I also owned a Wurlie in the early 70’s, and the demos sound true. The vibrato also sounds right. I did hear a little of the lower register “bark” which I always look for in a clone. I would imagine it gets better with velocity. There is a 127 velocity example on site. I love all my AS products. Understand tho, AS also uses samples + modelling. According to AS, it is only a 70Mb load, so not bad. They modeled/sampled A200 and A200A. I may have to jump on this one, just because of AS quality, and although I am a Hammond addict, I am equally a Wurlie junkie as well. Thanks for the heads up.
It does sound really good (much better than the EPs I have in my Kronos EP-1 engine which I have been using for a while), but I am on a self imposed moratorium after splurging out for Christmas on some other goodies - a bit of a move back to hardware (but of course Cantabile and VSTs are still very much in my rig) with a Sequential Prophet X at a knock down price (I wanted at least one piece of analog knobinness heaven in my studio, and have been waiting a while for the right synth at the right price…) and a Roli Seaboard Block system as I was quite intrigued by the 5D concept, but not at full RRP. 50% off in Black Friday made the GAS bite.
It’s an absolute pleasure to play - lots of “under-the-hood” tweaking possible, but I really like the Default setting as it is.
Working with the UVI instruments is always a bit finicky, because using Cantabile’s Snapshots as presets cause the beast to be re-loaded on changing a preset. But I assigned all relevant parameters (including all the “pedal” parameters) to UVI host parameters and use state behavior to define my presets - works perfectly. Of course, this means I need to set the “under-the-hood” customizing once and then forget about it, but that’s not too big a thing. After all - who climbs behind their Wurly with a screwdriver and a soldering iron during a gig? So I approach this as I would a regular Wurly: fine-tune the inner workings once, then use the controls and pedals to shape the tone. And that is easy as pie with the exported parameters.
CPU utilization is OK (10-15% on my studio machine). Compared with Velvet (my current ePiano workhorse), it sounds somewhat more “present” and “real” - but Velvet can hold its own quite nicely against it. And Velvet is near unbeatable in its CPU footprint - it runs at 2.5 - 4% CPU on the same songs / phrases I tested VReeds with. So I guess I’ll stick with Velvet for the layered sounds and use VReeds for the more exposed solo Wurly parts going forward.
That’s great Torsten. I’ve found AS instruments always a pleasure to play. Arno works hard to bring realism to his instruments. That is why I like B-5 so much. I was hoping to purchase another computer soon, but you are making me miss my old Wurlie. I will probably bow to pressure.
Can’t say - no Keyscape here. I was intrigued by the sounds, but frightened off by its reputation as a resource hog - not what I want in my live setup…
Hi, I’ve just bought a Vreeds but I have a big trouble. I’m not able to save the Vreeds setting inside Cantabile.
I mean, I set Vreeds parameter to my like and save it in a linked rack. I also save this setting saving UVI program but anytime I reload a rack all settings are lost and Vreeds is in a Default condition.
I have to tell that the wurli is very dynamic but currently to me it is not usable because I can’t save any setting.
What I don’t like is the amplifier…it have no drive setting so it is quite impossible to have a distorted wurli
(it can be used a TUBE saturation but it is not the same to amplifier drive)…I’m a little bit deluded from this very expensive plugin.
In the days before I test a Waves wurli…the plug in work perfectly inside Cantabile…al parameter is assegnable and it is there more variety in the sound than in Vreeds…and now it cost only 29€.
Yes, the UVI host is a bit tricky, but there is a way:
So it is a two-step process:
you need to assign the VReed parameters to the UVI host parameters within the VReed GUI (right-click the control)
within Cantabile, you put the UVI host with VReed loaded into a rack, then check the state behavior tick boxes for the parameters that UVI exposes
now you can use rack states to recall different configurations of your wurly
This is part of my live setup, and it works nicely for me. I like the sound and responsiveness a lot - this is my default “solo” Wurly, i.e. when the Wurlitzer sound is exposed as the main instrument. In layers, I use Velvet, since its CPU footprint is lower.
Thanks Torsten you are very gentle. To me is very difficult to understeand what is the solution you suggest.
what is the " then check the state behavior tick boxes for the parameters that UVI exposes"?
I’m not a Cantabile expert user.
Should it be possible possible to share a video of this walk throu by you?
I notice also that in using UVI workstation stand alone (without cantabile) it is not possible to save the setting so it is Vreeds inside UVI that don’t work (please check this video: https://we.tl/t-3VVSWIvY0n)
Thanks
Ok Torsten I have made some test and I’ve found the way that you suggest.
So thanks a lot!
Now my question is…is it necessary to activate parameter also in the prefs Vreeds setting or all the Vreeds program have the same initial setting? that’s because in theory any note should be customized I think that more than available 128 parameter will be necessary to do that…
Thanks you very much for your indication!
The detailed preferenced settings, I usually just set once and then save with the rack - they stay static. I don’t need to change the individual string customizations per state - happy to leave that static.
Thanks a lot Torsten!
How do you feel with Vreeds amplifier section…it change little bit sound but honestly have a very small impact on it…I’m not happy because sometime I like a crunch sound and with this amplifier section it is not feasable…
with VReeds, the “AMP” register is mainly a speaker emulation. A nice way to add color to your sound, but I generally prefer the DI’d sound. For the crunch, you can use the Tube Saturation “stompbox”, but I think it may be good enough to add a little “hair” to your sound (preset “Gentle Crunch”), but for more saturated sound, the stompbox is just too nasty-sounding, so I don’t do anything with it beyond a little dirt.
I don’t personally drive my Wurlies too hard, but if you want real fat crunch, Cantabile makes it easy to send the DI’d signal from VReeds into any guitar amp simulation (S-Gear, Guitar Rig, TH-U, or simply the free Boogex) and go completely mad.
I like to use Fabfilter’s Saturn for this, but be advised it’s not cheap. Also, audio assault makes some good stuff and theirs is really cheap. I’ve used their Head Crusher (though it can be overkill).
thanks all for updating this post about VReeds. Somehow I missed it’s initial release. Purchased it and IMO it’s the best Wurlie VST, better than my Acoustic Samples Wurlie, Lounge Lizard or Premier Wurlie G.
