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The Lab is a great tool for idea creation.

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Having established itself as a company trading in high-quality emulations of some of the most coveted synths in history, it's been intriguing to watch Arturia move into the hardware market with products such as the Origin synth and Analogue Experiences.

In many ways, hybrid solutions of Arturia's twin product lines makes perfect sense and, previously, we've had a chance to spend some time with Analog Experience: The Factory that combines a huge number of presets with a hardware controller keyboard.

"The sounds are as good as ever and 'Scene Mode' will inspire ideas for studiophiles and performers alike."

We really liked The Factory but certainly found that, while the presets were engaging, limited control over their parameters was a frustration.

Meanwhile the keyboard didn't contain enough real-time tweakability. This time round, we're looking at the top-of-the-range hybrid. So let's get busy in the laboratory…

Lab control

Immediately upon shedding the keyboard's plastic wrapper, it's certainly clear that the hardware side of Laboratory is several stages further developed than its less-comprehensive next of kin.

With a 49-key playing surface, four drum pads, nine sliders, 10 rotary encoders, 10 snapshot buttons for preset 'scene' recall, transport controls, preset recall and real-time manipulation options in the form of pitch-bend and mod wheels, this screams of a more professional solution.

Round the back of the keyboard, you'll find the USB connection that supplies the dual purpose of transmitting MIDI data and supplying bus-power, alongside regular MIDI In and Out ports and inputs for Expression and Sustain pedals.

During our experiments with Factory, we found ourselves happy to leave the keyboard while exploring the software but the extended parameter control on Laboratory's keyboard left us reaching for it time and again as we edited sounds - the hybrid nature of this package is much more successful.

However, the real power of this hybrid solution resides in the software.

Software central

As with Factory, Laboratory ships with over 3,500 presets that are taken directly from Arturia's leading software synths, with sounds from the ARP 2600V, CS-80V, Jupiter-8V, Minimoog V, Modular V, Prophet V and Prophet VS instruments.

Laboratory provides a matrix through which sounds can be selected, either via the synths within Arturia's own collection, or via different sound categories including Bass, EFX, Pad, Strings and so on.

Alternatively, you can browse again via specific 'Characteristics', such as Ambient, Aggressive, Soft, Soundtrack or other musically relevant data. The functions of the keyboard are mapped to the software, so you'll find an exact replica of this surface via which you can edit as freely.

The only concession, to save space, is that the drum pads are arranged in a 2x2 matrix in software form, whereas they're in a 4x1 row on the keyboard.