Considered the very best electric piano that Wurlitzer ever made, the Cherry Audio Wurlybird 140B lets us judge for ourselves!
A Little History
Back in the day, before I was a twinkle in the eye of my mother, if you wanted to emulate the sound of another instrument, you didn’t have the luxury of sampling or modelling. You had to be clever and use an array of electrical components to try and create a facsimile of, say, a piano.
What people came up with, whilst compact, portable and more affordable, often didn’t sound much like the thing they were trying to emulate. But that was ok, because what these efforts gave us was a new palette of sounds that were as distinctive, useable and popular. Sounds that are now revered and respected the world over.
The Cherry Audio Wurlybird 140B
The sound of the Wurlitzer Electric Piano is one such instrument. Most of us are familiar with what is known as the 200 series. But these weren’t the first efforts and what is less well known is that the earlier 140B model is the one that most aficionados lust after. And this is what Cherry Audio have recognised with the Wurlybird 140B.
Ditching their modelling skills for a moment, the Cherry Audio Wurlybird 140B is completely sample-based. Actually, that’s not completely true as the eight different effects that are also supplied use Cherry Audio’s modelling skills in some new and familiar ways.
Sampling a Classic
Renowned sound designer Mike Martin approached Cherry Audio with a set of meticulously sampled sounds from a restored 140B owned by musician, Tom Hammer. This 1964 instrument has been captured beautifully with a realistic response, including subtle randomisations of key release and pedal sounds.
Effects
Cherry Audio then bring their amp and effects modelling technology to bear so that we can faithfully recreate the recognisable sound of a Wurlitzer passing through such units as chorus, phaser, tremelo, overdrive and more.
As you will expect, all of this is wrapped up in a beautiful user interface, complete with all the MIDI control and DAW automation settings you could shake a stick at. It also comes stuffed full of presets from Cherry Audio’s veteran sound designer, James Terris.
Available Now!
The Cherry Audio Wurlybird 140B is available as an AU/VST/VST3/AAX plugin, as well as a standalone instrument and requires macOS 13/Windows 7 or above. A free 30 day demo is available. The plugin will retail for $39.
