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The Arturia Origin is a grand technical achievement, a true virtual modular synth cast in hardware. Its sound quality and deep programmability bowled us over when we reviewed the desktop module in June 2009. With its flip-up control panel, the Origin Keyboard aims to be a more integrated and inspiring instrument.

Overview

This review focuses on new features of the OS (version 1.3.23 as of this writing) and on things only the keyboard version can do. If you’re new to the Origin, read our original review first at keyboardmag.com/article/96559 .

Drawing on the modeling developed in Arturia’s soft synths, the Origin emulates the distinct characters of the oscillators, filters, and other components of four famous analog synths: the ARP 2600, Minimoog, Roland Jupiter-8, and Yamaha CS-80. There are also generic oscillators (and other modules) that sound great but use less DSP, and wavetable oscillators to provide digital waveforms.

You can freely arrange and connect these elements in an onscreen rack, creating frankensynths that would otherwise require a lot of time, money, and soldering. You can tweak the results (and the factory sounds) with a geek’s garden of knobs during your performance. Rounding it all out is a three-track, 32-step sequencer.

You can also set ranges for splits and layers by pressing keys right on the keyboard.

Axel Hartmann, who’s pretty much the Ferdinand Porsche of the synth world, penned the physical design. Beyond being aesthetically striking, the substantial flip-up panel of the Origin Keyboard puts all the controls right in your face. You don’t have to look down at them or bend your neck, even slightly. This makes prolonged work much less fatiguing. I do wish Arturia had included a panel latch for transport. If you carry the unit with the bottom against your hip and the key lips pointing up, the panel tends to flip open unless you press a forearm against it, which is somewhat awkward. Also, you can’t put this sexy beast on the bottom of a two-tier stand, but who would want to?

Keyboard and Aftertouch

The action is quiet and fast, with textured black keys and a good amount of weight for a synth action. Octave shift buttons, which the desktop version lacks, are a welcome addition here.

Almost nothing these days has true polyphonic aftertouch (the Infinite Response Vax-77 is a notable exception), but Arturia has added significant expressiveness with “duophonic” aftertouch, a feature exclusive to the Origin Keyboard. At the global level, you can decide whether only the highest, lowest, or last note played is affected when you apply pressure to any key. I found last-note priority to be the most musically useful, as I could build chords a note at a time, adding aftertouch (or not) to each note as I went along.

A perennial complaint about aftertouch is that as you press down, the effect on the sound goes from nothing to full blast too quickly. The Origin Keyboard solves this with adjustable re...