Spectrasonics Keyscape Announced

[David Polich]

For the record, folks over at Gearslutz are already bashing it. But then, Gearslutz people have to bash everything..

[HCMarkus]

I'm not gonna bash any Spectrsonics product and love Stylus and Omnisphere. For me, I just don't think I want to spend the cash on Keyscape at this time.

Back when smooth jazz was all the rage, I might have felt differently.

Waxman, I won't have to kill; don't worry. I (generally) abhor violence. And I'm not trying to hide secrets. I am, however, a big fan of a meat and potatoes Ac Piano, Wurli and Rhodes and, as noted in my last post, start from there. I'll have to look at what I do next time I get a break, but for now, simply saying I fit the sound to the need at hand at the moment will have to do.

[Killahurts]

In the early 80s I used to do sessions in a little studio in Costa Mesa called Front Page. Eric Persing did sessions there as a sound designer. He was doing insane things with stacking sounds, D-50s, samplers, Yamaha TG stuff and classic analog synths. He would have these patches in his Roland Sampler. It was the infancy of Atmosphere and Omnisphere. He would have the stacks all on a card and take the card and proprietary cables with him when he went to lunch. The guy was seriously ahead of his time. Now he will sell the secrets for $399. I think I'll pay for it...

Thanks for posting that story, very cool! I've always had tremendous respect for Eric's work.

I remember when Omnisphere was released, I wanted it but kept thinking 5 bills was a lot of $$ for a software synth.. still, it contained the Symphony of Voices sounds I used every day on my Roland and Akai samplers, so convenience won. Ended up being one of the best purchases I ever made, of course. I have a feeling if I were to demo these Keyscape pianos, I'd spend the $399 whether I had the budget or not.

[waxman]

Waxman, I won't have to kill; don't worry. I (generally) abhor violence. And I'm not trying to hide secrets. I am, however, a big fan of a meat and potatoes Ac Piano, Wurli and Rhodes and, as noted in my last post, start from there. I'll have to look at what I do next time I get a break, but for now, simply saying I fit the sound to the need at hand at the moment will have to do.

hahaha Thanks Marcus. I just wondered if you had found some NI Ultimate 10 secrets. I like Ultimate Pianos, and FM 8 has cool Rhodes. I also have the Arturia IV collection which is sounding great to me. But the Keyscape sounded that step up on the demos. I use NI a lot but I did not see anything I wanted in Ultimate 11. So instead of updating Ultimate 10 to 11 I'm thinking Keyscape for me.

[waxman]

For the record, folks over at Gearslutz are already bashing it. But then, Gearslutz people have to bash everything..

There is a dude over there that thinks we have a secret insider MOTU Cabal... James is the evil sith lord and I'm the ring leader. I find it entertaining. Wait until they find out Monkey Man is the real MK Ultra Mind Control guy.

[Killahurts]

Gearslutz? Nobody goes there anymore, too crowded.

[waxman]

Gearslutz? Nobody goes there anymore, too crowded.

Just some wing nut slamming on Mnation. Don't they have a life?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

What is this "life" you speak of?

[waxman]

What is this "life" you speak of?

A Job

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Been a long time since I held a "job" job.

[Killahurts]

Have a job. When I finish it, I get a new job.

[HCMarkus]

Have a job. When I finish it, I get a new job.

Gosh, that sounds like work!

[mhschmieder]

I may have to reconsider this product, after Dave's comments and a review by an Impact Soundworks developer at vi-control.net who said today that these are the best e-pianos on offer and that the Yamaha C7 that competes with his own peal Piano product isn't exactly bad either as long as one mic is enough.

What the other reviewer says is that the limitations of Kontakt for effects (a reason given by Gospel Musicians for why they switched to UVI from Kontakt), are crippling when it comes to e-pianos. You can use plug-in VST's/AU's later on, but to be frank, the only one worth considering is the Overloud effects suite that used to be part of Scarbee's range, and even that one isn't as good as the "real deal" in hardware.

So, apparently, between highly accurate and realistic phasing and chorusing for the Rhodes and Clav and great wah-effects for the Clav, those two are tops right now. And I believe both that reviewer and Dave Polich own or have experience with close to 100% of what is available and therefore have a complete perspective on this (often, people will say "best ever" and not realize they haven't tried three others that are as good or even better).

I have a fair amount of Rhodes on my current Jazz album so may have to consider this new Spectrasonics product before my final mixes are frozen.

For a few years, Gospel Musicians was my top Rhodes choice, then recently I switched to UVI's Tines collection (which might be a revised version of MOTU's Electric Keys?) and now much prefer it -- especially due to it covering every Rhodes model ever released.

If only this product were cheaper... my living expenses doubled recently and I have to be super-careful about my budget as now I'm back to where I was three years ago regarding semi-disposable income geared towards my barely-lucrative "side business" in music.

[labman]

I have a fair amount of Rhodes on my current Jazz album so may have to consider this new Spectrasonics product before my final mixes are frozen.

print it with the Rhodes you wrote it with MH.

Then write more. Like Doritos.

[mhschmieder]

Nope, I don't work that way. The Rhodes I wrote it with was an ancient Yamaha MOTIF, as that was the first part from the original version, before it became a real song or two. I have seriously improved the arrangements in that time, as well as the performances, through editing and re-playing.