TOONTRACK EZKEYS REVIEW

Posted on Wed 18 April 2012 in entries

Toontrack have a great reputation for easy-to-use products that work well straight out of the box. I am a huge fan of their Superior Drummer series, so I was intrigued to see if EZkeys could offer the same versatility and flexibility, but without stifling creativity.

TOONTRACK EZKEYS – IT’S GRAND!

Once installed and authorised (and updated via a website download) it was easy to open up EZkeys, either in a DAW or as a standalone instrument. The latter might be useful to some, as there is a simple but effective inbuilt ‘drag-and-drop’ style sequencer, which works in much the same way as other basic DAW applications, but within a small and perfectly formed workspace. If you are a singer who wants to take out a set of piano backings to perform with, this feature of EZkeys could be useful for you.

Toontrack give you their ‘Grand Piano’ as part of this package, and although there are no expansion packs available (at the time of writing) I’m sure that these will be on the way soon, in much the same way that you might expand Superior Drummer.

EZkeys gives you a basic but useful set of effects, that will allow you to distort and alter the piano to something grittier, and it even offers some basic tremolo-type modulation.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Toontrack EZkeys"]](https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/store/computer-music-46/software-4613/virtual-instruments-samplers-46132/toontrack-ezkeys-virtual-piano-software-47825)[/caption]

TOONTRACK EZKEYS – WHAT’S THE KEY?

If you are familiar with packages such as Apple’s Garageband, you will be comfortable with the idea of being able to drag-and-drop a file into your working area from a menu browser, whilst also allowing for changes in tempo and key, and certainly EZkeys works well in this pursuit. You can drag files into its internal sequencer or into your DAW working area, and then treat MIDI information accordingly. You can also change the chords easily once they are in place, literally via a simple drop down menu, which is nice and simple to use.

Where I became less certain of its use (certainly for the type of work that I undertake) is in its prescriptive use of chords. That’s not to say that no one will find this feature useful – certainly, there is an excellent range of phrases with predetermined chords applied, which take you on a journey through harmony – this feature just wasn’t for me, personally.

I was highly surprised to hear the chords from ‘Don’t Know Why’ by Norah Jones in one of the Jazz template offerings, in its entirety, which I guess is fine if you want to recreate that very song, but possibly not so useful if you are a singer/songwriter writing your own material. I’m not sure how well a chord structure like this could be tweaked, without instantly wanting to return to the original form!

Just like me, I suppose that this is where some might decide whether this is a plug-in for them. If you don’t play piano and keyboards and really just want something that can inspire by offering a sequence of chords for you to sing or noodle over, then EZkeys is probably for you. However, if you are a musician who plays piano and has no need for pre-programmed chord sequences, you will probably find that there are more appropriate tools on the market (e.g. Synthogy Ivory II). Still, EZkeys is a great little plug-in for practice purposes as well, and this software plus a MIDI controller is a great deal less than the cost of a Grand Piano!

TOONTRACK EZKEYS – THE FINAL SUMS

Certainly, the quality of the piano is generally very good. It lacks the gloss of certain other piano sample libraries currently on the market, but these libraries are 3 times the price, and for around €139 (at the time of writing), it’s very good value for money.

As a creative musician myself, I find it hard to get past the basic concept of taking a set of pre-described chords and working with the harmony presented. There is the option of editing something of your own, but I would still prefer to perform such editing in the more familiar surroundings of my DAW.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Toontrack EZkeys Browser"]](https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/store/computer-music-46/software-4613/virtual-instruments-samplers-46132/toontrack-ezkeys-virtual-piano-software-47825)[/caption]

I would recommend that this product is worth a look for non-keyboard players or those that are learning to play, but anyone who is really serious about playing will probably draw the conclusion that there are more appropriate products on the market, certainly until Toontrack release some expansion packs to boost the sonic capabilities of this software.

I hope this review has been useful, but as Toontrack offer a free demo download of EZkeys, it's well worth heading over to their website (click here) and giving it a go for yourself, whatever level of playing you're at. You may just find that you fall in love with it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kEYNybBI-0

For more information on Toontrack EZkeys, give us a call on 01202 597180 or click the link below:

Toontrack EZkeys - More Info/Buy