The Laboratory
The latest addition to Arturia’s Analog Experience series takes their hybrid software/hardware synth concept even further.
When I first read
about the flagship of Arturia’s Analogue Experience (‘AE’) series,
I wondered whether there would be any demand for another product based
on the company’s existing analogue modelling technology. My review of
the curent two products in the series — the Player and the Factory (see
Sound On Sound January 2011) — suggested that they provide an
interesting set of facilities in a novel fashion at an attractive price,
but what of the Laboratory? Could there be room above the Factory for
a bigger and better ‘Experience’, or were Arturia attempting to slice
the virtual analogue soft synth market just a little too thinly? (As we
were going to press, Arturia announced a 61‑note version of the
Laboratory, but this review will concentrate on the 49‑note model.)
Physically Speaking
Like
its siblings, the Laboratory combines three elements: a keyboard
controller, a large library of editable sounds based on the company’s
existing V-series soft synths, and a separate software package that
allows users to configure the keyboard for use with other software.
Let’s
start with the 49‑note velocity‑ and aftertouch‑sensitive keyboard.
This is not just wider than the keyboards supplied with the Player and
the Factory; it offers a greater range of facilities and more in the way
of physical controls, with nine sliders (two ADSRs and Tempo), 13
knobs, 23 buttons (including 10 snapshot buttons that allow you to
recall favourite patches from the keyboard) and four pads, as well as
traditional pitch‑bend and modulation wheels. In addition to these,
there are six buttons that send MMC messages (Start, Stop, Record,
Backward, Forward and Loop) for transport control of hardware and
software sequencers. Meanwhile, around at the back I was pleased to find
five‑pin DIN sockets for MIDI In and Out, as well as the expected
USB/MIDI socket, plus quarter‑inch sockets for no fewer than four forms
of control: sustain, expression, ‘Aux’ and breath control. This is very
sophisticated for a low‑cost system and, if you compare this with the
32‑note keyboard that comes with the Factory (which has no MIDI In, no
Aux, no breath control input, no pads and fewer of the other controls),
let alone that of the Player, it’s clear that it’s a big step up from
its smaller siblings.
The Laboratory Sounds
The software side of the Laboratory; the bottom panel mimics the settings made on the controller keyboard.
Complementing the hardware, the Laboratory contains
the latest generation of Arturia’s Analogue Experience software, with
3500 preset (but editable) sounds based on the company’s Moog, ARP,
Roland, SCI and Yamaha soft synths. Once installed, the software appears
as VST, AU and RTAS plug‑ins, as well as a stand‑alone application, and
will run on OS X, Windows XP, Vista and 7. Getting it up and running on
my MacBook Pro proved to be straightforward, although you need Internet
access to register it, and a bit of prior experience with the eLicenser
system used by Arturia goes a long way toward making the process as
painless as possible.
The software seems very
similar to that supplied with the Factory and the Player, and it’s worth
reading my earlier review if you haven’t already done so, because
almost everything that I wrote about the smaller systems remains
relevant. But while it’s tempting to assume that the Laboratory version
is much the same, with just a bit more of this and a smidgen more of
that, it would be a mistake, because, in three important ways, the
Laboratory is much more powerful than its siblings.
Although
Analogue Experience sounds are based on Arturia’s V-series soft synths
you have (until now) only had access to a limited subset of their
editing and performing parameters. So, for example, the Player allows
you to adjust the filter, the LFO and the amplitude envelope of a sound
that has dozens of other parameters hidden away ‘under the hood’. The
Factory is somewhat more flexible, adding access to the effects mixes
and four assignable parameters, but it is still unable to edit a sound
fully. And, at first sight, the Laboratory is only slightly more
advanced, with the addition of a second ADSR contour generator. But if
you have any of Arturia’s V-series synths installed on the same computer
as the Laboratory, something magical happens. Click on the edit button
of an appropriate sound and you can open the original soft synth within
the Laboratory to edit it, and even create completely new sounds.
Strangely, Arturia don’t seem to make a big deal of this within its
documentation, but I think that it’s a huge step forward. It makes the
Laboratory much more than just a tweaker and player of preset sounds;
it’s now an über‑editor/librarian for all of your Arturia synths,
integrating them into a single environment that is much more manageable
than invoking each of them individually.
The
Laboratory’s rear panel has MIDI In and Out ports, three control inputs
on quarter‑inch jacks, a USB connection, and an input for an optional
6V power supply.
The next huge difference is the provision of Scenes.
These allow you to combine two sounds; either layered or placed either
side of a user‑defined split point. There’s also a Multi mode, although
this is not the full multitimbral mode that the name implies — it’s
a duo‑timbral mode that assigns the sounds of your choice to MIDI
channels 1 and 2. You can assign sounds to the Upper and Lower parts;
select and edit them from the keyboard; transpose, mix and pan them; and
assign a ‘Melody’ (actually, one of 180 preset arpeggios) to one of
them. While there’s no way to edit these arpeggios, they can be used in
conjunction with the library of preset rhythm loops accessed using the
pads on the keyboard (or their on‑screen equivalents), which makes them
rather useful when using the Laboratory ‘DJ‑style’ or as a scratch pad
for ideas.
Ah yes, the pads... Like much else in
the Laboratory, these offer more than is immediately obvious. Far from
simply allowing you to play notes or tap percussion instruments (which,
of course, they do) each provides three modes — gate, trigger and loop —
and can act exclusively (or not) with respect to the others. So, for
example, you can place up to four complementary rhythm loops under the
pads, select ‘loop’ for each, switch ‘exclusive’ off for each, mix their
levels to taste, and then play simple or layered rhythms, switching
each loop on or off by tapping the appropriate pad. Selecting the loops
couldn’t be simpler (you drag and drop them from the list in the pads’
setup page) and you don’t even have to be precise when you play them;
adding a new loop to something that’s already playing always results in
a synchronised rhythm, no matter how poor your timing might be.
The MIDI Control Centre
Programming pads in the Laboratory software.
The final element in the package is the MIDI Control
Centre software installed alongside the Laboratory itself. This allows
you to configure the hardware so that every control, when tweaked, sends
the MIDI CC# of your choice. You can then store the configuration in
the keyboard itself, in effect turning it into a dedicated controller
for another synth or software package. Since configurations can be saved
on your host computer, you can quickly reconfigure the keyboard for
whatever purpose is required, and I particularly like the idea of
assigning the nine sliders to act as physical drawbars for a software
Hammond organ emulation.
The keyboard boasts
a 12V DC PSU input, so that you can use it as a stand‑alone MIDI
controller without connecting it to a computer for USB power. It’s also
worth mentioning that it’s a USB/MIDI converter too, and this allowed me
to use my Mac to play and control vintage MIDI synths (which have no
USB inputs) without the need for a dedicated interface. The only time
that this failed to work was when I attempted to play them from the
Laboratory’s GUI. I confirmed this with Arturia, who admitted that they
had not expected anyone to attempt this.
In Use
Using
the Laboratory could not be much simpler. Load the software with the
keyboard plugged in, and everything synchronises and is ready for use.
Nonetheless, its capabilities range far beyond simply playing its
existing sounds.
To illustrate this, I loaded
the Laboratory as a plug‑in within Digital Performer 7, created a MIDI
track, routed the input from the keyboard to the plug‑in, and selected
a string ensemble patch within it. I then loaded a second instance,
allocated this to a different MIDI track and selected a choral patch.
I could now click on either of the MIDI tracks and play the instance of
the Laboratory connected to each. Moving on, I created a MIDI Group and
attempted to play both instances of the Laboratory simultaneously. This
worked perfectly, and I now had a luscious ‘choir and strings’ ensemble
under my fingertips. Invoking Scenes on each, I also had access to two
duo‑timbral synths with two, independent (but synchronised) rhythm
sections. This was getting interesting. Six timbres and three rhythm
sections proved to be even more so. As for eight (or 10, or 12...)
timbres derived from surprisingly accurate imitations of Moogs, ARP
2600s, CS80s, Jupiter 8s and Prophets, whether split, layered or
accessible as a complete multitimbral setup... well, I’m sure you
get the picture. I even invoked the full V-series GUIs within these
setups, and everything functioned as it should. This was good stuff.
Regarding
the hardware itself, I mentioned to Arturia that a couple of the
sliders and the mod‑wheel brushed very slightly against the case on the
review keyboard. It wasn’t a serious problem, and I doubt that many
users would even have cared, but they immediately despatched another one
to me. This was much better. On both units, I found the semi‑weighted
keybed just a little too light for serious playing, but this was not
because the action had changed significantly from the keybed that
I complemented on the Factory keyboard. It was because my fingers and
eyes have different expectations of a keyboard as wide as a Nord Wave’s
or a Waldorf XTk’s rather than one that is clearly intended for use as
a small USB MIDI controller.
To be fair, there
is still room for improvement in the Laboratory and, in particular,
I would like to see the MIDI channel assignment made more flexible in
Scene mode. Furthermore, the review was not entirely without glitches,
but these were either harmless (such as the ‘amazing but easily resolved
disappearing GUI trick’ that I could perform at will when I had
multiple instances running in DP7) or could be prevented by avoiding
arcane ways of doing things. (When all else failed, as it did on only
one occasion, a suggestion from Arturia’s support people quickly
identified and resolved the problem.) But these are minor niggles. The
laboratory does what it promises, and in general does it very well
indeed.
Conclusions
For
players who love the sounds of classic analogue synths but have no
desire to learn how to wring the best out of complex control panels, the
Analogue Experience series, with its huge selection of high quality,
easily accessible, and tweakable VA sounds, remains unparalleled.
Moreover, within this series, the Laboratory — with its enhanced
hardware, scenes and rhythms — is very clearly the pick of the bunch.
But
it’s more than that. When I concluded my review of the Player and
Factory I wrote, “Let’s be clear, these are no über‑synths that allow
you to create outrageous, never‑heard‑before sounds.” Sure, if you don’t
own any of Arturia’s V-series soft synths, this remains true but, with
the synths present, the Laboratory also becomes a powerful librarian and
editor that centralises access and control over all of the Arturia
synths loaded onto your computer. So I now have the answer to the
question that I posed at the start of this review. Is there room above
the Factory for a bigger and better ‘Experience’? Yes, there is.
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