AudioThing Wurly - Vintage Electric Piano, Wurlitzer Plugin - Update v1.1

[audiothing]

Wurly is a plugin emulation of the famous Wurlitzer electric pianos from the 60s and 70s. Faithfully capturing the distinct, soulful tone and dynamic feel of the original instruments, this emulation includes both the classic 200 and the refined 200A models.

We have combined physical modeling techniques for both the electric and mechanical sections with high-quality samples, specifically for the mechanical components, to faithfully recreate these iconic electric pianos.

Wurly is available for MAC, PC, and LINUX (VST, VST3, AU, AAX, CLAP, Standalone 64-bit only), and also as AUv3 and Standalone on the App Store.

Details

• Price: $69 / €69
• 200 and 200A Models
• Physical Modelling and Samples
• Electric and Mechanical Controls
• Speakers (mono/stereo)
• 4 Effects (drive, phaser, flanger, spring reverb)
• Resizable Window
• Preset system with randomizer
• Brightness and Contrast Controls
• Desktop Formats: VST, VST3, AU, AAX, CLAP, Standalone (64bit)
• iOS Formats: AUv3, Standalone

Video Demo:
Product Page: https://www.audiothing.net/instruments/wurly/

[Bulat79]

Wurly's always welcome, esp. when it's not another generic kontekt laibreri. I like me some nasty, naughty Wurly.

Besides, after an intense hour with viewero's mamacita in my car, a cooldown lounge session now is required. Soothing electric piano and a nice chill beat is all I need. Thank you, Audiothing!

[audiothing]

Wurly's always welcome, esp. when it's not another generic kontekt laibreri. I like me some nasty, naughty Wurly.

Besides, after an intense hour with viewero's mamacita in my car, a cooldown lounge session now is required. Soothing electric piano and a nice chill beat is all I need. Thank you, Audiothing!

Eheh, enjoy!

Meanwhile, Hainbach just posted an alternative way to use the Wurly:

[Bulat79]

Ah, the good ol' Hainbach, he loves those obscure, freaky devices indeed

I've been nagging him for a while to do an obscure, forgotten rotary speaker. But not 122/147 conventional stuff that is already available in spades.

But rather something like RA-100 or RA-200, or Taurus Electronic DoppleX DX26 (Doppola replica).

But the last is unfortunately a goner, as I understand, the Dutch closed shop this year. Maybe temporarily, while they rebuild their website. Time will tell. I hope they'll keep making them.

Gotta love how they sound, hard panned in stereo, the dimension is insane.

youtube.com/watch?v=gVLhZjmKZQw

youtube.com/watch?v=NOO_twsW4K4

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I've got a fully restored Wurli 200 right here, and a software solution I'm presently really happy with, but because this is AudioThing and a great intro price I'm still very tempted. Will definitely give this a go!

I was recently having a conversation with a non-musician friend who loves music and knows her vintage keys and we landed on: Wurlitzer's are the coolest. Rhodes the sexiest. Clavinets the funkiest. And Prophet-5's the most fun.

[Lotuz2019]

First impression AudioThing Wurly vs Arturia Wurli V3 using a MIDI file of Ray Charles' What'd I Say. When playing single notes both emulations sound good, but when many notes are playing at the same time, the transients of Wurli V3 sound less sharp, even with dynamics turned down. Wurly does this better imo.

[Bulat79]

There is decent MIDI of Supertramp's "Bloody Well Right" floating around. Once you remove the CC's, quite usable, actually.

Never could learn the part in its entirety, that freakin' Rick Davies, God bless him. What a monster player. A true piano rock 'n' roller and boogie-woogie man. I mean, still is, but in his heyday in the 70's, he could give Elton and Nicky Hopkins and all those top London players a run for their money. He's underrated, Ricky boy.

[foosnark]

Wurlitzer's are the coolest. Rhodes the sexiest. Clavinets the funkiest. And Prophet-5's the most fun.

I never played a Prophet-5 but the rest of that tracks for sure.

[Niowiad]

Bought after about an hour spent betweeen playing and tweaking the Init preset. Lovely

Bug on the CLAP version (did not try other formats): the upper limit of the "original keyboard range" seems to have been set to Bb instead of C.

[audiothing]

I've got a fully restored Wurli 200 right here, and a software solution I'm presently really happy with, but because this is AudioThing and a great intro price I'm still very tempted. Will definitely give this a go!

I'm really curious to hear your thoughts compared to your 200. I have personally owned two 200A and one 200, and I've heard quite a few 200s over the months of the Wurly development. As expected, they all sound a bit different. I had to service mine because the key action was all over the place, especially in the lower register. Once the action was adjusted, it felt like a completely new instrument.

I was recently having a conversation with a non-musician friend who loves music and knows her vintage keys and we landed on: Wurlitzer's are the coolest. Rhodes the sexiest. Clavinets the funkiest. And Prophet-5's the most fun.

Eheh, I agree! I actually wanted a Rhodes for a long time, but ended up getting a Wurlitzer 200A because it was lighter and easier to move around. I was incredibly surprised by its acoustic sound (when powered off). What we call "Clank" in the Wurly, I think, is crucial to mimic the experience of being in front of the real thing.

[audiothing]

First impression AudioThing Wurly vs Arturia Wurli V3 using a MIDI file of Ray Charles' What'd I Say. When playing single notes both emulations sound good, but when many notes are playing at the same time, the transients of Wurli V3 sound less sharp, even with dynamics turned down. Wurly does this better imo.

Thank you! I've had the idea of developing a Wurlitzer plugin for a long time. Before starting development, I tried to demo and listen to as many software options as I could find (even resurrecting my old Nord Electro 3). The main test, besides actually playing each one, was using the MIDI file for Ray Charles's "What'd I Say." It's a really good benchmark, even though he was playing a Wurlitzer 120.

[ReiKru]

What is the difference to Arturia?

[audiothing]

Bought after about an hour spent betweeen playing and tweaking the Init preset. Lovely

Bug on the CLAP version (did not try other formats): the upper limit of the "original keyboard range" seems to have been set to Bb instead of C.

Thank you! Ah, I'll get this fixed.

[Bulat79]

It's good, but you have to dial it in, it's not amazing from the get-go and presets didn't cut it for me.

It gets significantly better when run through Twin Reverb or even recent Nembrini Divided. If you want a bit of that John Medeski overdriven Wurly, that breakup, Divided is perfect. Complete with nice reverb, voila.

I felt that native Wurly preamp should distort more when pushed max. Preamp was modeled as well, right?

Breakup is also achieved by pushing reed and distance controls.

I liked 200 model better, but that's also true in real life. I prefer pre-1974 models in general.

All in all, it's a nice addition. If you spend time with the settings, experiment with external amp sims, you can get great Wurly tones with it.

[Nameerf]

This was almost an instabuy (I downloaded the demo as a formality but bought it about 5 mins later!) I am a huge Wurlitzer fan and have been servicing electric pianos for 20+ years - I've owned several 200A's and this really does nail it!
I don't know if it's to do with the physical modeling but it is very expressive.
I do agree with Bulat79 that I'd love some inbuilt distortion somewhere - more gain on the volume control? An additional "drive" control? It does sound glorious with added distortion - I've tried it though Amplitube, Audiority Pyros and some Fuse Audio Labs preamps - it would be fantastic to be able to overdrive the pickup sound but leave the "clank" sound clean...
This is not a complaint but a feature request!
REALLY excellent emulation! Thank you!