Alicia's Keys

Miss Keys would also like to thank:

Miki Tsutsumi (Assistant Engineer), Wouri Vice (Stylist), Ashunta Sheriff (Makeup), Tippi Shorter (Hair), Randal Slavin (Artwork Photography), Coleman Rogers (Piano Photography), Barret Wertz, (Associate Stylist), All for Epiphany Artist Group

A MUSICAL LIFE

At the Oven, Alicia has revived a lost art in the way she produces records. Inspired by Motown, Alicia’s productions start and finish under one roof, and she works hands-on through every step of the process all the way to mastering. The Oven is abundantly equipped with vintage and modern keyboards, samplers, guitars, amps and state-of-the-art recording and production equipment. Experimenting with sound is an essential piece of Keys’ pre-production process, where her vision for a record begins to crystallize. She and engineer Ann Mincieli dig deep to sample, warp and reinvent the sounds they cull and create from scratch, developing a completely unique sonic palette to suit her vision. At the center of The Oven’s live room, and often of Keys’ sound, is the Yamaha C3 Neo grand piano. Alicia’s Keys.

Developing a virtual piano, sampled from her own playing on the Yamaha C3 Neo inside The Oven, Keys again expands her influence. Now people all over the world will be able to create new music with Keys’ authentic sounds. Another amazing and innovative product created at The Oven, and another dimension of the amazing Alicia Keys.

Text by Janice Brown of Sonic Scoop

The most important features at a glance

• The sound of Alicia Keys' own personal Yamaha C3 Neo piano: Almost 3,000 individual samples on 12 discrete velocity layers with and without pedal — equivalent to 17GB of uncompressed WAV files!
• Sampled from Alicia Keys' own playing, recorded in her studio with her own engineer
• Developed with the artist and tailor-made for her recording and performance needs
• Meticulous sampling technique including the noise of the finger hitting the keys (optional)
• Sampled sustain and release phases with authentic implementation of the sustain pedal
• All-new sympathetic resonance system for harmonics in undampened strings
• Exceptionally clean quality, yet featuring adjustable microphone noise for old-school sound
• Natural mechanical release noises for each of the 88 keys and pedal noises
• Integrated convolution reverb for tweaking the sound directly in the instrument
• Easy user interface providing integrated documentation of all settings

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