From Alicia’s Studio to Yours
Together with Danish sample specialist Thomas Skarbye (better known by his company name Scarbee) and impulse response expert Ernest Cholakis, Alicia Keys has created a virtual piano that meets her professional standards and embodies the soulful sound that has become her trademark as a superstar. This is the piano sound that has helped Miss Keys win multiple Grammys and reach the top of the charts.
ALICIA'S KEYS was sampled from her own playing, recorded in the artist's own studio under the supervision of her trusted engineer, Ann Mincieli.
Alicia’s Very Own Keys
The instrument samples come from Alicia Keys' very own Yamaha™ C3 Neo grand piano. This unique and highly-sought after instrument was built to celebrate Yamaha's 100th anniversary in 2002 and represents the very top of the Conservatory Collection line. The exquisite and unique sound of the C3 Neo were painstakingly captured by Thomas Skarbye, Kontakt script wizard Nils Liberg, and Grammy-award winning engineer Ann Mincieli - making this exclusive instrument available to everyone. Using vintage microphones and preamps and through detailed analysis of Alicia's playing, the team succeeded in capturing the warm, soulful and inspiring sound of the C3 Neo all the way down to the finest nuances.
Alicia herself says:
"I feel confident that we came up with the best virtual piano you've ever heard and I am excited to introduce it to you! Ann, Thomas and Nils are a brilliant team!"
Keeping it True
Great effort was put into making ALICIA'S KEYS as authentic as possible. Designed with incredible precision, and incorporating subtle details such as mechanical release noises, a specially developed sympathetic resonance and release system, and even the sound of fingers hitting keys (optional), this unique instrument delivers plenty of lively realism. So much in fact, that Alicia Keys herself used it exclusively on her latest album The Element of Freedom.
Top Features
- The sound of Alicia Keys' own personal Yamaha C3 Neo piano: Almost 3,000 individual samples on 12 discrete velocity layers with and without pedal — equivalent to 17GB of uncompressed WAV files!
- Sampled from Alicia Keys' own playing, recorded in her studio with her own engineer
- Developed with the artist and tailor-made for her recording and performance needs
- Meticulous sampling technique including the noise of the finger hitting the keys (optional)
- Sampled sustain and release phases with authentic implementation of the sustain pedal
- Sympathetic resonance system for harmonics in undampened strings
- Exceptionally clean quality, yet featuring adjustable microphone noise for old-school sound
- Natural mechanical release noises for each of the 88 keys and pedal noises
- Integrated convolution reverb for tweaking the sound directly in the instrument
- Easy user interface providing integrated documentation of all settings
Alicia Keys – A Musical Life
Multiple Grammy-winning artist Alicia Keys is one of the most compelling figures in popular music today. A musical prodigy gone professional at 15 years old, Keys has evolved from piano wunderkind to soul-pop superstar, releasing four multi-platinum records to date. She's become a truly multidimensional force in pop culture as a musician, performer, producer and humanitarian, with her Keep a Child Alive foundation.
As an artist, Keys is soulful, prolific, and above all, authentic. Her innovative past-meets-future sound and approach to music production has been crafted and honed over years in the studio. Not only is Keys one of the most celebrated musicians and songwriters of her time, but she’s also a highly skilled producer and studio guru. Her own private studio, The Oven, is her workshop, playground and universe of evolving sound.
At the Oven, Alicia has revived a lost art in the way she produces records. Inspired by Motown, Alicia’s productions start and finish under one roof, and she works hands-on through every step of the process all the way to mastering. The Oven is abundantly equipped with vintage and modern keyboards, samplers, guitars, amps and state-of-the-art recording and production equipment. Experimenting with sound is an essential piece of Keys’ pre-production process, where her vision for a record begins to crystallize. She and engineer Ann Mincieli dig deep to sample, warp and reinvent the sounds they cull and create from scratch, developing a completely unique sonic palette to suit her vision. At the center of The Oven’s live room, and often of Keys’ sound, is the Yamaha C3 Neo grand piano.
Developing a virtual piano, sampled from her own playing on the Yamaha C3 Neo inside The Oven, Keys again expands her influence. Now people all over the world will be able to create new music with Keys’ authentic sounds. Another amazing and innovative product created at The Oven, and another dimension of the amazing Alicia Keys.
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PC
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Mac
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- Windows® XP (SP2, 32bit) / Vista® (32/64 Bit), Windows 7® (32/64 Bit)
- Pentium® or Athlon XP 1.4 GHz
- 1 GB RAM
Note: The free KONTAKT 4 PLAYER is included on one of the installation DVDs and must be installed first in order to play this instrument.
Supported Interfaces:
Stand-alone, VST®, Audio Units™, RTAS® (Pro Tools™ 7 or higher)
Additional Information:
7 GB free disk space is required for complete installation.
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- Mac OS X 10.5 or higher
- Intel® Core™ Duo 1.66 GHz
- 1 GB RAM
Note: The free KONTAKT 4 PLAYER is included on one of the installation DVDs and must be installed first in order to play this instrument.
Supported Interfaces:
Stand-alone, VST®, Audio Units™, RTAS® (Pro Tools™ 7 or higher)
Additional Information:
7 GB free disk space is required for complete installation.
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