Keys & Mallets

Electric: Rhodes-style tine piano (Mallet, Fork, Damper, Pickup)

Electric is a physical model of a tine piano in four sections: the Mallet (hammer: force, stiffness, noise), the Fork (tine plus tone bar: decay, release, the "symmetry" between the two resonators), the Damper (felt that stops the tone, with its own noise on press and release) and the Pickup (electromagnetic pickup: type, distance, input/output response, which is where the bark comes from). It responds to velocity the way the instrument does.

1. Load Electric. Mallet: Stiffness 40–55% (soft felt → hard, more 2 kHz on the hit), Force 50%, Noise Pitch and Decay for the hammer "thock" (small amounts: Noise level around 20%). Velocity sensitivity for Stiffness (the Vel control in the Mallet section) at 40–60% so hard playing gets brighter, not just louder.
2. Fork: Tine Decay 60–80% (long ring), Tone Volume around 40% (the tone-bar component, the "body" under the tine), Release 30% for how fast the note dies on key-up, Symmetry around 50%.
3. Damper: Tone 50%, Attack Noise and Release Noise at 20–30%. This is the felt sound; the release noise is what makes staccato chords feel played.
4. Pickup: Type R (the classic sound) or W (warmer, hollower, closer to a Wurlitzer). Distance 30–50%: closer (lower value) is more bark and asymmetric distortion. Amp In/Out response shapes the pickup tone; raise the input and lower the output for more "overdriven pickup".
5. Global: Volume, Voices 16 or more for sustain-pedal chords, Semi/Detune for tuning, Stretch (piano-style stretch tuning) a little for a wider, truer top.
6. Tremolo: Auto Pan-Tremolo in Tremolo mode (12.3), rate 4–5.5 Hz free-running, amount 30–40%, with the stereo phase set so it pans slightly (the Rhodes "vibrato" is a stereo tremolo). Amp: Clean or Boost model, Bass 5 Treble 6, Gain low; Cabinet 2x12 with the Mic at the edge for a darker tone.
7. Hybrid Reverb: Quartz or a small Convolution room, decay 0.8–1.2 s, pre-delay 15 ms, 10–15% wet.

Wurlitzer variant: Pickup W, Mallet Stiffness 60%, Fork Tone Volume higher, Tine Decay shorter (40%), a little Amp Overdrive and a faster tremolo (5.5–6.5 Hz, mono tremolo rather than stereo). The Wurli reed sound is barkier in the mids and has less bell on top.

Collision: marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, kalimba

Collision’s Mallet exciter into Beam (bar) or Plate resonators covers the whole tuned-mallet family. The resonator’s Material and Inharmonics do what the bar’s material does, Hit position and Ratio shape the overtone balance, and two resonators in parallel give you the bar plus the resonator tube underneath.

1. Collision. Exciter Mallet: Volume full, Stiffness 50–70% (rubber → hard plastic → metal), Noise 15% with a short noise decay for the contact, Color 50%. Velocity → Volume 100% and → Stiffness 30%.
2. Resonator 1: Beam. Decay 1.5–3 s, Material 35% (lower = brighter, ringing; higher = damped, woody), Brightness 50%, Inharmonics 0 for marimba/vibes (bars are tuned to near-harmonic), +20–40% for glockenspiel and bells. Hit position 15–25% from the end; Ratio around 1.4 (the aspect ratio of the bar shifts the partial series).
3. Resonator 2: Tube in parallel, −6 to −10 dB, Decay 0.6 s, tuned an octave below (Tune −12): the resonator pipe under the bar. For glockenspiel leave Resonator 2 off.
4. Marimba: Stiffness 35%, Material 55%, Decay 0.8 s, Brightness 30%. Vibraphone: Stiffness 55%, Material 25%, Decay 3 s, Collision LFO (Sine 4–6 Hz) → Resonator 1 Volume at 30% for the rotating-fan tremolo, and map Sustain pedal to Decay (hold = long). Glockenspiel: Stiffness 80%, Material 15%, Inharmonics 30%, Decay 2 s, play C6+. Kalimba: Beam, Stiffness 40%, Decay 0.5 s, Noise 30%, Hit position 5% (plucked near the end), Tune so C3 lands around 260 Hz.
5. Amp envelope in Collision is mostly the resonator decay; use the Release so notes ring after key-up for vibes (Release long) and stop for marimba (Release 100 ms).
6. EQ Eight HP 120 Hz, Chorus-Ensemble 10% for a slightly fat stereo bar, Hybrid Reverb Dark Hall 2 s at 20% for vibes, a smaller room for marimba.

Sampled piano and keys in Simpler and Sampler

For a piano or an EP that must sound like the real thing, sampling wins. Simpler with a single multisample-ish approach (one sample, filter and velocity) does the lofi/house piano; Sampler with key and velocity zones does the realistic one. The Live core library ships multisampled pianos and EPs as Sampler instruments; the technique is how to shape them.

1. Simpler route: drop one piano note (C4) in Classic mode. Warp off (pitch-shifted samples give the authentic house-piano formant shift; the top gets plinky and the bottom gets muddy, which is the sound). Filter LP 24 at 8 kHz with velocity → cutoff 40%. Amp env: A 0, D 2 s, S 60%, R 300 ms.
2. Sampler route: a multisample from the library, or build zones. Key zones: a sample every major third keeps formant shifts under ±2 st. Velocity zones: soft sample 1–80, hard sample 81–127 with a crossfade of 10. Sampler’s Filter with velocity → cutoff, and LFO 3 as a slow (0.1 Hz) → pitch drift at 2 cents for a slightly unstable old piano.
3. Round-robin alternative: Sampler’s sample selector modulated by a Random source (via Max for Live LFO in random mode, or velocity ranges with overlapping zones) so repeated notes do not machine-gun.
4. Release: Sampler’s release stage plus a separate "release sample" layer (a damper noise in a second chain with a very short Simpler triggered on note-off via the Note Length MIDI effect’s trigger-on-release mode).
5. Sustain pedal: CC64 is handled by Simpler/Sampler natively.
6. EQ Eight HP 60 Hz, −2 dB at 300 Hz if the chords are muddy; Glue Compressor 2:1 slow for evenness; a convolution hall (Hybrid Reverb Convolution with a real hall IR) at 15%.

See Simpler, Sampler and drum devices.

Drift and Analog EP emulations (sine + FM edge, velocity to brightness)

A subtractive EP: a sine or triangle for the body, a second oscillator an octave or two up at low level for the tine, a low-pass that opens with velocity, a long exponential decay. It will not fool anyone next to Electric, but it is lighter on CPU, more flexible, and the "DX-ish" EP of 80s pop and the "soft synth EP" of lofi are exactly this.

1. Drift. Osc 1 Sine (or Triangle for more body), level 0 dB. Osc 2 Triangle, Octave +2, level −14 dB: the tine ping. Voice mode Poly, 8+ voices. Drift amount 10% for slight instability.
2. Envelope 1 (amp): A 1 ms, D 2.5 s, S 0, R 300 ms. Exponential-feeling decay is what Drift does by default. Envelope 2: A 0, D 400 ms, S 0; matrix Env 2 → filter cutoff +30%, Env 2 → Osc 2 level +40% (the tine rings at the attack and fades faster than the body).
3. Filter MS2 low-pass at 1.2 kHz, resonance 5%. Matrix: Velocity → filter cutoff +50%, Velocity → Osc 2 level +30%, Velocity → Env 2 amount. Soft notes are a dull sine; hard notes have the bark.
4. Add a hammer: Noise at 5% with the fast Env 2 on noise level. Or in Analog, use the Noise generator with its own fast envelope through Filter 2 band-passed at 2 kHz.
5. Analog version: Osc 1 Sine (Analog has Sine), Osc 2 Saw +2 octaves at −18 dB through Filter 2 LP at 3 kHz with a 200 ms decay; Filter 1 LP 12 on Osc 1 with velocity to cutoff; Amp 1 D 2 s. Analog’s filter drive adds the pickup grit.
6. Chorus-Ensemble Classic 25% (the Dimension-D style width), Auto Pan-Tremolo 5 Hz at 25%, Quartz reverb 15%.

Variations: Osc 2 as Osc 1’s sync target (Drift Osc 2 sync on, +12 st) with Env 2 → Osc 2 pitch for a harder, more metallic attack; MPE pressure → filter cutoff for after-touch swells. See Analog and Drift.

Operator FM bells, glockenspiel and the DX electric piano (ratios)

Bells are FM’s home: a carrier modulated at a ratio like 3.5 or 1.41 gives the inharmonic partials of a struck bell, and a fast-decaying modulator envelope gives the "ting" that settles into a pure tone. The DX-style EP is the same trick at ratio 1 and 14 with careful levels. Operator’s per-oscillator envelopes make these direct.

1. Operator. Algorithm with two parallel pairs (B→A and D→C side by side). Pair 1 is the bell: Osc A Sine, Coarse 1, 0 dB. Osc B Sine, Coarse 3, Fine 500 (ratio 3.5), level −14 dB; B env A 0, D 600 ms, S −inf. The modulator decays so the clang dies into the sine.
2. Osc A env: A 0, D 3 s, S −inf, R 1.5 s. Long ring.
3. Pair 2 is the body or the EP tine: Osc C Sine Coarse 1 at −6 dB; Osc D Sine Coarse 14, level −30 dB with a 200 ms decay env. Ratio 14 at a low level is the classic DX7 EP "tine" sparkle: a very high harmonic that rings for a moment.
4. Velocity: Operator’s per-oscillator Vel control. Set B and D level velocity to 60–80% so hard hits are brighter (more modulation) and soft hits are nearly pure sine. This is the whole expressiveness of an FM EP.
5. Pitch envelope: none for bells; for the EP a small +0.3 st with 10 ms decay gives the hammer thump.
6. Operator’s Spread 20% for stereo, Tone 70% to soften aliasing on high notes, Filter LP 10 kHz.
7. Chorus-Ensemble 15%, Delay 1/4 dotted 25% feedback (bells love delay), Hybrid Reverb Shimmer 20% (pitched-up tail) for the ambient version, Quartz 12% for the pop EP.

See Operator and plucks and arps for the shorter-decay cousins.

Tremolo and stereo vibrato with Auto Pan-Tremolo (12.3)

The Rhodes "vibrato" knob is a stereo tremolo: the signal pans between two amplifiers so the level pulses on each side out of phase. The Wurlitzer tremolo is mono. Auto Pan-Tremolo (12.3) has both modes, a sync or free rate, waveform shapes, a stereo phase control and an offset, so one device covers the EP tremolo, a rhythmic 1/8 chop and a slow pad-like swell.

1. Mode Tremolo for level modulation, Pan for position modulation. Rhodes: Tremolo with the stereo Phase at 180° (left and right opposite) gives the classic suitcase-amp wobble; the Wurli is Phase 0° (both channels together).
2. Rate: 4–6 Hz free-running for the classic EP; synced 1/8 or 1/16 for the rhythmic chop in house and trip-hop (sync it and set the Offset so the loud part lands on the off-beat if you want it to answer the kick).
3. Shape: Sine for smooth, Triangle for a slightly more obvious pulse, Square (with a short smoothing) for the hard gate. Amount 25–45% for EP; 100% for the gate effect.
4. Placement: before the amp for an authentic tone (the amp’s saturation reacts to the pulsing level); after the reverb if you want the whole space to pulse (trip-hop, dub).
5. Envelope follower trick: put a Max for Live Envelope Follower on the track and map it to the Rate, so harder playing speeds the tremolo slightly, as a Rhodes player would push the knob in a chorus.

Amp and Cabinet: the suitcase and the overdriven Wurli

Electric pianos are heard through amplifiers, and the amp is half the tone. Live’s Amp (seven models: Clean, Boost, Blues, Rock, Lead, Heavy, Bass) and Cabinet (speaker and mic configurations) give the suitcase Rhodes warmth at low gain and the barking Wurlitzer at moderate gain. Pedal in front for a fuzz-EP.

1. Amp: Clean for the suitcase (Gain 2–3, Bass 6, Middle 5, Treble 5, Presence 3), Boost or Blues for a Wurli bark (Gain 4–5), Rock for a Bitches-Brew-style distorted Rhodes (Gain 6+, played hard). Dual mono on so the stereo tremolo survives.
2. Cabinet: 1x12 or 2x12 with a Condenser mic, Near, for a close suitcase; 4x12 with a Dynamic mic Far for a bigger room-y tone. The Dual switch runs two cabinets for stereo.
3. Pedal in front: Overdrive mode at 15–25% for grit, Fuzz for the broken-amp EP; Pedal’s Sub switch keeps the lows clean.
4. Order: tremolo → Pedal → Amp → Cabinet → EQ → reverb. The reverb goes after the cabinet, as a room around the amp.
5. EQ Eight after: HP 70 Hz; the cabinet already low-passes, so no high cut is needed. If the amp makes the mids honk, −2 dB at 800 Hz.
6. Level: amps compress; watch the output and use the Amp Output rather than a Utility to set the level, so the compression character stays.

See saturation and distortion.

Tape, vinyl and lofi treatments: Vinyl Distortion, Redux, Erosion, Chorus-Ensemble vibrato

The lofi keys sound is four degradations: pitch instability (wow and flutter), bandwidth loss (low-pass and high-pass), noise and crackle, and bit/sample-rate reduction. Each has a Live device, and the order matters: wobble first (it is part of the "recording"), then band-limiting, then crackle (it is on the "record"), then bit reduction (it is the "sampler").

1. Wow and flutter: Chorus-Ensemble in Vibrato mode, Rate 0.3–0.8 Hz, Amount 8–15%, with Warmth on; this is slow pitch wobble with no dry mix, exactly what a worn tape does. For flutter add a second instance at 6–9 Hz with 2–3% amount. Alternatively Live 12 Auto Shift’s LFO to pitch at a slow rate.
2. Bandwidth: Auto Filter LP 12 dB at 6–8 kHz with a little Drive (the 12.2 Auto Filter’s drive stage adds warmth); EQ Eight HP 80–100 Hz; a −3 dB bell at 3 kHz for the "cassette" dullness.
3. Vinyl Distortion: Tracing Model (harmonic distortion from the stylus) at 20–40%, Pinch (stereo crosstalk distortion) 10%, Crackle Density 30–50% with Volume low enough to be subliminal. Crackle is global, not note-triggered, so it sits on the whole track like a record.
4. Redux: Bit Depth 10–12, Sample Rate reduction around 20–24 kHz with the soft/filtered downsample mode so aliasing stays tasteful; harder for the SP-1200 sound (26 kHz, 12-bit is the SP’s spec; 8-bit for the MPC-60-ish crunch is an exaggeration but a popular one).
5. Erosion Noise mode at 3–5 kHz, 5–10%, adds hiss that follows the signal rather than a constant noise bed.
6. Compressor 3:1, Attack 30 ms, Release 200 ms, 3–4 dB GR: the "sampled off a record and compressed" feel where chords swell after the attack.
7. Sidechain the whole chain to the kick lightly (2 dB) for the lofi bounce. See lofi hip hop.

MPE expressivity on keys: pressure, slide, per-note bend

A keyboard player’s expressiveness after the attack is almost zero on a piano (the hammer has left the string), but EPs and mallets in Live can do more: with MPE, each held note can get pressure → brightness (a swell), slide → tremolo depth or tine level, and per-note pitch bend for the "bent note" that a real vibes player gets with a mallet press. Electric itself is not MPE, so the trick there is per-note mapping through an Instrument Rack or using Expression Control for channel aftertouch.

1. Enable MPE on the track input (the track’s MIDI input settings) and in the instrument (Drift, Wavetable, Meld, Collision, Sampler and Simpler support per-note expression).
2. Drift EP (from the Drift recipe): matrix Pressure → filter cutoff +40% (press into a chord and it brightens), Slide → Osc 2 level +30% (slide up a pad for more tine), per-note Pitch bend range ±2 st so a small slide bends like a mallet press.
3. Collision vibes: Pressure → Mallet Volume (re-excite the bar without re-striking, a swell), Slide → LFO rate (tremolo speed per note), Pitch bend → Resonator tune.
4. Electric (not MPE): Expression Control MIDI effect before it, Aftertouch (channel pressure from Push) → Pickup Distance or Tremolo amount on the Auto Pan-Tremolo after it, Mod Wheel → Mallet Stiffness. You get whole-chord expression rather than per-note, which is often what an EP wants anyway.
5. Record the MPE performance; the clip stores per-note expression envelopes you can edit in the note expression lanes (Live 12’s per-note editing for Slide, Pressure and Pitch).
6. For a non-MPE controller, map Expression Control’s Velocity source → tremolo amount so the harder you play, the deeper the tremolo.

See MPE expressive sounds, tuning, scales and MPE.

Humanization: Velocity, Time Warp, Ornament, Strum

Programmed keys give themselves away by simultaneous chord notes, identical velocities, and robotic timing. Live 12’s MIDI Transformation tools fix all three in a few clicks: Strum spreads chord notes in time, Velocity Shaper and the Velocity lane add dynamics, Time Warp bends timing, Ornament adds grace notes, and the Groove Pool supplies swing and per-note jitter.

1. Strum (transformation): select the chords, Strum with a 15–35 ms total spread, direction up for a right-hand roll (bass first), down for the occasional flourish. Add a small velocity tilt so the top note is loudest.
2. Velocity: in the Velocity lane, left-hand notes 60–80, melody 85–110; accents on the chord changes. Then Velocity Deviation ±8 so each loop differs. The Velocity MIDI effect in real time: Random 8–12, Drive −10 (slight compression) so the dynamics are present but not wild.
3. Time Warp (transformation): push the chord on beat 2 and 4 late by 8–15 ms (relaxed), or the whole part early by 5 ms (urgent). Or apply a groove: MPC 8 Swing-58 at 40% for neo-soul keys, with Random 10% for jitter.
4. Ornament (12.1 transformation): adds grace notes, flams and trills before selected notes with a chosen interval and offset; on a melody line, a grace note a scale step below at 30 ms before the main note on 20% of the notes is a convincing "player" touch. Use the scale awareness so the ornaments stay in key.
5. Pedal: automate CC64 by hand, lifting it just before chord changes. Unpedalled programmed chords sound dry; pedal held across changes sounds muddy; the lift is the human part.
6. Repeated notes: Chance 85% on repeated 1/8 chords so one drops out occasionally.

See MIDI tools.

Genre variants: lofi hip hop, deep house, trip-hop, neo-soul

Four treatments of the same Electric patch.

See lofi hip hop, deep house, trip-hop / downtempo, trip-hop deconstruction, deep house deconstruction.

EQ for keys: making room for the bass and the vocal

Keys are the widest-band element in most arrangements and the most likely to mask both the bass and the vocal. The EQ job is subtractive: a high-pass that moves with the arrangement, a low-mid cut where the bass’s harmonics live, a presence dip when a vocal is present, and mono below 150 Hz.

1. High-pass: 80 Hz with a solo piano, 110–150 Hz with a bass, 180–200 Hz with a sub-heavy track where the keys are only a mid-range texture. A 12 dB slope sounds more natural on keys than 24 dB.
2. Low-mid: −2 to −4 dB at 200–350 Hz Q 1–1.5. This is where EP chords get muddy and where the bass’s second harmonic needs to be heard.
3. Presence: an EP already has its bark at 1.5–3 kHz; if there is a vocal, dip −2 dB at 2–3 kHz, or use Multiband Dynamics with a vocal sidechain on that band so the dip only happens while the vocal sings.
4. Top: EPs and vibes have little above 8 kHz; a high shelf −1.5 dB at 8 kHz removes amp hiss and leaves the hats alone. Bells and glocks are the exception: leave the top alone, cut their low mids harder instead.
5. Stereo: Utility Bass Mono 120–150 Hz; the tremolo and chorus width above that is fine. Check mono.
6. Dynamics: Glue Compressor 2:1, attack 10–30 ms, release auto, 2 dB GR, keeps the velocity range musical without flattening it; the sidechain to the bass on the low band (Multiband Dynamics) stops the keys and the bass fighting on the root notes.

See EQ strategies and mid/side and stereo.