The Best Got Even Better!
Once again, AAS rises the bar in the re-creation of the classic Rhodes™ and Wurlitzer™ electric pianos. Not only does Lounge Lizard EP-3 deliver the authentic tone of the originals but it also preserves their action and feel. Once you get your hands on Lounge Lizard, that elusive electric piano sound becomes a reality—you'll be propelled into ins­pirational space.

Building up on our physical modeling know-how, we've come up with the refinements that takes one of the most impressive and unanimously acclaimed software ins­trument of the industry further ahead.

What's New in Lounge Lizard EP-3

• Presets: The brand new library fully exploits the refinements on offer and covers all your electric piano needs
•  Effects: The high-end effect section has been extended with tremolo, wah, chorus, phaser, delay, reverb, and EQ—making Lounge Lizard a complete and self-contained electric piano solution.
• Pickup model: Two pickup types are now available for a wider character range: electromagnetic (Rhodes™) and electrostatic (Wurlitzer™). In addition, scaling has been added for even volume across the entire keyboard.
• Fork model: The new and improved Fork model adds upper harmonic content for an even more authentic sound.
• Damper model: The improved Damper now closely interacts with the Fork and provides superb dynamic response
• Audio Recorder: The integrated audio Recorder captures inspired moments on the fly
• Micro-Tuning: Custom tunings are now possible with the added support for Scala files.

Presets and Effects
Lounge Lizard comes with an extensive preset library that is simply inspiring—giving you access to the Rhodes™ and Wurlitzer™ sounds popularized by musical legends like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, and George Duke. There is a choice of pure and true tones as well as a selection of processed ones courtesy of the high-end effect section.

Especially designed for the electric piano—so you don't spend hours tweaking external plug-ins or boxes—the effect section includes the classic tremolo, chorus, wah, and phaser effects as well as EQ, delay and reverb, making it really easy to create your own distinctive custom tones.

EP Character and Beyond
The original Rhodes™ pianos provided timbre and volume adjustments by letting you position the tines in rela­tion to the pickups. These adjustments were at the heart of the electric piano's character as they con­trolled the harmonic content, attack, and decay of the sound—offering unique tone to each player. But there was a price for this flexibility, several painstaking hours with a screwdriver and incredible patience was needed to change the sound of an electric piano.

Suffer no more—With Lounge Lizard, the preset library provides a selection of thoroughly chosen Tine/Pickup configu­rations but you also have the ability to make those adjustments in real time via two simple controls: Distance and Symmetry.

But it doesn't end there, since controls are provided for the various electro­mechanical components, Lounge Lizard can be pushed far beyond hardware equi­valents, opening up a completely new realm of sonic possibility!

What's more, since the interaction between the tine and pickup is quite unique, its effect can't be obtained with the filtering provided by samplers—limiting sampled solutions to one or two fixed configurations and bringing physical modeling at the forefront of the electric piano recreation.

Lounge Lizard EP-3 Highlights

• All the classic electric piano sounds: Rhodes™, Wurlitzer™, RMI™, Hohner™
• Entirely based on physical modeling for outstanding sound quality
• Top quality preset library—vintage to modern
• Integrated browser and locate function for easy navigation and organisation of presets
• Fast preset loading time
• Hands-free operation via custom MIDI programs
• Every parameters can be controlled via MIDI or host automation
• Intuitive and ergonomic user interface for preset creation
• Fast installation
• Real-time calculaton of sound—no samples
• 32bit floating point internal processing
• Audio bit-depth and sample rates up to 24bit/192kHz
• Import/Export functions for easy sharing of presets
• Unlimited undo/redo capability
• Standalone operation—no host application required, and standard plug-in formats support
• Full audio and MIDI hardware support
• Simultaneous operation of multiple MIDI ports
• User defined MIDI maps with MIDI Learn function
• MIDI clock, tap and host tempo synchro­nisation
• Dynamic voice allocation and CPU overhead protection

Modeling an Electric Piano: How it works:
The electric piano was invented by Harold Rhodes (1910-2000) during the forties when he was in the army. The first instruments he built were made of aircraft pieces and were intended to entertain army servicemen. It became a very popular instrument in jazz and rock, and has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years through it's extensive use by the world's top hip hop, R&B, and house producers.
The mechanism of the electric piano is, in fact, quite simple. A note played on the keyboard activates a ham­mer that hits a fork. The sound of that fork is then am­plified by a magnetic coil pickup and sent to the output, very much like an electric guitar.

 

Download the PDF Manual - 1.7Mb

Press:

"Lounge Lizard is one of the most impressive virtual instruments I've seen to date...it's a uniquely adaptable piece of virtual kit. It also represents excellent value for the money." -Sam Inglis Sound On Sound

"If you want an electric piano, this is the only product you need. You not only save the weight and bulk of the genuine article but also gain controls and abilities that supersede real electric pianos. In addition to brilliant electric-piano emulation, you also get some nice effects right in the same package, not to mention the ability to snapshot that perfect tone you tweaked until 3 in the morning. The parametric controls yield a panoply of tones, from clean and bright for ballads to filthy and raunchy for blues to phasey and filtered for funk. If you're touring, you'll thank Applied Acoustics for this gift from heaven. But even if you're not, this instrument will inspire you to do things you didn't know you could" -John McJunkin Remix

Artists:

"I love it. I hear the sound improvement (in version 2). I like the way the presets have been organized. It is definitely a powerful plug in. I have been using in lot of my projects and it is also a great inspiration for my original pieces..." -Jetro Dasilva Berklee College of Music

"Lounge Lizard has become my #1 Rhodes/Wurlie of choice for the recordings I'm doing with Nile Rodgers. It sounds great, gives me amazing flexibility in the sounds, and runs on all my computers including my iBook. I can use it with Pro Tools, I can use it with Cubase SX, and I can use it as a stand-alone instrument. I love having it with me when I'm on the road with Chic. It's the lightweight electric piano I've always dreamed of!" -Rich Hilton Nile Rogers Productions

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System Requirements

• Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP - Pentium III 800MHz - 128MB RAM - ASIO, DirectSound - VST, DXi
• Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 - G4 733MHz - 256MB RAM - CoreAudio - VST, AU, RTAS