In this video, Keyboard magazine editor Stephen Fortner reviews the Arturia MiniLab, a library of virtual analog soft synths from Arturia’s V-Collection.
The MiniLab comes bundled with a custom controller that is pre-mapped with all knob assignments for each software synthesizer.
If you’ve used the Arturia MiniLab, let us know what you think about it!
thats a fine looking controller, trash the software….
this thing costs as much as an Akai or a Korg mini keyboard and they don’t have any included software. You can simply not use it
I’d like to but I can’t get over the mini keys, it looks like a nice little controller.
I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago to use for relaxed late night editing. The keyboard sits next to the sofa and gets plugged in to my laptop as and when I need to use. I didn’t think I’d like mini keys at first, but to be honest I’m not playing classical piano on a two octave controller anyway! The analog lab software (providing you download the latest update from the Arturia website) is worth the price of admission – 5000 sounds of which 25% are instantly useable and the remainder sound pretty good. If you compare the controller with others in the price range it really is a great deal…
I’m concerned about knob resolution, I tried the Arturia Analog Experience Factory and while the quality of the keyboard and overall build was really good, as soon as I turned up resonance and swept the cutoff the stepping was all over the place. Could you comment on this?
I bought this controler and 5000 Arturia sounds with it for 89,-€ and it was money well spent. The sounds are top notch Arturia sounds. The knobs resolution is very good. I experienced no steping yet. But you have to be careful not to change the midi mode from Arturia ro standard midi CCs or you will get terrible problems. But in the introduction videos everything is explained. The controler also works wirh my iPad 2nd gen. The keybed is like Korgs microcorg. Microkorg XL keybed is better. but you can mot beat this price for the whole package. I love it!.
Yup, ditch the software and just make it a MIDI controller. That would be great 🙂
Yep and sell it for $99 bucks…
Oh wait, it is MIDI controller and it is $99 bucks 😉
hmm I have the analog lab already , can you buy the Minilab seperately?
He should sing though…
With the first version of analog lab I tried (1.01 I think) the stepping when using the controller was noticeable. There is a firmware update available for the keyboard and combined with the 1.04 version of analog lab it seems ok. I would like to be able to set up the rotary controllers to open and close the filter maximally in one turn – currently the resolution is higher, but getting really dramatic changes is harder – but at the price I’m more than happy.
I don’t work for arturia by the way!
I think there should be an “Accel” parameter you can set up in the editor software. Also, note relative and absolute modes respond differently. Play with those and please report back regarding stepping (using plugins other than Analog Lab if possible, I expect those to work great).
If all the presets are soooo cool, why are they all rated 2 out of 5? 😀
What’s the build quality like? Is it made of plastic, or is the white area metal?
This guy has such a badass voice. He probably does voice overs for movie trailers.
I was hoping it would be made out of metal – but it isn’t – its plastic. However it seems pretty stable. It’s solidly built without too much in the way of fancy styling to introduce weaknesses.
I am surprised all the presets are rated 2 out of 5 as default… but at least it means you can downrate the ones you don’t like!
I will have a look at using it to control other plugins – I have various controllers that I use normally so haven’t explored that much. I wasn’t intending on using the arturia as a controller for my whole rig!
I bought this just for fun. Something to do, make noices and play with and I’m more than happy with it! No, I not a pro muscian, just a happy amateur. Yes, it’s made of plastic, so what? I’m not planning a world tour with it, just to play on/with it at home. And me neither work at Arturia! Musically yours Lottie
I bought one of these and it was cool until they put out a firmware update that killed mine. All I see are blinking red lights, it’s not being recognized by my computer, and the Arturia support hasn’t got back to me in a week. Don’t buy it. My recommendation in the price range would be to get the Keith McMillen QuNexus … it doesn’t have the software instrumentation but it’s a much better controller. Unfortunately my Arturia minilab is already useless piece of junk.