Alicia's Electric Keys Explained
Native Instruments has added a follow-up to the successful Alicia's Keys VI by going electric and sampling her own personal Yamaha CP70 to bring us Alicia's Electric Keys. In this in-depth Alicia's Electric Keys video course, production wizard Eli Krantzberg walks you through this instrument front to back, explaining all the parameters, effects, and other features that make it such an incredibly versatile musical tool. From simple preset management to the deepest tweaking, it's all covered here. These Alicia's Electric Keys videos are designed for new users.
Videos
• What Is Alicia's Electric Keys? (05:02) - Get a flyover of the interface in this beautifully sampled recreation of Alicia Keys' personal CP 70 Electric Grand piano. Learn how to get around the instrument and get a taste of what Alicia's CP 70 sounds like.
• Presets & Snapshots (05:08) - Learn how to navigate the built-in preset browser and save your own modified presets using the Kontakt snapshot system.
• Sources Mixer (03:30) - Discover how to blend and balance the direct/microphone signals and set the relative levels of various sound-shaping parameters so they're weighted more towards one or the other of the direct or mic?d channels.
• Shape Controls (04:20) - Discover the huge range of timbre-shifting control accessible by transposing the sample mapping, adjusting the sample playback speed, adjusting dynamic range, envelopes, release samples, and more in the Shape section of the Instrument page.
• Tone Section (04:27) - Explore the rich harmonics added with the overtone and resonance controls, the way the Sub and Low Key controls enhance the bottom end of the instrument, and the transient control introduced with the Punch parameter.
• Noises (05:53) - Explore the rich and varied mechanical and electrical noises that add texture and realism to the instrument.
• Working with FX Chains (06:50) - Learn how to navigate the FX page, work with FX Chain presets, set up parallel signal paths for the direct and mic?d signals, and get started with a few effects processing ideas.
• Exploring the Effects (07:09) - Get a taste of some of the effects processing available in Alicia?s Electric Keys in this brief flyover of a few modules.
• FX Macro Knob Assignments (03:29) - Discover how to assign the FX module macro knobs to control various FX module parameters simultaneously with different offsets and starting positions.
• Editing Macros, Automation, & Settings (06:26) - See how to edit the assignments of the main Macro knobs at the bottom of the interface, map them to hardware controllers, automate them in your DAW, and adjust other various instrument performance-related settings.
• Sound Design: Eli's Punchy Dance Keys (02:46) - Follow along as a custom dance sound with lots of overdriven percussive attack and huge ambience is created from scratch.
• Sound Design: Eli's Heavenly Shimmer (04:44) - Learn how a bespoke, shimmering, swirling pad sound is built from the ground up, starting with the Basic Grand preset.
• Sound Design: Eli's Bass n' Your Face (04:22) - A deep, rich bass-heavy sound is built up from scratch using a variety of instrument settings, effects, noise, and routings.