Ableton/Live/UG/31 Instrument Reference/05 Electric
- Electric is an electric piano modeled on 1970s instruments, made with Applied Acoustics Systems. Every component is physically modeled in real time, with no samples, and parameters reach beyond what the real instruments allow.
- Garden notes: Ableton/Instrument/Electric/E-Piano MKI Simple
- A key drives a hammer into a fork, and a magnetic pickup amplifies the fork, much like an electric guitar. The fork has a tine bar, which the hammer strikes, and a tone bar, a tuned resonator. It rings for a long time until the key's release brings a damper down.
- Four sections: Hammer, Fork, Damper/Pickup and Global. Click a section, or its icon, to show all its parameters.
- Stiffness — harder hammers sound brighter, softer ones mellower; follows velocity and pitch via Vel and Key.
- Noise — impact noise, with Pitch (center frequency), Decay and Key (pitch scaling of noise volume).
- Force — how hard the hammer hits; Amount plus Vel and Key.
- Tine — the struck part. Color balances low and high partials; Decay sets fade while held; Key scales level by pitch.
- Tone — the fork's secondary resonance, with its own Decay.
- Release — fade after key release, for both tine and tone.
31.5.4.1 Pickup Parameters
- Symmetry — vertical position; 50% is in front of the tine and brightest, lower is below, higher is above.
- Distance — farther is cleaner; closer overdrives more.
- Type — R is electro-dynamic, W is electro-static.
- Input and Output — signal into the pickup sets distortion; output sets level. Low input with high output is cleaner than the reverse. Key scales output by pitch.
31.5.4.2 Damper Parameters
- Dampers make a small noise when they leave and touch the fork; these simulate it.
- Tone — soft to hard dampers, mellow to bright.
- Level — amount of damper noise.
- Att/Rel — -100 only on attack, 100 only on release, center both.
- Volume and Voices — more voices cost more CPU.
- Semi and Detune (±50 cents).
- Stretch — stretch tuning. Real tines and strings don't behave like the ideal model, so equal temperament can sound off on pianos; stretching sharpens high notes and flattens low ones. Negative values do the reverse.
- Pitch Bend — global bend range; Note PB — MPE per-note bend range.
