I'm using this for an auxiliary keyboard in our church's worship band, and it fits pretty well in our setup.

I'll rapid fire a few good things... The sound library is solid. The UI is fairly intuitive. The main wheel is sleek and useable. The encoders and mod wheels feel amazing. I really like the playlist feature for live sets. The layer function is okay.

Now for some cons... The AstroLab Connect app is really bad. It's very difficult to navigate and seems to have some bugs. Personally, I don't like the action on the keys (even for a synthesizer). And, minor detail, I also don't like the tactile feel of the buttons.

I've had this for almost a year now. Love it. Its an answer to a long standing wish. I've always grumbled about the inability to use the Arturia V Collection sounds outside the studio without a computer. With the AstroLab that issue is resolved. Couple of things you should know if you're considering this board.
1) it's designed to work with your computer for all editing and manipulation of sounds. I highly recommend you also plan on purchasing Arturia V Collection if you don't already have it. Well worth the price.
2) While the board is easy to navigate, plan on using your computer to create playlists and find sounds.
3) Keyboard itself is semi-weighted and pretty comfortable. Knobs on the board are designed to performance tweaking only, not editing, you do that on your computer via Analog Lab.
4) I can't say enough about the quality and sound choices. The guitarist I work with has stated multiple times regarding the sounds a sound options on this board.
5) My only minor critique is there are only two sound engines on the Astrolab, hence you can only layer two sounds or do a split. You are able to set the split point at any location, you're just limited to a max of two sounds.
That said, the sound options are pretty unbeatable. Especially is you have the V Collection to edit and create sounds for the different types of samples or modeled instruments.

I fell for the keyboard influencer hype that was circulating the internet leading up to the launch of this keyboard. I have had the astrolab since it's launch and it has so much potential, but after over a year, it has disappointed me over and over again.

The keyboard itself is pretty well built. It's pretty heavy for what it is, but it is sturdy. The keys themselves feel good and are responsive. The button layout is similar to your grandma's cheap digital piano, where it has 9 categories that could never possibly capture the variety of the instruments within. The knob in the middle of the keyboard, in which most of it's functions are based around, is stiff and I often skip the preset I'm looking for a few times because it is not precise. Don't worry though, they wired a speaker into it that makes a clicking sound, so it at least sounds like a well functioning knob. I have had a problem with the pitch bend wheel. Sometimes when I turn the keyboard on, the internal position of the pitch bend wheel is off so that when I play the keys they are in the wrong pitch. Usually just wiggling the pitch bend wheel fixes this issue, but I found this out the hard way during a gig, where I was playing in the wrong key and could not find out why. The internal hardware is pretty weak for what it is. I have had issues that when I play too many notes or play certain instruments too fast, it causes the audio to distort and get glitchy. Also some of the presets take a long time to load, so if you are trying to gig with it, there could be a good amount of patches that you can't use on the fly unless you have 3 to 6 seconds to load them.

Where this keyboard really falls short is in the software. I will say, there are some great presets and this keyboard is fun to play, casually, but if you are seeing this keyboard as a great solution to capturing all of the sounds you want to use live, be prepared to get frustrated. First off is the limited editing tools on the hardware itself. There are 4 knobs to use for each preset, and I don't believe they can be reassigned to any other parameter. So if you want to play a Hammond organ there is a knob that pretty much turns one to all drawbars on. There is no way on the keyboard, or phone app, to adjust individual drawbars. To do so you have to connect your keyboard to a PC and use their software to create a new preset with the drawbar settings you desire. I'm not sure, but I believe you also have to own the their Hammond plugin in order to edit it. While I mention Hammonds, the onboard rotary speaker effect is pure garbage. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I figured, well maybe I can make my own Hammond preset and try to tweak the leslie speeds in order to make it sound better, but the Astrolab Leslie simulator is completely seperate from the plugin version and there is no way that I know of to edit it. So as an organ player, the astrolab is very disappointing.

For editing synth patches, the 4 knobs are even more disappointing. In the most basic of synth editing, you would at least want to be able to adjust cutoff, resonance, attack, decay, sustain, release, but with most patches it seems you can edit cutoff (or as they call it "brightness"), resonance ("Timbre"), release ("time") and LFO amount ("movement"). there might be a couple more parameters available in the phone app, but I have long since uninstalled it on account of it barely adding any functions to the keyboard. If you wanted to adjust something simple like portamento, you're going back to your computer to edit the preset.

Next up. I'm a huge mellotron fan. I regularly perform with a modern mellotron keyboard, but Arturia's Mellotron plugin is pretty dang good, so I thought having the astrolab would be one less keyboard on stage but the astrolab does not include the mellotron plugin. It has an instrument called sampler, which includes about a dozen mellotron sounds, but not all of them, and you can't edit them at all. I ran into an issue where i needed to adjust the pitchbend range on a mellotron sound, but there is absolutely no way to do so. not on the keyboard, the app, or the PC software. I even emailed Arturia and they were no help at all. So now my mellotron is back on stage with me. I then thought, if I have to continue hauling my mellotron around with me, maybe I can at least use the input feature of the astrolab to run my mellotron through the onboard FX. The documentation for the astrolab says "Combi jacks accept XLR or 1/4-inch TRS cables for balanced signals from a pair of microphones, line-level sources, or instrument-level sources. Adjust the input level with the Gain knob. The AstroLab can provide effects processing for external input and has a vocoder Instrument as well." Well needless to say that was another letdown. As far as I can figure out, those inputs are only used for the few patches that utilize the vocoder function of the keyboard and there is no way to just pass external audio through the FX.

Let's talk about one of the most legendary synthesizers of all time. The Yamaha CS-80. For years I have dreamed of having a hardware synthesizer that could play CS-80 sounds. Arturia even has some fun sound banks with presets from Vangelis. I thought oh cool, finally I can play those sounds on a hardware instrument. Well this was another huge disappointment. The Astrolab is not compatible with many of their presets. For example, if you pull up the Vangelis tribute sound bank library 10 of the 59 presets are compatible with the astrolab.

As a gigging musician, I really wanted this to become my go-to keyboard. My back has gotten very tired of hauling multiple keyboards around to gigs, but unfortunately this was not the solution to my problems. I tried it out at a couple of gigs, and for me, it didn't cut it. Since it does have good variety of sounds I mostly use it for practice at home so I can leave my gigging keyboards at my rehearsal space. For most, I think this keyboard would be great as someone's first semi-professional level keyboard. My problems with it are pretty specific and for many more casual players, it would probably be a great choice.

The Arturia AstroLab 61 Stage Keyboard has quickly become one of my favorites. The sounds are fantastic, and it even introduced me to Analog Lab Pro, which opened up a whole new world of sound possibilities. There are a couple of quirks: switching sounds during live playback can sometimes cause a slight delay, and I wish the volume knob were on the left instead of the right. But overall, I have no regrets. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

I've owned the AstroLab for about 6 months now, and I really enjoy this piano. While it is certainly limited in functionality compared to other flagship workstations, this is nowhere near the price of those workstations and delivers an incredible amount of functionality. There's so much capability in the different instruments and settings that I've really only scratched the surface of all the different sounds since I've owned it. If you're looking for that certain sound that none of your analog synths can produce, and you don't have the money to have your own Rhodes, grand piano, DX7, CS80, etc etc. then this will certainly add that track to your music to fill any void you may have in your setup, or even just to be used stand alone. There are some workflow things to get used to, such as creating playlists using an app (the most efficient approach although it can all be done from the dial if you wish), but I do not see these as limitations.

Personally, the temptation to switch out gear and buy new interesting things is real, but I can say that I plan to keep the astrolab because of its almost endless capability, and it's always useful to have something like that in a setup. And in this case if you are like me and cannot afford a $ workstation, this is the product for you!

Wow! I'm blown away. This keyboard fills so many roles in my home studio. Yes, it's designed also for performers to take on stage, but I have found it equally as impressive in the studio.

It's like having a synthesizer with thousands of quality presets to tweak, and it also acts as a midi controller and integrates seamlessly with Arturia's Analog Lab software plugin inside a DAW. I can select a sound on the Astrolab and make any changes I want with the 4 macro knobs and 4 effects knobs -- and those changes will be reflected in Analog Lab in my DAW.

You might ask, "Couldn't you just buy a KeyLab and the Analog Lab software separately for much cheaper?" And yes, you could, but this experience is soooo much nicer. Selecting a sound directly on the Astrolab is so fast with this interface, and the levels of each parameter are shown with a ring of LEDs (similar to the Hydrasynth), which you don't get with a normal midi controller. It's also really nice that I can turn on the Astrolab and play around with sounds and explore, without even turning on my computer.


This machine packs so many impressive sounds inside, all thoughtfully organized into sound categories and sub-categories (e.g. big lead, soft lead, dirty lead; strings pad, bright pad, classic synth pad). There are some excellent recreations of patches from classic synthesizers -- the CS-80, Jupiter-8, Minimoog, Prophet-5, DX7, to name a few. You can browse sounds by instrument, or by category, and you can "like" the sounds you want to get back to quickly. I also bought Arturia's Pigments software, which is compatible with the Astrolab. If you wanted, you could create your own sounds with Pigments, and load them into the Astrolab. For now, I'm still exploring all the beautiful presets (there's a lot of 'em).

The acoustic piano sounds are also excellent, and the key action on the Astrolab hits a perfect balance between the weight you want for playing piano, and the lighter action for playing synth leads. The Astrolab is also very heavy and very well-built.

If you want a hardware synth for making your own sounds from scratch, this isn't it. I don't really enjoy making sounds from scratch, but I have the best time exploring these patches and tweaking them to my heart's content.

There is enormous value in this machine. It sounds great, it feels great, and it has dramatically improved my creative workflow in the studio. Outstanding.

If you're a guitarist looking at keyboard, boom. The sounds coming from it are fantastic (rock solid vsts). Where it lost me was being locked into their ecosystem, what was needed to be able to get finer controls over the vsts, and limited installs of their software and stuff because of their goofy DRM. As long as you're going in with your eyes open to everything, it's not bad, I just don't like DRM that goofy.

Let me start by saying this as amazing when it comes to synths. The sound quality of the synths is bar none. For leads, pads, electric pianos, it is absolutely perfect. But is has some problems that make it a challenge to use as a stage piano. First and foremost, some sounds which are absolutely required in a live band performance are just not good. For example, there's not a single string patch on the machine capable of delivering a high quality string sound like those found in "Viva la Vida" or "Call me maybe". The closest one on Augmented Strings has strange polyphony issues. Piano sounds are also mediocre. Any other casio, roland or yamaha keyboard has much higher quality piano and strings sounds. The second biggest issue is loading times when moving from patch to patch. I imagine because it's a computer, some patches just take 3 to 6 seconds to load, which is unacceptable firstly on stage at a performance and secondly at this price point. The integration with Analog Lab eventually does what it's supposed to, but at this point is buggy and poorly executed (I do expect this to change with software and firmware updates). Lastly, it has some issues with MIDI sync, and it won't let you "save settings" such that if you use expression and auxiliary pedals, you must adjust the settings every time you turn it on.

I'm finding myself having to think about a 2nd keyboard because-- mainly between the problematic loading times and lack of good pianos and strings-- this is just not good enough to cover requirements of a gigging piano.

Like many guitarists, I often have to play keys, too. I'm OK, but not as good as our band's regular keyboardist. I needed a keyboard that had lots of different high-quality sounds but didn't require too much expertise to play. The Astrolab fits the bill in lots of ways. I like the massive choice of sounds, the excellent keybed, and the ease with which you can adjust your sounds. Taken together, this makes the Astrolab highly enjoyable to play. Some people don't like the round display in the center, but I like it. It's easy to use, and navigating to different sounds is simple. Connecting to the Analog Lab software is easy, and you can easily add new sounds. I have two other keyboards - a Nord Piano and a Yamaha MX61. I've pretty much ignored those other two for the last three months - I'm just having so much fun with this new keyboard!

I am a drummer looking to add an instrument to the studio for learning music structure and theory. I knew it had to be something interesting that would allow me to also be creative.

The biggest differentiator for me is the ease of use in the interface. As a person who has never used a keyboard before or learned piano, I'm finding the AstroLab to be intuitive and ergonomic.

My bassist and guitarist both use Helix products and agree that the AstroLab is very much the keyboard equivalent. I expect this to be the new flagship from Arturia.

In a world of choices, the AstroLab 61 stands well above.
There are so many choices with it's hallowed software. The keyboard feels terrific, and the choices of instruments to play are almost overwhelming; there is just so much! If you buy the Arturia V Collection X Software Instrument Bundle, then the choices are even broader! (I did buy it!)
Pigments also add a sophisticated Virtual Wavetable Synthesizer with 1,500+ Presets, Parallel Engine Operation, Granular Synthesis, Harmonic Engine, Virtual Analog Modeling, Micro-tuning, Arpeggiator, FX, and Generative Sequencer.
It is going to take me a while just to look through everything. But from what I have looked at so far, it's a keeper!
Get yours and start losing your days today.

I have been using Arturia products for about twenty years now. So, I bought the Astrolab. The keybed feels wonderful. It's so easy to use with Analog Lab Pro, and sending patches to the Astrolab is simple. This is a well designed instrument with performance in mind. I was collecting too many synths recently. I will be selling most of them and keeping this one.

A bass player by trade I sometimes dabble with keyboards. This keyboard is amazing!! All of the sounds are usable and the possibilities seem endless. I haven't even gotten into the sounds online but imagine they will open up new chapters and ideas. Get yourself one of these. You won't regret it!

So, this is a first for me, to be the first to review an instrument here at Sweetwater. It should go without saying, that Sweetwater does the best job of any company when it comes to advising you on a purchase and servicing the product after the sale. Thank you to Sweetwater and my sales engineer, Jeff Jent for being a friend and quality supplier for many years. I've had my eyes on this purchase since Spring NAMM and wouldn't have pulled the trigger had I not received a favorable, "this thing is amazing!" response from Jeff, when I asked about it. Man, he was SOooo right.

I bought it for studio/song writing inspiration and thoughtless live performance and for those reasons, this thing is absolutely amazing! It's built for the stage and is so intuitive and easy to navigate the presets and playlists, yet is still tweakable enough in a live setting. The learning curve was literally less than 30 minutes and I mean that's knowing how to operate nearly everything I needed to know! Yes, there's plenty I can learn but I know all I need to know. It even came with a beautiful, printed manual with color pictures! Thank you, Arturia!!

The sounds are absolutely pristine! No other way to describe it. Whether you're recording your next top 40 album or playing a gig on Friday, this keyboard will have you sounding like a pro. I mean the sound quality is truly amazing at any level of music production.

The presets and instrument sounds are incredibly accurate replicas of many of the instruments they claim to replicate. I own a Nord Electro 6D, Prophet Rev2, an original Yamaha DX7, and an original Juno 1 among many others. I A/B compared these keyboards where I could and where it made sense in studio headphones and over the PA and they are, to my ear, nearly 100% indistinguishable in tone and sound quality. I never thought I would hear an instrument that could replicate piano and organ sounds as good as my Nord but I was wrong. I'm now selling the Nord which costs twice as much.

The sound editing and the ability to layer and split the keyboard to create your own combinations are limitless. Especially when you consider the free Analog Lab software that's included, which makes it easy to sit at your desk and edit your sounds, save them as a preset, and add them to your live playlist. So when you're on the stage, you just access and play what you need to with limited need to modify your sound, effects, and tone.

This is the one keyboard I've been waiting on for a really long time. I can't leave it alone, I've been sitting here playing for hours on end. I'm blown away everytime I turn the dial and hear a different preset. The semi-weighted key bed is favorable and easier to play that most but feels substantial and not like a cheap toy.

I've only had this instrument for a few days so I can't speak to longevity but it sounds killer and it's built like a tank weighing in at over 22 lbs. I'm 100% confident in Sweetwater's additional 1 year extended warranty program. I doubt I'll ever need it, but the one or two times in the past when I requested this additional assistance, they more than exceeded my expectations.


This was one of the easiest music equipment investments I've ever made and thanks to that, the Arturia Astolab is our newest and best sounding member of our band.