Product Review - ArturiaAnalog Experience

Let’s start with the 49‑note velocity‑ and aftertouch‑sensitive keyboard. This is not just wider than the keyboards supplied with the Player and the Factory; it offers a greater range of facilities and more in the way of physical controls, with nine sliders (two ADSRs and Tempo), 13 knobs, 23 buttons (including 10 snapshot buttons that allow you to recall favourite patches from the keyboard) and four pads, as well as traditional pitch‑bend and modulation wheels. In addition to these, there are six buttons that send MMC messages (Start, Stop, Record, Backward, Forward and Loop) for transport control of hardware and software sequencers. Meanwhile, around at the back I was pleased to find five‑pin DIN sockets for MIDI In and Out, as well as the expected USB/MIDI socket, plus quarter‑inch sockets for no fewer than four forms of control: sustain, expression, ‘Aux’ and breath control. This is very sophisticated for a low‑cost system and, if you compare this with the 32‑note keyboard that comes with the Factory (which has no MIDI In, no Aux, no breath control input, no pads and fewer of the other controls), let alone that of the Player, it’s clear that it’s a big step up from its smaller siblings.