Arturia Minilab, Analog Lab. Yes or No?

[AstralExistence]

just curious, anybody own minilab, analog lab can give there opinions? i already own the newest model oxygen 25. so i cant see needing the minilab controller. but what i want to know is, is the analog lab/rompler worth it. mind you i have an older quadcore with 3 gigs of ram. so it cant be a huge cpu guzzling monster like diva. trying the analog factory, its pretty good on cpu. does it sound good? and is it sample based, or synthesis based? thanx

[Numanoid]

just curious, anybody own minilab, analog lab can give there opinions? i already own the newest model oxygen 25. so i cant see needing the minilab controller. but what i want to know is, is the analog lab/rompler worth it. mind you i have an older quadcore with 3 gigs of ram. so it cant be a huge cpu guzzling monster like diva. trying the analog factory, its pretty good on cpu. does it sound good? and is it sample based, or synthesis based? thanx

Installer is only 250MB or so, and with 3500+ presets included, I guess it can't be sample based

[AstralExistence]

I don't agree that Arturia synths use a lot of CPU though. They are quite light on cpu.

im confused by this myself. but i can only trust what he said. analog laboratory is very good on cpu. but he said analog lab is not and also uses a lot of ram. uno lx, now that uses a decent amount of cpu especially on pads combined with polyphony.

[Echoes in the Attic]

yes auspicious. as in being sarcastic. like, its auspicious for them to not have a demo. as in, not having a demo of analog lab works in there favor.

Damn internets messing with my sarcasto-meter....

[AstralExistence]

im still confused. anybody else own analog lab?

[Numanoid]

Seems to be a download posted in the Arturia forum:
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/smf/in ... ic=13294.0

I have not tested it, but usually Arturia products will function in demo mode for 15 days before authorization is needed.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Seems to be a download posted in the Arturia forum:
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/smf/in ... ic=13294.0

I have not tested it, but usually Arturia products will function in demo mode for 15 days before authorization is needed.

Looks like the update has introduced lots more negative issues for some. One comment was about increased CPU after the update. Maybe that's what the poster above meant. Someone on the Arturia forum said they had to revert to the previous version because the CPU was so bad.

[LAGinz]

I've been in the market for a mini-controller (for travel) for awhile now.I was eagerly awaiting the mini-lab, but it looks like Arturia doesn't quite have it together yet on this item. Supposedly a fix was due this week, but haven't heard anything further. Looks like I'll just get the Akai MPK mini.

[jdoo]

Just picked up the Analog Lab (upgrade from what I had, was $19). There are 5000 patches that represent sounds from the Arturia Prophet 5, Modular V, ARP2600 V, CS80 V, Jupiter-8V, Mini V, Prophet VS, SEM V and Wurlitzer AUs. The multi-mode allows you to stack and split sounds with what appears to be pretty comprehensive control of FX Sends, and Controller assignments (PB, Mod, AT, Sus, Exp). These map well to my Laboratory 61, where they're used in presets. I havent dug into what you get with the "Live" mode, but it's there. All in all... functionally, the Analog Lab maps very well to the Laboratory hardware, right off the bat. It also looks to have a lot more capability (layers/splits), than was in the Analog Laboratory software.

Smattered among the 5000 are some good patches for sure.. but (for me) - many need (a lot of) tweaking. Like I said, my Laboratory 61 maps to the patches/controls perfectly, making this (even live) very easily done. As a sound source - the Arturia engines feel pretty true to their vintage. That is to say, many of the patches, sound decidedly 80's. That's great - if that's what you need. After an hour or two fiddling with the patches... I started to (re) appreciate some of the sound capabilities that drew me to Arturia in the first place. There are some great sounds, out together by some fantastic designers (some who post here on KVR ..)

That's the good stuff.

On the other hand... a whole boatload of the included presets are wasted space. Examples:
- no sonic umph (su) <-- a technical term I made up... which means the sounds are weak, sound plastic, have little or no timbre. Sounding (to be harsh) like something you might hear coming out of a children's toy.. grunting out sonic burps, when the toy is squeezed, or tossed against a wall. Point is... many of the patches are just horrible. Tinny and weak. I would have trouble finding use for the ones that lack su.
- Repeaters. Out of the scores of patches... there are so many duplicates, that going through them and cataloguing something you might want to come back to, or use... In reviewing my "Favorites" , they seemed to sound the same. Many of the patches I had tagged as keepers.. varied little from one to the next. After clearing out dupes... I ended up with few "Favorites".
- CPU use. It's been mentioned above, and on the Arturia forums. Some of the patches.. max out my cpu (Core i5 with 8GB RAM). I dont have time to diddle with bouncing tracks, to save CPU use ... (i couldn't put two instances live, in some cases - without maxing cpu). Sounds baked in "Multi" mode, particularly cooked my system. After weeding these out of my favorites... I ended up with even fewer keepers.

So at the end of the day.. I moved from the Analog Laboratory software, to the Analog Lab. It was a $19 upgrade. I hadn't really been using the Laboratory, as much more than a great hardware controller. I went from the 4300 Laboratory sounds... to the 5000 Lab sounds, and picked up a more capable software interface.

If you're looking for a great keyboard. I have nothing but high praises for my Arturia Laboratory 61. I imagine the 25 note Keylab is every bit as capable from a hardware perspective. It's the sounds that let me down.. I would rather (and do) utilize u-he Diva and Zebra synths on my Arturia hardware. More recently, I added the Korg Legacy collection ( WAVESTATION and M1 are standouts!). These all bring more bite to the party than what i have ever been able to squeeze from the Arturia synth engines. In all cases... you have to be plugged into a computer ANYWAY, to use these... so I end up comparing and contrasting the Arturia soft synths to the others I mentioned. Arturia fell short in my opinion.

...and dont even get me started about Arturia support.

[whitecloud]

I've been in the market for a mini-controller (for travel) for awhile now.I was eagerly awaiting the mini-lab, but it looks like Arturia doesn't quite have it together yet on this item. Supposedly a fix was due this week, but haven't heard anything further. Looks like I'll just get the Akai MPK mini.

I have the Akai MPD32 and while it's build quality is pretty good, there is a design flaw regarding the pads. Too much space between the pads and sensors. Hard to do fast drum hits.
On the cheap some have used electrical tape on the bottom of the pads, while other's have opted for the mods available at MPC stuff.
also on the Software side of things,there seems to be a consensus that the Oberheim Sem V3 is there best softie.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I demoed the Analog Lab for kicks. Seemed to work ok for me on osx mountain lion. Only came across one patch with crazy cpu that went up to about 40%, all the others were very low as i expected. It's the keyboard I'm most interested in though, I'm just afraid of this issue people are talking about with the very slow knob response. I saw a video on youtube and the guy seemed to be turning the knobs forever to get slight changes in the filter. That's no good.

[AstralExistence]

Just picked up the Analog Lab (upgrade from what I had, was $19). There are 5000 patches that represent sounds from the Arturia Prophet 5, Modular V, ARP2600 V, CS80 V, Jupiter-8V, Mini V, Prophet VS, SEM V and Wurlitzer AUs. The multi-mode allows you to stack and split sounds with what appears to be pretty comprehensive control of FX Sends, and Controller assignments (PB, Mod, AT, Sus, Exp). These map well to my Laboratory 61, where they're used in presets. I havent dug into what you get with the "Live" mode, but it's there. All in all... functionally, the Analog Lab maps very well to the Laboratory hardware, right off the bat. It also looks to have a lot more capability (layers/splits), than was in the Analog Laboratory software.

Smattered among the 5000 are some good patches for sure.. but (for me) - many need (a lot of) tweaking. Like I said, my Laboratory 61 maps to the patches/controls perfectly, making this (even live) very easily done. As a sound source - the Arturia engines feel pretty true to their vintage. That is to say, many of the patches, sound decidedly 80's. That's great - if that's what you need. After an hour or two fiddling with the patches... I started to (re) appreciate some of the sound capabilities that drew me to Arturia in the first place. There are some great sounds, out together by some fantastic designers (some who post here on KVR ..)

That's the good stuff.

On the other hand... a whole boatload of the included presets are wasted space. Examples:
- no sonic umph (su) <-- a technical term I made up... which means the sounds are weak, sound plastic, have little or no timbre. Sounding (to be harsh) like something you might hear coming out of a children's toy.. grunting out sonic burps, when the toy is squeezed, or tossed against a wall. Point is... many of the patches are just horrible. Tinny and weak. I would have trouble finding use for the ones that lack su.
- Repeaters. Out of the scores of patches... there are so many duplicates, that going through them and cataloguing something you might want to come back to, or use... In reviewing my "Favorites" , they seemed to sound the same. Many of the patches I had tagged as keepers.. varied little from one to the next. After clearing out dupes... I ended up with few "Favorites".
- CPU use. It's been mentioned above, and on the Arturia forums. Some of the patches.. max out my cpu (Core i5 with 8GB RAM). I dont have time to diddle with bouncing tracks, to save CPU use ... (i couldn't put two instances live, in some cases - without maxing cpu). Sounds baked in "Multi" mode, particularly cooked my system. After weeding these out of my favorites... I ended up with even fewer keepers.

So at the end of the day.. I moved from the Analog Laboratory software, to the Analog Lab. It was a $19 upgrade. I hadn't really been using the Laboratory, as much more than a great hardware controller. I went from the 4300 Laboratory sounds... to the 5000 Lab sounds, and picked up a more capable software interface.

If you're looking for a great keyboard. I have nothing but high praises for my Arturia Laboratory 61. I imagine the 25 note Keylab is every bit as capable from a hardware perspective. It's the sounds that let me down.. I would rather (and do) utilize u-he Diva and Zebra synths on my Arturia hardware. More recently, I added the Korg Legacy collection ( WAVESTATION and M1 are standouts!). These all bring more bite to the party than what i have ever been able to squeeze from the Arturia synth engines. In all cases... you have to be plugged into a computer ANYWAY, to use these... so I end up comparing and contrasting the Arturia soft synths to the others I mentioned. Arturia fell short in my opinion.

...and dont even get me started about Arturia support.

thats f**king disgusting.

[whitecloud]

I demoed the Analog Lab for kicks. Seemed to work ok for me on osx mountain lion. Only came across one patch with crazy cpu that went up to about 40%, all the others were very low as i expected. It's the keyboard I'm most interested in though, I'm just afraid of this issue people are talking about with the very slow knob response. I saw a video on youtube and the guy seemed to be turning the knobs forever to get slight changes in the filter. That's no good.

I wonder if that slow knob response is a USB midi driver issue? If so they have to update ASAP. I really wonder about the CPU issues listed here. I have an i3
3.20GHZ machine Win 7 64 bit and have no issues using Oberheim Sem V and that one is supposed to be their best emulation and sound quality wise and uses the most cpu. Well I guess I should be grateful. I use my Akai MPD32 to control Sem and Spark VDM and the software reacts very well with my tweaks. Hmmmm

[DHR53]

Hmmm... Analog Factory has been a staple in my small group of plugins for years... And it's not that cpu heavy, although i mainly use it for one signature sound to build off of... so I'm not ging to be using 10 instances of it anyway. But I did take advantage of the Analog Lab deal upgrade, and I really like the interface so far... but it does seem to be a hit on the cpu from what I've tested. Weird that the interface doesn't work in MuLab and Analog Factory does?

Something has changed since AF

[C-note]

I like the interface better than the other lab/experience/factory analogs but I can't find the midi learn or cc mapping for controllers(My Panorama) other than Arturia...Seems like a huge omision to me