For my part, thanks to everyone for posting. I was considering an Arturia board, but these Astrolab defects, along with those of the Keylabs, have convinced me to look elsewhere.
despite the latest firmware and no matter how long I wait after a preset change, the first note is always missing on some presets. Horror! Arturia, at least that has to be fixed immediately! Is there at least any workaround?
Unfortunately, this is a known issue that affects specific instruments:
- Korg MS-20
- Synclavier
- Vocoder
- CMI
I understand that Arturia has been working on fixing those. Not sure when the firmware will include those fixes.
Workaround? Play a first “ghost note” just after loading any preset of those 4 instruments.
Sorry I don’t have a better solution at the moment.
thank you so much for your fast answer, I really appreciate that. And I also really hope FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, that Arturia fixes this bug(s) asap … Because like this it is a big “no no” for live …
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Besides fixing bugs,
I just want to say
+1 on allowing mapping of the expression pedal to Macro, or other parameters.
I would want to be able to, for example, control the knee lever function on the Farfisa with an expression pedal, if possible.
Same here… really need option to globally control volume with foot pedal… so I don’t have to have a hand free to adjust vol when switching presets live.
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(hope this is the right place)
After a year or so, I really love this machine, it sounds great, and does almost everything right.
Just one request that would make it close to perfect: shift press one of the preset keys to store the current preset in the current Playlist/Song. Just this one wish, pretty pretty please 
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I’ll second this smart request
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Hi Arturia, thank you already for this incredible synth! We want to take it really far and sometimes little things get stuck. Here are some cases that I have noted:
(I am more comfortable in French than in English, so sorry if the sentences are not all correct).
1 - The communication between Keyboard and Software is not fluid when editing a sound of the Keyboard from the Software while both are connected via USB. I end up building the sounds on software before transferring them to the keyboard.
If I edit the split between two stacked sounds, I sometimes have note or octave errors in the distribution.
Same in case of split if I play a note it sometimes ends up playing two octaves at the same time in the software, impossible to set its octaves and its split correctly from the software, I end up editing them from the keyboard.
Sometimes the “Octave transpose” do not follow between Keyboard and Software.
In all these cases I checked the octaves, the midi parameters, tried with another independent MIDI keyboard etc… nothing helps, when there are Split or “Transpose Octave” on stacked sounds, there are often problems.
2 - Really too bad not to have a MID parametric EQ on the 3-band EQ of the master. I am often forced to sacrifice an FX to add an EQ.
3 - I tried to assign from the software the rotary buttons to different parameters to make my sounds live while playing. No problem on software but some assignments do not work once the Preset is transferred to the Keyboard.
4 - In the different types of Delay offered, some do not follow their quantization. Ex: if I choose 1/16 I hear 1/8. If I choose 1/8 I hear exactly the same thing, that is 1/8….
Also the Analog Delay sometimes refuses to have two different values e.g.: L 1/8 + R 1/16, it will choose to play one or the other.
5 - In CHORD mode, you can record a custom chord, however the keyboard does not memorize the order of the recorded notes. This means that you cannot build an inverted chord since it necessarily considers the lowest note as the fundamental. Too bad the keyboard does not remember the order of the notes when you record this sequence, considering the first as the foundation of the Chord.
6 - PIGMENT: Super practical for using a sample and giving it life in Pigment. However, big problem on my side: each time I click on a Preset with samples the software asks me again for the access path of each of the samples, independently!!!
why does the software not memorize the access path? Should I put it in a specific folder?
why not just be able to choose a “folder” in which the synth would find the missing samples by itself?
7 - Managing presets and playlists is complicated, sometimes even a bit obscure:
you can have a Preset and save it under the same name without it overwriting the previous one despite the fact that I have the choice between “save” and “save as”.
When I enter a preset on the Keyboard, it is impossible to know where it really is if I do not put it in a playlist. So I think I can have duplicates without knowing it…
ex: I import a sound from the Keyboard to the Software. I delete it from the keyboard. I modify it and rename it in the software then put it back in the keyboard = my preset will automatically take back its old name, as if the Keyboard had remembered that it already existed before, or rather as if the sound had only been deleted from its playlist but not from its memory.
It would be great to have an overall view of the Presets in the keyboard, like a general folder of all Presets, and to be able to assign them to Banks, Playlists, Liked Presets, instrument types, etc. just to classify them and access them via its organization shortcuts.
Impossible to drag or save an entire playlist from the Keyboard to the Software
Impossible to create a Bank in the software from the Bank menu, you have to save a sound and create a new Bank. Overall, we would like to be able to classify and organize our sounds more easily than saving sounds by sounds.
8 - the central rotary button on the keyboard is not practical, especially when you have to click to validate, it often happens that the button turns rather than clicks.
Hoping that all this helps unlock the astrolab’s abilities
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I bought my Astrolab 61 a couple of months ago, pre-owned on Reverb. The lag between presets is a pain, that’s for sure, but my real concern is the display. Sometimes it just goes black. I can keep playing, and if by some miracle I was able to get my phone to connect to it can even see the presets there, I can still change presets with the knob, but the display just stays black until I turn it off and back on. Sometimes it’ll happen once and then not again for weeks. It’s happened 10 times in the past 2 hours today. That is a big problem for me.
@gregh : This is not normal behavior!
First, is your AstroLab power supply plugged into a stable power source?
As a second-hand unit from Reverb, did it come with the original power supply?
Then,
Have you tried the procedure to reset/re-initialize all settings described here under “Abnormal Behaviors”:
Also, it would be worth doing the 1.6.0 firmware update again using “Update from file” (after download the firmware update file on your computer) as described here:
If re-flashing the firmware and re-initializing the settings doesn’t fix the random “black screen” issue, you should contact Arturia Support to decide whether your unit should be inspected to be repaired or replaced.
Yeah. When I bought it, I had to update to 1
5, and I updated to 1.6 when it came out, and at first it only happened a couple times. Today is the first time it was really bad. Yes, original power supply, I’m going to try and factory reset once I’m done here and go home, hopefully I can get everything worked out before we tour this summer, but I guess I need to factory reset it to see if that solves everything.
FWIW, I had to revert back to firmware 1.50 from 1.60 due to several problems like a patch changing keys when selected, losing connection to the Sustain pedal and even an OS hang.
Hadn’t seen any of those issues in 1.50.
Sorry you experienced these issues with the 1.6. That is not the general experience.
I’ve been using 1.6 since it was released and never had a sustain pedal disconnect nor OS hang.
Did you try the “Abnormal Behaviors” procedure described above before going back to 1.5?
The key change glitch when changing presets is something that can happen in very very specific circumstances when moving the pitch bend wheel while switching presets, and moving the pitch bend wheel just a bit after changing preset fixes it. This has been reported and should be fixed in an upcoming update. Again, this can happen very rarely as multiple conditions need to happen at the same time to get a pitch offset in this case.
Whether or not it’s the general experience doesn’t really matter because each Astrolab users experience can differ significantly depending on their use of the keyboard.
In my case, I’ve got one large playlist containing 70 songs using 94 presets. Playing through all of those in several environments (both in a home studio and then in rehearsal with other performers) exposed the issues I mentioned.
After reverting back to v1.50 I haven’t yet had these issues surface.
I’m staying at 1.50 until there is a future system firmware release that adds significant functionality (like adding system volume control to the Expression pedal for example).
With the Jazz B-3 Organ factory preset I experience a pulsating hum at low frequency after having played. It can’t be stopped with the new “All sounds off” function. It stops only when I switch to another preset and play a single note there. With the B-3 Preset it looks like coming from the leslie-emulation.
Sometimes I had this phenomen with some other lead or bass presets. There the hum is low frequency but not pulsating
Hi @guenterp62 ,
There is nothing wrong.
B3-V2 presets can have background noise, if it’s added in the preset design. Background noise is emulated and is a parameter in B3-V2. It can only be removed, owning the full version of B3-V2.
Things like Drawbar Leakage are also emulated and can be added/ removed in the full version.
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+1, anyone who’s ever used one or stood next to one will know just how noisy the real things actually are, it’s part and parcel of their sound.
My old music teacher (RIP Barb) used to have a B3 and, not a Leslie cab (but i can’t remember exactly what it was) and a rotary speaker system in her music room.
Those things have BIG motors in them, larger than the average washing machine motor IIRC, metal drive chains and cogs, big heavy bits of metal spinning around inside a wooden cabinet… they’re not exactly silent! 
But that’s just ONE of the reasons we LOVE them!
Road crew HATE THEM WITH A PASSION as they’re so heavy!!!
The fact the noise you’re hearing is ‘pulsating’ is a bit of a clue, try changing the speed whilst it’s ‘silent’ and the pulses should change speed with it.
HTH!
Enjoy it, it’s a feature found in a real hardware B3!