ABBEY ROAD KEYBOARDS REFILL

The classic instruments. Recorded with the original mics. In the original recording room. With the original equipment. This is Abbey Road in a box.

The Abbey Road Keyboards ReFill brings the sound of legendary Abbey Road Studios into your Reason rack. Recorded on location using Abbey Road's recording rooms and vintage equipment, this ReFill gives you access to seven time-honored Abbey Road instruments - these are the keyboards heard on all those immortal Abbey Road recordings.

The Abbey Road Keyboards were recorded using the original mics, outboard and vintage mixing desk from Abbey Road's Studio Two, recreating not only the sound of the instruments themselves, but the very signal paths, technology and recording techniques that is the Abbey Road sound. Each instrument was captured using multiple microphones placed at different locations in Studio Two's beautiful sounding recording space, allowing for full ambience control in Reason.
HYPERSAMPLING
Forget multisampling - this is Hypersampling
All of the instruments in Abbey Road Keyboards were sampled using Propellerhead Software’s unique Hypersampling method:
  • Multiple Velocity Levels For capturing an instrument’s full dynamic range
  • Multiple Microphones For capturing and controlling distance, ambience and character
  • Multiple "same velocity" samples to allow the Reason NN-XT sampler to automatically alternate between sets of similar sounding samples for a more realistic performance
  • Multiple variation sampling for capturing the human input and the different techniques, grips and playing styles that bring life to an instrument

Contents*:
Steinway® Upright – the Mrs. Mills Piano
Challen Studio Piano
Hammond® RT-3
Mannborg Harmonium
Schiedmayer Celeste®
Mellotron® MKII
Tubular Bells

Preset Patches
Combinator patches for various mic blends.

Style Patches
Processed Combinator patches.

Template Patches
Empty, pre-wired user patches.

40-page full color booklet
Enclosed in the Abbey Road Keyboards ReFill box is "Guide to Abbey Road Keyboards", a 40-page booklet by author by Mark Vail. Jam-packed with full color pictures and descriptive session diagrams, this book gives you in-depth info on the featured instruments and the Abbey Road technology used to record them.

System Requirements:

Windows®:
Reason 3.0 or later
Intel® Pentium® 4 / 1.4 GHz or AMD Athlon XP
1 GB RAM
DVD player

Mac® OS:
Reason 3.0 or later
Power Macintosh® with a G4 processor or better + 1.0 GHz
1 GB RAM
DVD player

Strongly recommended:

Windows®:
Reason 3.0.4 or later
Intel® Pentium® 4 / 2.4 GHz or faster
2 GB RAM
Fast hard drive
Low-latency ASIO compatible soundcard
DVD drive

Mac® OS:
Reason 3.0.4 or later
Power Macintosh® G5 or Dual G4 / 1.4 GHz or faster
2 GB RAM
Fast hard drive
DVD drive


Steinway® Upright - the Mrs. Mills piano
A bright, wonderfully out-of-tune upright piano with lacquered hammers that give it a distinct, tack-piano sound. Its very special tuning, or lack thereof, adds a natural chorus effect to its tone. Purchased by Abbey Road in the 1950s, this piano has been played by many famous hands.
Challen Studio Piano
Studio Two's slightly mellow, warm sounding upright has a dark tone and incredible sustain. Built in the 1930s, this piano looks just as old as it sounds. Which is downright beautiful.
Hammond® RT-3
This Hammond® RT-3, property of Abbey Road since the 1960s, is similar to the classic Hammond® B3 organ, only bigger in size and packing more features. The majority of the featured RT-3 patches were recorded through a king-size Leslie® Model 122 speaker, for that true Hammond sound.
Mannborg Harmonium
An entirely acoustic, manually powered reed organ which uses pedal driven air pumps to generate sound. The Harmonium has a soft attack and swelling, drone-like sound.
Schiedmayer Celeste
An orchestral keyboard instrument with a warm, bell-like tone. Although played using mallets, the Celeste is a surprisingly quiet instrument. Recorded properly, however,  it can sound amazingly expressive. The Schiedmayer Celeste is one of the oldest instruments in the Abbey Road arsenal.
Mellotron® MKII
The Mellotron®, a tape based version of todays digital sampler, was popular among fearless experimental musicians in the 60s and 70s. Sampled here are the Flute, Cello and String tape banks, as used in Abbey Road's Mellotron® mkII in the 1960s.
Premier Tubular Bells
An orchestral percussion instrument made up of hollow metal tubes mounted on a frame. Tuned and laid out like a keyboard instrument, these bells will add a distinctive 60s feel to your tracks.
Guide to Abbey Road Keyboards
Author Mark Vail is an authority on vintage technology. Having put out books like "Vintage Synthesizers" and "The Hammond Organ", he now hits us with "Guide to Abbey Road Keyboards", a 40-page booklet that is included in the Abbey Road Keyboards ReFill package. Containing full color pictures and microphone placement diagrams, this book gives you facts and trivia about each of the featured instruments, as well as detailed info on every piece of vintage kit used in the recordings.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. Macintosh and Mac are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

* All product names used in this webpage are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Line 6. These trademarks of other manufacturers are used solely to identify the products of those manufacturers whose tones and sounds were studied during Propellerhead's sound model development. Scheidmayer is a registered trademark of Piano Factory Group. Steinway is a registered trademark of Steinway, Inc. Hammond is a registered trademark of Suzuki Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Mellotron is a registered trademark of David Thomas Kean. Leslie is a registered trademark of Suzuki Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co. Ltd. ABBEY ROAD and the ABBEY ROAD LOGO are trade marks of EMI (IP) Limited and are used under license.