In the panorama of acoustic piano libraries increasingly aimed at emulating every nuance of the real instrument, Native Instruments enters the field with a new idea of piano.
While remaining on the path of “severe” emulation, Alicia's Keys is in all respects a new product, aimed at a very specific sector and without claiming to be yet another heavy piano library aimed exclusively at classical use.
Installation
In the Alicia's Keys box (Fig.1) there are two DVDs. The first contains the Contact Player 4 (necessary if you don't already have an updated version of Kontakt or Kontakt Player). The second DVD contains the library installer. There is also the manual for the quick installation guide Kontakt Player. Like any Native Instruments software, this library will need to be activated through the Service Center after installation is complete. Recall that Kontak Player, in addition to being an AU, VST and RTAS plug-in, can be used in standalone mode thus allowing you to use this library without the need for a DAW or host for virtual instruments.
Fig.1
Technical information
- The minimum requirements to use Alicia's Keys are as follows:
- PC: Windows XP (SP2, 32 bit) or Windows Vista (SP1, 32/64 bit), Pentium or Athlon XP 1.4 GHz, 1 GB RAM
- Mac: OSX 10.5, Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz, 1GB RAM
- 7 GB of free disk space and of course a DVD drive.
- The product test was carried out both on a PC with 3 GHZ intel core I540-3,06 processor, 4Gb of ram memory, Windows 7 32-bit operating system and as a Cubase 5 host, and on an iMac with Intel Core 2 processor Duo at 2,66GHz, 4Gb of RAM with OSX 10.6 system, using both Logic Pro 9 and the standalone version of the Kontakt Player as host.
Description
This library was created by sampling exclusively the Yamaha C3 Neo by Alicia Keys, a limited version of the classic C3 with a cherry wood case and brushed aluminum finishes. A model born in 2002 perhaps more for a marketing operation than a new tone, as the sound is very similar to the standard C3. The supervision of the library was carried out by Ann mincieli (Alicia's studio technician and sound engineer) and da Thomas Scarbee (formerly famous for his electric bass and electric piano libraries, he is now part of the Native Instruments team). It took about two years of work in Alicia's Keys private studio to create this instrument, taking advantage of the best digital technologies and the warmth of the vintage microphones. No less than 12 levels of dynamics were sampled per key with and without damper pedal (with the possibility of emulating the half pedal) and to make this instrument even more realistic, the mechanical noises of the key release, the noise of the fingers on the keys and the sound of tapping the pedals. All these nuances can be managed and controlled via the interface, as we will see later. Note on the size of the library as this tool was created using the compressed format of Kontakt for samples, which drastically reduces the total size of the library. As already mentioned, in fact, only 7 GB of disk space are required, even if this library would “virtually” weigh almost 17 GB.
Interface
Just loaded with Kontakt or Kontakt Player the Performance View window is devoid of additional controls, but just press a button (Fig.2) to access the various editing functions. This is a shared philosophy, as often the professional musician wants a product that sounds good and immediately without having to "fiddle" too much with controls that risk diverting attention from the actual creative phase. On the other hand, for all the geeks who want to shape their own sound for every situation, Alicia's Keys allows you to control many main aspects of the sound without completely upsetting the sound paste.
Fig.2
Room
In this Tab we can choose the type of reverb according to different parameters, using the Convolution Reverb interior of Kontakt. It is important to choose well the type of room used for the reverb, considering that the same piano sounds very different in relation to the space where it is placed.
Keys
Here we can choose the velocity response curve (useful if your master does not allow it), the latency of the finger attack and the release of the key. Furthermore, through Self Masking / Repetition, it is possible to choose how the fade out of a repeated note based on velocity occurs.
Pedal
With the Pedal Controllers we can choose the amount of sustain to be assigned to the two pedals (sustain / resonance and sostenuto), while through the Half Pedaling (half pedal) it is possible to choose whether to emulate this particular effect of the damper pedal. This is only possible if our master and pedal can transmit a continuous signal and not a simple sustain on / off.
Resonance
This parameter is perhaps the most interesting of all, but also the weak point of many emulations. Sympathetic resonance is a natural phenomenon that occurs when a body is subjected to an external source of vibration with a frequency equal to its natural frequency. For example, when two strings of a violin are tuned in unison, making the first vibrate, the second will play for "sympathy" precisely because of the vibrations of the first. Imagine how many combinations are possible for all the strings of a piano: it is easy to understand that it is a phenomenon almost impossible to sample but it is only possible to try to imitate it.
Fig 3
With this parameter, Alicia's Keys (Fig.3) allows us to control precisely the amount of "imitation" of this effect. A really interesting thing is the possibility, as in a real piano, to make silent the notes pressed with velocity 1 (i.e. pressed very softly and slowly) without affecting the emulation of sympathetic resonance. In fact, in a real piano, even if the note plays very little or not at all, when the key is left down the damper will not block the strings which will be free to resonate with the vibrations of the other strings that may be played.
Noise
On this page, however, we can choose the amount of noises to add to the sound such as the mechanical noise of the pedals and keys as well as the background noise of the microphones. All of these parameters can be saved in individual presets itself from the Performance View. By default there are already 14 presets divided by reverb type and settings in Hall, Auditorium or Studio.
Impressions
The library has been tested by both me and my friend Charles Castellano with masterkeyboard and weighed, CMEVX8 e Studiologic Numa Nano, and with semi-weighted models, also taking advantage of the possibility of changing the response curve to velocity (both from Kontakt and from the master). The sound, both when listening and when playing, is very soft and warm in the medium-low registers, but clear and almost crystalline in the high register. Undoubtedly its ideal location is the classic Pop piece, however Alicia's Keys is versatile and usable in other genres, perhaps with small tricks. Used in solo it is truly expressive and effective as regards non-virtuosic pieces. It is certainly a product not designed for the performance of classical music pieces, where perhaps other products such as Ivory o Quantum Leap Piano achieve much better results. It is therefore necessary to frame the target of this instrument well, which has no claim to be the only piano in our library of virtual instruments, but the one that perhaps at the moment blends best with the other instruments in the context of Pop productions. It is certainly an instrument open to experimentation of all kinds considering the editing possibilities, but it is important to understand that if you want to buy this library, you are buying an excellent product-project for a specific use and not an "all-around" piano, with hundreds of presets suitable for every situation. What particularly pleased us with this library is that finally NI, in our opinion, dared to get involved without presenting us with yet another heavy and hyperperfect sound library in all details, but choosing - with a good marketing operation. - a different path, with the proposal of a very distinctive piano sound, already compressed and EQ in the right way to enter all our mixes. Don't forget: the sound reproduced is the one used by Alicia in all her latest records… she may like it or not, but it's her sound.
PRO: The bookcase, despite its size, is light and does not weigh down the machine. Sound and general emulation are very good. The cost is low.
AGAINST: It happened that, sometimes, the track with Alicia's Keys went into clip / distortion. If you have particular volume requirements, remember that you can also adjust the volume and internal gain of Kontakt / Kontakt Player.
Extra: For those who use this library for their POP and R&B productions, I recommend mixing all the work with a hardware or software mixer with a distinctive and non-transparent sound, to have a more decisive and compact sound paste.
Audio Demo
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USEFUL INFORMATION:
Producer: Native instruments
Model: Alicia's Keys
Website: www.native-instruments.com
Italian distributor: www.midimusic.it
Cost: Euro 99 + VAT
