The Famous E Electric Piano Kontakt Library
For Leeds Musical Instrument Rentals in North Hollywood, it was just a simple method of cataloging their instruments by stenciling letters on the cases of the electric pianos. One of their electric pianos in particular took notice by producers and session players, the one marked with the letter “E”. It wasn’t long before the “E” became one of the most highly sought-after electric pianos in the LA studio scene in the ’70s and ’80s, being featured in countless hit songs and albums. It got to the point where the “E” had to be scheduled months in advance for tracking dates.
Its sound is remarkable: the low end is clear and defined, and it has a sweet, bell-like tone in the register an octave above middle C. The inventor of the electric piano himself referred to the “E” as the best electric piano he had ever heard.
Until now, the “E” model electric piano has never been sampled before.
Determined to share its beautiful, pristine tone, George Mamalakis, the owner of the “E” electric piano, began sampling it. As a seasoned Jazz pianist who actively uses virtual instruments in his performance setup, George Mamalakis is well-acquainted with the depth of sampling necessary to recreate the dynamic, nuanced sound of the “E”. Beginning in 2015, with the guidance of Jay Graydon, Grammy award winning producer, recording engineer, composer, and recording artist, George began the long undertaking of meticulously sampling the “E” electric piano. To assist in the process, George invented a mechanical device which he named VERA, which is able to mimic the human motion of striking each key, but at very precise dynamics. Each key was sampled with 18 velocity layers, with each note’s natural decay into complete silence.
Since 2017, we have been working with George and Jay to produce the playable instrument using the Kontakt platform. We are known for their innovative scripting in sample libraries, and this library is no exception. We added a lot of exciting options to customize the tone of the electric piano, including a detailed model of the instrument’s built-in tremolo, several chorus models that use custom DSP, and a flexible modular effects rack.
We’re excited to present the resulting virtual recreation of the instrument, The Famous E Electric Piano, so that you too can enjoy the experience of playing the “E” electric piano.
Key Features:
- Over 1,300 samples recorded at 96khz, 24-bit, totaling 7.0 GB (compressed to 3.26 GB using Kontakt’s lossless NCW format).
- Over 70 production-ready factory presets created by Jay Graydon, George Mamalakis, Greg Schlaepfer, and Chris Poehler.
- Chorus and tremolo using custom DSP.
- Modular effects system with EQ, phaser, delay, algorithmic reverb, IR-based reverb, and more. The IR-based reverb features four legendary reverb units, totaling over 500 reverb presets.
- Smart tremolo attack ensures that the tremolo starts at its strongest point, giving you clear note attacks.
The Famous E Electric Piano licenses Native Instruments’ Kontakt Player sampler software. Consequently, owning the full version of Kontakt is not necessary, and The Famous E Electric Piano operates without limitations within the free Kontakt Player application/plugin. This also allows the sample library to be listed in the libraries tab in Kontakt for convenient access.
