Favorite electric piano VIs?

chrispick · Post by **chrispick** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:24 am

I'm thinking about getting a new VI (or sample package) to upgrade my Rhodes and Wurlitzer sounds. I'd like something as authentic as possible. Real-world kinds of electric piano timbres. What are you folks using?

kwiz · Post by **kwiz** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:57 pm

I recently got NI's Electrik Piano and it sounds incredible to me.
It's very responsive and has some cool presets emulating the gamut of Rhodes and Whurly sounds.

Check it out - http://www.nativeinstruments.com/index. ... ikpiano_us

hamfist · Post by **hamfist** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:32 pm

i like the electrik piano vi too. you may want to check out scarbee's vintage keyboard collection as well. i've heard it's unsurpassed for realism.

http://www.scarbee.com/products/vkc/index.php

dspirlock · Post by **dspirlock** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:02 pm

I use Lounge Lizard from Applied Acoustics. I really like the sound of it. They use some top notch physical modeling algorithms (they have detailed info about it on their website) and they just released a new version:

http://www.applied-acoustics.com/loungelizard.htm

yofo · Post by **yofo** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:38 pm

Lounge Lizard and NI's Electrik Piano are amazing but also Reason has a FREE downloadable electric piano that is great.

builder · Post by **builder** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:15 am

I have been in search of the best Rhodes\Wurli sounds for a while now. I own Lounge Lizard 2 which sounds ok but the attack seems off in someway. It is realy cool to make new sounds out of and the effects are great. I might get Verson 3 since it's only 50$ upgrade
Elektrik Piano is an all around good choice because of the 4 pianos and they sound good. The price is good and if you know a public school teacher (which I am), or a college student (which I also am) you can get it for 100$ at academicsuperstore.com. The Rhodes are best sounds, followed by the clav, and then the Wurli.
The best Rhodes and Wurli sounds (In my humble opinion) are the Scarbee sample set. I bought the Wurlizer samples on ebay for 150 and use it in Kontakt. My buddy has the Rhodes sounds and they are just awsome.... They are also about 1.5GB each so I guess they should sound good. The largest sample bankl has 16 velocity layers for each note plus the 16 release layers. The offer the Vintage Keyboard Collection for 350$ I think and it include the Rhodes, Wurli, and Clav with Halion Player.

rknaub · Post by **rknaub** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:06 am

Check out Scarbee samples as well.

www.scarbee.com

Cheers

Randy

raveon · Post by **raveon** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:40 am

and don't for get to try this freebie before spending money....when used with efx(chorus,etc...), it sounds killer.....mda electric piano

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/148.html

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:49 am

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how the Electric Pianos in Mach Five perform? Do they rate with any of the ones mentioned here? Or are they just general MIDI junk?

I have Mach Five, but I haven't heard the samples listed above, so I'm just trying to get an idea for the range we're talking about. I've heard some pretty decent ones on my Kurzweil 2600, but I'm not a Rhodes afficionado, so I may not know the difference.

By the way, if you like to know a little about your instruments, this page may be interesting to you all. It's a "museum" of electronic instruments, and it tells in great detail--via Flash animation--how Rhodes and others were made, and shows their action in action.

Shooshie

fokof · Post by **fokof** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:21 am

I really love the lx pianos that came with MACH5....

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 12:27 pm

linwood, I just grabbed BFD & I'm not too knocked out, how is scarbee XL compared to that?

chrispick · Post by **chrispick** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 12:44 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. I listened to a lot of demos.

My opinion right now: The Scarbee stuff sounds the best, although the NI stuff is pretty good. More texture with the Scarbee stuff.

My only reservation in purchasing the Scarbee is the need for a Steinberg key. I already have an iLok key for other stuff. Do the two co-exist on friendly terms?

How many USB holes must I plug before I'm satisfied (place obligatory orifice sex joke here)?

BTW: I've also come to the conclusion that I'd rather have an excellent Wurlitzer VI than a bunch of decent Rhodes. Just a taste thing. Guess I'm a Wurly man, all said and done.

You heard me, Governor Schwarzenegger.

BTW2: I already have a bunch of e-piano sounds in Mach Five (native library and Hollow Sun) and Reason Adapted, but I'm looking for the "real deal" via VI. I think I'm close.

BTW3: The new Scarbee Imperial XL drums sound really cool. I have BFD and really like it for "room-sounding" kits (gotta UAD-1 it to make it crack and thud right), but the Scarbee would be a nice complement (more intimately mic-ed, I think).

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:29 pm

hey thanks linwood - I'll check out the XL drums. I've got a DW kit in my studio - too bad I can't play it that well! As for Rhodes & Wurly's I've been using my Mark V Rhodes (hard to beat the real deal) but I've also been enjoying the sounds in my Nord Electro2.

dtobocman · Post by **dtobocman** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:37 pm

The stock wurli in the kontakt 2 library is killing me! I also like the wurli samples on the 60s and 70s keyboards soundblock I bought for my Roland JV2080. If you've got kontakt, check out the wurli... it's about the best thing in the stock library.

The Rhodes samples that came with MachFive are really nice -- much better than the Roland soundblock (which sounds like the Rhodes I played for years in my wedding band back in the day... not vibey at all).

My favorite "Rhodes" type sound, I have to admit, is the soft rhodes patch from the M1 expansion card. I may have to buy the korg legacy VI at some point. This one patch has got "the spook"... heavy vibe.

builder · Post by **builder** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 6:42 pm

The Scarbee is avaibable in Kontakt format..... just in case you though you had to go with Steinberg.

And you won't be dissapointed with the WEP.....