Review: EZ Keys’ Classic Electrics, Retro Electrics, Upright Piano and Electric Grand by Zach McNees

Over the past few years, Toontrack has been busy creating some of the most exciting and innovating sampling products on the market.  Their flagship Superior Drummer plugin is by far the best sounding and most comprehensive drum sampling software available.  More recently, Toontrack brought their sampling skills into the world of keyboards with the introduction of the EZ Keys plugin and the initial Grand Piano instrument, which I reviewed in 2012.

Since then, Toontrack has been hard at work expanding the EZ Keys line to cover many of the essential keyboard sounds.  New expansions for the EZ Keys plugin include: Upright Piano, Classic Electrics, Retro Electrics and the Electric Grand.  Let’s take a look and listen to what Toontrack has done to expand the EZ Keys!

TECH SPECS: Each of the EZ Keys expansion packs are Native-only plug-ins for use on MAC and PC and retail for $179 each. Formats are AAX, RTAS, VST and AU at 32- and 64-bit where available. They also run as standalone applications.

WHAT IT DOES: EZ KEYS is both a virtual instrument piano and independent MIDI sequencer plug-in all in one. Features include drag and drop MIDI from available Toontrack custom piano libraries, smart transpose functions, and the ability to alter chords and full arrangements on the fly.

IN USE: If you’re not already familiar with EZ Keys software, I would suggest starting here to familiarize yourself with the core plugin and its features.

As of this writing, there are four new expansion packs for EZ Keys.  Each has been meticulously sampled using the best in modern and vintage equipment.

They are:

• Upright Piano – Östlind & Almquist upright piano
• Classic Electrics – Rhodes MK I and Wurlitzer 200A
• Retro Electrics – Hohner Clavinet D6 and Hohner Pianet N
• Electric Grand – Yamaha CP-80

For all of the audio examples below, I’ve used only the on-board FX controls available within each EZ Keys instrument preset.  No other EQ, Compression or FX were utilized to process the sounds of each instrument.  Lets see what these new packs have to offer!

Upright Piano: One of the most fascinating things about the piano is that the same instrument by name can sound uniquely different depending on the style and manufacturer, and of course the player.

EZ Keys Upright Piano

Toontrack has expanded their core acoustic piano sampler beautifully with the addition of the Östlind & Almquist upright piano. Compared directly against the Steinway Grand Piano pack, the upright piano has a much more pronounced midrange sound and less bite, lending itself to a more casual sound versus the buttoned up elegance of a Grand Piano.

Each instrument sounds beautiful in its own way but the differences between the two when played back-to-back is striking. Take a listen to examples of the default settings for both the new Upright Piano for EZ Keys and the original Steinway Grand Piano in contrast:

Upright Piano A
Upright Piano A

Grand Piano A
Grand A

Upright Piano B
Upright B

Grand Piano B
Grand B

Standard across each EZ Keys pack are a generous set of built-in presets, which drastically change the sound of the core instrument. Each preset has a unique set of controls which change based on the selected preset. Depending on the selected preset, users will find up to four available controls such as: Reverb, Chorus, Tone, Detail, Compression, Phase, Delay, Frequency, Resonance, Tremolo and many more.

Presets for the Upright Piano include: Britpop, Living Room, Saloon, 70’s Ballad, 80’s Chorus, 90’s Dance, Southern Comfort and Swedish House Piano.

Classic Electrics: There’s nothing like a great-sounding Rhodes or Wurlitzer to add depth and character to a song. Toontrack has captured the Rhodes MK I and Wurlitzer 200A with incredible attention to detail and a wide palate of tonal presets available.

EZ Keys’ Classic Electrics: the Rhodes MK I (click to enlarge)

Anyone who has ever played a Rhodes or Wurlitzer knows that each instrument sounds drastically different depending on how hard or soft the player’s performance and dynamic style. A Rhodes played softly can sound lush and silky while a heavier style introduces a pronounced bite and harmonically distorted sound to each key. The Wurlitzer behaves similarly with a signature phasey sound when the keys are hit hard.

Because of the “quirks” of each of these instruments, it’s often challenging to find a sampled Rhodes or Wurlitzer that behaves the same as its real world hardware counterpart. But these are the qualities that make Toontrack’s extreme attention to detail pay off with the EZ Keys Classic Electrics pack.  These two instruments play and sound precisely the way their hardware counterparts do at every dynamic interval.  In fact, the Classic Electrics pack is one of the only sample based keyboards I have ever used with complete confidence on a studio recording in replacement of the actual hardware version which was too noisy to capture properly during the session at the time.

The Rhodes MK I is the sound of classic records like The Doors “Riders on the Storm” and Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are”.  Toontrack’s MK I sounds and plays exactly like a real suitcase Rhodes.  The Default patch for the Rhodes MK I includes settings for Line-Amp, Reverb, Bass and Bite.  Combined in small doses, the resulting sound is more life-like than any other sampled Rhodes I’ve ever heard.

My only criticism of the Rhodes MK I in the Classic Electrics pack is the absence of tremolo in any of the on-board presets.  Rhodes enthusiasts would be correct in noting that the instrument itself generally did not carry on-board tremolo which is likely why Toontrack elected to exclude tremolo controls.  However, the Rhodes sound is very often coupled with some form of tremolo.  So it would be nice to see a preset that allowed users to add tremolo to the MK I.

Rhodes Examples:

Rhodes (Default preset)
Rhodes Full

Rhodes (DI preset)
Rhodes DI

Rhodes (Chorus preset)
Rhodes Chorus

Rhodes (1970s preset)
Rhodes 1970s

Rhodes (Default with reverb)
Rhodes Doors

The Wurlitzer 200A is unmistakable on songs like Ray Charles “What’d I Say” and Beck’s “Where It’s At”.  As with the Rhodes, Toontrack’s Wurlizter plays and sounds uniquely different between high and low dynamics.  The default setting for the 200A has quite a bit of Tremolo and Reverb, which to me misses the mark a bit in terms of capturing what I would consider a default Wurlizter sound.  However, a couple quick tweaks or switching to the “Classic” preset brings a more true-to-life Wurlitzer sound.  Here are some examples:

Wurlitzer heavy dynamics (Classic preset)
Wurly Classic High Dynamics

Wurlitzer medium dynamics (Classic preset)
Wurly Classic Medium Dynamics

Wurlitzer low dynamics (Ballad preset)
Wurly Ballad Low Dynamics

Retro Electrics: Expanding on the vintage vibe, the Retro Electrics EZ pack includes Hohner’s Clavinet D6 and Pianet N models.  The Clavinet has a thin, biting sound most famously heard on Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” while the Pianet has a fuller sound very similar to a Wurlitzer but with more of a high mid-range bite to it and a slight bell sound similar to a Rhodes.  The Pianet can be heard perhaps most famously on the Beatles “I Am the Walrus” and “Getting Better” as well as on songs like “She’s Not There” by The Zombies and “Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen.

The Pianet is a unique (and smart) instrument to have been picked for Toontrack’s expansion.  This particular piano, to me, along with the Wurlitzer and Rhodes from the Classic Electrics pack completes a perfect trio of full-bodied electric piano sounds that can be used for many different musical styles and genres.

The EZ Pianet

The Retro Pianet’s default setting is “Clean Amp” which features a fairly bite-heavy sound with tremolo and reverb. The DI preset gives users a cleaner, dry sound, which can be useful for adding external fx or feeding back to an amp.

Ten presets in total are included with the Pianet.  Each preset drastically changes the sound and character of the instrument. “Smooth Funk”, for instance, has an auto wah type sound with controls for Delay Time, Sensitivity, Filter and Delay.

Pianet Examples:

Pianet (default preset)
Pianet Default

Pianet medium dynamics (DI preset)
Pianet DI med dynamic

Pianet bass line (default preset)
Pianet Default bass line

Pianet (smooth funk preset)
Pianet smooth funk

Pianet (rotary speaker preset)
Pianet Rotary Speaker

Electric Grand: The Yamaha CP-80 sampled for this electric grand pack is clearly the black sheep in this current lineup of EZ Keys expansions. It has a unique sound that isn’t quite the sound of a full Grand Piano but also isn’t as uniquely different as say a Rhodes or Wurlitzer.

Signal chain presets for the Electric Grand

Yamaha’s CP series pianos were first introduced to the market with the CP-70 in the mid 1970’s, and production of the CP series ceased in the mid 1980’s.  What makes the CP-80 a unique instrument is that it really was a hybrid of an acoustic grand piano and an electric piano. The CP-80 featured real hammers and strings but the sound of the instrument was captured using a sophisticated piezo type pick-up system, which translated the vibrating strings into audio signal.

CP series pianos were used by everyone from John Paul Jones to Stevie Wonder, ELO, Genesis, Boston, and Hall and Oates to current acts like Keane who use the CP piano exclusively in their music.

A good example of the CP sound would be the lead piano melody from U2’s “New Years Day”.

Toontrack’s Electric Grand has a distinctly processed sound that lends itself very easily to pop productions.  The default settings include controls for Tone, Reverb and Drive.  The “Chorus Grand” preset is fairly bass heavy with a healthy amount of controllable compression, chorus and reverb.

Electric Grand Examples:

Electric Grand Default
Electric Grand Default

Electric Grand (Chorus Grand preset)
Electric Grand Chorus Grand

Electric Grand (Holdsworthy preset)
Electric Grand Holdsworthy

IN CONCLUSION: Toontrack really has outdone themselves with each of the EZ Keys expansion packs.  Keyboard players that I’ve worked with on sessions and in demos of some of these units were absolutely stunned not only by the sound quality and dynamic range of the instruments but by the price point!  At $179 per expansion, Toontrack is offering a world-class product with sound quality that rivals competing products that are many hundreds of dollars more expensive.

Users can start with the EZ Keys Grand Piano and expand their collection of instruments as needed at an accessible price for any budget.

Each of the expansion packs available for EZ Keys offers an instrument that in my opinion is as close to its original hardware counterpart as anything I’ve heard in the plugin world.  These are well worth the investment for any producer, engineer and certainly composer.

Click for more information on Toontrack’s EZKeys line and to purchase. EZ Keys owners pay $89 a piece to add expansions; they’re $179 to purchase new.

Zach McNees is a Brooklyn-based producer/engineer/mixer and live recordist who’s worked with Björk, Rob Thomas, Julia Nunes, The Gregory Brothers, Pixies, Liars and Alice Cooper. Get in touch with Zach via http://www.zachmcnees.com.

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