Analog Lab V vs 4 - Why have they destroyed the controls?

[zzz00m]

The controls are not really broken. Just misplaced. Change your controller setting in AL V to Keylab and it's back to normal. If you are using non-Arturia hardware, now it just defaults to minimal generic controls, and that's new since AL 4. Which you can override. An oversight. No conspiracy by the product managers and marketing folks.

I'm not talking about the lack of controllers shown on screen (which I know can be changed by changing controller type), I'm talking about the fact they changed all the interesting parameters the controllers used to be mapped to, to the generic brightness, timbre, send crap they have now.

Just choose a control and click on the text label, and you can then assign any available parameter on the pop up list to that control.

Here is an example where I have set the AL V sliders to control ADSR (and I do not own a Keylab, just told it that I do - actually using an Alesis in generic mode):

And this is the part where someone tells me I have to click such-and-such to enable the old legacy controls and I take it all back...

Done.

[m-ac]

Done.

Interesting. Do you also have the option to change the knobs to things like modwheel lfo/noise, Pro 5 noise volume, etc, the same as they're mapped in lab 4 for that preset (Acc Lunar)?

Are the changes persistent or do you have to go through and map all 8000 presets individually?

[zzz00m]

Done.

Interesting. Do you also have the option to change the knobs to things like modwheel lfo/noise, Pro 5 noise volume, etc, the same as they're mapped in lab 4 for that preset (Acc Lunar)?

Are the changes persistent or do you have to go through and map all 8000 presets individually?

You can click the text label on any knob or slider, and then utilize any parameter that the preset designer made available. Since I usually save the plugin setup within a DAW project, rather than in Analog Lab, I don't bother saving the preset itself within AL for persistence. But that would be handy for use in other projects or DAWs.

I assume that it is a per-preset setting, as that has always been the case with Analog Lab, since you get different parameters offered on a preset by preset basis that were made available by the preset designer. You would need to have the full Arturia instrument installed for full edit ability to access all parameters.

I'll assume that Arturia will need to address the 8000 presets. I didn't bother. I only map presets as I actually use them.

[wltchris101]

I have also been pretty upset with the changes made to Analog Lab 5, especially the strange decision to remove the default mapping of the faders from the envelopes, as it was in V4, and replace this with default mapping to eq and fx parameters! Just a bizarre change from a company of synthesists, making the macros system far less intuitive and useful. Anyway, I wrote to their support pointing out this one issue (lack of mapped controls to the envelopes) as in my eyes being a major backwards step, and I received a response from one of their support staff saying that they agreed with me, and that this was being discussed within their team. I can only imagine that other similar complaints would speed up any future changes back to the older version in this respect, so anybody who feels the same, please contact their support and let them know.

[zzz00m]

Interesting. Do you also have the option to change the knobs to things like modwheel lfo/noise, Pro 5 noise volume, etc, the same as they're mapped in lab 4 for that preset (Acc Lunar)?

There appear to be some changes to that preset in AL V. Cannot locate modwheel lfo/noise, but Pro 5 noise volume is still available.

Also the 1st 3 upper control knobs will not let me edit, a pop-up says that I need the full version of Pro V to access those when I click on the label. The rest are available. So it appears that some functionality can be locked out in the new version.

[zzz00m]

I have also been pretty upset with the changes made to Analog Lab 5, especially the strange decision to remove the default mapping of the faders from the envelopes, as it was in V4, and replace this with default mapping to eq and fx parameters! Just a bizarre change from a company of synthesists, making the macros system far less intuitive and useful. Anyway, I wrote to their support pointing out this one issue (lack of mapped controls to the envelopes) as in my eyes being a major backwards step, and I received a response from one of their support staff saying that they agreed with me, and that this was being discussed within their team. I can only imagine that other similar complaints would speed up any future changes back to the older version in this respect, so anybody who feels the same, please contact their support and let them know.

Good point!

[Obsolete462444]

Just the other day I installed Analog Lab lite. The Arturia software center gave me the option to choose between version 4 and V. I thought: V is newer, so probably better (maybe more sounds, maybe more refined UI). Too bad I only became aware of this thread now.

Would you recommend intalling Analog Lab lite 4 instead? Are the sounds the same?

I also encountered a strange problem, where under some circumstances Analog Lab V would output quite noticeable amounts of noise in Cubase 10.5. I have a 3rd generation Intel i5 and Windows 7 based machine, which is quite stable most of the time. Has anyone encoutered this issue before? Thinking about deinstalling Analog Lab completely due to this, since I usually delete all plugins that introduce stability issue on my system without looking back, but Analog Lab has such a nice sonic palette, it would be very unfortunate.

[zzz00m]

I don't know anything about the Lite version, but would recommend sticking with Analog Lab 4 if you have both, until Arturia cleans up the new version. AL4 still works fine!

There are less sounds if you only have AL V. The good news is that your AL4 sounds will be grandfathered into AL V, so no loss of sounds if you have an AL4 license! I have both versions installed.

[m-ac]

Interesting. Do you also have the option to change the knobs to things like modwheel lfo/noise, Pro 5 noise volume, etc, the same as they're mapped in lab 4 for that preset (Acc Lunar)?

There appear to be some changes to that preset in AL V. Cannot locate modwheel lfo/noise, but Pro 5 noise volume is still available.

Also the 1st 3 upper control knobs will not let me edit, a pop-up says that I need the full version of Pro V to access those when I click on the label. The rest are available. So it appears that some functionality can be locked out in the new version.

Ok, I installed V5 again to test some more and you're right, whilst you do have the ability to swap some of the parameters back in like adsr (on a patch by patch basis - err, no thanks), most of the ones which used to change your sound to any interesting degree, aren't available. The ones they have kept (like brightness / filter) no longer offer the full range of sound either in most cases, being reduced to a small percentage of the tweakable range.

So yeah, it's still a complete sh!tshow, but thanks for investigating

[m-ac]

I have also been pretty upset with the changes made to Analog Lab 5, especially the strange decision to remove the default mapping of the faders from the envelopes, as it was in V4, and replace this with default mapping to eq and fx parameters! Just a bizarre change from a company of synthesists, making the macros system far less intuitive and useful. Anyway, I wrote to their support pointing out this one issue (lack of mapped controls to the envelopes) as in my eyes being a major backwards step, and I received a response from one of their support staff saying that they agreed with me, and that this was being discussed within their team. I can only imagine that other similar complaints would speed up any future changes back to the older version in this respect, so anybody who feels the same, please contact their support and let them know.

I'll do that too .

[jdoo]

I also thought this was a result of just not pointing at the right Controller (I have an Arturia Laboratory). Even changing the MIDI controller to Laboratory - it's clear that Arturia nerfed the controls. It's an easy enough fix to correct. Right-click the text for the slider you want to correct and Select an ADSR setting. That said -- it's something that Arturia should offer a patch to fix. This was a mistake.

[Biome_Digital]

... vaguely named controls like 'time' - TIME WHAT?

"Time" is for things like envelope speeds, LFO rate's, any modulation or effect that affects the speed/time. It can be very useful if setup well. Check out some "New Loops" presets in AL and Pigments. You will find many presets that transform into different categories, e.g. from a lead to a pad using the Time macro. I also use it to control LFO speeds for modulation, filter sweeps, chorus speeds, gated pad speeds, glide time, and much more.

I think the reason they've changed all the controls to generic ones is because Arturia added the macros to all their synths, then they had to have all the presets use the macros.

Of course this change takes a time to get used to. I am sure they would appreciate user feedback if you emailed them.

[enossified]

Late reply.

Seems pretty obvious to me that AL5 is even more of a preset machine than ever before. Knobs with names like timbre, brightness, time are designed for users who have no interest in getting to individual parameters but want custom mapped performance controls as found in Komplete Kontrol and other macro-based UIs. The loss of EG control is pretty silly, at minimum I need to be able to adjust attack and release as I'm playing. Sliders being mapped to part volumes and FX sends and master EQ is aimed at live performers, similar to the UIs of hardware workstations like Fantom, Montage, Kronos, etc.

AL4 users can still access all the AL4 patches, hopefully with the same control mappings.

As an AL3 user, it's the end of the road for me. Too many controls I use all the time are gone.

[LoveEnigma18]

Agree with the OP. Quite frustrated with Analog Lab V. I don't feel like opening it. The MIDI mapping is messed up with FL Studio, since there are a lot of important parameters (like previous preset, next preset, etc.) that are no longer exposed to FL Studio and only available as part of MIDI mapping within the plugin, which unfortunately does not work well with FL Studio due to the need to use MIDI ports and anyone familiar with FL Studio knows the problem associated with using MIDI ports. I have KeyLab 61 MKII, but unfortunately, I can't use it as a dedicated MIDI controller due to the way FL Studio works and I need to rely on mapping parameters manually using "override generic links". I have had multiple, long conversations with Arturia support regarding these issues that keep on changing with their updates and they acknowledged them.

I am pretty sure Arturia is aware of all this and this is probably the reason why we don't have any updates (8.1) yet. They are significantly late with a major update this time after the release of V Collection (8). So, I am hoping they will fix all these issues and also add NKS functionality for the new plugins. Just a matter of time.

[LoveEnigma18]

Looks like 8.1 update is out. ASC is filled with updates. Sooner than I expected when I posted the above comment.

They have also added NKS support for all the newer plugins, which is awesome. I am really curious to check Analog Lab V in particular.

A big thanks to Arturia. Well appreciated.

EDIT: Unfortunately, my issues are not fixed. Not even one. Damn it. I wonder what the support was doing when they kept me assuring that it will be fixed soon. Totally disappointed. This is not the update I was looking for. Except NKS, nothing is worth bothering.