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ID-ing a sound - is this an RMI Electra?


Kawai James

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Hello chaps,

 

Just wondering if anyone can positively ID the keyboard sound on this Gentlean June Gardnener cut?

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxKOmzXQXmA

 

(keyboard solo starts just before the 1:00 mark).

 

I asked the same question over on the Nord forum and the general consensus was that it's an RMI Electra.

 

Fortunately, there are RMI Electra samples in the Nord sample library, however, while close, they're not quite spot on. It's unlikely that anyone in the audience will notice the difference, but these minor details are important to us, right?

 

Cheers,

James

x

Employed by Kawai Japan, however the opinions I express are my own.
Nord Electro 3 & occasional rare groove player.

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Could be RMI, or several other electronic pianos of that era. I owned an RMI, and that doesn't sound quite right to me.

 

I'm guessing a Univox.

 

[video:youtube]

Moe

---

"I keep wanting to like it's sound, but every demo seems to demonstrate that it has the earth-shaking punch and peerless sonics of the Roland Gaia. " - Tusker

http://www.hotrodmotm.com

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Hello chaps,

 

Just wondering if anyone can positively ID the keyboard sound on this Gentlean June Gardnener cut?

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxKOmzXQXmA

 

(keyboard solo starts just before the 1:00 mark).

 

I asked the same question over on the Nord forum and the general consensus was that it's an RMI Electra.

 

Fortunately, there are RMI Electra samples in the Nord sample library, however, while close, they're not quite spot on. It's unlikely that anyone in the audience will notice the difference, but these minor details are important to us, right?

 

Cheers,

James

x

 

I'm 99% certain that's an RMI. I sampled the one that we used in our K26, PC2, and PC3 lines.

 

We got samples of both stops (piano and harpsi) as well as both env modes (piano and organ).

 

The original is quite unforgiving to play... no velocity sensitivity. So every little brush on a key triggers a FULL ON note.

 

For the PC3 we actually made them velocity sensitive, due to complaints about the ones we made for the K26, which were more true to the original but less fun to play.

 

Below is my favorite recording with RMI, from the Edgar Winter and White Trash live album Road Work.

 

[video:youtube]

 

[video:youtube]

 

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Interesting stuff - thanks Dave!

 

Does a real RMI Electra produce a key-off sound when the key is released?

 

The Nord Sample Library samples do not have this capability, unfortunately, which may explain the slight difference in character in the Pianet sample and a handful of others.

 

Cheers,

James

x

Employed by Kawai Japan, however the opinions I express are my own.
Nord Electro 3 & occasional rare groove player.

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I had an RMI back in the day. I bought it second hand for $300. At first I thought it was cool but over time I grew to hate the damn thing. I got pretty good at fixing broken keys, tuning it and making minor repairs. At a gig once smoke started pouring out of the back of it. During break I popped it open and was able to re-solder a short in the power supply without killing myself in the process and finished the gig. It was finally retired in the early 80's after having served as a glorified keyboard stand for my Prophet 5 for it's last few years of use. Towards the mid 80's it was taking up space so I tried to sell it. No luck. Finally I decided to take it to the dump in the unenlightened years before electronics recycling. I hadn't fired it up in years, didn't know if it worked anymore and I was frankly afraid to find out. My plan was to take it to the county dump, push it over the 30-40 foot embankment into the heart of refuse and watch it gloriously shatter into thousands of pieces. So I took it to the dump, pushed it over the embankment and hardly anything happened. A couple of keys broke off as it lay there staring back at me. Even in death, disappointing.
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As Dave W. mentioned earlier the PC3 has RMI samples. To be true to the instrument I removed the key velocity from the programs so the notes are always full on. Wow how instruments have thankfully come along way since then.

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit 93 Band

 

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I had an RMI back in the day. I bought it second hand for $300. At first I thought it was cool but over time I grew to hate the damn thing. I got pretty good at fixing broken keys, tuning it and making minor repairs. At a gig once smoke started pouring out of the back of it. During break I popped it open and was able to re-solder a short in the power supply without killing myself in the process and finished the gig. It was finally retired in the early 80's after having served as a glorified keyboard stand for my Prophet 5 for it's last few years of use. Towards the mid 80's it was taking up space so I tried to sell it. No luck. Finally I decided to take it to the dump in the unenlightened years before electronics recycling. I hadn't fired it up in years, didn't know if it worked anymore and I was frankly afraid to find out. My plan was to take it to the county dump, push it over the 30-40 foot embankment into the heart of refuse and watch it gloriously shatter into thousands of pieces. So I took it to the dump, pushed it over the embankment and hardly anything happened. A couple of keys broke off as it lay there staring back at me. Even in death, disappointing.

Great story!

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Tony Banks used the RMI for all sorts, piano sounds, organ sounds and organ/piano sounds - whilst I can't take this one I would if I had the room).

 

Listen to the start of In The Cage - RMI through an MXR100 - just to die for!

 

Yamaha CP70B;Roland XP30/AXSynth/Fantom/FA76/XR;Hammond XK3C SK2; Korg Kronos 73;ProSoloist Rack+; ARP ProSoloist; Mellotron M4000D; GEM Promega2; Hohner Pianet N, Roland V-Grand,Voyager XL, RMI
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I could totally be full of BS about Egdar Winter using the RMI vs Univox. I only had anecdotal (word of mouth) evidence that it was an RMI, and of course, you can get an RMI to sound like that.

Based on the posts above I'd say there is good evidence to support that he used the Univox for Road Work.

 

As far as I know the RMI did not have any key-release sound.

It DID have a key click and we got samples of that - on most PC3 programs it can be enabled/disabled with a switch.

 

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