The Quilcom SIM-EP: Vintage Electric Piano simulator

[Spogg]

Hello to all you wonderful fellow ‘stoners!

This one has its model built purely to simulate electric piano sounds like the old and much revered Rhodes and Wurlitzers of this world.
Like my SIM-PF it uses no samples, so it’s small, loads quickly and can be adjusted for a wide range of timbres and can also be pressed into making sounds well beyond its original remit.

I won’t go into the details here, but the User Guide and Background information go into quite some depth about the real instruments. I can honestly say it was a fascinating journey of discovery for me!

Here’s my YouTube demo:

https://youtu.be/tTWyJwGMsvg

The download zip includes 32 and 64 bit plugins, the schematic made with 3.06, User guide etc:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nh8ydo61qwh5l ... 2.zip?dl=0

EDIT: This is now the link for the updated v1.002 maintenance fix. Info in the schematic.

I hope you like it!

Cheers

Spogg

[trogluddite]

Hi, Spogg.

That sounds awesome listening to your demo video; easily as convincing as my usual "goto" EP simulator, LazySnake (and a nice moment of nostalgia for watching 'Taxi' on the gogglebox with my Mum when I was a kid!).

Only one problem - the download link leads to your SIM-PF piano rather than SIM-EP!

[BobF]

WoW Spogg,

All I can say is it's superb , great sounding and great layout.

Good day, BobF.....

[deraudrl]

Only one problem - the download link leads to your SIM-PF piano rather than SIM-EP!

That explains my "WTF?!?" moment when I loaded it up in FS and hit the first chord...

[trogluddite]

Only one problem - the download link leads to your SIM-PF piano rather than SIM-EP!

That explains my "WTF?!?" moment when I loaded it up in FS and hit the first chord...

I did suspect at first that I was having a "senior moment" when Windows asked if I wanted to replace the existing files in my 'Quilcom' folder! Maybe Spogg is testing us to see whether we really play his synths or are just very polite!

[Spogg]

Oh CRAP!

I clicked on the wrong file. I've corrected the first post and here it is also:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cbzespd56ujw ... yzzXa?dl=0

Sorry guys, but thanks for the nice feedback!

Cheers

Spogg

[trogluddite]

Ah, that's better! Once I fired up my hammer action keyboard, I discovered those extra touches that make it so much more playable; such as the envelope-time scaling and the velocity response curves (EXPO1 suits my keyboard beautifully without having to mess about in its menus - I wish far more plugins would provide that feature). It showcases just how a synthesised approach can be more expressive than velocity-switching samples (very annoying when the "bark" suddenly kicks in at a switch point).

[Spogg]

Thanks trog!

Making these last two synths has taught me the value of key and velocity scaling for many parameters. I guess it’s more relevant for simulating real instruments so they sound something like right across the key span and heaviness of touch.
If it’s a “synth” patch then there’s nothing to compare it with, so that’s why I guess it’s not often emphasised. I also learned that key scaling is not necessarily linear or proportional. The decline of a piano’s decay time is most certainly not directly related to the pitch number and on a Rhodes higher velocities actually reduce the fundamental partial, which is somewhat counterintuitive until you study the mechanism (and the literature!).

Yesterday I spent some hours researching my next project, which I hope will sound at least a bit like a real harpsichord. I’m always surprised and delighted to find that real instruments have far more to them than you might expect. For example, a harpsichord can have a “choir” of up to 3 strings, the “jacks” which carry the plectra or quills can be arranged to excite two of the choirs in different places, so you have “front 8” and “back 8” where the 8 refers to 8 foot (because harpsichords came after pipe organs and used some of their terminology). You can have a “rank” of strings tuned to “4 foot”, so one octave up. These instruments would typically have 2 manuals which can optionally be mechanically coupled. The upper manual would typically operate just one choir while the lower one would operate on two or three. This gave the player the option to have two volume levels, since harpsichords are not audibly velocity sensitive. Then there’s the “lute stop” which introduces a damping felt near the end of the string which reduces the decay time and the higher harmonics.
Who’d have thought it! And not the simplest of challenges, which is great.

Cheers

Spogg

[MichaelBenjamin]

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[trogluddite]

Yesterday I spent some hours researching my next project, which I hope will sound at least a bit like a real harpsichord

I'm practicing the Strangler's Golden Brown already! (it's one of my favourite pop tunes of all time, despite the slightly iffy druggie connotations of the lyrics.)