Same situation here: I really liked what I heard on the demo track but then: a demo track is no demo and no demo means: no chance to lay your hands on it.
Same as Corky I purchased quite some disappointing products that seemed to be great from what the sound demos promised.
Another aspect for me: I allready use Scarbee EP88 and Lounge Lizzard 4 (not counting several other emulations for rhodes) and together they do a really good job here. So not really a good reason to buy another emu…
Concerning ilok: I agree, this is „pita“ especially on stage but afaik you have 3 licenses & the possibility to store them on ilok or harddisk. For me the risk of loosing one by a total crash is acceptable.
Yeah, I already have Lounge Lizzard, Velvet, Mark 79, and Arturia Wurlitzer. I use Lounge Lizzard a lot. I played an actual Rhodes for many years, so I guess I have a small obsession with getting the sound and feel back again. I would never want to carry that thing again though.
Totally understand. I had a Rhodes for a short time after I sold my Wurlie of 7 years. That is the way I feel about my Hammond. I miss it, but have no room for it, and I am certainly not going to haul it anywhere. Miss the feel of all them.
If you take the plunge, let us know what you think.
For me a good Rhodes is good enough. I don’t need perfect, and like you guys I have several good ones. Looks interesting though. Sounds great, but so does Keyscape. I’ve been dying to try B5 since it came out. Oh well. Anyone paired it with the IK Leslie yet?
I asked Arno, the developer behind AS, for a NFR license as I do work as author for a big german online music magazine. Let’s see how this works out and if he wants to provide such license…
I believe I posted my thoughts on it in a thread sometime ago. I will post an example shortly on tips thread, soon as coffee kicks in, (late night gig last night)
Hmm, certainly nice - but not much beyond what I can do with AIR Velvet currently. Plus, Velvet gives me suitcase, Mk I, MK II, Wurly, plus Pianet. All definitely more than good enough for live use.
If cou can get Velvet cheap through one of the AIR sales (I think I got mine for $9), it’s definitely a no-regret move.
For recording a track with a prominent Rhodes, I might consider the VTines for that extra bit of realism…
I bought Velvet a few weeks ago on your recommendation and have been enjoying it. Haven’t used it in a band song yet though. It has a lot of presets! Are their any presets that you particularly love right now?
TBH, I mostly use three plain vanilla settings that I’ve tuned to my liking: Wurly, Suitcase, Basic Rhodes. Then, I add effects to taste for song-specific settings, and add EQ (FabFilter Pro-Q) post-Velvet.
My conclusion:
I was sceptical about VTines. But I must say that I’m very impressed! I’m not sure if it’s better than Scarbee EP88 or KeyScape. It’s different. It has another character although you can heavily adjust that to your needs and your liking.
I was not happy with the presets. But I started to create my own which was pure fun! All those settings… I run a professional rhodes workshop in Germany. So I was happy to see all those parameters and adjust them and to hear that they do what I expect.
80MB is a killer against the competitors Scarbee (14GB) and KeyScape (77GB).
Lounge Lizard is very dominant in my setup, but so is Velvet, EP88, and the older Scarbees. I recently got e-instruments, and am starting to replace my Scarbees. E-Instruments has a feel about it that the others don’t.
I’ve had Lounge Lizard for ages - doesn’t really do it for me. Some nice sounds can be got out of it, but it’s a finicky little beast. For me, Velvet beats it hands-down.
