Other famous Rhodes sounds besides Stevie's.

[CyberGene]

6 hours ago, jerrythek said:

Do you have a source that confirms he used a harmonizer on that track? I'm not arguing, just curious...

No source. The guitarist I mentioned was really into studio effects and had a real Rhodes and he said after a lot of experimenting he could recreate that sound through a harmonizer effect on a Yamaha rack. He even showed me different settings with either chorus or harmonizer and I agreed. That was many years ago, we are all amateurs, so it’s quite possible that we were wrong 😀 I have a recording from back then (crappy audio from a phone) where we jam over a few chords I came up at the moment, me playing the Rhodes and his brother on bass, forgive our lame playing abilities. Fast forward to 1:35 where I start playing some solo lines on the Rhodes:

https://on.soundcloud.com/PTJqL7z4urh39yDo8

[AROIOS]

19 hours ago, CyberGene said:

You are describing the studio technique to achieve chorus by overdubbing. That's probably the best and most natural way 🙂 But I meant an external effect box that provides chorusing. Those use LFO that modulates phase-shifting and more rarely pitch-shifting but as I said pitch-shifting is a DSP effect. I just read that the first one was the Eventide H910 (it's digital) and it's called "harmonizer" as was called the effect in that Yamaha rack. I'm not sure if that was very common effect. BTW it was patented by Eventide so maybe other effect manufacturers couldn't easily use it at the time, I'm really not very familiar with vintage DSP effects, so someone with more experience can share more info.

A "chorus" literally means copies of a sound that vary in "timing", "pitch", or often, both. "Pitch variation" as a Chorus technique appeared way before the invention of delay lines and LFOs. The 12-string guitar is a perfect example, not to mention the extremely common technique of combining two slightly detuned voices in synthesizers. (The audio example below simply detuned two identical samples and involved no delay-lines/phase-shifting at all. Ask a hundred musicians what effect they hear in it and every single one of them will tell you it's a chorus.)
 

Even with the crude technologies of the 70's, companies like Roland and Eventide were making Chorus effects that altered "pitch" of the delay lines inside. Chorus doesn't require a stable pitch-shift on the delay lines. So we don't really need "heavy DSP power" for it. The early BOSS/Roland choruses were fully analog.
 

It seems you were trying to make a distinction between a "harmonizer" and a "chorus", with the former requiring a stable pitch-shift, hence the "DSP power". That distinction might make more sense when we are using the harmonizer to generate stable parallel lines that "harmonize" the original line, in other words, several semi-tones apart. In the example you raised, the less-than-semi-tone detuning would have functioned literally as a chorus.
 

But hey, call it anything you want. I've heard casual listeners describe it as "sweetener", "widener" or "cheezilizer" 😃. The fun is in the actual sound, labels don't matter nearly as much.

[AROIOS]

56 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

No source. The guitarist I mentioned was really into studio effects and had a real Rhodes and he said after a lot of experimenting he could recreate that sound through a harmonizer effect on a Yamaha rack. He even showed me different settings with either chorus or harmonizer and I agreed. That was many years ago, we are all amateurs, so it’s quite possible that we were wrong 😀 I have a recording from back then (crappy audio from a phone) where we jam over a few chords I came up at the moment, me playing the Rhodes and his brother on bass, forgive our lame playing abilities. Fast forward to 1:35 where I start playing some solo lines on the Rhodes:

https://on.soundcloud.com/PTJqL7z4urh39yDo8

Love the keyboard harmony in this clip, can't wait to hear more of your jazzy works.

[AROIOS]

Just came across this Rhodes sound that's almost the polar opposite of OP's example, with an (arguable over-) emphasis on the bellish sound.
 

 

[CyberGene]

1 hour ago, AROIOS said:

It seems you were trying to make a distinction between a "harmonizer" and a "chorus", with the former requiring a stable pitch-shift, hence the "DSP power".

Yes, that was my point. 
 

1 hour ago, AROIOS said:

In the example you raised, the less-than-semi-tone detuning would have functioned literally as a chorus.

Well, yes, it’s a very subtle difference indeed and a chorus would yield almost the same sound. But if you compare them, you’ll hear it, there’s something more gloomy with the harmonizer whereas chorus is a bit more unobtrusive, natural and mood-less, for the lack of better words 😀

 

1 hour ago, AROIOS said:

Love the keyboard harmony in this clip, can't wait to hear more of your jazzy works.

Thank you! That was in 2012 and soon after that I experienced some self-disappointment and switched to classical music, so my jazz abilities have gone from mediocre to none nowadays… 😕 There’s some jazzy stuff: compositions, arrangements and reharms on my SoundCloud there from these old times. 

[AROIOS]

9 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

...That was in 2012 and soon after that I experienced some self-disappointment and switched to classical music, so my jazz abilities have gone from mediocre to none nowadays… 😕

I'm sure all your Jazz neural connections are still there in your brain and just waiting to be re-kindled.

Classical can offer a lot of inspirations to other genres (e.g. Rachmaninoff and Eric Carmen). Maybe you can push some sonic boundaries with a fusion between Classical and Jazz. That sounds like a lot of fun even just thinking about it.

[CyberGene]

22 minutes ago, AROIOS said:

Classical can offer a lot of inspirations to other genres (e.g. Rachmaninoff and Eric Carmen). Maybe you can push some sonic boundaries with a fusion between Classical and Jazz. That sounds like a lot of fun even just thinking about it.

We’re digressing, but I’ve discovered Scriabin a few years ago and he’s already become my favorite composer. His music is actually very close to jazz, but in a different way than Debussy, for instance. I think Chick Corea used to dig Scriabin. Here’s one little piece that I play and showcases his fondness for jazz-like harmony, long before jazz was a thing:

I have recorded a lot of Scriabin in my YouTube channel. 

[Josh Paxton]

The Richard Tee Rhodes is pure sonic heaven for me. One of my criteria for evaluating any DP is how well it nails that sound. It's the main reason I kept using my SV-1 even after it was no longer the hot new board and there were technically "better" options with more detail and velocity layers. And it's why I was so looking forward to the SV-2. This was the recording that made me fall in love with it.

 

 

[analogholic]

 

I nearly died when I heard this...and it was all over. Just had to get a Bi-Phase

[zukskywalker]

https://youtu.be/ss7JaHFeB6s?si=vQXV5WEyonySKoma

 

 

[AROIOS]

23 hours ago, CyberGene said:

We’re digressing, but I’ve discovered Scriabin a few years ago and he’s already become my favorite composer. His music is actually very close to jazz, but in a different way than Debussy, for instance. I think Chick Corea used to dig Scriabin. Here’s one little piece that I play and showcases his fondness for jazz-like harmony, long before jazz was a thing:

Tasty stuff, thanks for sharing it.

Some arranger friend of mine used to study Scriabin in the conservatory over 20 years ago and swore by his approach to harmony. I'm gonna look into it and see if I can get some ideas.

[CrossRhodes]

I don’t discriminate, I love all shades and colors of the Fender Rhodes. 70’s Herbie was my gateway but dig a lot of modern players keeping the sound alive as well.
 

 

[Chummy]

For those of you who like Fat / Chorusy funky Rhodes - Eric Tagg:

 

 

 

[HammondDave]

Surprised no one posted this… certainly iconic (for good or bad).

 

To be honest, I prefer the Rhodes sounds in Steel Dan songs like "Josie" and "Peg"... Also like the bark you can get out of some of the MODX Rhodes performances. I am blessed to be playing in a R&B Soul band where most of my keyboard sounds are variations of Rhodes sounds. Having a blast with that!