The Best Wurlitzer Plugins in 2023
2/5/2021
I'm a big fan of Wurlitzer plugins, specifically plugins modeled after the Wurlitzer 200 and 200A! When you think of classic Wurlitzer sounds heard on recordings by artists such as Supertramp, Steely Dan, and Three Dog Night, you are most likely hearing this classic electronic piano. The Wurlitzer company used to produce jukeboxes, pianos, organs, and all kinds of other musical instruments and equipment, but in the 1980s they were acquired by Baldwin, and like so many purchased brands, the Wurlitzer name has since faded into obscurity, and is now probably most associated with a certain type of electronic piano.
The Wurlitzer Electronic Piano is a piano instrument that uses metal reeds struck by hammers to produce vibration, converted to an electrical signal via the piano's pickup, which is then amplified by the preamp/amplifier, similar to how an electric guitar works (the difference being that the pickup in a Wurlitzer carries a voltage, and the piano has active electronics). The characteristic "bark" of a Wurlitzer can be partially attributed to the shape and behavior of a vibrating reed (vs the shape of, say, a tine in a Rhodes Piano or a vibrating string), further amplified in many songs by sending the aux output of a Wurlitzer to an external amplifier, such as a Fender Twin or Jazz Chorus, in order to impart non-linear harmonic distortion, add spring reverb, or pass the signal through an amp's EQ circuit(s). I will rate each plugin on four main categories: FEATURES, EFFECTS, VALUE, and PRESETS/SOUND DESIGN.
Let's start with my Wurlitzer plugin. Am I biased? Sure! Is my Wurlitzer still a decent plugin? I believe so, and here's why!
I sampled my Wurlitzer from a 1970's Wurlitzer 200A, so all of the notes and releases are genuine Wurlitzer sounds. I then engineered analog warmth back into it using SPICE vacuum tube simulations. Again, external amplification can be a huge part of the Wurlitzer tone. I've also added stereo panning, tremolo, phaser, chorus, delay, convolution reverbs, and cabinet impulse responses, as well as the Leslie simulation from my B3 Organ plugin.
Models
1.) 200 ✘
2.) 200A ✓ (Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✘
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 64 Notes
2.) VST: ✓
3.) AAX: ✓
4.) AU: ✓
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 95
2.) 16 Amps, 43 Reverbs, 30 Cabinets, Phaser, Delay, Tremolo, Chorus, Panner, AutoWah, Leslie Simulation
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $25
2.) Number of Samples: 5,392
3.) Memory Use: 390 MB
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✓
3.) EQ? ✓ (Speaker Curves)
Thoughts
I would describe the tone of this plugin as
balanced/slightly agressive. It is most similar in tone to the
Keyscape Wurlitzer and
Acousticsamples VReeds. There are a ton of
presets (95), many based on classic
Wurlitzer sounds. The
Amplifier, Cabinet, Tremolo, Reverb, and Delay controls are excellent with many
parameters. The plugin also contains a massive amount of
reverbs and
cabinets. A good
all-around plugin, and the price makes it one of the
best value plugins. What I believe sets this plugin arpart from the other plugins is the
vacuum tube simulations. This lets the plugin
cut through a mix a little easier, and the
distortion sounds a bit more
natural than some of the other plugins that use simpler
atan-based distortion algorithms.
However, I will also say that this makes the plugin
quite a bit louder and more
punchy than some of the other
plugins. I think this suits how a
Wurlitzer is typically used, and I've made a lot of adjustments to come up with some
mellower presets, but it's not going to be quite as
mellow as something like
Neo Soul Keys or the
Acousticsamples Wurlie
When I think of Lounge Lizard, I tend to think modeled Rhodes, but this plugin also includes a decent sounding Wurlitzer. It's not sampled, but physically modeled, meaning that the plugin relies on equations to produce its sound. It doesn't attempt to model a specifc Wurlitzer Model, but the general sound of a reed-based electronic piano.
Models
1.) 200 ✓
2.) 200A span class="paragraphtextbiggreen">✓ (Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✓
4.) 206A ✓
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Modeled
Features
1.) Range: 88 Notes
2.) VST: ✓
3.) AAX: ✓
4.) AU: ✓
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 69
2.) Character Knob, Hammer, Fork, Pickup Controls, 4 Reverbs
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $199
2.) Number of Samples: N/A
3.) Memory Use: 135 MB
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✘
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the tone of this plugin as
balanced, slightly cold. It is most similar in tone to
Velvet 2 and
Scarbee A200. There are
advantages and disadvantages to using a
modeled plugin over a
sampled plugin The main
advantage is that the sound is being
generated on the fly, based on things like
note velocity, so a
well-modeled plugin can be extremely
expressive to play. The main
disadvantage is that it is a mathematical
appoximation, as opposed to a recording (
sampling) of an
actual physical instrument. To be fair, we could consider
digital recordings or
samples to be
mathematical approximations, and the field of
DSP is little more than the application of
mathematical equations to these mathematical
number sets. I associate the sound of a
Wurlitzer as being
slightly warm (at least the
DI signal), and the presets in this plugin can sound
slightly cold at times, but can be easily tweaked via the
built-in eq.
Acousticsamples Wurlie is very similar to the company's other plugins in the sense that it has a very nice warm/vintage tone. I would say it's closet in tone to the Neo Soul Keys Studio 2 Wurlitzer. Acousticsamples are one of my favorite plugin companies because their stuff tends to sound a little more natural and they usually feature great
built-in effects and sound design. Their Wurlie plugin is based off of a 206A Wurlitzer.
Models
1.) 200 ✘
2.) 200A ✘ (Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✘
4.) 206A ✓
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 64 Notes
2.) VST: ✓ (UVI)
3.) AAX: ✓ (UVI)
4.) AU: ✓ (UVI)
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: N/A
2.) Spring Reverb, Cabinet/Amp simulations, Chorus, Distortion, Vibrato/Tremolo, Flanger
Value
1.) 2023 Price: €89
2.) Number of Samples: 3123
3.) Memory Use: 272 MB
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✓
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the tone of this plugin as
warm/mellow/vintage. It is most similar in tone to
Neo Soul Keys Studio 2. The main draw to this plugin is the
warm tone and the
cabinet simulations. Cabinet
impulse responses aren't unique to this plugin (
Adam Monroe's Wurlitzer and
Acousticsamples VReeds has them too), but they can go a long way towards
instantly shaping the tone of a plugin, if
well implemented, as they are here. However, I would like to see a
dry/wet mix knob for the
cabinets.
Acousticsamples VReeds takes the typical warm/vintage sound of Acousticsample's plugins and kicks it up a notch! This plugin offers both 200 and 200A models - the 200 model having a bit more bite, and it is a sample/synthesis hybrid, which allows a slightly lower memory footprint for the plugin than typically found in sampled instruments.
Models
1.) 200 ✓ (Video Clip)
2.) 200A ✓
3.) 140B ✘
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 64 Notes
2.) VST: ✓ (UVI)
3.) AAX: ✓ (UVI)
4.) AU: ✓ (UVI)
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✘
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 90
2.) Spring/Plate/Room Reverb, Cabinet simulations, Chorus, Distortion (Tube Saturation), Delay, Phaser, Flanger, Wah, Vibrato/Tremolo
Value
1.) 2023 Price: €100
2.) Number of Samples: ?
3.) Memory Use: 294 MB
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✓
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the tone of this plugin as
balanced/slightly bright. It is most similar in tone to
Adam Monroe's Wurlitzer and the
Keyscape Wurlitzer. Surprisingly for
Acousticsamples, this plugin has a
slightly brighter tone than is typically found in their libraries. The difference is
subtle, but can be heard in their
"real vs simulated" video on the
Acousticsamples website. Anyway, it sounds great! The only criticism I have is that this plugin can sometimes get a bit
splatty sounding, especially in the
lower range (this can be heard in this
video clip). To an extent,
SPLAT IS THEWURLITZER SOUND, and it's great for
Queen or
Supertramp songs, but a
lighter touch may be necessary on
softer songs. The
200A model is a bit
gentler sounding, and it's great to have the option to
switch between the two models. Overall, this is a
great sounding option, and
feels like one of those plugins that will
slowly creep up on you over time to become your
favorite.
The Wurlitzer plugins that come with Spectrasonic Keyscape are part of a larger library that includes wurlitzers, clavinets, and acoustic pianos. Therefore, one must consider this library in the context of purchasing the larger library because it is expensive.
If you are looking for a standalone library there are probably better options. That being said, the Wurlitzer libraries themselves are quite good, and you get two models; the 140B and the 200A.
Models
1.) 200 ✘
2.) 200A ✓ (Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✓ (Video Clip)
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 88 Notes
2.) VST: ✓
3.) AAX: ✓
4.) AU: ✓
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 21
2.) 3 Cabinet Sims, Amplifier, 3 Reverb, 3 Chorus, 2 Phaser, De-Noise, Color-Shift Knob, Tape Saturation
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $399
2.) Number of Samples: ?
3.) Memory Use: 1-2 GB depending on model
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✓
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
The tone of this plugin
varies by model. The tone of the
Wurlitzer 200A is
balanced/slightly agressive, and is most similar to
Adam Monroe's Wurlitzer and
Acousticsamples VReeds. The tone of the
140B is similar, but slightly more
mellow. like the
Waves Electric 200, this plugin includes a bit of
mechanical noise, which I don't
personally feel adds much to the
Wurlitzer sound, but it can be turned off. The
plugin has an overall
pleasant tone and would be a fine choice for
music production, but I do have two main
criticisms: The first is
obvious; as part of a
larger expensive collection, at
$400, this is only really a
viable choice if you think you will use the included
Rhodes, Clavs, Pianets, harpsichords, and electric pianos.
Don't misunderstand me, it's a
fine collection of keyboard sounds, but if you already own many of these sounds
separately, the value is
somewhat diminished. Even then, considering that
Neo Soul Keys Studio 2 is a solid, if
not quite as extensive collection, of piano sounds for
$150 less, one should do their research and make sure they are
committed to this
collection. My other big
criticism is that the
velocity transition towards the top of the
dynamic range is a little
steep. It feels like you can go from
f to
fff well entirely skipping
ff, if you know what I mean. There are a lot of
velocity curves (sorted by
keyboard model) included with the plugin, but even then, I believe the problem
still persists.
Oh, and at over
2GB, the memory use can sometimes be
enormous. This isn't an issue for me as I've recently ugraded to
64GB of Ram, but on a system with only
8 or 16GB, and with all of your other plugins loaded in a project, it might
become an issue for
you. Still, there is something to be said for the idea of just buying a
collection like this and concentrating on
making music, without having to spend too much time building up a
plugin collection, as the sounds are quite
usable, if not
above average. This plugin also has an
88-key note range, which is odd for a
64-key sampled Wurlitzer (I'm guessing they
pitch-shifted samples up and down from the normal
Wurlitzer range.
This is an interesting plugin as it attempts to emulate Rhodes, Wurlis, and even a Hohner Pianet T, but is much less expensive than Neo Soul Keys, Keyscape, and Lounge Lizard. It does a relatively good job of emulating a Wurlitzer and has an insane amount of tweakable parameters.
Models
1.) 200 ✓
2.) 200A ✓(Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✓
4.) 206A ✓
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Modeled
Features
1.) Range: 88 Notes
2.) VST: ✓ (UVI)
3.) AAX: ✓ (UVI)
4.) AU: ✓ (UVI)
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 70
2.) 3 Cabinet/Amplifiers, Distortion, 3 Reverb, Delay, 2 Phaser, Chorus, Flanger, Age Knob, Velocity Control
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $99
2.) Number of Samples: N/A
3.) Memory Use: 255 MB
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✓
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the
tone of this plugin as
neutral/balanced and I would say that it's closest in tone to
Lounge Lizard.
I believe this plugin appeals to a certain
demographic, that being those who like
tweaking parameters in order to create their own
unique sounds -
sound designers,
synthesizer-users, and
electronic musicians. Personally, I don't like many of the
presets, but with some careful
tweaking, this plugin can sound
quite good, and even
fairly close to a recorded
Wurlitzer, but you will have to put in a
bit of work to get the
best results. If you are looking for a plugin you can use as the
basis for creating your
own unique electronic piano sounds, this could be the
one for you. This plugin can also be found on sites like
ADSR at a
steep discount, usually
75% off or more. At the
$25 pricepoint, the plugin's
value proposition swells quite a bit.
The Waves Electric 200 is a fairly solid Wurlitzer plugin at a decent price. It has your standard array of phaser, chorus, tremolo, panner and Reverb, and a decent amount of presets. Best of all, it is one of the more affordable plugins of the bunch.
Models
1.) 200 ✓ (Video Clip)
2.) 200A ✘
3.) 140B ✘
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 64 Notes
2.) VST: ✓ (UVI)
3.) AAX: ✓ (UVI)
4.) AU: ✓ (UVI)
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 89
2.) Phaser, AutoPan, Tremolo, Chorus, Reverb, Formant, Tone-Shaping, Amplifier, EQ, Velocity Curve
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $30
2.) Number of Samples: ?
3.) Memory Use: 546 MB (HD Mode)
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✘
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the
tone of this plugin as
balanced and I would say that it's closest in tone to
Scarbee A200 and the
Arturia Wurlitzer V.
This is a
decent sounding Wurlitzer, and I appreciate
Waves Audio's clean GUI, but I'm slightly less sold on their
Wurlitzer than I am their
Rhodes, which is fantastic. The
main issue for me here is that this plugin can sometimes sound a bit
plonky. It's hard to describe, but especially in the
upper ranges, the piano has a sound that's
95% Wurlitzer, and maybe
5% Toy piano - it's just not as
smooth sounding as some of the other plugins. It's as though some of the
resonance of the
Wurlitzer's shell body came through in
recording process. Still, it's an
extremely subtle thing, and at
$30, it's definitely a
worthy option. Like the
Keyscape Wurli, there is also a bit of recorded
mechanical noise that, again, doesn't really add much to a
Wurlitzer's sound for me, but of course it can be
bypassed.
My other
major problem with this plugin is that
Waves seems to be phasing out
Windows 7 (and possibly
Windows 8?) support. You can still manually install the
older versions of this plugin to run on
Windows 7, but they don't make it easy. Yes, I know that
Windows 7 has essentially been
depreciated by
Microsoft, but it's hard to imagine what specific
Windows 10 system libraries or
API functions a simple
audio plugin would need to access.
99% of a plugin's code is
pure C-Style math. Perhaps their
GUI relies heavily on
Direct X 12? But I digress.
Like Keyscape, the Neo Soul Keys Wurlitzer libraries aren't a standalone Wurlitzer plugin, but part of a larger library that includes Rhodes, Clavichords, and a Yamaha CP-70 That being said, Neo Soul Keys is a bit more focused on Electronic Pianos, and thus a fairly wide-range of Wurlitzer tones are represented.
Models
1.) 200 ✓
2.) 200A ✘(Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✘
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 88 Notes
2.) VST: ✓
3.) AAX: ✓
4.) AU: ✓
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 16
2.) Delay, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, 3 Reverbs, EQ, Combo Amp
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $199
2.) Number of Samples: ?
3.) Memory Use: 150 MB
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✘
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the
tone of this plugin as
natural and I would say that it's closest in tone to
Scarbee A200.
This plugin is probably closest to the
natural DI sound of a
Wurlitzer (or at least what my
Wurlitzer 200A sounds like when
jacked-in). I find the
normal tone of a
Wurlitzer piano to actually be
quite warm compared to how you typically hear it
engineered to sound on
classic recordings.
Fortunately, this plugin has a lot of
built-in effects that can be used to
dirty-up and
EQ the sound. I think this plugin will appeal to people who enjoy working with a more
raw or
natural sound, and having to do a bit more
mixing and tweaking, to get something to sound
exactly how they want it - people like
mixing engineers.
The
criticism here is that, much like
Keyscape, the
Wurlitzer is part of a larger collection of
electronic piano sounds, so make sure to
research the rest of this
collection before
pulling the trigger!
The Scarbee A-200 from Native Instruments is another older but classic Wurlitzer library. I believe this library was first released as part of Scarbee Vintage Keyboards by Thomas Hansen Skarbye way back in 2005. Despite its age, it doesn't sound dated and actually holds up quite well to other Wurlitzer libraries.
Models
1.) 200 ✘
2.) 200A ✓
3.) 140B ✘(Video Clip)
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 64 Notes
2.) VST: ✓ (Kontakt)
3.) AAX: ✓ (Kontakt)
4.) AU: ✓ (Kontakt)
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 10
2.) Panner, AuthoWah, Tremolo, Chorus, Compression, Distortion, Phaser, Amp, Reverb, Delay
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $69
2.) Number of Samples: 2,000+
3.) Memory Use: 110 MB (with Kontakt)
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✓
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the
tone of this plugin as being
balanced and I would say that it's closest in tone to
Neo Soul Keys and
Velvet.
I think it's fairly well known that
Thomas Skarbye made some pretty decent
sampled plugins in the
2000s. Due to the way they were
sampled, these plugins still
hold up, and
probably always will. This is a very
balanced and natural sounding
Wurlitzer library, and the
dynamic range is
excellent. The main
drawback to using this library over other
newer libraries comes down to the
aging Kontakt effects. The
distortion algorithm especially is a bit
dated sounding at this point. I'm not sure if this is a
criticism of this plugin in particular or more of a
general gripe against
Native Instruments never bothering to update the
built-in effects in
Kontakt, but I think it's
worth noting. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of
Kontakt in general, but if you are a big
Kontakt user, you probably either
already own this library or
know all about it.
I have my typical
Kontakt complaints - things like needing to
reload the plugin to switch presets - but you can't ding an
individual plugin for the
general shortcomings of
Kontakt too much. It's just that when you are a
plugin developer, you quickly learn about the
limitations of
Kontakt's scripting language vs being able to design a plugin in
C++ and accomplish
virtually anything. But I digress.
Arturia is a company best known for their analog synth simulations but occasionally they will model vintage instruments. With their Wurlitzer V plugin, they have attempted to model the classic sound of a Wurlitzer 200A.
Models
1.) 200 ✘
2.) 200A ✓(Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✘
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Modeled
Features
1.) Range: 88 Notes
2.) VST: ✓
3.) AAX: ✓
4.) AU: ✓
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 192
2.) Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, Delay, Compressor, Overdrive, Amp Simulation
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $149
2.) Number of Samples: N/A
3.) Memory Use: 178 MB (with Kontakt)
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✘
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the
tone of this plugin as being
neutral and I would say that it's closest in tone to
Velvet 2,
Lounge Lizard, and the
Waves Electric 200.
Historically, I have been a
bit harsh on
Arturia's line of
modeled electronic pianos, but let's pause to
recognize physically modeling instruments is actually
fairly difficult. So, the question becomes -
is it even worth doing?. I see a lot of potential for
physically modeled instruments, especially for things like
wind, string, and brass instrument, where a lot of the
sound comes from
the technique and skill of the player, but for something like
an
electronic piano, I sometimes wonder. The reason I haven't mentioned this until now is that
Lounge Lizard and
Velvet are close enough to
simulating the sound of a
Wurlitzer that it's not
worth mentioning. With some
tweaking and
sound design, the
Arturia Wurlitzer V can sound
quite good - but does it sound like a
Wurli? Personally, to me, the answer is
not really. There is this
weird thing going on with the
bass velocities where the
bass overpowers the
higher octaves,
and just
generally speaking, this plugin on a whole sounds more like an
electric piano than it does
specifically a Wurlitzer. Oh, it's very
close to a
Wurlitzer, but never really
sells the illusion in quite the same way that the other
sampled plugins, or even the
modeled plugins, do. But
does it matter? Well, maybe not. After all, when you are
making music, you aren't always exactly going after
authentic or authoritative sounds. Music has always been about
experimentation, and
tweaking already existing sounds, in order to create something
new.
And from that
perspective, there are a lot of
really cool sounding presets here.
Soniccouture's plugins usually focus on some form of abstract sound design and their Wurlitzer library is no exception. This time you get: a broken speaker! You also get a Nicely sampled Wurlitzer piano library in the Kontakt format.
Models
1.) 200 ✘
2.) 200A ✓(Video Clip)
3.) 140B ✘
4.) 206A ✘
5.) Modeled/Sampled: Sampled
Features
1.) Range: 73 Notes
2.) VST: ✓ (Kontakt)
3.) AAX: ✓ (Kontakt)
4.) AU: ✓ (Kontakt)
Effects
1.) Tremolo?
✓ (Video Clip)
2.) Stereo Panner?
✓
3.) Phaser ?
✓
4.) Chorus?
✓
Presets and Sound Design
1.) Number of Presets: 25
2.) 8 Cabinets, Phaser, Panner, AutoWah, Chorus, Delay, Compressor, Distortion, HPF/LPF Filters, EQ, Envelope
Value
1.) 2023 Price: $99
2.) Number of Samples: 8,192
3.) Memory Use: 887 MB (with Kontakt)
Effects II
1.) Reverb? ✓
2.) Amplifier? ✓
3.) Cabinet? ✓
3.) EQ? ✓
Thoughts
I would describe the
tone of this plugin as being
neutral and I would say that it's closest in tone to the
Waves Electric 200.
I would say this is one of the more
unique sounding Wurlitzer plugins, and not just for the
broken speaker; something about it just sounds a
bit different, and not in a
bad way. Two things I
immediately do when loading this plugin is
take down the noise level using the noise knob and
drop the key-off volume. Once you do these two things, it becomes a very
smooth sounding plugin. Not
smooth AND warm like the
Neo Soul Keys Wurli, but just
smooth.
There are some cool
sound design presets as well. Once again, my
main gripe here is going to be the fact that it uses
Kontakt, and the
memory use is a bit high,
pushing up towards 1 GB. This isn't as bad as
Keyscape, but keep in mind that you'll be forced to do the
Kontakt thing of having to
reload the plugin to switch presets, so on a
slower computer, with an older hard drive, some
patience will be required. This plugin is a bit on the
expensive side, but then,
couture never meant cheap!