GEAR REVIEW
NEW PRODUCT : ARTURIA ASTROLAB ’ S STAGE KEYBOARD | Steve Sattler
Arturia just announced the release of AstroLab , their first ever Stage Keyboard . I recently had the opportunity to talk with Pierre Pfister , project manager for Arturia , to get his insights about the AstroLab project .
[ WM ] tell me about yourself . What do you do for Arturia ?
[ Pierre Pfister ] I am a product manager . The role of the product manager at Arturia is to develop the idea of a product that we are going to start working on by interviewing users , making sure we identify features of a potential product that is solving people ’ s needs or people ’ s problems . Next , we figure out how we can address this problem and then we start to develop the concept for the product , ultimately following through on the development from beginning to end , as well as come up with the marketing plan to promote it once the product has been launched . I have been working at Arturia for a while now , mostly on software products , but I have also worked on all the keylab products which is our range of MIDI controllers . Right now , I am working mostly on Astrolab , which is a true milestone product for Arturia .
[ WM ] I know this is Arturia ’ s 25th anniversary . Do you have any thoughts about that ?
[ Pierre ] I am quite amazed by the progress and how far Arturia as a company has come because when I arrived 10 years ago at Arturia , we were a team of maybe 20-25 people . Back then , nobody knew about Arturia like they do now . Every time I was talking with some musicians , most of them did not know who the company was . Now , every time I meet people , and I tell them I am from Arturia , everybody knows about Arturia , which feels great .
These days , when we go into the field trying to meet users , we feel like everyone is using our products . Our AnalogLab and the V Collection are definitely some of the most frequently used pieces of software in the industry . In general , everybody that is making music nowadays uses at least some of our products .
[ WM ] What exactly is AstroLab ?
[ Pierre ] AstroLab is Arturia ’ s stage keyboard . It ’ s an innovative and quite groundbreaking stage keyboard because it doesn ’ t rely on samples , unlike most of the stage keyboards
on the market . AstroLab uses all the emulations that we ’ ve worked on for the past 20 years , making it possible to have more than 30 instruments , this includes everything from pianos , to expertly sampled analog synthesizers all in a single keyboard . With AstroLab you have an amazing amount of power and a huge range of high quality of sounds to work with .
[ WM ] How is AstroLab different from your other keyboard controllers that Arturia has released in the past ?
[ Pierre ] AstroLab is not a controller . The thing to keep in mind is that it is producing its own sounds , which is what makes it so powerful . You have all the sounds built into AstroLab , so you can go on stage without the need for a computer , which is something that is new for Arturia . That said , AstroLab also works great as a MIDI controller because it is designed to be fully integrated with AnalogLab whenever you are working on your computer . AstroLab is designed to be used in the studio as much as using it on stage .
[ WM ] Can you tell me about the core set of sounds that is included with AstroLab ?
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