Today, Native Instruments unveils Electric Keys – Reeds Duo, a pair of virtual instruments that capture the essence of two legendary reed-based electric pianos. These new instruments are the latest in an Electric Keys series, following the Electric Keys – Tines Duo, which introduced Diamond and Phoenix.
The Reeds Duo of Jade and Ivory bring a new style of electric piano into the spotlight. Unlike their tine-based cousins, these instruments use vibrating metal reeds to generate sound, creating tones that range from smooth to soulful and gritty depending on how you play.
To celebrate the classic electric pianos: Jade and Ivory, Electric Keys – Reeds Duo reproduces the sound of two iconic electric pianos – loved for their snappy attack, expressive growl, and unmistakable warmth.
Electric Keys – Jade: A solid-state reed piano delivering a bright, punchy sound with sharp dynamics. Ideal for funky rhythms, cutting leads, and rich chords, Jade adds a confident edge to any track.
Electric Keys – Ivory: A vintage tube-driven reed piano with a warm, soulful voice and organic grit. Smooth and mellow one moment, rough and fiery the next – Ivory is pure expression.
Electric Keys – Reeds Duo Main Features:
Authentic Presets: each instrument comes with 100 meticulously designed snapshots that capture the most iconic original keyboard sounds.
Advanced Sound Shaping: Customize your sound with detailed tone controls like Tonal Shift, modeled tremolo, and a suite of effects from Guitar Rig 7 Pro.
Crank the Color: The Color knob allows for seamless blending of performance dynamics, from soft and intimate to bold and brash.
Realistic Details: Blend direct output with characteristic tremolos and room signals, adding mechanical hammer and pedal noises for enhanced realism.
Seamless Kontrol Keyboard Integration: Electric Keys offers optimal integration with Native Instruments’ Kontrol S Series keyboards (shown below) for intuitive control and browsing.
Created with Galaxy Instruments. This exceptional piano emulation was developed in partnership with Galaxy Instruments, renowned for their expertise in creating high-quality virtual instruments. Founder Uli Baronowsky and his team, who previously collaborated on instruments like Claire, Noire, and The Giant, have brought their approach to capturing the unique characteristics of these reed-based pianos.
Native Instruments flagship Kontrol S MK3 MIDI keyboards just added several features that DAWless music producers have been asking for.
The Kontrol S MK3 MIDI keyboards continue to improve, with the latest firmware update (v1.9.4) looking particularly useful for those who like to use their controller in standalone mode.
DAWless music-making, of course, has become increasingly popular in recent years, as growing numbers of creators have come to the conclusion that it can feel liberating to jam without involving a computer and use a selection of hardware devices instead.
Thanks to the expansion of the Kontrol S MK3’s on-device Play Assist feature, which was introduced last year, standalone users now have arpeggiator and note repeat features built into the hardware, giving them more creative options.
In addition, they can also use the USB and 5-pin MIDI outputs simultaneously, and specify which data should go to each of them.
These features greatly add to the Kontrol S MK3’s versatility, and there are software-specific additions in the firmware update, as well. You can now sync the MIDI tempo with connected plugins, and there’s support for the Maschine 3.1 update.
I am glad that the Native Instruments Kontrol S MK3 controllers are entirely out of their Kontrol software cage and are full standalone controllers.
The new firmware v1.9.4 is available now as a free download for existing users through Native Access.
The Kontrol S MK3 continues to be available in 49-, 61- and 88-note and you can find out more on the Native Instruments website and Amazon site.
Maschine has been expanding in all directions recently.
Native Instruments’ Maschine 3.0 software arrived late last year, added features including stem separation, new MIDI edit tools, custom tempos per scene and audio bounce in place.
The company is now back with another update – Maschine 3.1 – which is free for existing version 3 users and offers a much-requested user chords feature. This allows users to save banks of chord progressions for use across projects or to share with others.
Machine 3.1 also notably adds a new fullscreen mode in the standalone app version.
Here’s whats new in Maschine 3.1:
User Chords: Create your own chord sets and share with other Maschine users.
Improved accessibility when using User Chords
Added Ableton Live DAW integration for Maschine+ in controller mode.
Updated DAW integration scripts for Ableton Live versions 11 and 12
Full-screen mode is available from the standalone application main menu and via keyboard shortcuts
Fixed
Plug-in scanning could freeze
Certain NKS third-party presets not appearing in the browser
Plug-in UIs inside Maschine when hosted in Logic Pro not opening and closing as expected
Pattern editor scrollbar not always visible
Ableton Link issue with Traktor and other Ableton Link clients where tempo sync with Maschine would not work as expected
Maschine in Logic Pro, plug-in windows sometimes can’t be closed by clicking on the red ‘x’
Maschine in Logic Pro, closing the Maschine editor with a plug-in window open can leave a black floating window
The release is likely to satisfy some users more than others though. While the new update will be coming shortly to PC and Mac, users of the standalone Maschine+ will have to wait a little longer.
NI is promising that Maschine+ will receive the 3.1 update later this year.
Read full details of the Maschine 3.1 update at Native Instruments’ website.
