MOTUnation.com

Impressed.

Similarly to some others, I wasn't expecting to be impressed by this product, but... oops, I am. A lot.

It's encyclopedic in scope and really well executed; it's like an army of Scarbees were set loose into all of keyboard history to sample the bejeezus out of everything, electromechanicals, organs and synths included.

For the asking price, this is looking pretty much like a no-brainer, and I already own Scarbee keyboard gold bundle, which is as good as it gets for electromechanical territory. The new product wisely covers other bases.

Yes, I was going to comment earlier that Scarbee seems the closest comparison in terms of attention to detail and modeling of vintage effects.

I was even speculating earlier (before the recent detailed posting) that maybe MOTU had contracted Scarbee to reuse his stuff, but that seems clearly not to be the case due to the breadth of coverage.

I got the Scarbee stuff real cheap during a sale so have no regrets, whether or not I end up buying Electric Keys. Plus he's a nice guy and needed some help after the mess with the trademark issues when he had to rename all of his products. I notice MOTU is also careful but clever in their patch naming.

I'Mpressed

And i've noticed that included with this package is a amp simulator which looks very comprehensive indeed.

I wonder why they don't include this as a plugin in DP.

When i bought the MX4 I noticed then that the effects were far superior than found in DP.

The Chorus and reverb sounded so much better i couldn't believe it.

I'd like to see the whole FX package in DP so I can use it on other keyboard sounds and real Rhodes and Wurli recordings.
I was very surprised to see the Mellotron and String Machines in there.

kassonica wrote:I'Mpressed

And i've noticed that included with this package is a amp simulator which looks very comprehensive indeed.

I wonder why they don't include this as a plugin in DP.

When i bought the MX4 I noticed then that the effects were far superior than found in DP.

The Chorus and reverb sounded so much better i couldn't believe it.

Likewise, Mach5 has some plugins that would seem very useful in DP. MOTU seems to use those French guys for everything but DP. (or perhaps that's where DP comes from???) I wish they'd open up this stuff for wider access. Electric Keys is from the same place as MachFive, MSI, and MOTU Ethno, by the way.

Shooshie

Wow, like others, I was not expecting to be impressed by this product. When I heard the NAMM announcement I was all ho-hum about it.

But now? I think this is definitely going into my studio.

jloeb wrote:For the asking price, this is looking pretty much like a no-brainer...

Can someone please remind me what the asking price is expected to be? I couldn't find it on the MOTU site, but I think it was revealed in another thread.

I am among those who weren't that excited at first... and even while listening to the samples I was thinking that it sounds really good, but that I have a lot of sampled keyboards which are very similar. BUT THEN, I got to the Reed Electric Pianos and the Electric B Organs and I knew I would have to buy this. You can only resist so much deliciousness. There are numerous keyboards in this collection which I would be happy to use regularly.

And with regards to the "look" of the product, I remember complaining that the user interface for MachFive seemed to be rather cheesey, and suggesting that MOTU should try to make the skins more interesting by utilizing scratches and dings. Well they've done it with Electric Keys. It is visually stunning! I might have to load it up even when I'm not recording any keyboard parts.

Motu Electric Keys $279 at Sweetwater.com

Check it out
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ElectricKeys/

I'm buying my copy of Electric Keys, I was impressed by the instruments and the variety of sounds ie "w200" "Reed stuff" some of the cheesy sounds are going to be great for our 2D animated kids projects, and i like to support Motu financially, But I want DP6 Now!

I guess I'm one of those that HATES scratches, dings, coffee stains, etc. The impulse is to fix and clean, but it isn't possible, and so we just keep staring at a permanently broken or dirty interface .

kassonica wrote: I wonder why they don't include this as a plugin in DP.

When i bought the MX4 I noticed then that the effects were far superior than found in DP.

The Chorus and reverb sounded so much better i couldn't believe it.

You may have hinted at something very significant.

MOTU's plugin history in general took a step up once the MW stuff began to appear. It wasn't that long ago when a MOTU VI was unheard of, let alone MOTU cross-platform software (outside of audio and MIDI drivers).

The first batch of bundled instruments is really only about 2 years old even where other independent MOTU add-on instruments like MX4 made an earlier appearance. There is a real difference with features and in some cases "quality" between the freebies vs the buy-ies. I don't think this is unintentional.

But perhaps recent developments with EK and other MOTU VIs will serve as heralds for some of the quality improvements to come with DP6.

Whatever the case, things appear to be looking up in a big way.

mhschmieder wrote:I guess I'm one of those that HATES scratches, dings, coffee stains, etc. The impulse is to fix and clean, but it isn't possible, and so we just keep staring at a permanently broken or dirty interface .

Simple. In the Finder, select the icon, then Control-Click to "Open Package Contents." Then you poke around until you find the interface pictures -- probably PNG files, and then Photoshop is your friendly interface cleaner.


Shooshie

Indeed I agree and have suspected this for a while Frodo.


The quality of the MW EQ was an indicator IMO.

I remember quite a while ago they were advertising for plugin developers and I believe they must of hired a couple of good ones.

Yes the delay on DP6 is very good IMO

Take your sweet time motu

mhschmieder wrote:I was so surprised a few weeks ago when preliminary information began trickling out, as I didn't realise from the Winter NAMM announcement that this VI is meant to include all sorts of stuff like Mellotron, string synths, etc., and not just Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Clavinet.

Considering how many products now fill this space, that's probably the only way a new product would get attention . But I'm wondering if the product name will cause many to pass on by without taking a closer look, if they already have satisfactory Rhodes and Wurlitzer sources?

Likewise, I already have Komplete and wasn't really looking to replace Eleckrik Piano any time soon, which is what I assumed it was competing with, but once I read the detailed description, I'll definitely be getting it. I'm a prog-rock nut so a decent sampled mellotron is something I've wanted for a while.

For Rhodes, Clav, and Wurly, I think Electric Keys doesn't come close to Scarbee. It's less expensive than Scarbee's Keyboard Gold Bundle (which I have), and you get a lot more instruments. But if you want sheer realism and detail, Scarbee's Rhodes is just amazing. Scarbee's Virtual Keyboard FX rack is quite good too. I thought the EK demos were ok, but they didn't blow me away.