Klevgränd Tines review

A minimalist electric piano plugin that, rather than aiming to emulate a Rhodes or other classic keyboard, treads its own modernist, FM synthesis-based path.

The' 'pencil on paint' interface makes it clear from first launch that Tines is meant to be a simple, accessible instrument, and that it certainly is. The raw tone is clean, crisp and suitably EP-esque, but it can be toughened up somewhat by raising the Low, Mid and/or High distortion sliders - although the saturation is so subtle that it feels more like applying EQ.

Tremolo is adjusted using an X/Y pad - Speed on X and Depth on Y - with the Phase slider offsetting the left and right channels for a range of ear- hopping stereo effects.

Finally, Decay extends the length of held notes, while the Air slider sets the mix depth of the built-in reverb,which, without any editable parameters, isn't hugely useful. Klevgränd's quirky plugin sounds quite lovely and, thanks to an under-the-hood velocity-sensitive, envelope-modulated filter, plays well; but it falls rather short in terms of sound-shaping. We'd particularly like to be able to harden and soften the attack transient - it is called Tines, after all!