dozens of voices across multiple parts, with better UIs.
@@mrz80 And the Korg Kronos series run on Intel Atom processors. The Modwave and other units of that generation run on a Raspberry Pi. Which are absolutely fine for those instruments because they use custom designed software, not a rework of something originally designed to run under Windows that needs to be able to deal with random combinations of CPUs, audio interfaces etc.
Arturia does a lot right imho, generally speaking love their products (I own the Minibrute 2, Drumbrute Impact, KeyLab Essential 61, Beatstep Pro, Audiofuse 2, Spark LE, V Collection & the FX collection, and use them a lot), but yeah.. I can see why the AstroLab isn't very well received by many (and no, it isn't on my wishlist). I guess that if they would have included the V Collection, then people would start complaining that they already have a license and don't want to pay for it again.
I was initially fond of this instrument because of the concept and then I got deeper into the the specs and found out about the drawbacks, so my findings match those here in this video. It's like one of those GM/GS sample-based instruments from the 90ies. For playback useful, but not for anything else.
I love Arturia gear. The Polybrute, Minifreak and Keystep Pro are foundational to my studio. I'm not much for VSTs these days, but Arturia stuff is an industry standard for a reason. I do not know why they would make this thing. What is it for. Who is it for. Why does it cost so much.
Try loading the Sound Easel VST. The "component level modeling" on that is SO realistic that it tossed my 32-core Xeon machine into some ugly conniption fit. ...and, weirdly enough, Arturia tried to push that fact on me by saying that the fact that the Easel VST is flipping out on a relatively powerful machine is a testament to just how precise that modeling IS. Mmmmmno.
10000% agree. I have a MacBook Air with Arturia V Collection 9, and I see no reason why I would ever want this. I do like the collection, though - it's entirely too much fun. ON A COMPUTER, that is.
Audiopilz: *slaps roof of YT channel*
Full Tracks, Extended Jams, Sample Packs: www.patreon.com/audiopilz
Follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/audio.pilz/
Me: "I'm thinking of going to Vienna for a weekend break and seeing the sights".
My colleague: "Oh wow. What would be your first port of call - the Schönbrunn Palace, the Kunsthistorisches Museum"?
Me: "Klangfarbe".
I think I need to send a screenshot;)
On a more serious note, I visited Vienna in 2018 to see the amazing Bruegel exhibit at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. I intended to stay for three days, mainly because I don't much like big cities. Long story short, I ended up adding on another week to my visit because I enjoyed the place so much! Seriously, a big city with a wine growing district located within the city limits?!?! And if you don't know what a flak tower is, be prepared to see one of the most frightening buildings anywhere in the world. They absolutely REEK of evil!
Only visited Vienna once, but i loved it so much. The people were so cool and friendly (and educated). It was a huge pleasure.
Klangfarbe is a Bad Gear Museum so each and every one of us just got to be there at least once in our lifetime.
Arturia laughing at Uli as they stuff clones of everything into one box.
Shots fired;)
"Haha" but but if Behringer did it, the price would be 5 times lower
do you know that arturia at least pays licences right?
😂
@@keomg4718 Prove it.
Finally the perfect bad gear. A rompler from '90s in 2024. Even Roland won't be able to touch this for years to come.
Word!!!
What about that one all $800 digital one voice beige synth that a bunch of sunthfluencers shilled for a few months back?
That was definitely worthy of bad gear
And you thought the UI on the D-110 was bad!
A rompler like the FA-08/Fantom-8 has 128 note polyphony and changes sounds instantly. This is not really as good
Bang on the money! Disturbingly many of the sounds are also more interesting
Well this didn't take long, and it absolutely deserves a spot here. Hardware manufacturers are going to keep trying to make hardware tied to a single-user license in order to make money off of the used market. The fact that Arturia is trying this again even after the failure of the Origin shows how convinced the industry is that there is gold in those hills.
I hope consumers won't go for it.
None too soon;)
Saw the thumbnail and knew this episode was going to be an instant classic
❤️❤️❤️
Every episode is an instant classic, except for when you own the specific gear, you just ignore those video(s) just like you do with the flaws of said gear.
@@MrTomaat23 I pay closer attention when it's gear I own (or plan to own - I've bought stuff because he covered it); I figure I'll learn stuff about how to get the most out of it.
Has all of the aesthetics of a hospital waiting room.
Lol😂😂😂
So... basically a typical Arturia product.
BTW its not a home keyboard - its REALLY obviously a church keyboard
The Lord will strike you down for messing up the prayer section bc of the loading times
No self-respecting self-praising Pastor should be without one -as long as there is real gold trim.
I’ll take the worship players over the ambient lofi dawless succulent crowd anyday
Everybody knows that devout Worship Leaders only use the Montage! And some Strymon pedals!
The patch will load when Jesus returns
What a bungle by Arturia. A playable, tweakable hardware VST host would be a dream. Instead they've made something Apple might have come up with
The Adobefication of Synths!
Nice analogy!!!
If it’s real Adobefication they would make you pay monthly 😉
@@UncleMilty just wait.... it'll come!
@@UncleMilty wait an see..
The Arturia vision for this keyboard was for a musician to make an album on it, and then go live and play it… but it fails in both applications.
Sad but true!!!
I'm guessing their vision was more like hey let's do like Teenage Engineering and make something totally useless that some rich dudes are gonna fall for instantly. Arturia does make very cool stuff otherwise though, maybe they needed a quick cash influx.
@@electrosonicnebulaTBH i think it’s for "worship." The church market is huge. At least in the U.S.
Yeah, the idea is to have a compromise between a stage keyboard and a workstation. The issue being that both of those will have a massive amount of extra functionality depending on what you'll want to do on the fly at that moment and this is the common denominator of both.
@@sub-jec-tiv Probably only in the US. In Europe i never experienced any sort of music in churches, other than people just singing. But there where never any sorts of instruments involved, other than maybe the church organ.
“Reddy? Grab yer gitar, got Yousician and let’s play”
If I get that goddamn ad one more time lol
Don't blame me;)
Adblocker for RUclips is your friend.
Everyone: Wow, a knob per function midi controller for Pigments would be amazing!
Arturia: Here it is!! A..... 4 knob controller. That will be one kidney please.
The tragedy!!!
I wish there was a vst version...
😂😂😂lol😂😂😂
LMAO 😂
righteous
I've had a Nest. That's definitely the same screen and ring.
Thanks for the heads up!!!
Only a true knob twiddler would connect a Beatstep to an Astrolab.
You mean "people who can't play";)
@@AudioPilz *gasp* My people! 😀 *
* - I am after all a guitarist who generally knows which note is on which key, but expecting me to make them come out of a synth in a musically useful manner? You gotta be kidding me.
@@AudioPilz I wish I couldn't play as well as you can't play!🥺
@@mrz80 have you looked into the Linnstrument? (I've been vaguely considering one even though I _can_ play keys, just because it's so much more like playing my bass.)
🤭 You said knob..
Arthuria & the Knights of the Round Screen-Knob
@@AudioPilz it farts in your general direction
(accuracy is promised later for a small-ish (well, not really that small) fee)
We are the Knights who say, "VCollection!"
@@AudioPilzbrooooo 💀💀💀💀
And I thought touch screens were as bad as it could possibly get.
I guess voice control is next.
When you follow a channel like this one, after a while, you can learn to tell when a musical instrument is able to stir the flames of creativity in the performer's heart. You can hear and feel how the instrument magically becomes an extension of the body and the mind of the player, granting them the ability to will their ideas into song and emotion. And for the person listening to that performance, time stands still, as they witness the sublime fusion of instrument and player, of man and machine, of spirit and matter.
This, my friends, this is not one of those times.
Sad but true....
@@AudioPilz In this case, blame the instrument not the playa !
A THX 1138 reference is one of many reasons I watch this channel. :)
Underrated movie!!!
As many people said: more than 10 years later they still can not do something better than the Virus Ti2. This keyboard is just a variant but it is not an evolution, it does not solve a problem. If you have a controller you can just bring your tiny laptop any way and run the same sounds with unlimited polyphony.
Sad but true...
@@AudioPilz It is pretty, is a conversation topic... but I already have a Virus Ti2 Whiteout keyboard and a Roland JD-800 for that.
@@AudioPilz Hmmm... can you find enough negative commentary on the Virus to justify putting it on the channel?
I don't think this is in anyway intended to be anything at all like a Virus. That would have been an Origin (which was a literal contemporary of the Ti2.)
This is clearly much more like modern interpretation of a stage piano.
@@StopTryingSoHard It could have more polyphony and a better interface. It si a and product even by 15 years ago standards.
5:08 oh no, now you got me singing PRESET POLICE, ARREST THIS MAAAN 🎶
That one had me rofling
Oh come on Florian! I love the Thermostat!🤣
A nice thermostat it is...
For the money would be nice if it doubles as a wall mounted panel heater too. The studio gets very cold in winter waiting for the presets to load.
Turn up the bass!!!
If Florian's face was on the thermostat, I'd consider buying this insult of a keyboard. Strong brand Florian is!!
@@sophiepooks2174 Just get an intel CPU
Probably handy if you've landed a gig on a hipster cruise ship...
Yeah, they can't really fire you there...
@@AudioPilz Sure they can, but at least you'll only have the Astrolab and a keyboard stand to carry on your endless journey home from whatever random port they shove you ashore at.
As a humanity, we've come a long way with the design of multicookers
lol
I fell victim to all the hype and bought one. It's a good keyboard to always have set up for a drive-by-playing. There is a good variety of presets, but if you wanted to use it in a live setting you would need to do a lot of planning ahead on your computer. It's fun to split and layer different sounds, and is simple to navigate the menus, but the lack of UI edibility is definitely frustrating. The CPU limitation is very present. Some presets crackle if you play them too hard, which is why I would probably never use it live. I hope Arturia improves it with updates so I don't end up feeling like it was a waste of money.
That sums it up nicely
I love synths that can’t handle it when you play them normally! 😂
The biggest statement in this video was the fact that there is empty space enough for a Elektron machine to sit on it and not block any knobs.
0:55 A THX1138 reference? You've outdone yourself!
Thank you so much!!!
Dear lord, that is DEFINITELY a gray market Nest.
😂😂😂lol
“Spouse-friendly design” LMAO
😀
Must confess when I first saw these coming out I put one on pre-order - a few weeks later I came to my senses and cancelled. After seeing your video I’m glad I managed to overcome that particular attack of GAS.
You dodged that bullet!!!
Sometimes the Bad Gear™ really *IS* bad gear.
The Astrolab is the nicest hardware dongle ever
Heavy too;)
For all your VST in a box needs we present the disASterLAb!...complete with a ring doorbell display so you can watch your front door whilst playing at home! ....Disclaimer: the lack of knobs may lead to Knob twiddling withdrawal symptoms
I'd buy that for a $!!!
This synth would just lead to me twiddling my own knob in frustration.. and i don’t need any more reason to do that, certainly.
Dear Florian. I would like to thank you for all the hard work and time you put on your videos. I suffer from severe depression, and I found that my mood changes ever time I hear “Welcomme to Bad Gear!”. Sincerely I appreciate it. Thanks again and keep the good work.
Sincerely
Sid
PS Let’s do an episode if possible on the Alesis ‘nano’ synth line. I would love to watch an episode from you on the nanobass or nano synth!
I feel you and thank you so much! Great suggestion, thanks!!!!
@@AudioPilz thanks for taking the time replying Florian!
It's like the smart fridge of keyboards. Buy the upgrades, or your frozen food thaws out.
Lol, true!
Thanks, Florian. I just learned about "Dungeon Synth." Solid STEM content right here.
Always a pleasure;)
They pulled a Teenage Engineering move
True!!!
TE hee hee
Knobs are too big. Unless you're reaching for tweezers, it isn't T.E.
There is Arturia Microfreak, Arturia Minifreak and then there is this Arturia freak. I see a pattern here.
Arturia FreakLab!
You had me at Freak;)
On a serious note, you could buy a laptop with better performance, an Arturia Keylab 61, Arturia Minifuze 2, and Arturia V-collection X for around £200 more, and then gave significantly more power, plus all the benefits of Astrolab. WTF were Arturia thinking?
True!!!
Put glasses on the mid panel guy at 9:03 and it's Nick Batt.
As a concept, I think the AstroLab is actually very good. It is meant for performers. Not even 'Alleinunterhalter', because it lacks the auto-accompaniment and multitimbrality. Arturia are also very good at making desirable products, and I think they know what they're doing.
However, it is not an instrument for the typical synth-head, who freaks out more about features for maximum expressiveness. If you got a bunch of people jumping up and down, nobody is going to care about your polyphonic aftertouch.
The impression I get is what most people dislike about the AstroLab is that it isn't the instrument they want it to be.
You have a point here!!!
So funny. Clever keeping the visual gags so short that we have to watch again in slow motion 😂
I have no idea what you're talking about;)
@@AudioPilz haha!
I can't believe the plastic film was still on the circular display! :-O
#plasticfilmp*rn
@@AudioPilz Florian, you took its virginity away.
Klangfarbe: "well i guess this is a ‘used’ unit now… 😂
Every time there’s a Bad Gear video, the whole world stop spinning for a split second, markets drop down a point, people take a bow.
Oh. And what a lovely french accent.
This is the only YT channel worth our collective time. Period.
❤️❤️❤️
So basically this is a Roland Juno DS-61 with more bougie design, aftertouch, and some nicer sounds, but less polyphony and twice the price tag. And the Juno actually has some onboard programmability if you’re willing to menu dive.
Lol
your videos really work out my j,k,l, comma, period, left and right arrow keys
Nice technique!!!
They missed the opportunity to make a board with loads more controls, two versions of the keyboard, fast loading times, an onboard multitracker and make it so people just download the virtual instruments they need at some sort of reasonable price.
Agreed!!!
Midi controller + Lenovo legion go (screen only) + analog lab license = perfect cheaper alternative.
It really is mad that the astro lab is so expensive when you can literally get a better experience for significantly less money.
Yep. It's a performer's keyboard. For someone who doesn't want any other gear on stage. And loading times can be worked around if you're in a band. Loading times have always a bit of an Achilles heel with Arturia, TBH. All their VSTs have that problem, so I'm not surprised this has it.
Loading times can be worked around in a band? I don't care about loading times in my daw, on stage in another story. I guess have the guitarist play chords while we wait indefinitely for the next patch to load 😂
Better to get a used XP-50 or a Triton ftw
👍👍👍
Nice you mentioned Boards of Canada on that thing, true Kings.
Legends!!!
Come for the memes, stay for the jams. Oh, and the visuals. They’re great. Oh, and the production values are top notch. Oh, and the humor. Gotta love the humor. Oh, and the delightfully cynical perspective. Some much to love! Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much!!!
that chord pad @01:22 wow that really took me back to a better time in the late 90's and early 00's
that was my favorite too
Classic!!!
Roland was so close to actually making the plugin-hardware integration come true but the HW is too limited, sad because I like a lot how they executed the plugout concept.
Agreed!!!
0:23 "When you get to the end of a bad gear video and none of your memes were used."
and 2 memes later is mine
Thanks for that one!!!
VST in a box, this has been going on now for decades. The difference here is a highly priced VSTs in a box
True that!
At least if the "in a box" part of "VST in a box" is a laptop, I can also use it to track expenses and watch Bad Gear videos between gigs.
@@mrz80 watching bad gear through that clicky watch face screen would be unique
This one isn’t even vsts in a box though unless you cough up the extra money to get the V collection. It’s demo versions of vsts otherwise 🤡
you guys!! - you could say any digital synth from the dx7 onwards is a vst in a box!! - although this actually is
It scares me that I instantly got the “four, yes four” reference from Star Trek, TNG. Does this mean I’m irretrievably geeky?!
Preferable to being one of those Star Wars guys who camped out on a sidewalk "to be the first to see it."
Came for the review… stayed for the Astroglide reference. Well played Sir, well played.
When I read Most expensive home keyboard of all time I thought you had the Yamaha Genos 2 in the show.😊
I think you could actually survive in a real band scenario with a Genos2;)
@@AudioPilz I think the Astrolab would work live, but only if you were in a slavishly devoted cover band who had to be note- and timbre- perfect every song, every performance. Any expectation of on-stage musical inventiveness goes right out the airlock without a spacesuit.
Mr. Florian, what about Maschine Plus? We DEFINITELY need it on the show😄
Great suggestion, thank you!!!
1:19 that's great idea including a thermostat to switch on the air conditioning when things get hot in the studio! ❤
Lol
Would really love to see Deepmind 12 here. But I understand why that's challenging.
A hardware synth with a mobile app is a slight red flag; what happens when the app and/or plugins get discontinued?
They're certainly gonna open source it...NOT!!!
Yeah see the Bluetooth Nikes
Version 2 for $2400 will come out just in time.
That’s something that Yamaha does with their edrum kits - the iOS apps wind up being discontinued, and if you have one of those kits, it’s either do a lot of button pressing combinations going in blind to change parameters, or finding a used Android device to use as an interface because it’s still possible to find the Android equivalent online. It’s too bad as the apps make editing those a breeze.
This really could've been cool but saying they dropped the ball would be a serious understatement. They should've been $1000 at the most. I'm sure it'll drop sometime soon like what happened to the Akai Force
Waiting for the blowout sales;)
Should be free with an eye watering subscription
@@cloudseer had they made it multitimbral and added more controls, I think this would've been better received
Love to see the DR-5 make a cameo at 6:30 . I bought it after seeing your Bad Gear video ;)
Nice!!! Classic unit!!!
I love the mass number of sounds you can get out of this thing. Especially, if you have all of their plugins in the collection. I will stick with my hydrasynth to avoid the cost and the bugs, tho. Thanks again for another epic episode of bad gear.
I wouldn't want to be stuck on a gig and be limited to the sounds in analog lab... This whale is gonna flop, and they're gonna be forced to include the licenses for v-collection to sweeten the deal. That is, unless all the yuppies take the bait and keep the price high.
Hydra is awesome!!!
When I first saw this keyboard.. I knew you were going to cover it on the channel…
But this soon?!?! Impressive!!!!!!
*checks thermostat while playing*
Direct to Bad Gear;)
It was pretty quick, but not quite as quick as the Gaia 2 😛
@@mrz80lol no kidding 😂
Somehow I suspected Astrolab to be on your table.
"The keyboard doesn't react to MIDI properly.- What does Arturia expect me to do? Actually play it?
Award worthy lines!
No lubricant reminiscent to astro lab's name appears to me yet but this time's suggestion: Soma '"The Rumble Of Ancient Times", an 8 bit desktop synth indeed named that way (& located at Klangfarbe).
Great suggestion, thank you!!!
Astrogl*de
Rather play with myself, than using Retardia Astrogl1d3. Give me a Keylab mk3 with PolyAT and alot is forgiven!😅
@@johantorneheim1384 🤣That's true!
That Turd Polisher effects pedal looks amazing! I need to check that bad boy out!
I want it soooooo bad
Perfect to use with a $40. electric guitar.
That load time is unforgivable if you're performing live.
Sounds good, but that's a performance issue that I couldn't vibe with as a live looper that needs to get to presets very quickly sometimes.
Agreed!!!
You started working on this as soon as it was released, didn't you?
I actually had all the hate I needed within 2h after its release
Ha! I can only imagine Timbaland is looking at this thing and yelling about how he did it first. Lovely jams as always, and top tier jokes throughout.
Thank you so much!!!
It is a gorgeous form factor, and being able to use software like Pigments without a computer is very exciting. I have been an Origin user for 14 years now, and once the loading time is finished there is no hiccup when loading different patches. Cheers!
The name of the keyboard is now forever tainted in my head. Thanks =D
😂😂😂
It not being able to sustain notes after changing patch is oddly pathetic for something at this price point, my mid-2000s yamaha clavinova can do that, not to mention, load its sounds instantly
It is but as soon as you hit the first note your sustain is gone;)
I know, that's what I meant
It's an excellent keyboard in the right hands
👍👍👍
If I'm just gonna be running VSTs on ARM64, then what I really want is just a straight up Android tablet with physical jack plugs built in providing AC and DC-coupled sound interface channels (so I can run VCV Rack on the tablet and integrate it directly with a real modular synth rack). This is probably just me though (any reasonable person would just buy an iPad).
Wie immer großartig!
Deinen Kultstatus hast Du echt zurecht.
Vielen herzlichen Dank!!!
It's like a minimalist clone of Akai MPC Key 61 but with a better keyboard and worse everything else, and no sampling, editing and pretty much everything else. I want to love it, and I'm sure it has it's niche use, but the ARM and Loading times seem eerily familiar to me (An Akai MPC Key 61 owner who is already painfully aware of the non-streaming-sample-loading times) so My electronics background is kind of suspicious of them probably using a similar architecture with the similar limitations. Ok I'll show myself out now...
😂😂😂
Exactly my thoughts 😎👍
The MPC Live, Key 61 etc are all using an ARM design which is quite old now. It's noble of them to keep updating the firmware and developing the ecosystem but they would be able to do a lot more if they moved to something newer.
Can’t wait to so these thing going on sale 😂 must be approximately half a year 😂
I'd say Spring 2025 the latest...
dude that use of picard being tortured is next level sublime.... I dont remember the episode exactly but they tortured picard to the point where almost saw what wasnt there....
Yesss , FOUR lights;)
What an absolutely unacceptable UI. All that wasted space that could've had knobs or sliders or something!
Agreed!!!
(*looks at Astrolab*) (*looks at Keylab*) (*looks at Astrolab*) (*looks at Keylab*) (*shakes head and walks away*)
Why does this remind me of a MPC one oh wait because it’s basically a DAW in a box
If it only was a DAW...
@@AudioPilz yes if only
"Since the DAWn of software instruments …" I can see what you did there! 😁
😀😀😀
To me this one would really shine in a studio permanently set up and recorded through an amp
Doesn’t strike me as a good gigging keyboard
👍👍👍
Ive played one, its very nice.
I can see why people could hate on it tbh.
👍👍👍
It's a £1.5k keyboard.... with 8 notes of polyphony??
Wtf Arturia...
In a worst case scenario that's true...
It's essentially an ARM SBC running something like Analog Lab under linux (something you can't do with REAL Analog Lab V on a REAL computer, but I digress...) so processor resources are on the skinny side. Tho that's not MUCH of an excuse, 'cause Roland and Waldorf had been cranking out boxes for decades now that can do dozens of voices across multiple parts, with better UIs.
@@mrz80 And the Korg Kronos series run on Intel Atom processors. The Modwave and other units of that generation run on a Raspberry Pi. Which are absolutely fine for those instruments because they use custom designed software, not a rework of something originally designed to run under Windows that needs to be able to deal with random combinations of CPUs, audio interfaces etc.
Casio Privia Pro PX-5S anyone? Marvelous piano keyboard/synth with 256 notes of polyphony. And 4 layers of sounds...
Arturia does a lot right imho, generally speaking love their products (I own the Minibrute 2, Drumbrute Impact, KeyLab Essential 61, Beatstep Pro, Audiofuse 2, Spark LE, V Collection & the FX collection, and use them a lot), but yeah.. I can see why the AstroLab isn't very well received by many (and no, it isn't on my wishlist). I guess that if they would have included the V Collection, then people would start complaining that they already have a license and don't want to pay for it again.
I was initially fond of this instrument because of the concept and then I got deeper into the the specs and found out about the drawbacks, so my findings match those here in this video. It's like one of those GM/GS sample-based instruments from the 90ies. For playback useful, but not for anything else.
Why of course, I'd love to have to pay a kidneys worth of cash to use a dust collector!
It's the way!!!
"We'll sell you a keyboard 1/16 the size for the same price." - T. Engineering
Florian getting so mad he starts defocusing
Yes, ran out of batteries (literally) and forgot to refocus;)
You will never run out of Bad Gear as much there are german "Keyboards" mag issues from the last 30 years
...hatte ich mir genau so gedacht! Danke mal wieder für die Bestätigung!
@TE-LE-GRAM-OfficialAudiopilz nope.
They need to upgrade that display to a peephole
😂😂😂
Or a detachable smart watch, really had high hopes 😂
I love Arturia gear. The Polybrute, Minifreak and Keystep Pro are foundational to my studio. I'm not much for VSTs these days, but Arturia stuff is an industry standard for a reason.
I do not know why they would make this thing. What is it for. Who is it for. Why does it cost so much.
It needs dedicated ADSR and cutoff/res knobs. 99% of the time that's what I tweak on V collection presets anyway. And 4 part multitimbrality for V2.
Try loading the Sound Easel VST. The "component level modeling" on that is SO realistic that it tossed my 32-core Xeon machine into some ugly conniption fit.
...and, weirdly enough, Arturia tried to push that fact on me by saying that the fact that the Easel VST is flipping out on a relatively powerful machine is a testament to just how precise that modeling IS. Mmmmmno.
Great plugins indeed
das ging ja schnell.🤣
Mussja, ne;)
10000% agree. I have a MacBook Air with Arturia V Collection 9, and I see no reason why I would ever want this. I do like the collection, though - it's entirely too much fun. ON A COMPUTER, that is.
Great plugins!!!
the virtual analog patches sounded like 1997 VA. nice job guys.
Great Meme Usage as always. Weekend has officially started
Thanks Have a nice weekend too!!!
Wow! Actual bad gear!
;)