Get a massive 82% discount on Native Instruments Alicia’s Keys at Plugin Boutique.
Alicia’s Keys (usually $112.69) is a Kontakt library created by Native Instruments in collaboration with the multi-award-winning singer/pianist Alicia Keys, and you can buy it for just $15.19 – which is a massive 82% discount!
The library is compatible with the free Kontakt Player 7 or Kontakt 7 upwards.
Alicia’s Keys library reproduces the sound of the unique Yamaha C3 Neo grand piano, gifted to Alicia Keys by the manufacturer to celebrate Yamaha’s 100th anniversary (2002).
The C3 Neo grand piano is as luxurious as it gets, and Native Instruments assembled an all-star team to capture this unique piano’s character authentically.
The team overseeing the project included sampling expert Thomas Skarbye (Scarbee) and Grammy-winning engineer Ann Mincieli, amongst others. The process took place at Alicia Keys’ studio, and the soulful singer played the piano herself during sampling.
On top of starting with a gorgeous piano, great location, and top-notch team, Native Instruments paid attention to the finer details to bring this library to life. The library features 17 GB of samples and twelve velocity layers per key.
One of the areas that gets lost in translation with many piano libraries is the natural resonance of the physical instrument. Thanks largely to Thomas Skarbye, Alicia’s Keys delivers fully sampled pedal-down notes and convincing string resonance on pedal-up notes.
Native Instruments released Alicia’s Keys in 2010, so I guess the question is, why should you buy it in 2024?
The obvious answer is that it’s an absolute steal at just over $15.
Deciding where it stands against the various sampled pianos we have today is another discussion, but it’s certainly worth discussing.
I believe it is a very good piano library; it’s not my favorite, but it’s very good. I say that as I feel that, despite capturing much of the piano’s natural richness and resonance, it lacks the weight/depth in the low end you get from something like Keyscape, albeit for a lot more money.
With that in mind, I don’t think it’s the right piano for every style, but it’s great for Pop, R&B, etc.
In summary, at full price, it’s worth it to the right person. At $15, it’s worth it to everyone (in my opinion).
I have some fond memories of using Alicia’s Keys for a string of gigs shortly after it was released (at the request of the singer/bandleader). I remember being pleasantly surprised, and for the material we had, which was a bunch of Pop/Soul/R&B covers, the cheap MIDI controller sounded just like Alicia’s Keys.
The problem was that the singer’s output sounded nothing like Alicia’s voice, and she was convinced otherwise in blissful ignorance, resulting in a set that we could have titled Songs Not Quite in A Minor.
The point is that Alicia’s Keys is a steal at $15, and sometimes the terrible gigs provide the best memories.
I’ve been going on about PolyMAX recently, but since I already had it, I grabbed Alicia’s Keys, Softube Model 82, and the W495 EQ (free gift), all for around $35 – no complaints.
Check out the deal: Alicia’s Keys (Currently 82% off)
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