3,000 piano samples from Alicia's Yamaha C3 Neo used on the Element of Freedom album.

With ALICIA'S KEYS, Native Instruments has unlocked the door to the R&B chanteuse's studio. The rich piano samples included in this sound library were created from her own playing, recorded in her personal studio in collaboration with her trusted engineer, Ann Mincieli. Together with Mincieli, Danish sample specialist Thomas Skarbye (also known by his company name Scarbee) and impulse response expert Ernest Cholakis, Alicia Keys has created a virtual piano that embodies the soulful, passionate sound that's become her trademark. Add this virtual piano to your studio and Alicia's distinguished playing will grace your next composition.

ALICIA's KEYS' instrument samples come from the artist's very own Yamaha C3 Neo grand piano. This unique and hallowed instrument was built to celebrate Yamaha's 100th anniversary in 2002 and represents the very top of the Conservatory Collection line. The exquisite and unique sound of the C3 Neo were painstakingly captured by Thomas Skarbye, KONTAKT script wizard Nils Liberg, and Grammy-award winning engineer Ann Mincieli—making these exclusive Yamaha piano samples available to everyone. Using vintage microphones and preamps and through detailed analysis of Alicia's playing, the team succeeded in capturing the warm, soulful, and inspiring sound of the Yamaha C3 Neo piano all the way down to the finest nuances.

Great effort was put into making the ALICIA'S KEYS virtual piano as authentic as possible. Designed with incredible precision, and incorporating subtle details such as mechanical release noises, a specially developed sympathetic resonance and release system, and even the sound of fingers hitting keys (optional), this unique virtual instrument software delivers plenty of lively realism. So much in fact, that Alicia Keys herself used it exclusively on her latest album "The Element of Freedom."

Native Instruments Alicia's Keys Virtual Piano Features:

• The sound of Alicia Keys' personal Yamaha C3 Neo piano: Almost 3,000 individual samples on 12 discrete velocity layers with and without pedal— equivalent to 17GB of uncompressed WAV files
• Sampled from Alicia Keys' playing, recorded in her studio with her own engineer
• Developed with the artist and tailor-made for her recording and performance preferences
• Meticulous sampling technique including the noise of the finger hitting the keys (optional)
• Sampled sustain and release phases with authentic implementation of the sustain pedal
• All-new sympathetic resonance system for harmonics in undampened strings
• Exceptionally clean quality, yet featuring adjustable microphone noise for old-school sound
• Natural mechanical release noises for each of the 88 keys and pedal noises
• Integrated convolution reverb for tweaking the sound directly in the instrument
• Easy user interface providing integrated documentation of all settings

Put yourself in an "Empire State of Mind" with this virtual piano from Alicia's own studio. Order now.

Native Instruments Alicia's Keys Virtual Piano Specifications:

• System Requirements
  
• Mac OS X: X 10.5 or higher, Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz, 1GB RAM
• Windows: XP (SP2, 32-bit) / Vista (32/64-bit), Windows 7 (32/64-bit), Pentium or Athlon XP 1.4GHz, 1GB RAM
• Note: The free KONTAKT 4 PLAYER is included on one of the installation DVDs and must be installed first in order to play this instrument
• Stand-alone, VST, Audio Units, RTAS (Pro Tools 7 or higher)
• 7GB free disk space is required for complete installation.