There’s just not enough time (or money) for all the great plug-ins around. But one of my favorite instrumental plug-ins, one I can’t imagine living without, is the superb Lounge Lizard electric piano from Applied Acoustics. It’s physically modeled, not sampled, and as a result feels more organic than some of its competitors. EP-3 offered some welcome improvements, including a more fleshed-out effects section, more pickups and models, built-in audio recording, and micro-tuning; some users thought it wasn’t a significant upgrade when they first saw it, but upon closer inspection I think you’ll find it a must-upgrade.

I expect a lot of home musicians haven’t gotten to use Lounge Lizard, though, because it costs money — US$225 street for the full-blown program with gobs of presets and customization. That shouldn’t stop you if you play electric pianos all the time, but if you’re on a budget, you’ll appreciate the new US$99 Lounge Lizard Session. The reality is, this is all most users will need: the top four models are there, plus tremolo, drive, multi-effects, and reverb. If you change your mind later, you can upgrade to the full version. Native Instruments and Apple both have terrific electric pianos, and I use both, but Lounge Lizard remains my first stop. I hope Applied Acoustics applies the same model (erm, so to speak) to Ultra Analog and String Studio, because I’m sure that’d widen the audience for those, as well.

So concludes my rave; now go check it out for yourself:

Lounge Lizard Session

Updates to favorite keyboard soft synths — always a good thing. In addition to looking forward to Native Instruments’ sequel to their B4 organ synth, another modeled-instrument fave is getting a big upgrade soon:

Lounge Lizard EP-3

The current Lounge Lizard is already a joy to play: Applied Acoustics nails the feel and sound of the classic Wurlitzer and Rhodes keyboards. EP-3 upgrades the already-generous preset selection, adds improved and expanded models of different pickups, forks, and dampers, (in addition to those already in EP-2), and adds support for Scala microtuning files. (For those of you wanting to play your Rhodes in Javanese pelog tuning, your day has come!) Also nifty: an integrated audio recorder lets you capture ideas easily.

More realistic sounds are always welcome, but the biggest news here is that Lounge Lizard finally has additional built-in effects. Tremolo, wah, chorus, phaser, delay, reverb, and EQ are all included, as visible in the screen grab. That addresses the major shortfall of the previous version: effects have been expanded from the meager offerings of the previous outing.

The EP-3 should be out any day now. Check out Applied Acoustics’ site above for plenty of details on the meticulous modeling, and watch CDM for a review in December. Looks like this could be a major keyboard favorite.

Cost: US$49 upgrade; US$249 list
Compatibility: Windows VSTi, DX; Mac VST, AU, RTAS

Montréal-based Applied Acoustics has announced a new physical modeling
synth at NAMM, as expected. String Studio models the interaction of
picks, bows, hammers, fingers, frets, dampers and soundboards for more
realistic recreations of real instruments like guitars, basses, harps,
clavinets, bowed sounds and percussion, as well as to create wild new
sounds of imagined instruments using the same physical-acoustical
principles. I've been working extensively with Apple's own Sculpture
and have fallen in love with the approach, so I look forward to trying
a new instrument and seeing how Applied Acoustics' engine and
parameters differ.

At press time, no screenshots or online product info was available.

Availability: End of Q1 2005
Cost: US$249
Compatibility: Mac OS X, Windows (apparently standalone; no info on plugin versions yet)