UVI Key Suite Digital $49

[HAMEGZ]

A trip back to the past of 1/2 and full rack piano modules and a Korg Sample grand keyboard.

 

I never owned an MKS 20 and now I can. sort of. I ran through some of the instruments and patches pretty quickly so I can't give an in depth review but almost all of the pianos are drenched in reverb and the EPS have the obligatory FX.

 

It pretty easy to figure out the source keyboard from the graphics of the instrument and the patch names.Most sound close to their namesakes, at least to my ears.

 

More info from the UVI page

[RandyFF]

Any particular reason for wanting these lo-fi pianos?

[Mark Schmieder]

I posted this on the Superbooth thread yesterday, but am not sure whether it is being shown there or not. It seems a lot of vendors are timing their releases to match that show even if not attending.

 

As I mentioned in the other post, this may be aimed at people who need to recreate specific sounds, as otherwise I don't see a lot of appeal of early generation Digital Piano type patches (which is mostly what this is, even if focusing mostly on rack modules).

 

I did own the NanoPiano module at one point, and a few of the others too (can't remember if I ever had the Kurzweil Micro Piano). Almost all of these demos sound awful to me, except for of course the modeled MKS20/MKS80 from Roland (good for Rhodes).

 

Legacy bands on tours, sometimes resort to using libraries such as these, to recreate their old sounds, as they figure the audience is expecting the exact timbre as on the recordings. Cover bands may likewise want these sounds, just as with the Korg M1 and Wavestation, along with Yamaha SY77 and related 90's gear.

[Mark Schmieder]

Inaccurate information deleted (post itself can't be deleted).

[SeaGtGruff]

As the owner of several other UVI products, I get their emails, saw this, and gave a listen to some of the demos. (Glad to see them demoing at least some of the instruments and patches separately, rather than just a lot of demos that combine everything and you cant tell what the individual patches sound like.)

 

Some of the patches sounded okay to me maybe worth the $49 intro price although Im not familiar with how the originals sounded since Ive never played them. I already have plenty of AP and EP sounds to choose from, so when things like this come out I tend to be more interested in the clavis and vibraphones and such the more offbeat or less prolific sounds.

 

As far as the patches being heavy on reverb, chorus, and other FX, its always hard to tell how much was in the original patch, versus how much was added by the person who did the demo. Some people really like drenching their patches! At least youll presumably be able to turn down the FX.

[zeronyne]

They may be banking on the fact that sometimes, these obsolete sounds suddenly get hugely popular for no apparent reason. I'm constantly amused by the Synthwave genre...it'll be about 6 months before they discover old digital pianos.

[Mark Schmieder]

Does anyone know what the Mini White is, or the 80? The latter is NOT the MKS80, and the former is NOT the Oberheim piano module. I went through Vintage Synth Explorer and other sources and couldn't find anything that matches, unless the visuals in those two cases are not meant to be emulative, which means the 80 could be the Ensoniq model.

[timwat]

I'm guessing the Mini White is an Akai SG01p.

[video:youtube]

[timwat]

And "The Eighty" is, my guess, the Rhodes MK80.

[video:youtube]

[Mark Schmieder]

Thanks, Tim. I don't think I ever knew about that Akai module. I was pretty sure the 80 was a Roland of some sort, but the MK-80 didn't show up in my earlier searches -- probably because I likely looked for MKS-80 instead (a different beast) and didn't see any visual resemblance.

[Mark Schmieder]

King SG = Korg SG (Sampling Grand)

 

Things got a bit confusing for a bit, due to "SG" also appearing in the Akai rack module's name, but that one of course corresponds to the "Mini White" in the UVI library.

[Mighty Motif Max]

TXPiano would be the Yamaha TXP1 I believe.

 

Guessing the SamplePiano is some sort of a Kurzweil module, and I think the Performance is the Emu Proformance. Curious as to what the Digital 330 is, perhaps a Roland U220 or something.

[Mighty Motif Max]

And "The Eighty" is, my guess, the Rhodes MK80.

[video:youtube]

 

I think you're spot on. First thing I thought of when I saw the rendered picture.

[Mighty Motif Max]

I believe the cover photo for the trailer video shows the original modules. Just realized that.

[Mark Schmieder]

I had all the others figured out pretty quickly, and wrote them down but then threw away the list once I decided I'm not buying this library. But yes, you got the Roland and Yamaha models identified correctly. Kurzweil MicroPiano is in there as well, and the E-Mu was pretty obvious.

[zeronyne]

TXPiano would be the Yamaha TXP1 I believe.

 

Guessing the SamplePiano is some sort of a Kurzweil module, and I think the Performance is the Emu Proformance. Curious as to what the Digital 330 is, perhaps a Roland U220 or something.

 

Roland had a P-330 piano module.

[BRW]

I like UVI stuff and have a bunch of them (Vintage Vault, Digital Synsations etc.) - but although the sounds work fine by themselves, they rarely work great in a mix. There are often also a tonnn of unuseable patches in these (bad programming, since they dont sample presets).

 

That said, Im intrigued by this. The MKS is covered in Keyscape, thouhh.

[Mark Schmieder]

The MKS-20 is also covered by Precisionsound, but is NOT a cheap library. I waited years for it to be discounted, but reviewed it the other day when this new suite came out (mostly to determine whether it is the source for that one mode, but it isn't).