Native Instruments Scarbee Clavinet & Piano User Manual page 10

saw it dismissed by the pros. On the other hand, its smaller size and lower cost made it the
first electric piano owned by many. Being an electro-mechanical beast, the original piano
had its troubles. Sometimes a sticky pad would tear loose from the key. Other times, when
the adhesive on the pads dried out, reeds would be dropped sooner or later, creating a much
softer note and uneven keyboard response. Worn reeds were almost impossible to tune, and
replacement or soldering was quite time consuming. Rust plagued the reeds of any piano in
proximity to the ocean, and pickups tended to pick up more than just the dulcet bell tone of
reed vibration. The Scarbee Pianet not only leaves those electro mechanical woes behind,
providing a clean, accurate 24 bit full length, multi sampled, multi velocity reproduction of
the original, but it also adds new possibilities for the adventurous keyboardist in terms of vari-
able envelope shapes, filters, tunings, modulation, patch layering and even (finally) a sustain
pedal. With the fusion of classic tone and cutting edge programming options, the Scarbee
Pianet may yet get its "day in the sun."
How much detail is there in the instrument?
Well, this unique keyboard used a special technique to produce its charming sound: so-called
(rubber-made) "sticky hammers" lifted the tine—more or less like a Harpsichord and when
a hammer released its tine, its classic sound was produced. This technique means that the
instrument is virtually without dynamics, but even so, it has got a really cool sound! As with
the Scarbee MARK 1 and Scarbee Clavinet, Scarbee Pianet takes advantage of the "Horizontal
Release Technology," whereby different release samples are chosen from the wave pool de-
pending on how long a key has been held—allowing a staccato played note to create a differ-
ent release tone compared to a note which is sustained for a longer period. This technology
makes it possible to imitate the action of these keyboards. The result is a very inspiring and
authentic playing experience, which we find is very important when creating music. Due to
the simple mechanical design of the instrument, it was only necessary to sample five release
sounds per key to obtain a perfect simulation of the original keyboard.
RESTORATION
As usually, Preben Lyngmark from Musikpartner was giving me a helping hand and managed
to fix a broken power cable and to clean the outputs. He also could explain some inside quirks
of the keyboard; For some reason the output was loudest when inserting the foot-swell jack
Scarbee Clavinet and Pianet – User Manual – 10