Alicia's Keys - Piano samples

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

Here's my first hour of experience with Alicia's Keys

 

Packaging and contents

· A very nice looking box with atmospheric photos

· One DVD containing the Kontakt 4 player needed to play the samples

· One DVD containing 7 Gb of packed samples

 

The free Kontakt 4 player can also be downloaded from the website (which I did).

 

Installation

20 minutes of installation time and 5 minutes spent on the license activation.

 

First you install the Kontakt 4 player, then the samples.

 

You register your product online via the activation button in the plug-in, and then type in your serial number found on the back of the DVD jewelbox.

 

Be aware that the activation window may be hidden behind the Logic Pro window after you've opened it, so look for it in the dock.

 

After activating the product you should quit and restart Logic Pro or you will be running in demo mode.

 

How does it work

Alicia's Keys opens as an instrument in the Kontakt player, found in the Libraries pane.

 

Using scripts and built-in convolution processing you have full control over various aspects of the piano such as room sound and reverb, stereo image, and artist/audience perspective.

 

When using the 01 Dry setting there's no additional ambience added. The very faint "tail" is in fact the tapering of the strings.

 

You also have control over some of the more subtle aspects such as finger attack latency, sympathetic resonance and microphone noise.

 

Probably my only point of critique with the plug-in: I quickly found that even using a Logic Pro/sound card buffer of 128, I preferred even less latency when playing. I changed the finger latency (in the Keys menu) from the default 50% to 0%. This subtly changes the sound of the attack, too.

 

I preferred to add some low microphone noise, which I activated in the Noise menu and set to +2 dB.

 

How does it SOUND

Well, it sounds pretty bloody brilliant. It's like having a real piano in front of you. Obviously this depends on your speakers' capabilities but it sounds extremely realistic.

 

Comparing this to the stock Logic grand piano samples is like comparing sex with someone you love to beating the monkey in the shower.

 

One of the first things I noticed is the natural openness and complete lack of ugly lower mid resonance build-up that so many piano recordings suffer from.

 

The second thing was the natural sound of playing at maximum velocity, nothing metallic or harsh about it, but it's not muffled either. This is another issue with most piano samples.

 

The final thing I noticed is both a strong and a weak point (for some). It's not an idealized piano - it's Alicia's piano. This means that some keys sound slightly different than others at the same velocity. In other words: it's got a bit of personality.

 

I can't think of anything really bad to say. Except that I now feel my 61 keys MIDI keyboard is too small. I need more keys to enjoy the full range, especially in the lows. You can transpose, of course, and I recommend you do that in Logic Pro - not inside the plug-in, which can cause problems with the layers being offset.

 

Alicia's Keys easily beats any other piano plug-in I have and have used. In fact I prefer this to the real Steinway recordings we did.

[dkgross]

thanks for the details!!!!! I don't suppose you have Synthogy Ivory to compare it to, do you?

 

Yeah..ya gotta get a bigger controller. As much as I'm not a huge fan of the action, the M-Audio Keystation 88es is a good, inexpensive controller. Not cluttered with a lot of CC knobs/faders, and stuff. Just a decent controller.

 

now ya make me want to get the plug in. damnit. I was holding out for the Ivory II upgrade next month.

 

[route-electrique]

As much as I'm not a huge fan of the action, the M-Audio Keystation 88es is a good, inexpensive controller. Not cluttered with a lot of CC knobs/faders, and stuff. Just a decent controller.

 

Yeah, i like that keyboard since it dosen't have anything extra, in the end i guess i end up buying Fatar, even it takes double space from my desk .

[scrofani]

Does Alicia's Keys do sympathetic string resonance?

[Jordi Torres]

You also have control over some of the more subtle aspects such as finger attack latency, sympathetic resonance and microphone noise.

 

J.

[scrofani]

Right. Sorry, I wasn't clear:

 

I wonder if it only works with the damper pedal; or will higher notes ring if their keys are simply held down while a lower note (which contains those notes in its harmonic series) is played. I believe that Kontakt scripting can handle such possibilities.

[Jordi Torres]

According to the manual, it does sympathetic resonance without the pedal also

Check it out, you can downloadit from NI's website:

 

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/powered-by-kontakt/alicias-keys/

 

J.

[Charlemagne]

Somebody has posted a review on YouTube along with a couple more videos of him playing through various presets. It actually sounds quite good.

 

[dkgross]

VERY nice demo.

 

Damnit

[QT]

Awesome, just awesome lagerfeldt! I'm sold on this!

[danielxavier]

Man I'm blown away by this...and that's through cheap Logitech computer speakers sitting directly on my 120 year old piano with the sub underneath.

 

Now I need a better controller(key-bed)..dang it!

Torn between Axiom Pro 61 and KeyStation 88/61es...any users in here with opinions?

 

Thanks

D.

Edited April 13, 2010 by danielxavier

[Matt Mayfield]

If you need 88 keys on a very tight budget, the Keystation 88es is a decent value for the money - but that's not saying much.

 

The construction is cheap and the action is mushy and undefined: too stiff for a good synth action, but no satisfying clear point where the hammer hits the string like a real piano or high quality weighted keyboard.

 

But, it's 88 keys for US$200. That's $2.27 per key.

[dkgross]

I agree with Matt's asessment of the 88es...which is probably why I like it now that I'm used to it.

 

I've never had an action on a keyboard that I liked more than my 76 key Triton Extreme. Perfert for synth, organ stuff...and it felt fine doing piano stuff. To me, 88 key weighted controllers are fine if you're doing piano, but doing organ, synth, etc, just 'feels' wrong (especially organ stuff). The 88es is a fairly acceptable compromise (and ya can't beat the price!!!). Just takes a while to get used to the mush and springyness of it. I love having the extra keys for keyswitching synths (lots of the PLAY library, etc...)

 

Just a matter of playing it a bunch and getting used to it.

[danielxavier]

It's not like I'm an accomplished piano player so the supposed better key-bed of the Axiom Pro probably won't make much of a difference unless the 61/88es lacks decent dynamic velocity range.Something I can test in the store I guess.

 

In order to justify the advantage of spending 2x as much for the Axiom Pro I really need to try it for a few days to see if I really would use all of it's capabilities. I doubt the key-bed is 2x better.Hmm..maybe I can rent one.

 

Thanks guys

 

D.