Scarbee is proud to present the Scarbee W.E.P., the most accurately sampled
Wurlitzer electric piano on planet earth!

The Scarbee W.E.P is a faithful reproduction of the classic Wurlitzer 200A
Electric Piano, recreating not only its signature sound but also the unique
dynamic response of the original instrument, hereby continuing the new
Vintage Keyboard product line commenced with the recent release of the
Scarbee R.S.P. \'73 (the Rhodes Stage Piano MK 1 - 73)


Although the EP200A is a small piano, the project undertaken to reproduce
it in software has been huge. Prior to the commencement of two months of
recordings, a painstaking process of restoration lasting six months was
undertaken. This involved a range of measures aimed at creating a .super.
Wurlitzer piano which has perhaps the highest signal to noise ratio of any
yet produced. Sources of noise and distortion, such as the power transformer,
were made external to the piano and audio-critical components were updated
with higher quality versions wherever possible.


The Scarbee W.E.P. was recorded at 24 bit resolution through a Mindprint
En-Voice preamp (without any use of EQ, tube saturation or compression),
and then digitally transferred to a Nuendo AudioLink 96 audio card.

How much detail is there in the instrument?
In order to accurately reproduce the original EP200A.s dynamics, both
the sustained and release sounds of each of the 64 keys of the Wurlitzer
has been sampled at 16 different velocities . resulting in a total pool
of over 2000 24 bit wav files.

All samples are full length and unlooped. Just as we did with the Rhodes,
release samples were recorded for each key. Not just one release sample per
key, but one release sample to correspond with each sustain sample ( except
those for the top 5 keys which have no damper, causing the keys to ring out
to their end ). The release tone - the sound created when a damper bounces
against the reed as a key is released, is an intrinsic element of what
musicians recognise as the original .Wurlitzer Sound..

During test recordings Thomas Hansen Skarbye determined that the dynamic
response of the Wurlitzer was quite different to that of the Rhodes.
The EP200A exhibits a high degree of .characterful. timbral variation in
the forte area of its dynamics. Unlike the Rhodes, the Wurlitzer piano.s
action is very light, making it easy for a keyboardist to play continuously
in this range of the piano.s timbre. In order to capture such a defining
element of the piano.s personality, Thomas decided to increase the size of
the Wurlitzer sampling project by 30%, with additional focus on the forte
range of the instrument. Once this was accomplished, a proprietary system
was employed to ensure that the sampler.s response to velocity variation
was identical to the original Wurlitzer.s keyboard action.

Download File Size:1.23 GB

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