Panel B is where you control the electric piano model itself. EP-3 is all modeling and no samples, and you can tweak each and every “physical” component. In the Mallet section, you can dial in both the hardness of the hammer and how hard it strikes the tine, then apply keyboard and velocity scaling to each of these separately. The Fork section has knobs for the volume, tonal, and decay characteristics of both the tines and the tone bars. Key scaling for the tines creates more or less “ping” as you play higher or lower on the keyboard. Finally, the adjustments you’d make to a real Rhodes using a screwdriver (see “Inside the Rhodes” on pages 26–27) live in EP-3’s Pickup section: volume (a factor of the tine-to-pickup distance) and timbre (changes resulting from how in-line the tines are with their pickups). Also in this section is the single most important control in EP-3: a Pickup Type toggle with R and W settings. Even though the Wurly’s sound was about a lot more than its pickups, W is the only setting in EP-3 that makes it sound like a Wurly — but boy, does it ever! In fact, though both are inspiring and addictive to play, I think EP-3 actually does a slightly better Wurly than it does a Rhodes. That’s odd, because Panel B suggests that Applied Acoustics took the Rhodes, not the Wurly, as their starting point.
Sonically, all these controls add up to highly realistic electric piano sounds, but also to the possibility of unrealistic ones. I found that making the Mallet force too velocity-sensitive produced a “velocity-switched” quality, even though EP-3 is a modeling program with no samples to switch. Also, while the tine ping on a real Rhodes can be inharmonic in relation to the sustained note, EP-3 sounded a bit too much so when I turned its mallet stiffness and tine volume too far up in relation to the tone bar — it sounded like ring modulator or FM synth.
These are minor gripes, especially considering that the preset browser, which is always open to the left of either panel A or B, is full of great sounds that have no such quirks. Some are named after classic songs, such as “Riders on the Storm,” which is dead-on.
INSTRUMENTS
Rhodes Mk I and Mk II, Wurlitzer.
PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED
Nov. ’06 (original version, Nov. ’02).
PLUG-IN FORMATS
Mac: AudioUnits, VST, RTAS, (Pro Tools 7 only), standalone. PC: DXi, VST, RTAS, standalone.
PROS
Exhaustive electric piano model lets you adjust every aspect of every internal component. Killer factory presets. Highly configurable effects.
CONS
Tine “ping” can sound synthetic if set too high.
BOTTOM LINE
The industry leader for realism and tonal flexibility.