So what's the concensus on Electric Keys!?

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halcyo
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So what's the concensus on Electric Keys!?

Post by halcyo »

I'm dyin' to know if the thing rocks or not. I am in the market for an EP library, and I've been hoping for the best from this one, but I've been wary after feeling a little let down on Symphonic Instrument....

What's the word?


halcyo
CWoodONe
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Re: So what's the concensus on Electric Keys!?

Post by CWoodONe »

halcyo wrote:I'm dyin' to know if the thing rocks or not. I am in the market for an EP library, and I've been hoping for the best from this one, but I've been wary after feeling a little let down on Symphonic Instrument....

What's the word?


halcyo
I'd say it's definitely better than SI, which has a different engine, and was just downright disappointing all around. It's competently sampled, and has some unusual instruments. But overall, it's not as detailed, IMHO, as the Scarbee set and the sampling engine is nowhere near Kontakt. So after living with it awhile, it's OK, but really nothing to write home about. I can't honestly say "it rocks"..... but it's not an embarrassment to Motu like SI is.
DP 5.1, Ableton Live 6 Beta, Cubase, Absynth 3, BFD, Ivory, Cameleon, Tassman, Dimension Pro, Rapture, Kontakt 2, Minimoog V, Reason 3, Reaktor 5, Mac Pro, Trigger Finger, Axiom 25, Axiom 49
halcyo
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Post by halcyo »

I was worried it might not blow my mind. It sounds like I'd love the Scarbee set, but I would also have to pony up for a sampler, as I don't have a compatible format sampler. I guess I'd maybe pick up MachFive and Scarbee? That sounds expensive!


Anyone else?


halcyo
Jed
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Post by Jed »

I'm wondering given that I am not a pianist, don't have golden ears and am a DP noobie - if MOTU's Electric Keys might still make the most sense given the range of instruments, simplicity and affordability? By the time I can hear / take advantage of the differences a whole new crop of sampled libraries and rendering engines will be available, no?

cheers,
noisetree
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Post by noisetree »

I´m worried because I bought SI when it came out,and it was was a big
disappointment.But I´m so faithful to motu that I order Electric Keys anyway...
But the silence about it scares me a lot. Hope I will be happy this time.
noisetree
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Post by CWoodONe »

Jed wrote:I'm wondering given that I am not a pianist, don't have golden ears and am a DP noobie - if MOTU's Electric Keys might still make the most sense given the range of instruments, simplicity and affordability? By the time I can hear / take advantage of the differences a whole new crop of sampled libraries and rendering engines will be available, no?

cheers,
I think it's 'OK', but there's a lot missing, I think. The installation routine was really a disaster, it was as if they'd never even checked it. The samples are "OK", but the engine has very little flexibility - being able to adjust loop points, etc would have made a big difference. After living with it a few weeks now, I don't think it's as good as the competition - Scarbee in particular. Not sure there's any advantage for DP users over any other plugin, since the engine wasn't written specifically for DP. Really not much
buzz over this one, not much distinguishes it in a really crowded field of
Rhodes/Hammond samples. And the Mellotron, honestly, is dreadful compared to GForce or Sonic Reality's trons. So altogether, it's not bad, but it's not a bargain price-wise, it has a dongle, and just doesn't shine out at all among the rest of the Rhodes/Hohner/Hammond sample libraries.I had really been hoping for more, particularly the Yamaha electronic pianos which have a LOT of tonal/sustain variations that are entirely missed in this set. The Tron samples are pretty useless also. So altogether, it's not the disaster that SI was, but it's certainly nothing to get very excited about.
Not an inspiring set, at least for me, and I grew up with Wurlies, Rhodes, and Hammonds... and even had a Farfisa combo with spring reverb!
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noisetree
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Post by noisetree »

Too bad! And 40G of samples!!!
I hate to send back an order.It is like when give my word and then I
fault.Maybe this time I can send it back...
noisetree
CWoodONe
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Post by CWoodONe »

noisetree wrote:Too bad! And 40G of samples!!!
I hate to send back an order.It is like when give my word and then I
fault.Maybe this time I can send it back...
noisetree
I'm not saying it's bad, just that I think Motu could really have done better...
it's competent, but nothing sets it apart from the crowd. But if you don't have other alternatives around for Rhodes and Hohner's, it's fine... it's a great set, just not the last word in sampled keys.....
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elcabong
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Post by elcabong »

Well, I must say, I'm a bit surprised that more people aren't liking this package. I bought this package almost exclusively for the rhodes pianos and for me nearly everything else is kind of a free toss in. I can never have too many Rhodes sims.

I mostly like the Rhodes to play in a solo style rather than background comping in a mix. And, for me, the Motu package really delivers. You get 4 or 5 really nice Rhodes and some great effects. I've also been playing around with the "expert settings" and getting some really nice grundgy sounds with it. I think the pianos have a nice range over the keyboard with a nice bark and not too much bell in the higher registers.

I also have Scarbee. I bought the keyboard bundle with the effects proc and I thought it was very expensive (maybe ~$100 more than the Motu package?) The problem for me with it was that you got a bunch of Horners and Clavs, but really only a single Rhodes. I'm a piano and keys type of guy and Clavs just don't do much for me. I was surprised that they put so much resources into that and only a single Rhodes. And the one Rhodes, though nice sounding, seemed a bit wet to me for solo style playing. A Wurly also comes with it too which is nice, but again, nothing special for me. So, all in all, the Motu package seemed to have more and better freebie throw ins for how I intend to use it.

Also, I have not been able to get the (very $$$) Scarbee effects processor to work with any other instrument. In Sonar, they claimed that I cannot use the LE version, though it works just fine with their product? I never got around to asking about why it didn't work with others in Cubase.

Well, I guess we all have our tastes, and it just depends on what you like and your applications.
CWoodONe
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Post by CWoodONe »

elcabong wrote:Well, I must say, I'm a bit surprised that more people aren't liking this package. I bought this package almost exclusively for the rhodes pianos and for me nearly everything else is kind of a free toss in. I can never have too many Rhodes sims.

I mostly like the Rhodes to play in a solo style rather than background comping in a mix. And, for me, the Motu package really delivers. You get 4 or 5 really nice Rhodes and some great effects. I've also been playing around with the "expert settings" and getting some really nice grundgy sounds with it. I think the pianos have a nice range over the keyboard with a nice bark and not too much bell in the higher registers.

I also have Scarbee. I bought the keyboard bundle with the effects proc and I thought it was very expensive (maybe ~$100 more than the Motu package?) The problem for me with it was that you got a bunch of Horners and Clavs, but really only a single Rhodes. I'm a piano and keys type of guy and Clavs just don't do much for me. I was surprised that they put so much resources into that and only a single Rhodes. And the one Rhodes, though nice sounding, seemed a bit wet to me for solo style playing. A Wurly also comes with it too which is nice, but again, nothing special for me. So, all in all, the Motu package seemed to have more and better freebie throw ins for how I intend to use it.

Also, I have not been able to get the (very $$$) Scarbee effects processor to work with any other instrument. In Sonar, they claimed that I cannot use the LE version, though it works just fine with their product? I never got around to asking about why it didn't work with others in Cubase.

Well, I guess we all have our tastes, and it just depends on what you like and your applications.
Those are some great points. I already had Rhodes sims and was really hoping for more from the rest of the set. With Scarbee, a lot can be accomplished by working within Kontakt, maybe these sample libraries would shine more in Mach V?
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noisetree
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Post by noisetree »

[quote="elcabong"]Well, I must say, I'm a bit surprised that more people aren't liking this package. I bought this package almost exclusively for the rhodes pianos and for me nearly everything else is kind of a free toss in. I can never have too many Rhodes sims.

I mostly like the Rhodes to play in a solo style rather than background comping in a mix. And, for me, the Motu package really delivers. You get 4 or 5 really nice Rhodes and some great effects. I've also been playing around with the "expert settings" and getting some really nice grundgy sounds with it. I think the pianos have a nice range over the keyboard with a nice bark and not too much bell in the higher registers.

I also have Scarbee. I bought the keyboard bundle with the effects proc and I thought it was very expensive (maybe ~$100 more than the Motu package?) The problem for me with it was that you got a bunch of Horners and Clavs, but really only a single Rhodes. I'm a piano and keys type of guy and Clavs just don't do much for me. I was surprised that they put so much resources into that and only a single Rhodes. And the one Rhodes, though nice sounding, seemed a bit wet to me for solo style playing. A Wurly also comes with it too which is nice, but again, nothing special for me. So, all in all, the Motu package seemed to have more and better freebie throw ins for how I intend to use it.

Also, I have not been able to get the (very $$$) Scarbee effects processor to work with any other instrument. In Sonar, they claimed that I cannot use the LE version, though it works just fine with their product? I never got around to asking about why it didn't work with others in Cubase.

Well, I guess we all have our tastes, and it just depends on what you like and your applications.[/quote]

And the rest fo the collection,How does it sound?
Nobody talks about clavs, organs, strings machines,
tape sampler and other electric keyboard instruments.
I´m confused!
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Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

I think the MP3s on MOTUs site say it all. Frankly, I think the "stand alone" sounds of the instrument are pretty crappy. Aside from what I consider to be extremely poor contrapuntal writing - but I digress - the "classical" example sounds thin and anemic.

Even the basic PlugSound Pro patches are a better choice in terms of the keyboards and take a heck of a lot less HD space. You can also find a fair number of decent keyboard sounds in MachFive and get a boatload of other sounds as well.

MOTU hasn't really been able to master to external VIs very well, IMO. Ethnic was a bust; MX4 is nice, but there are a number of free AU synths that can cover much of the same ground - did I mention the word FREE? And Symphonic Instrument never really took off in a big way.

And don't even get me started on their "free - included in DP" VIs. I have yet to use one in a production.

Frankly, I'd prefer to see MOTU focus their resources to what they do best. DP, MachFive and hardware. All this other stuff is just spreading things a little too thin and it shows in the product.
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noisetree
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Post by noisetree »

This is so bad,but I´m going to tell the dealer in my country that I
don´t want this VI and no more motu´s VIs...I´m sad about this
because I was the one that told him(dealer) that electrik keys was going
to be hot!...I´m feeling so pathetic!!!
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Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

noisetree wrote:This is so bad,but I´m going to tell the dealer in my country that I
don´t want this VI and no more motu´s VIs...I´m sad about this
because I was the one that told him(dealer) that electrik keys was going
to be hot!...I´m feeling so pathetic!!!
noisetree
MachFive is truly awesome and MX 4 is decent. The rest... not so much (IMO).
2013 Mac Pro 32GB RAM

OSX 10.14.6; DP 10; Track 16; Finale 26, iPad Pro, et al

MIDI LIFE CRISIS
noisetree
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Post by noisetree »

Please,tell me only good reasons to stay with Electric Keys!!!
I can´t change my word now.Have to buy it!...The dealer ordered
it because of me...
noisetree
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