I've tried Spectrasonics KeyScape, Neo Soul Rhodes, and countless others. None of them have the sound and the flexibility that Scarbee's Classic EP 88's has.
And with the addition to the MATRIX Expansion (a MUST have) you can now save all your midi CC settings in your patch which before was unheard of giving you Total Control inside Kontakt.
This collection needs to be in the hands of every production studio and keyboardist in the world! Nothing comes as close to the realism as the Classic EP 88's."
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MATRIX - CEP-88S EXPANSION - A REQUEST FROM A CREATIVE MIND...
In spring 2017 I was contacted by Jamie Crist - who goes under the name SEA on various audio related forums. He had done some very creative sounds using a complex Midi modulation setup in his sequencer and Kontakt. He asked me if I could add a Pre-FX Delay so that the signal chain could play inside (serial) the reverb and not parallel. Since we had used all FX possible in Kontakt - we had to spend months on experimenting with re-arranging the FX slots so we could offer this option.
We also wanted each Snapshot to have its own advanced Midi CC modulation settings - and the only way to do this was to build the MATRIX page. SEA had asked me if he could save midi CC assignments per patch - which originally you couldn't since in Kontakt it's a global thing - so every time you chose a different patch, your midi cc would have to be reset per patch. Thus the MATRIX idea was developed.
The big challenge was the fact that since we had to build a new .nki (Kontakt program) in order to make new structure work - we had to find a way for the user to export/import their older User Snapshots. This was indeed tricky and at some point we almost gave up. The problem was that scripter Nils Liberg and I had to create a 100% correct conversion of the FX and rom the old vibrato system to the new. To add value to the Expansion Pack we decided to create 30 new Snapshot presets that uses the new MATRIX feature.
Thomas Hansen Skarbye