Mod Bod

I too would love to see some of our accomplished keyboardists put together collections of comps and licks.  Especially longer measures of the same chord with variations to keep it interesting.   I'd buy them for sure.

Me too! Me too! Me too! Me too!     

mumpcake

relpomiraculous


I think I get what Toontrack is thinking with this. The midi files provide the percussive nature of the piano parts. Ignore the chords and even the progressions of the midi files and just find a percussive match or compliment to your song part. Drag it in the timeline and then open the chord selector to alter each chord in the midi file. It is like ezdrummer but with an extra layer - a note or chord selection layer - to accommodate the fact that this is a piano player (percussion *and* melodic) and not just a drummer (percussion only). Very, very smart on the part of these Toontrack guys. And lot's of fun to mess with - for a guitar player like me with limited piano skills. That's pretty much it - another ez-out for songwriters. I'm sure more midi packs are in the works - and I'll get some I'm sure.

In the pre-VST days there was this sequencer called "Power Chords Pro" which did something like that.  You selected a chord and the strum pattern and it would generate the appropriate MIDI.  You were also supposed to be able to do similar with keyboard parts. 

It sounds like Toontrack put that kind of functionality in a plugin.

What baffles me is that Cakewalk touched on the same concept with Studio Instruments but instead of developing the concept they dropped the ball after an initial release.  They had a bit of the same concept with P5 or whatever it was called and again, they failed to push the ball over the goal line.  Now all that CW has is a wannabe EZdrummer clone.
 
Thankfully, Toontrack has the ball and they seem to be more inclined to run with it all the way.  As more and more people get familiar with it, I am excited to see what feature requests are asked for and possibly implemented later on. 

timidi


Here's NI's version:

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/powered-by-kontakt/george-duke-soul-treasures/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=George+Duke+Special+Offer&utm_source=newsletter

"My Duke In A Box"

A guy posted this on the Toontrack forum. Said it was done with EZKeys and EZDrummer. http://soundcloud.com/cws1457/new-song-3-13-2012

Very low piano notes.

Middleman

pdlstl


A guy posted this on the Toontrack forum. Said it was done with EZKeys and EZDrummer. http://soundcloud.com/cws1457/new-song-3-13-2012

A little low mid heavy and lacking brilliance. Rich however but too dominating dynamics wise. I need to go check out if this has some other tonality. Thanks for this.

More importatntly, after the arrangement is done you can drag the midi to another track and use Ivory etc.

pdlstl

bandontherun19

my virtual piano;

Well, I don't play piano but on the other hand I'm guessing you don't play pedal steel.
 
At any rate, I run a commercial recording facility and I see EZKeys as one more way of keeping more of the money in my wallet. Don't have to bring in a player.

 
Keys are "a lot" easier to play than Pedel? And, "it's a MIDI instrument." So, you take your piece, slow it by a third? Play along with it, get the basic chords figured out, get comfortable, then you can record them in w/MIDI, speed it up, listen to it? Go in and view it on the time grid, make adjustments, to the velocity, and timing? Add things, subtract things? Then slow it back down, and while it plays? Add in some fills? This takes a little time, but it's not too difficult and the keys are the easiest thing there is to play. People who try to learn guitar later in life talk about their bleeding fingers, and how can you stand the callouses! And how do you hit one string without hitting another!!?? Trust me, a pedel player messing with keys, will sound a hell of a lot better than a key player "messing with a pedal steel..."
 
And keyboards actually have pedals, so you're half way there! :-D