Questions
Frequently asked
Straight answers, each tied back to how the instrument actually works.
- What does it sound like?
- A Wurlitzer 200A: woody and round when you play soft, barking and vocal when you dig in. It’s the electric piano on Supertramp’s “Dreamer”, Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”, Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” and countless Norah Jones records — plus the built-in ~5.5 Hz tremolo that makes it breathe. Hear the velocity layers and sweeps on the Listen page.
- Will it sit in my mix?
- That’s the point. The bus is calibrated against the 1snob suite’s reference loudness and run through a modeled cabinet (preamp + body resonances + oval-speaker rolloff), so it lands like a real 200A line-out rather than a raw synth. The Bark macro takes it from clean and supportive to a cutting lead, and the output is mono by design — add your own width or effects downstream. Source:
dsp/Cabinet.h,dsp/Engine.h. - Is it sampled or modeled?
- Modeled, not sampled. Each note is generated in real time by a modal resonator bank driven through a capacitive pickup model — there are no recordings of a piano baked into the plug-in. That is why a single voice responds continuously to velocity and the macro controls rather than crossfading between fixed sample layers. The model is kept honest by measuring it against a real Wurlitzer 200A (see the Measured page). Source:
dsp/Reed.h,dsp/Pickup.h. - Why is the output mono?
- Because the real Wurlitzer 200A is a mono instrument, and Plenty of Reeds stays faithful to it. The output is dual-mono by design — there is no chorus, panning, Haas widening, or stereo spread built in. If you want stereo width, add it downstream in your DAW. Source:
CLAUDE.md(output invariants). - Why doesn't pitch bend do anything?
- Also by design. The 200A has no pitch-bend mechanism, so the pitch wheel is intentionally inert and the model adds no built-in pitch vibrato. The only modulation is the authentic ~5.5 Hz amplitude tremolo (mod-wheel / CC1 controllable). Source:
CLAUDE.md(MIDI section). - Does it run on Windows?
- Not in 1.0 — Plenty of Reeds 1.0 is macOS only, shipped as a universal (Apple Silicon + Intel) VST3, AU, and Standalone. A Windows build is not available yet.
- How do I install it?
- Download the macOS
.pkgand, the first time, right-click → Open to get past the one-time Gatekeeper warning (the installer is unsigned; the plug-ins themselves are ad-hoc signed). Full steps are on the Install page. - Are updates included?
- Yes. Buying Plenty of Reeds gives you access to 1.x updates through Gumroad — when a new build is posted, you re-download the latest
.pkgfrom your Gumroad library at no extra cost. Buyers who opted into emails are notified when an update ships. - What's the refund policy?
- Sales are handled by Gumroad, so Gumroad’s refund policy applies. Because this is a downloadable plug-in we can’t support “changed my mind” refunds after the files are downloaded, but if the plug-in won’t install or load on a supported macOS setup, reach out and we’ll either fix it or refund you. Refund requests are made through your Gumroad receipt.