acoustic samples VReeds Electric Piano User Guide

: June 3, 2024
: acoustic samples

Table of Contents

acoustic samples VReeds Electric Piano
Requirements and Installation
Interface and Parameters
Precise adjustments
Features
Terms & Conditions. EULA
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

acoustic samples VReeds Electric Piano

acoustic-samples-VReeds-Electric-Piano-PRODUCT

Welcome to Acousticsamples

Thank you for using the VReeds Electric Piano library. We hope you enjoy playing the instrument and wish it supports your musical ideas or even better: inspire new ones.

In this User Guide we will provide you with an overview of how to use the VReeds Electric Piano library. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at: samples@acousticsamples.comor use the contact form on our website www.acousticsamples.net

Requirements and Installation

Authorize your library
The first thing to do is make sure you have an iLok ID and that it is the correct one. If you never used iLok, just go to the ilok.com website and create a free account.
You will be asked to enter a user ID, this is what you will need to enter later on the authorization page. This will also be the ID you will need to get connected to the iLok license manager. On the download/serials page, you can find the serial number associated with your library, it should look like this: PROASXX-XXXXXXX. You can click on the authorize button or copy it and go to this page: http://acousticsamples.net/index.php?route=account/authorizeIlok you can find the link in the top menu under account as well as on the “my account” page. Of course you need to be logged in to view this page. Now enter the serial number in the serial number box (it will be filled already if you used the authorize button) as well as your iLok id. The iLok id is the username you use to log into your iLok account, don’t confuse it with the number written on the key. Then simply hit the authorize button and wait a little. At the end of this process, you will see a message telling you if the authorization was successful. You will also get a confirmation email. Sometimes the iLok servers will not respond and you will get a blank page, in this case, please contact us and we will proceed to the authorization for you manually.

Download and extract your libraries
Registering your serial number will generate your download links, they will be create and available on the downloads/serials page. The files are delivered in RAR format and sometimes these files are split (for the large libraries). You need to use winrar on windows or UnrarX on mac (www.unrarx.com or directly here) to extract them, other softwares will probably not extract the files properly, we use the recovery functions of Rar (to avoid download corruption) and these two softwares are are the only ones to handle it properly. If there are multiple parts (part01.rar, part02.rar), you need to put them all in the same folder before extracting. If the extraction gives you errors, then your download did not complete or got corrupted, you need to download it again.

Download and install UVI Workstation
Download and install the UVI workstation (our free sample player) from here: http://www.acousticsamples.net/uviworkstation. Make sure you download the right version for your system, if you are on windows 64, but use a daw that only allows for 32bits plugins, you need to install the 32bits version of UVI Workstation. Follow the step 4 to learn how to load a library into UVI Workstation.

Transfer the license to your iLok key/computer
The license manager is installed with UVI Workstation, so you just need to launch it from you applications. Now make sure that your iLok key is plugged into your computer if you want to use it or just ignore this if you want to use the computer based authorization. Click on Sign in and enter your iLok information, you will see the list of available licenses and your computer and iLok keys on the left panel. Now all you need to do is just drag and drop the license to your iLok key or your computer to authorize one or the other.

Load your library and start playing
Now just open UVI Workstation in Standalone or one of the plugin formats in your sequencer. There are two ways of loading the library.

You can open the browser and navigate to the ufs file manually.
You can place the UFS in the default UVI folder: [Startup disk]:Library:Application Support:UVISoundBanks (on Mac) and C:\Program Files\UVISoundBanks (on Windows). You can also drop a shortcut to this file in this location, provided it has the same name.
The best practice is to have all of your UFS in a folder and let UVI workstation index it. Simply go into the preferences/soundbanks and then add your UFS folder. If the authorization has been done, it will mount the UFS automatically (if automount is selected) or index it in the search (if index is selected). The recursuve is for subfolders, but too many subfolders can lead to a long indexation/mounting time.

After this, when you start UVI Workstation, you will see the UFS under soundbanks, select it and just double click on the m5p file, it will load the library and you will be able to start playing.

Interface and Parameters

SAMPLING MEETS MODELING
Just like for the VTines and the B-5 Organ, we combined synthesis techniques and sampling to achieve a high level of playability and tweaking while maintaining a realistic sound. This allows the VReeds to weight only 70Mb and to really sound like a Wurlitzer© Electric Piano with all of its imperfections while having a fully continuous response (if you’re not convinced, listen to the 127 velocity example in our video) as well as a highly tweakable sound. There are a few Wurlitzer Electric Pianos, but the most famous ones are the 200 and the 200A. There are subtle differences between the two models mainly due to the thickness of the Reeds and the amplifier circuit. Instead of choosing one, we decided to sample the two models and offer you the choice from the interface. had a precise action that allowed for a perfect sampling while keeping all of the vintage Wurlitzer sound characteristics. Our modeling method gives you access to a 100%continuous response, a very small sized library (70Mb for both models) and a very high tweakability. It also ensures that the staccatos and releases that make up for half of the realism sound perfect, not like a fadeout, not too loud, just perfect.

Front panel
You can mix the acoustic signal (we had a mic pair right over the Wurlitzer capturing the real acoustic sounds of the keys and Reeds) and the DI Electric signal.
You can control a simple EQ with Treble and Bass. The vibrato has two controls, the depth and the speed (just click on “Depth” to access the speed adjustment. We carefully reproduced the shape of the original vibrato circuit. On the original 200, the vibrato rate is fixed, but there is a common mods on Wurlitzers that we included as well, plus we added a tempo link. We added the very common reverb FX to the front panel. You can control its amount from here but if you want further adjustments, you need to go to the FX page. You can also engage the AMP simulation from the front panel (you need to click on it just like on a button). Again for further adjustments, you need to use the AMP panel. You can also use one of our presets from here as well as save and import yours. We carefully reproduced the shape of the original vibrato circuit. On the original 200, the vibrato rate is fixed, but just like the very common mod, we decided to extend the vibrato capabilities and add a rate control which can be linked to the tempo. There is no EQ on the Wurlitzers, but it can be useful to just have one accessible quickly on the front interface.

Speakers
Wurlitzers© can be recorded through the direct output, but also using its built in speakers. On the 200 and 200A models, there are two small Speakers on each side of the front plate, on the 206 and 206A (beige models), there is a bigger speaker cabinet below the keyboard. We captured both of these options and in both mono or stereo and we allow for a mix with the DI signal so that the VReeds fits perfectly in your mix.

AMP panel
There are 4 amps to choose from: the 200 built in speakers, the 206A cabinet, a rhodes amp (taken from the VTines library) and a Twin Reverb amp. These AMPs are noisy, and there is no way around it, so we added an AMP noise button so that you can get some noise from the VReeds as well. As the Wurlitzer is sometimes recorded through the DI and through the amp as well, you can control both amounts as well.

FX Pedalboard
Wurlitzer© pianos are often used with FX, so we created an FX panel with the most common ones, each of them is one of the very efficient and high quality FXs made by UVI. Each FX can be tweaked in real time.

FX panel
There are 8 FXs on the FX panel:

Chorus : based on Torus and you can control the Speed, Depth, Crossover and MIX of it.
Phaser : based on Phasor and you can control the speed, the depth and the Spread.
Flanger : based on Flanger and you can control the speed, depth and Mix.
Wah : based on the WahWah fx and you can use a few different models, have it on auto (by default) or control it using an expression pedal.
Delay : based on an Analog Tape delay and you can control the Time, the Feedback and the Mix.
Rotary : based on the Rptary effect we used in the B-5 Organ. You can control the Drum/Horn Balance, the Speed of the tremolo or set it to the 3 different speeds. When it’s on, it will bypass the Suitcase AMP.
Saturation : based on the same Tube saturation used in the B-5 Organ, you can control the drive, the level and also the Bass and treble amount to somehow control which frequencies will be saturated. When set to 0, it is bypassed.
Reverb : based on the convolution reverb, you can use wether a String reverb, a plate reverb, or a real room ambience. You can control the time and the dry and wet parameters. Plus you can also use it before the amp like on a live session, or after as if you were adding it to a track in a sequencer. When set to 0, it is bypassed.

All of these fx come pre-amp except for the Reverb that can be set post-amp which can be useful if you want to make it sound like it is often set up on records.

Precise adjustments

Modeling also means customization, you can alter the sound of the VReeds like you would on a real electric piano and in a very easy way. A real Wurlitzer electric piano can be customized by removing the top and with a simple nut driver, you can adjust the angle and distance between the reed and the pickup bar or bend the pickup bar to change the tone. It’s exactly the same on the VReeds, you just don’t need the nut driver. You can adjust many different parameters for each note, for all notes or using a mapper for each parameter.

Preferences panel
On this panel, you can adjust many parameters to shape the sound of the VReeds. Here is what each parameter does. There are only two parameters that are adjusted for the whole library:

The pedal volume controls the volume of the sound made by the pedal when you press and depress it.
The repetition control is an effect that happens only on pedal down. When you repeat the same note over and over again with the pedal pressed, the notes don’t just stack up, but sometimes they get morte or less cancelled. We created an accurate model of this effect and were abel to reproduce it. That control will control the amount of that effect.

The rest of the parameters can be adjusted independantly for each note. By default the selection is set to current note, and any change on the parameters will only be applied to the most recently played note, but you can have it affect all notes, or you can select “note by note” to modify the parameters using a curve.

The pickup angle is the second component used on a real rhodes to voice it. The angle will completely change the tone and amount of overtone. Setting it very straight will give you the maximum overtone and bending it will lower the overtone.
Reed/Pickup Distance : The distance between the tine and the vibrating tine controls mostly the overall volume of the corresponding note. This, just like on a real one, will help voice the rhodes with more or less Bass and Treble at the note level. In reality, it also controls changes the angle made with the tip of the pickup so it influences the amount of bark and other parameters, but for the ease of use, we limited that knob action to just the volume.
The Hi Vel Tone controls how much overtone there is in the highest velocity. The Low Vel Tone controls how much overtone there is in the lowest velocity.”
The Tone Bend controls the overtone increase with the velocity. For example, if set at the minimum, there will be little overtone for most of the velocities and then quickly increase to the maximum overtone.
The Dynamics button controls the volume of the lowest velocity allowing for a greater or smaller dynamic range. It is set by default to the maximum range of the real instrument.
Bell amount : The Bell is mostly known for Rhodes pianos, but it also exists in the low range of the Wurlitzers, you can adjust how much of it there is in each note. Increasing it will also increase the attack as the Bell plays an important part in the attack of a Wurlitzer. You can compensate it with the attack knob if necessary.
Attack amount : You can control how much attack is present in the sound. This is independant from the Bell sound, so when you increase the bell, you might want to decrease the attack at the same time to compensate the increase.
Release Volume : The release is the the sound captured after the note is released. That characteristic noise has been carefully adjusted to sound exactly as the one of the original instrument, but you can control its volume.
Tune : Each note can be tuned separately.

Our MIDI mapper allows to adjust the response of the VReeds velocity by velocity if necessary, and we created a tool that does it automatically by analysing what you play.
Just repeat a few linear velocity repetitions and it will be all set and ready to play.

MIDI panel
We created a MIDI response mapper to allow you to adjust your keyboard response and have the VReeds respond just like you want. If you know your keyboard response, you can draw it yourself and the smooth it out. If you don’t, you can use our automatic velocity detection. To use it, you can simply:

press record, then play a few velocities and try to be as linear as possible from the lowest velocity you can play to the highest that your keyboard can output,
then press record again and it will compute a compensated curve especially for your keyboard.

To refine the process, you can do a few different successive takes before hitting record again

Features

UVI Workstation v3.0.0 is required for the library to function properly, the VReeds will not work on windows XP, or OSX 10.6, it will not work on a Receptor either. The distributed library is 70Mb compressed in lossless flac format (this includes two models: a 200 and a 200A, retina graphics and presets), the overall equivalent wav file size is about 315Mb.

Sampling and modeling hybrid of two Wurlitzer© models: a 200 and a 200A
Full continuous velocity
Perfect staccatos and release samples
Around 35 high quality presets
Fully customizable instrument to match any real life Wurlitzer voicing and adjustment.
Precisely measured Vibrato effect
Different Wurlitzer© AMP simulations: 200 speakers, 206A Cabinet, plus a Fender Rhodes© suitcase amp and a Twin Reverb© amp
FX Pedalboard with 8 high quality effects
Completely adjustable MIDI response
Auto keyboard velocity adjustment tool

Terms & Conditions. EULA

Acousticsamples Copyright, Terms and conditions. Please read the terms of the following License Agreement before using any of these audio samples. By using any of these audio samples, you agree to become bound by the terms of the License Agreement. If you do not agree with the terms of the License Agreement, do not use any of these audio samples. You may use these Samples provided on this website, on a royalty-free basis, to create your own original music compositions or audio projects. You may broadcast and/or distribute your own music compositions or audio projects that were created using the Audio Content, however, individual audio loops may not be commercially or otherwise distributedon a standalone basis, nor may they be repackaged in whole or in part as audio samples, sound effects or music beds. No orders will be refundable given the numerical nature of our products. We stay at your disposal for any help or support. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contat us ALL RIGHTS NOT EXPRESSLY GRANTED ARE RESERVED.