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Jen Piano 73 | |
Article from Electronics & Music Maker, March 1983 |
The sounds of the piano are more or less as you'd expect. Mellow piano is probably the best of the lot, not suffering too badly from wooliness at the bottom end but becoming a little weak in the upper octave and a half. Bright piano is less like an upright piano than a typical electric sound; Clavichord is a reedy pulse wave sound, and Spinet a thinner version of the same thing.
Combining sounds, using the sustain, pedal, and switching in the Vibrato or Phaser, make a big difference, of course. The range of Vibrato depths obtainable is sensible, stopping just at the point where a sort of corny pop sound is produced. Phasing is more effective on the thinner sounds, and resembles a combined light phase and filter sweep effect (typical of the inexpensive Jen phase pedal in fact) which turns into an acceptable tremolo at the highest speed.
Internal construction is reasonably neat, considering the necessary duplication of circuitry involved for all 73 envelope shapers. Voice generation is by dividing down from a master oscillator using TMS 3615's; filtering is by fairly standard organ-type circuits to obtain the different voicings.
Naturally enough the overall sound can be beefed up using an external amp and/or effects, although it's not lacking in bass in its untreated form. Whatever your opinion of the overall sound quality and construction, there's no denying that you're getting a lot of keyboard for your money; there aren't many six octave machines around for the sort of shop prices at which the Jen Piano 73 should appear.
The Jen Piano 73 is marketed by British Music Strings at £299 including VAT. Further details from BMS, (Contact Details).
Review by Mark Jenkins
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