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 | | | | Aug31Written by:Bruce Richardson
Tuesday, August 31, 1999 6:00 PM 
Black and Whites is what BitHeadz calls "a tone module on a disc." What is included is an extensive set of acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes multisamples, along with some string sounds for layering, and a runtime edition of the Unity DS-1 sampler engine.
Unity users can also use Black and Whites as a content CD. Once installed to your Unity directories, Black and Whites appears in the instrument drop boxes just like other Unity instruments.
But how does it sound? Pretty darn good. While Black and Whites does not compare to the sheer microsopic modeling and sonic complexity of the Gigapiano, it is a good healthy cut above your average "sampled" piano. The bottom and top ends are quite nice, and the middle octaves are clear and bright. I found the ranges from middle C up about one and one half octaves to be a bit "sweet" for my taste.
That's simply a matter of RAM limitations, though, and no particular fault of the product. A piano string is an ever evolving sound, and wherever you loop it, you'll notice if you're a trained listener. Listen to a live acoustic piano chord sustained, and you'll hear subtle phase shifts and little modulations happening everywhere as a result of the sheer complexity of the instrument. Once you've looped one of those tones, this immediately goes static. You hear it.
The designers at BitHeadz have clearly done their homework, and despite RAM limitations, have designed a looping scheme for Black and Whites that allows as much of that acoustic magic as possible to be retained.
I am not as happy with the Rhodes sounds. I still get a little twinge in my lower back now and then which reminds me that I used to schlep a Rhodes in and out of my car several times a week. I'm very familiar with the sound, and can "tune and tine" an original Rhodes to my liking as fast as anyone. I used to set mine up VERY close to the tines...just a red-hair's width off the pickup and always flirting the inevitable, deafening "tine crash." I liked the intimate sound that setup created on soft playing, juxtaposed with the contact lens-shattering "barks" that you could get by really pounding a given note. I'm not the only one. Most players set their instruments up this way. It was "the" sound.
So you could say that I've got something of an ear and a background for the Rhodes.
Either the Rhodes sample-sets in Black and Whites are strangely mapped, not very detailed in the multisampling, or the sampled instruments themselves were set up rather "bland," because I have not found a Rhodes within that set that really turns me on.
Actually, I must retract that. I LOVE the Mutron knock off. It's funky and dead-on. The others strike me as a bit too nice. The true, 975-pound bitch Rhodes, after all, is very uneven at best.
I did not have time to really jump into the sample set and attempt to remap it more to my liking. It is very possible that one can get lots more punch out of the samples than is currently dialed in, but I really suspect it's more to do with the way the instrument was sampled in the first place. You never get the "bark" that suggests that the tines are really flying. I don't think they were whacking it. For smoother, less "in your face" playing, though, the sounds are very good and true to the general timbre of the Rhodes.
There's the matter of taste, too. I dig the dog-funky, hurt you bad Rhodes sound. But lots of great players went for the more even-keeled setup. Another player might well find Nirvana here. Either way you cut it, it's a Rhodes.
Like the acoustic piano, BitHeadz has looped these samples in a way that maintains a lot of life as the note fades. There is a very clear and noticable difference in these samples and the stock Unity-supplied Rhodes samples. The Black and Whites versions are far superior.
Black and Whites is something of a trendsetter. The idea of such portability is catching on quickly with musicians, and it's a good deal for everyone. A whole industry has sprouted up, as musicians with great instruments and good talent for sampling can make extra income manufacturing content. You'll see more and more of this kind of "sound module on a disc" product from everyone as computer production continues to become mainstream.
At such a low price, Black and Whites is a good solid addition to the Unity library. As a "module on a disc" it's an outstanding value beyond question.
For more information go to http://www.bitheadz.comTags: | | | | | | | |
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