Tonic EP — Electric Piano

Tonic EP is a physically modelled electric piano: every note is calculated the moment you play it, from the hammer, the steel and the pickup — not from recordings. It runs as an app and as an Audio Unit (AUv3) instrument in GarageBand, Logic, AUM, Cubasis and any host on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

PHYSICAL MODELLING, NOT SAMPLES
There are no recorded velocity layers: hit harder and the tone CHANGES — the attack opens and the pickup starts to growl. It is continuous from pianissimo to fortissimo, with no step between one layer and the next, and all 88 keys come regulated one by one, the way a technician would do it on the instrument. No library to download: the app is light and switches sounds instantly.

TWO INSTRUMENTS, TWO PERSONALITIES
• Tine — a steel tuning fork read by a magnet. A glassy bell on the attack, a round body, a growl when you dig in and a long sustain.
• Reed — a steel reed read by static electricity. Sweet when you play softly, nasal in the middle and barking when you hit hard, with the sound of the small speakers in the lid. It plays the original instrument's 64 keys or the whole keyboard.

VOICE IT LIKE A TECHNICIAN
Every knob is a part of the instrument and changes the sound the way the real one would:
• Tine pickup — Position (where the tine sits in front of the magnet: from hollow to the classic bite), Distance (close growls, far stays clean, with the level compensated), Bell (the glassy shimmer of the attack) and Pre.
• Hammer and tine — Hardness (worn tip or new), Decay, Damper (the felt when you let go of the key) and Fork (the slow beating between the two arms of the fork).
• Reed — Bark (from sweet to barking), Comb (where the reed rests in the pickup comb: hollow or full), Clang (a metallic ping, if you want one) and Cabinet (the size of the speaker: from line out to a boxy speaker that barks).

AN ELECTRIC PIANO RACK
16 effects voiced for keys: compressor, wah (pedal or auto), drive, an amp with 6 models and cabinet, a 4-mode phaser, an 8-mode chorus, vibe, flanger, stereo tremolo, auto-pan, a rotary with 4 cabinets, lo-fi, tempo-synced ping-pong delay, a reverb with 9 spaces, 5-band EQ and limiter. Switch them on and off and change the order of the chain; the effects that are on sit right below the piano. 96 effect presets and 17 ready-made chains change the effects without touching the piano.

BUILT FOR THE STAGE
Six scenes per sound (A–F). MIDI Learn on any control: one knob on your MIDI keyboard drives up to 12 controls at once, each with its own range. Six velocity curves, sustain pedal, pitch bend with separate up and down ranges, volume and expression, Program Change and PANIC. Up to 64 notes at once. On the Mac, the computer keyboard plays too.

96 FACTORY SOUNDS
In 12 banks: Classic, Bell, Bark, Suitcase, Soft and Experimental on the tine; Reed Classic, Reed Soft, Reed Bark, Reed Amp and Reed Trem on the reed; and Stage FX, with the effects already dialled in. Tap a sound and it plays with the list still open;