Electric Keys 2

‘Electric Keys 2 is our flagship electric piano collection featuring 8 legendary electric pianos each recorded with up to 8 velocity layers, for the most realistic and expressive instrument expansion ever created for the MPC!

The classic electric piano sound is an essential part of any producer’s arsenal and with Electric Keys 2 we set out to produce the most authentic, living and breathing recreations of these classic EPs:

• Rhodes Mark I – The classic electric piano, famously used on the Doors ‘Riders on a Storm’, the Beatles ‘Get Back’ and pretty much everything by Herbie Hancock. This one is an 88 key stage model with an exceptionally smooth tone. With 9 unique sound patches.
• Rhodes Mark II – A 73 key suitcase model; this one has a slightly thicker tone than the Mark I. With 10 unique sound patches.
• Wurlitzer 200A – The classic reed-based piano, as used on ‘Heard It Through the Grapevine’. With 10 sound patches.
• Wurlitzer 140B – Predecessor of the 200A, with a completely different feel and tone. (6 patches).
• Hohner Clavinet D6 – With its unmistakable and funky rhythmical sound, often used by Stevie Wonder. This was recorded with key noise releases and with muted/unmuted versions. 6 patches.
• Hohner Pianet N – The popular 1960s reed piano, as used by the Beatles on many classic tracks, includes a patch with additional key release noises. (9 patches)
• Hohner Electra – An electric piano with a distinctive ‘dirty harp’ sound, famously used on Led Zep’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’. (8 patches).
• Yamaha DX7 – while the DX7 is not an electric piano itself, this is an 8 velocity layer recording of the classic Piano 1 patch, which was the electric piano sound of the 80s! With 7 sound patches.

In total there’s 65 ready-made sound patches included, all fully configured and mapped across your pads to provide a wide range of ‘out-of-the-box’ instrument sounds including classic panned tremolo (adjustable to taste), funky wah, lush chorus & phased patches, a number of experimental presets and some great lofi-inspired tape and vinyl emulations.

Check out the some of the patch previews below, along with a longer demo using the Rhodes Mark II (‘classic’ preset):

Most instruments in Electric Keys feature a whopping 8 velocity levels, smoothly capturing each piano’s full tonal range.

And thanks to some serious sample and program optimisation, memory usage is fantastically low, with a typical 8 layer program leaving approximately 93% of system memory still available (on 2GB MPC/Force models)! And if memory is super tight, we’ve also included 4 layer ‘compact’ editions that further halve memory usage.

And with the 2.1 update, Electric Keys now features our innovative 'Sample Chain' tech, super-charging load times so all instruments now load almost instantaneously on standalone MPCs (2-3 seconds each on the notoriously sluggish Force browser!).

Each instrument comes with its own unique browser preview so you can quickly select the most suitable patch from the MPC browser. We’ve also included all these previews as 65 separate MIDI pattern files which you can load into any track to use as a starting point for your own melodies, chords and riffs.

All instruments are fully compatible with ‘pad perform’ mode (‘notes’ mode in the Force) or can be played with an attached MIDI keyboard for the full ‘piano-like’ experience. And as these are standard MPC keygroup programs all patches can be fully customised giving you complete over FX, tremolo and vibrato, filters and envelopes. Full installation & customisation instructions are given in the included User Guide

Electric Keys is part of the 'MPC instrument Collection', our unique bundle of 'standalone-friendly' multisampled acoustic and electric instruments.

Requirements:

Electric Keys 2 is compatible with any modern MPC running MPC 2.10 or greater. This means it is 100% compatible with any of the following:

• MPC X, MPC Live (I & II), MPC One, MPC Key 61
• Akai Force (3.1+)
• MPC Software 2.10 or greater
• MPC Beats App
• MPC Renaissance/MPC Studio/MPC Touch running MPC Software 2.10+
• The new MPC Studio ‘Mk 2’ controller
• Any non-MPC controller mapped to MPC Beats or the MPC Software 2.10+

The download contains a dedicated installer for standalone MPCs & the Force, plus a separate ‘drag and drop’ XPN installer for the MPC Software and MPC Beats. Full step-by-step installation instructions are provided in the included User Guide. Total disk space required for installation is 1.0 GB.