Analog Lab Play is a free Arturia plugin with a simplified interface and V Collection and Pigments sounds

Arturia has embraced the trend for packing high-quality presets into accessible interfaces with Analog Lab Play, a simplified version of the existing Analog Lab plugin. What’s more, it’s free.

You get 100 presets to play with, lifted from Arturia’s V Collection instruments and Pigments synth. These can be browsed and tweaked in minimalist GUIs, with macro controls (Brightness, Timbre, Time and Movement) enabling you to make “playful and immediate” changes to your selected sound. There are also four effects: two modulation processors, a delay and a reverb.

Arturia is confident that Analog Lab Play’s design will enable you to find the kind of patch you’re looking for in a matter of seconds, and you can save your favourites for even quicker retrieval later on. 

You’ll also be able to download both free and ‘premium’ (which we guess means ‘paid-for’) expansions via Arturia’s Sound Store, with new content being added on a monthly basis.

The release of Analog Lab Play means that the pre-existing Analog Lab V will now be renamed Analog Lab Pro. This comes with more than 2,000 presets and costs $199, while an update means that it also gets the simplified ‘Play’ view.

Analog Lab Play runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats. Find out more and download it for free on the Arturia website.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it. 

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