Warm overdrive modelled on a classic tube-screamer circuit.
- Mode
- drive model: Tube, Diode or Digital.
- Voltage
- supply voltage of the tube stage, 0.1 to 2 V.
- Amount
- drive amount.
- Gain Out
- output level of the drive.
Acoustic & Electric Piano
A pristine grand and an iconic electric, blended on one creative keyboard.
Introduction
Twin 88 Keys is built from two pianos you know by heart, blended on one keyboard, with deep creative controls to shape every nuance. Play a chord, and the pristine strings of a concert grand and the iconic tines of a vintage electric piano answer together. The sound that rises between them is one you’ve never heard, yet it feels familiar from the very first note.
The Grand
A pristine CFX model recorded in California with the finest studio gear. It has a deep, resonant bass, a clear and singing treble, and the long, evolving sustain of a full-size concert instrument, with a natural, finely graded response to every touch. Close, Mono and Cinematic microphones let you decide how near it sits and how it fills the mix.
The Electric
A vintage 88-key electric piano, deeply sampled in Paris, on every key at multiple velocities. Its tines ring warm and bell-like under a light touch, and bark when you dig in. Blend its DI Box and Acoustic signals to move between the close, clean focus of the direct sound and the open air of the microphone.
Recorded in Depth
Both instruments were sampled across their full dynamic range. The small sounds that make a piano feel alive are here too, from pedal and release noise to the grand’s sympathetic resonance and key-off sounds, each with its own level.
Keys Together, or Apart
Choose how the two pianos share the keyboard. Turn a single knob from grand to electric and stop anywhere in between. Blend by velocity, and the grand turns electric as you play harder. Blend by range, and one piano carries the bass while the other sings above it. Or blend by tone, darkening one piano so the other comes forward.
Make It Yours
Each piano has its own microphones, filters, EQ, envelope and modulation. Set how each one responds to your touch, add a slow tremolo to the electric while the grand stays still, add a gentle pitch drift, or animate the notes across the stereo field. A step arpeggiator and a semi-modular effects engine complete the picture.
Minimum System Requirements
- Latest version of UVI Player or Falcon
- 3.98 GB of disk space
MAIN Page
The landing view: pick a preset, set the balance between the two pianos, shape the performance with the one-knob macros, and choose an effect chain.
- 1 Preset Menus
- Presets
- change presets with the drop-down menu or the [∧] [∨] buttons.
- Options
- click the ☰ icon to access Save Preset and Load Preset (user presets).
- 2 Pages
Switch between Main, Edit and FX. The dot above the FX label switches the whole effects section on or off.
- 3 Settings
Opens the global settings: MIDI Curve, Polyphony, Balance and Pitch Bend. See Settings below.
- 4 Master Volume
Global output level, with VU meter.
- 5 Grand Piano
- Power
- switches the grand piano on or off.
- Grand Piano
- click the label to open its Edit page.
- 6 Electric Keys
- Power
- switches the electric piano on or off.
- Electric Keys
- click the label to open its Edit page.
- 7 Key Display
Each key shows the current mix of the two pianos, from tan (grand) to teal (electric), and lights up as notes are played. Click a key to audition it.
- 8 Blend
Crossfades from the Grand Piano (left) to the Electric Keys (right), with an equal-power law: at the centre both play together at equal level. The new setting applies to the next notes you play; held notes keep their mix.
- 9 Motion
- Power
- the small switch above the button turns the Motion arpeggiator on or off.
- Motion
- click the button to open the Motion editor in place of the key display; click it again to return.
- 10 Performance Macros
Each macro acts on both pianos.
- Color
- plays the samples of neighbouring keys (up to an octave away), retuned to the played note, to change the timbre.
- Dynamic
- sets the dynamic range of both pianos at once (see Dynamic on the Edit pages).
- Mute
- lets the attack through and damps the sustain, from open to a tight, palm-muted sound.
- Intensity
- shifts the timbre towards softer or harder playing without changing the level.
- 11 Effects
- FX Chain
- select an FX Chain preset from the drop-down menu.
- Mix
- scales the whole effect chain (see Mix on the FX page).
- Lim
- threshold of the output limiter, from −40 to 0 dB. At 0 dB the limiter is off.
Settings
- MIDI Curve — shapes the velocity response. Turn left for a lighter touch (soft playing reaches high velocities sooner), right for a heavier one.
- Polyphony — maximum number of voices, from 8 to 128, shared by both pianos.
- Balance — tilts the level across the keyboard: positive values lower the bass and raise the treble (up to ±20 dB at the ends of the keyboard), negative values do the opposite. Not to be confused with the Balance tab of the Edit page.
- Pitch Bend — pitch bend range, from 0 to 12 semitones.
Click anywhere outside the panel to close it.
Motion Editor
A step arpeggiator that can drive either piano, or both. Open it with the Motion button on the Main page.
- 1 Motion
- Power
- turns the Motion arpeggiator on or off.
- Motion
- click the button to return to the key display.
- 2 Mode
Order in which the held notes are played:
- Played
- in the order the keys were pressed.
- Up
- upward.
- Down
- downward.
- Up-Down
- alternately upward and downward.
- Chord
- all held notes together, on every step.
- Special
- each note paired with another held note chosen at random.
- 3 Speed
Step duration.
- Host Sync
- the metronome icon syncs the speed to the host tempo (1/1 to 1/64, dotted and triplet values included). Off, the speed is set in Hz.
- 4 Octave
Extends the pattern over up to three octaves above (positive values) or below (negative values) the played notes.
- 5 Steps
Number of steps in the pattern, from 1 to 32.
- 6 Step Editor
Click-drag each bar to set the velocity of that step. A step at zero is a rest.
- 7 Shift
The [<] [>] arrows rotate the whole pattern one step backward or forward.
- 8 One-Shot
Plays the pattern once per new note instead of looping it.
- 9 Relative Velocity
How much the velocity you play is blended into each step's velocity: at 0 the steps set the velocity, at maximum your playing does.
- 10 Targets
Selects which piano the arpeggiator drives: Grand Piano, Electric Keys, or both. A piano that is not a target keeps playing straight from the keyboard, so one can arpeggiate while the other plays the chord.
Holding the sustain pedal keeps released notes in the pattern.
EDIT — Grand Piano
Microphones, gain and pitch, response, mixer and tone, and the amp envelope of the concert grand. The three tabs at the top of the Edit page switch between Grand Piano, Balance and Electric Keys; the switches next to the two piano names turn each instrument on or off.
- 1 Microphones
Switch and level for each microphone position. A microphone that is switched off is unloaded from memory.
- Close
- stereo close microphones.
- Mono
- mono signal.
- Cinematic
- stereo room microphones.
- 2 Gain, Pan & Pitch
- Gain
- level of the grand piano.
- Pan
- stereo position.
- Pitch
- tuning, ±12 semitones.
The coloured dots at the left of each knob are its modulation amounts, see Modulation below.
- 3 Dynamic
Dynamic range: how much the level follows the velocity. At zero every note plays at the same level.
- 4 Smooth
Amount of a velocity-driven low-pass filter (6 dB/oct): soft notes get darker, hard notes stay open.
- 5 Mixer / Tone
Mixer — level (slider) and high-pass filter (HP knob) of each sound element:
- Release
- sound triggered when releasing a key.
- Resonance
- sympathetic resonances, heard while the sustain pedal is down.
- Pedal
- sound of the sustain pedal being pressed and released.
- Key Off
- piano mechanics heard when a key is released.
Tone — equalizer, see Tone below.
- 6 Amp Envelope
Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release.
- 7 True Release
On, release samples play and the natural release time is used (the R fader is disabled). Off, the R fader sets the release time and release samples are muted.
- 8 LFO A & B
Two global LFOs, shared by both pianos and the effects.
- Power
- turns the LFO on (or click click to enable LFO).
- Host Sync
- the metronome icon syncs the frequency to the host tempo.
- Mode
- Legato restarts the LFO only when you play after releasing all keys; Retrigger restarts it on every note.
- Shape
- modulation waveform.
- Phase
- start phase.
- Frequency
- speed, 0.01 to 20 Hz, or a note value from 4 bars to 1/32 when synced.
- Depth
- modulation depth.
An LFO has no effect until it is assigned to a parameter, see Modulation below.
Tone
Click Tone below the mixer to show the equalizer of the instrument. The graph displays the resulting curve.
- HP — high-pass filter, 20 Hz to 2 kHz, 18 dB/oct. Off when fully counter-clockwise.
- Low — low shelf at 179 Hz, ±24 dB.
- High — high shelf at 5 kHz, ±24 dB.
- LP — low-pass filter, 500 Hz to 20 kHz, 18 dB/oct. Off when fully clockwise.
Modulation
Gain, Pan, Pitch and several effect parameters can be modulated. The small coloured dots at the left of the knob show the amount for each source; click-drag a dot to set it. The ~ button at the right of the knob opens the Modulation panel, with one control per source:
- Modwheel, LFO A and LFO B on every modulatable knob.
- Keyfollow and Alternate on Pan, to spread the notes across the stereo field by pitch or note by note.
In the panel, Reset All Modulation clears every amount, and X closes the panel.
EDIT — Electric Keys
The same controls as the Grand Piano, for the vintage electric piano.
- 1 Signals
Switch and level for each signal. A signal that is switched off is unloaded from memory.
- DI Box
- direct signal of the instrument.
- Acoustic
- microphone signal.
- 2 Gain, Pan & Pitch
- Gain
- level of the electric piano.
- Pan
- stereo position.
- Pitch
- tuning, ±12 semitones.
- 3 Dynamic & Smooth
- Dynamic
- dynamic range: how much the level follows the velocity.
- Smooth
- amount of a velocity-driven low-pass filter (6 dB/oct): soft notes get darker.
- 4 Mixer / Tone
Mixer — level (slider) and high-pass filter (HP knob):
- Release
- sound triggered when releasing a key.
- Pedal
- sound of the sustain pedal being pressed and released.
Tone — HP, Low, High and LP, as on the Grand Piano page.
- 5 Amp Envelope
Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release.
- 6 True Release
On, release samples play and the natural release time is used (the R fader is disabled). Off, the R fader sets the release time and release samples are muted.
EDIT — Balance
The Balance tab lets the playing decide which piano you hear: by the key you play, by its tone, or by how hard you play. Each row has three controls:
- Balance — amount and direction of the effect. At 0 the row is off; positive values follow the labels at the right of the row, negative values swap the two pianos.
- Curve — width of the transition around the centre: low values switch from one piano to the other over a few keys (or velocity steps), high values spread the change over the whole range.
- Center — the key (or velocity) where the transition takes place. Use the [∧] [∨] arrows or click-drag the value.
- 1 Volume
Blends by keyboard range. With a positive Balance the grand piano plays below the Center note and the electric piano above it.
- 2 Filter
Blends by tone. With a positive Balance the electric piano gets darker below the Center note and the grand piano above it, so the other piano comes forward. The depth of the darkening is set by the Smooth knob of each piano: with Smooth at zero this row has no effect.
- 3 Velocity
Blends by velocity. With a positive Balance soft notes play the grand piano and hard notes the electric piano, the switch happening around the Center velocity.
The Volume and Velocity rows work from the Blend setting of the Main page: they move each note’s mix away from it, towards one piano or the other. With Blend fully on one side they have no effect, and the other piano always stays slightly audible. For the widest contrast, leave Blend near the centre and raise Balance.
FX Page
Five effect slots, a three-band EQ and the output stage, applied to both pianos. The first three slots host any of eight effects; the last two are a dedicated Delay and Reverb, each with its own modes. The LFO A & B strip at the bottom of the page is the one described on the Edit pages.
- Slot 1 assignable
- Slot 2 assignable
- Slot 3 assignable
- Delay 4 modes
- Reverb 6 modes
- EQ 3 bands
- Gain Out
- Limiter Main page
- 1 FX Chain Preset
- FX Chain
- select an FX Chain preset with the drop-down menu or the [∧] [∨] buttons. Over fifty chains are included, arranged in Cloud, Echo, Experimental, Lo-fi, Phase and Room categories.
- Save ↓
- save the current chain as a user preset.
- Load
- load a user FX Chain preset.
- 2 Effect Slots
- Power
- enable/disable the slot. A disabled slot shows click to enable effect.
- Effect Name
- click to show the controls of that slot.
- FX Selector
- the [∨] next to the name of slots 1–3 picks the effect: Drive, Tone, Grains, Flanger, Chorus, Phaser, Redux or Convolver.
- 3 FX Controls
Controls of the selected slot. They change with the effect and its mode, see the Effects Reference below.
- 4 EQ
- Power
- enable/disable the EQ.
- Low / Mid / High
- per-band gain, ±24 dB.
- ƒ (Crossover)
- Low↔Mid (20 Hz to 1 kHz) and Mid↔High (2 to 20 kHz) crossover frequencies.
- 5 Output
- Gain Out
- output gain of the chain.
- Mix
- scales the whole chain: 0 % is the dry sound, 100 % the chain as designed, 200 % doubles every effect amount and EQ gain.
Effects Reference
Pick an effect, then a mode where it has several, to see its controls. Knobs with small coloured dots at their left can be modulated by the Modwheel and LFO A & B; the ~ button opens their Modulation panel.
Slots 1–3
Fixed slots
Mode
Mode
Mode
Diode clipping, harder and brighter than the tube.
- Mode
- drive model.
- Tone
- tone of the clipper, 100 Hz to 20 kHz.
- Amount
- drive amount.
- Gain Out
- output level of the drive.
Waveshaper, from soft saturation to folded, metallic tones.
- Mode
- drive model.
- Shape
- waveshaping curve: sine, fold-back, tanh or atan.
- Amount
- drive amount.
- Gain Out
- output level of the drive.
One-knob tone stack, to darken or brighten the whole sound.
- Depth
- bipolar tone shaping, −100 to +100 %: a tilt EQ combined with a blend of two speaker responses.
Granular processor.
- Coarse
- pitch of the grains, ±12 semitones.
- Density
- number of overlapping grains, 1 to 10.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Classic flanger.
- Sync
- syncs the modulation to the host tempo.
- Speed
- modulation speed, in Hz or as a note value when synced.
- Delay
- base delay time.
- Feedback
- feedback amount.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Multi-voice chorus, a natural partner for the electric piano.
- Speed
- modulation speed, 0.01 to 1 Hz.
- Depth
- modulation depth, 1 to 40 cents.
- Edge
- colour of the chorus.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Multi-stage phaser.
- Sync
- syncs the modulation to the host tempo.
- Frequency
- modulation speed, 0.01 to 10 Hz or a note value when synced.
- Order
- number of phaser stages, 1 to 12.
- Feedback
- feedback amount, positive or negative.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Emulations of classic lo-fi samplers.
- Mode
- sampler model: Emulator, SP12, Linn 9000, Mirage or Extreme. Each sets its own jitter, quantization and filtering.
- Frequency
- sample rate, 200 Hz to 44.1 kHz.
- Bit Depth
- bit depth, 1 to 32 bits.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Impulse responses of devices, speakers and unconventional objects.
- Device
- Cassette Tape, Device Analog, Headphone, Laptop, Megaphone, Mini Amp, Old Phone, Radio, Smart Phone, Talkie, Tape 1, Tape 2, Television, Toy 1, Toy 2, Turntable.
- Speaker
- American Transistor, American Tube, Bass Black, Bass Green, British Amp, Champion, Classic Bass, Custom, Deluxe, Jazz, Metal Amp, Sonic, Twangy, Vintage Tube, Western.
- Unconventional
- Aquatic, Cold Impressions, Crackle, Cymbalic Ride, Filter Back, Grains, Industrial, Larsen, Machinery, Metal Can, Metallic, Phase Echo, Reverse, Stereo Wide, Talking Can, Tiny FX, Voice A, Voice B, Water Room.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Clean, precise digital delay. In every mode the delay time is synced to the host tempo, from four bars down to 1/32.
- Time
- delay time.
- Feedback
- amount of repeats.
- Filters
- the two small knobs filter the echoes: high cut from 1 to 20 kHz (top), low cut from 20 Hz to 4 kHz (bottom).
- Width
- stereo width of the echoes.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Tape echo.
- Time
- delay time.
- Feedback
- amount of repeats.
- Rate
- tape rate, 1× to 3×.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
An ambient wash of echoes.
- Time
- delay time.
- Feedback
- amount of repeats.
- Diffusion
- density of the echoes.
- Spread
- time spread of the diffusion.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
A smooth aura of echoes.
- Time
- delay time.
- Diffusion
- density of the echoes.
- Spread
- time spread of the diffusion.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Algorithmic reverb with independent control of the low and high decay.
- Size
- room size.
- Decay
- decay time, 0.1 to 10 s.
- High
- high-frequency decay, ×0.1 to ×10 of Decay.
- Low
- low-frequency decay, ×0.1 to ×10 of Decay.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Convolution reverb from concert halls.
- Type
- Bright, Dark, Grain, Gymnasium or Wide.
- Decay
- length of the reverb tail.
- Width
- stereo width.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Convolution reverb from churches and cathedrals.
- Type
- Abbey, Basilica, Chapelle, Cloister or Monastery.
- Decay
- length of the reverb tail.
- Width
- stereo width.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Plate reverb, from the impulse responses of the UVI Plate plug-in.
- Type
- Aluminium, Gold, Silver, Steel or Titanium.
- Decay
- length of the reverb tail.
- Width
- stereo width.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Spring reverb.
- Type
- Analog, Classic, Modern, Suspension or Vintage.
- Decay
- length of the reverb tail.
- Width
- stereo width.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Special-effect spaces and objects.
- Type
- Abyss, Cavern, Devil, Dragonfly, Hollow, Metal, Phone, Reptilian, Shaft or VHS.
- Decay
- length of the reverb tail.
- Width
- stereo width.
- Mix
- dry/wet balance.
Credits
Produced by UVI.
- Recording / Editing / Sound Design — Alain J Etchart · Théo Gallienne · Kevin Guilhaumou · Floriane Palmkrantz · Damien Vallet
- Software + Scripting — Thomas Kowalski · Rémy Muller · Olivier Tristan · Damien Vallet
- GUI + Design — Anthony Hak · Alice Leclerc · Nathaniel Reeves
- Documents — Nathaniel Reeves · Kai Tomita