Rhodes experts, owners, players, I need your ears

[ZioGuido]

Hi All.

I'd like to have some help from pianists who own a real Rhodes piano. I know many of you have one, and some do really know all of its secrets.

 

What I'm doing is perfectioning an existant experiment, in order to reach the "undistinguishible simulation". Yeah, it's a stupid concept, but... y'know... we have time to waste :-)

 

It's a VST plugin for Windows, maybe someone already knows MrRay, and this should be a "mark II version" I'm working on since two years now, when I have time. In these days I've come up with something quite convincing and now I'd like to hear someone else's comments.

 

Please contact me entering my profile in this forum, email is best, but please only do if you have time to try the plugin, if you can play VSTi's for Windows, if you are a pianist and you have a real Rhodes. And if you can also record some audio with the plugin I'd appreciate it very much.

 

This is a little sample, all 73 notes played consequently.

(No, this is not how I usually test my plugins, I swear! )

 

Thank you all in advance.

Guido.

 

[Clifton]

A sequel to the already great Mr Ray? Guido, you are the man.

 

I'm afraid I can't help you however, having never played a real rhodes.

 

What might the release date be?

[Floyd Tatum]

Hi, Guido

 

I just listened to the little sample, that sounds great!

 

I'm not sure if it would work for me, I have an old computer (windows 98), and my version of Cubase is Cubase VST5 - would your vst work for that combination?

 

I don't currently own a rhodes, but I owned one from 1973 until last year, so I am very familiar with how they sound.

 

I would love to try it out, not sure if I have enough time, though

 

Good luck!

 

Richard

 

[harmonizer]

Guido,

My 1970-vintage Suitcase 73 has been on extended loan with the "real" keyboard player in our covers band, for about a year.

 

I could have sworn that I heard in your simulation a squeaking-like sound which I have heard in my key action on my Suitcase 73. Your lower keys sound better than my original Rhodes, because I could never get any "oomph" out of them in the lower 1/3 or so of the keyboard.

 

I don't use any soft emulators (I use a Roland XV-5050 sound module), so I cannot do any testing for you, unless you could figure out a way to build a patch that I could load onto the XV-5050. I am not positive if such a thing is possible, with the import of such a custom patch to be performed either via the XV Librarian software or XV Editor software.

 

But if you could do that, I would buy your patch without any further testing. Your mp3 sample sounded really good. While I am currently allergic to rehearsing or gigging with a laptop, I would love to have this sound in my XV-5050.

 

I already have the SRX-07 expansion card in my XV-5050, and this includes some decent EP patches for the upper range of notes (for example, the notes that one hears Billy Preston playing in the song "One After 909" on the "Let It Be" album. But I have not found a good emulation for the lower-to-middle notes of a Rhodes, such as the background quarter notes played on the Fleetwood Mac song "Dreams" (listen during the verses).

[linwood]

That sounds good. I'd do a demo for you ,but I'm already on the scarbee site doing one. I'd feel like I'm cheating on my wife or something.......Someone here will get it going for you, I'm sure.

[Floyd Tatum]

Harmonizer, there's no way to load a vst onto a synth like the xv-5050. It's software - it requires a computer, and a vst host, such as Cubase. Steinberg invented vst, but other sequencers now also support it, and I think there are some stand-alone vst hosts too.

 

[JeffLearman]

Count me in! Can't do it right away, and can't A/B with my Rhodes which is packed up in the attic, but I'll definitely check it out.

 

My favorite MrRay was the LE edition, and I think you know why, Guido! But MrRay73 is great and if this one is even better I'm all over it. Both MrRay73 ande Organized Trio are on my list of standard kit plugins to recommend, especially for those who don't plan on getting their much more expensive competitors (Scarbee and NIB4).

[ZioGuido]

Hi Jeff,

actually I don't feel like being a competitor of Scarbee nor NI. They make sample libraries, high quality, no doubt, but still a different product from a synthesis-based virtual instrument. And they do that professionally, they sell, they are a company. I'm not.

 

Linwood: I bet Mr. Scarbye won't feel offended if you play something for me, unless you have a legal agreement of exclusivity with him. If you are willing to try this plugin and record something, I won't publish it anywhere.

 

Anyway, if anybody wants to try the plugin, click my nickname -> profile and send me an email. I'll reply with the .DLL attached (1,44 Mb).

 

Thank you.

[Clifton]

That sounds good. I'd do a demo for you ,but I'm already on the scarbee site doing one. I'd feel like I'm cheating on my wife or something.......Someone here will get it going for you, I'm sure.

 

I really liked that one tune you did on the Scarbee site linwood, do another for our friend Guido! Please :grin: ?

[vihreamies]

Way to go Guido!

 

I'm so thrilled that there's still some people who does things without thinking about business. About professionality: I think you've crossed the line between amateur and professional. I mean that your plug-ins sounds amazing. And this new example sounds even better.

 

If only had it in my mac, I would do gigs with it. Now I have to use heavyweight Scarbee and keep my fingers crossed...

 

-Vm

[ZioGuido]

Here are two audio examples played by "Sava":

 

1. Dry sound

2. With tremolo and reverb, less belly

 

I hope someone else is interested in testing this plugin, as I care a lot and wish to have an official release soon (I'm working on it since... 4 years?!)

[Gary75]

That sounds real nice! Hopefully it will work on Muse Receptor as your past great contributions have.

[JinVA]

I'll test it. I would love to actually. PM is sent with the email addy.

-joel

[Yoozer]

What I noticed with the new Rhodes and what I miss in most of the emulations I use (XP-30 60's/70's expansion, EVP73, the Rhodes samples that come with Kontakt) - is a slightly randomized pitch.

[ZioGuido]

What I noticed with the new Rhodes and what I miss in most of the emulations I use (XP-30 60's/70's expansion, EVP73, the Rhodes samples that come with Kontakt) - is a slightly randomized pitch.

 

It is not the pitch which is randomized but the offset of the tine over the pickup, you hear a change in the harmonic content of each single note, due mostly to the grommets used to fix the tonebars, which are of course flexible and tend to change their position when you strike a note, and slowly get back to the original position when you don't play the piano for a while.

 

But, obviously, we're talking about minimal changes that only a careful listener may perceive.

 

Anyway I also tried to simulate this. Try to hit the same note repeatdly in MrRay73mk2 and you won't hear twice the same thing.

[kanker.]

Man, we need to find someone to do a Mac port.

[Clifton]

Hey Guido, I'd love to test it and give you whatever useful feedback I can. I just sent you an email.

[b_3guy]

Man, we need to find someone to do a Mac port.

Ditto!!

[MHz]

Here are two audio examples played by "Sava":

 

aka MHz

 

As I told Guido, its very important to play this emulation on the similar key action.. I don't enjoy playing rhodes sound (piano, wurli etc.) on the synthesizer keys..

[harmonizer]

ZioGuido, that is some beautiful work you have done.

[JinVA]

Sounds great so far, I like it a bit more than my electro, especially because i can really dial it in to taste. I'm having some hardware problems that is causing some distortion, so I won't be able to record anything but a midi file using the plugin, and note my settings if you want to use it. Great stuff man. seriously.

-joel

[harmonizer]

Floyd Tatum, I know I am risking a major GAS attack by asking this, but just for my curiosity, do you know of any "hardware" type of synth modules into which one *can* load a "vst"?

 

I ask this because I really do not like the idea of rehearsing or gigging with a laptop, and I do like the simple-to-use interface (that is, simple-to-use at performance time) of my Roland XV-5050 sound module.

 

Can I have my cake, and eat it too?

[Floyd Tatum]

Floyd Tatum, I know I am risking a major GAS attack by asking this, but just for my curiosity, do you know of any "hardware" type of synth modules into which one *can* load a "vst"?

 

I ask this because I really do not like the idea of rehearsing or gigging with a laptop, and I do like the simple-to-use interface (that is, simple-to-use at performance time) of my Roland XV-5050 sound module.

 

Can I have my cake, and eat it too?

 

I think this is what you want:

 

http://www.museresearch.com/receptor.php?r=overview

[ZioGuido]

any "hardware" type of synth modules into which one *can* load a "vst"?

 

Muse Research Receptor

 

 

[konaboy]

sounds wonderful! you have done a fantastic job! i don't use vst plugins coz i'm a gigging man with an electro, but I have dabbled on the PC and you MrRay73 is the best plugin i have ever tried.

 

respect.

[Floyd Tatum]

Hey, Guido,

 

I've just been recording a sample of MrRayMKII, it plays very nice! I just played an impromptu version of Red Clay by Freddie Hubbard. I also own Emagic EVP73, so what I did was record a midi file, and then I recorded the same midi file thru both EVP73 and MrRayMKII, so that you can compare them, if that would be of interest to you. I like MrRay much better than EVP73! More ballsy, and also, it seems more alive, you've built in some random stuff it seems, so that it plays more like the real thing.

 

Tomorrow, I can convert them to MP3's. Would you like me to email them to you? I could also email you a copy of the .mid file, if that would be useful.

 

[ZioGuido]

Email email...

The midi file would be very useful as well. Thanks.

 

[ZioGuido]

I've sent a beta to more than 10 persons but only two got back to me with a result... are you all really so busy?

 

Anyway, this is what Floyd Tatum has played with it:

The piano part from Red Clay by Freddie Hubbard

 

It was performed on a Pentium III @ 600 MHz with Win98 and Cubase VST 5 (I didn't even believe it could work with this configuration! :grin:)

 

Comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks

[JinVA]

i'm still working on getting a decent machine and recording...., but I'd def rather play this than my fender suitcase in terms of tone. I can get a bell-like tone that the suitcase won't give me, and its much, much lighter. As far as setting it up to sound like my suitcase, it's closer than my electro and could probably fool me in an eyes closed test, put through the right amp and tweaked just right. Great job.

-joel

[Stephen Fortner]

Hi Guido,

 

I think the last time we spoke, I was writing about ORGANized Trio for the clonewheel roundup back in Nov 2004. Very glad to see you here on the forum, and especially happy that the good people here are helping you out with feedback.

 

Just a heads-up: Keyboard will be doing a roundup of electro-mechanical (Rhodes, Wurly, Clav, maybe a Pianet, etc) for the August '07 issue, and we'd certainly like to cover Mr. Ray and Mr. Tramp.

 

SF