|
 |
KeyboardMag.com >> This Month >> Native Instruments Elektrik Piano
Skip to [ Story Content and jump story attachments ]
Click on the Images
(Mac, PC) $229
Native Instruments Elektrik PianoNative Instruments’ approach to the Rhodes, Wurly, and Clav is 180 degrees from that of Lounge Lizard. Rather than model every widget inside the keyboards and inundate you with controls for how these things interact, they went with sampling and kept the interface dead simple. Each of the four instrument banks has an “Essential” preset with no effects, and to get things like effects or a three-band EQ, you simply load a new preset. This introduces some limitations, because there are only four assignable knobs onscreen, and their functions change to control the current preset’s featured settings. For example, the “Essential” presets all have a knob for key-release noise, but if I change to “Mk I Phaser,” those four knobs are now phaser settings. Can I have my phaser and my key-release knobs at the same time? Nope — that’s the trade-off for simplicity. To get more control, my advice would be to stick to the “Essential” preset, then insert other effect plug-ins on Elektrik’s instrument channel in your host software. Elektrik’s largest sample sets weigh in around the 60–70MB range, and can stream from disk. Stay away from the “small” samples — they’re audibly short on dynamics and expressiveness. To my ears, “Mk I Essential” sounds exactly like a Rhodes Mk I Suitcase in brand-new condition: on the gentle side, with a bell tone that’s pronounced but not overwhelming. The mod wheel brought in a beautiful stereo tremolo. When I hit the keys hard, I got the amount of bark and pop I’d expect from a cared-for, calibrated Rhodes, i.e. nowhere near the extremes that are possible with Lounge Lizard. At times I wished it could get a little more rude. For Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” or Bob James’ Taxi theme, I could play Elektrik for hours, but I couldn’t find anything in the Mk I or Mk II banks to evoke that scene in The Blues Brothers where Ray Charles shows Jake and Elwood that there’s “nothing wrong with the action” on the Rhodes in his music store. If I have little to say about the Wurly, that’s only because it gave me everything I wanted and nothing I didn’t. The Clav is sampled from an E7, the model that improved upon Hohner’s D6 with reduced hum and tougher construction, but was otherwise identical. I borrowed a real E7 for comparison, and Elektrik nailed it. In fact, the low end had a certain warmth that I couldn’t quite coax out of Apple Logic Pro’s über-tweakable EVD6 (see page 30). On the other hand, Elektrik doesn’t provide the realistic filter and pickup rocker switches that you get with EVD6. INSTRUMENTS PREVIOUSLY REVIEWED PLUG-IN FORMATS PROS CONS BOTTOM LINE |
Keyboard Magazine is part of the Music Player Network.