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What's the best Fender Rhodes plugin?
What's the best Fender Rhodes plugin? I don't know, but here's a sound comparison I did of a bunch of them that I have. What are your favorites? I'll tell you mine (and why), later. Headphones recommended.
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FYI, these are all desktop, sorry. I do have Gospel Musicians for iOS, which definitely holds its own in this setting, but the rest of these are only available for desktop.
Interesting comparison. Mine was probably the Korg one, which surprised me. It’s not necessarily that it’s the most accurate, but I think it’s targeting a particular 70s processed sound that I like.
One that was absent is the Pianoteq ones, which I really like for the opposite reason - they sound like an unprocessed Rhodes should in my head.
However, I can’t say that I think there’s one particular Rhodes sound, as different models with different levels of maintenance can all have their individual sounds. Probably the best one I ever played was a really road-worn one that a friend picked up cheap because it was long overdue some TLC - it was an absolute pleasure to play.
The Korg one comes as part of the Korg Collection (20+ instruments). I didn't even know I had it until I started rooting around trying to see what Rhodeses I had for this test project. I've never used it in a project, so I have little experience with it or how useful it might be.
Pianoteq would be good for sure. Another missing top contender is Keyscape.
I tried to set up each one in a similar sort of pure sound, no effects except a bit of reverb. At the same time, I tried to choose something from the myriad of presets and options in each product where I felt it sounded best. In most cases this was a Suitcase model/preset. But like, the Scarbee sounded best in the DI mode, so it was always about whatever I felt showed the product at its best and the most revealing and pure Rhodes sound I could coax out of each of them.
In terms of the actual physical instrument.. Somewhere along the way in this project I realized that nearly all of my experience with the real instrument comes from a single instrument that I owned in the early 70s. It was a suitcase model, probably from the late 60s or early 70s. I guess they called that era the "Mark I" era. And I tweaked and voiced it extensively, and spent a lot of time getting each individual note optimized as best I could. This left me with a deep sense of just how different each Rhodes could be, depending on how it was set up, and other factors. I suppose this experience is probably true for a lot of people. I've laid hands on a few other actual Rhodes instruments over the years (but far more Wurlies than Rhodeses). So my tastes in whatever the best Rhodes sound might be has to be based on that one instrument and decades-old memories of it.. And recordings... whatever was used on various classic records.
That plural so needs an image of Gollum playing an EP.
Rhodezezes
For me it’s always been the Korg Module/gadget, EP : boomy vibe preset..
From your video, I like the Scarbee and the free ETI the best.
Keyscape works great too, best choice of EPs for sure, especially the suitcase and the Wurlitzer 140.
I wouldn't want to be without the UVI EP88 though, certainly a matter of taste but I find it absolutely wonderful.
That's a nice one for iOS. There is also a Scarbee EP88m for Module (1GB, IAP), which is probably the best option available for iOS. Other good ones for iOS include V-Tines and Gospel Musicians.
Yes, you can only tell so much from this video, and this Hall & Oates riff. I did try doing a longer video which included multiple playing styles (soft/mellow, hard funky/choppy), various key ranges, comping in the left hand whilst soloing in the right. But in the end I found it best to keep it short and simple or else it would go on forever and you couldn't remember how the previous ones sounded. I might do a more detailed video at some point, focusing on some of the problems/shortcomings of certain aspects of products.. stuff you can't show in an overview like this.
This is the original Scarbee, which has been around forever, but is still one of my favorites. It has this wonderful little "krpffktft" release sample thing. It's subtle, but part of the sound of a real Rhodes, and once you become aware of it, it's hard to not notice its absence in other products. More recently he did the Scarbee EP88, which is more deluxe. I may pick up that one if it goes on Black Friday sale this year.
Incidentally, speaking of Scarbee. I recently discovered when I upgraded to the latest Komplete 15 that at some point NI ended its partnership with Scarbee and this excellent electric piano, and all of the great Scarbee instruments are no longer included as part of the Komplete bundle. NI introduced the Phoenix electric piano (included in the video) as a replacement. Not nearly as good as Scarbee, IMO. (Fortunately, if you are someone like me who bought Komplete back when Scarbee WAS included, you are grandfathered in and still retain access to all the excellent Scarbee content.) Meanwhile, I guess Scarbee is in the process of trying to transition back to distributing all his stuff through his own site.
The ETI is and odd one. Apparently it was created by a German college study as part of a bachelor thesis and then donated to the public. At 9 GB and like 42 layers of velocity, it shows a lot of attention to detail. It still has some oddities about how it responds to certain types of playing (not really shown in the video) that keeps it from being in my top 3-4. But pretty incredible for FREE, so I had to include it.
Wow! A tack electric piano? Just when I thought I'd seen it all. I'm not sure what to make of that, as a Rhodes is already a very clangy and metallic type of instrument. But definitely something different. A whole other sound.
Thanks for putting this comparison together @Lady_App_titude. Lots of useful information in the thread too. To my old ears, there's not a lot between them. 'Best' is of course very subjective but for me, it is about the response to touch. some keyboard / app pairings just make you want to play and for the 'where did that come from' magic to happen. I play live and use the Pianoteq Electric Pianos pack for my Rhodes sounds. I was initially very disappointed with the realism but I was won over by the ability to be able to calibrate whatever keyboard I'm using and easily switch between the grand pianos just with an iPad on the music stand. I've just got V9 but haven't yet had time to check out the improvements to the Mk II model. I'm fortunate in that I still have my 1978 Mark I Stage 73 so I have a ready reference (I use it on my recent post 'Triple Point'). That said, I think it might predispose me to think that nothing will match it so I'm not that critical of emulations. A reluctant sale will happen at some point (I'm told) and then I'll have to reappraise. For your amusement, you might like to see a video I did comparing the budget iOS AudioKit Pro House: Mark 1 with the real Mark 1.
I am by no means a keyboardist or have any frame of reference of what comparatively makes one Rhodes better than another. This also isn’t a “plugin”, it’s a decent sampler bank. (End disclaimer)
I found this last night while digging through DS stuff online and I think it sounds really good.
https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/matts-fender-rhodes/
Even though it's one of the older ones I really like the sound of Neo-Soul Keys Studio 2. It's very rich and responsive yet full of detail. The only downside is its size. The factory content weighs a hefty 8.5GB.
@GospelMusicians is it maybe possible to make single instruments downloadable? I'm only using one so it would be great to maybe have a size of around 1-2GB instead of 8.5GB.
The rather recent Elpiano by Klevgränd should probably be tried as well, it has gotten a lot of great accolades and is on sale right now for both desktop and iOS, I'm like Squish i.e no keyboardist but thought I squeeze it in. Website
I’ve been very curious about that one too since I saw the BF deal. But there’s still that weird feeling in the back of my head of when I first tried out Stark.
They also don’t really reveal if Elpiano is physical modeling or what the technology is behind it. I might just try the demo on desktop.
Yes, absolutely. And that's something that nearly impossible to show in these videos. You really have to see how it responds to your own playing style, and your keyboard controller. Even though there are dynamics and velocity curves you can tweak in most apps, and on your hardware, and these can help a lot, there are certain little issues that only reveal themselves when you actually try the product.
In fact, the inspiration for this entire thing came from one new product that I bought and it was generally excellent, but I found that it had an abrupt jump in volume on certain notes in a certain range of the keyboard. I wrote to the developer about it and they basically ignored me. So I created a project in my DAW and started comparing various products to see how they responded to touch. Before I knew it, I had like 10 products all lined up. So I decided it might be interesting to create a video and share some of what I found.
I initially tried to do a video where I demonstrated multiple playing styles (soft, mellow, hard, choppy, funky), various ranges of the keyboard, high notes, low notes, soloing in the right hand whilst comping with the left... This does give a much fuller sense of the products in action. But the video became too long. So I had to settle on a short phrase that at least shows how different they can all sound in a general sense.
However, all those little problems and shortcomings... certain products might not growl enough in the low notes, others might be way too loud in the high notes, still others have the uneven velocity jumps I mentioned... all that is not really shown in this video. I'm still contemplating if I might create another video trying to show these things.
OMG, that AudioKit thing is about the worst excuse for a Rhodes I've ever heard! Showing that thing along side a real Rhodes is like comparing a real a jumbo jet to a paper airplane! I did however, enjoy hearing the real Rhodes, especially that you point out that release sound that is missing on many software recreations. It's subtle, and you might not hear it much in a mix, but if you ever owned a real Rhodes like I did (also owned a Wurly 140, and a Hohner Pianet at one point) you know to listen for that sound when you're auditioning a product, and love it when they include it and miss it when it's absent. That little release sample sound is one of the reasons why I like the Scarbee so much.
Oh no! First thanks for the vid, the comparison is lovely
I say Oh No, because Ive avoided the House Mk 1 simply due to buying too many plugins/synths
But because of your video... I might actually prefer the Plugin with your velocity curve to the actual Rhodes 😬
I love midrange velocities, so I'm saving the vid to better understand setting my own curve
But the lack of grittiness, and the loss of key release and a few other features of the physical Rhodes.... I prefer the sound smoother without those added
So now I gotta drop another $4 on an e-piano... Sigh
Naw really tho, gonna mess with curves on other electric key options (neo keys, elpiano, etc. what I already have and don't fully understand)... And then probably pick up House Mk 1 regardless 😅
Thank you everyone for the amazing info throughout this whole thread!
THANK YOU. I know it's all a matter of taste, and love what you love and more power to you, but so many people seem to gush about House while I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. So not a good Rhodes, and not great to play either because of its tiny sample set.
Yes, the way it jumps from totally clean to pretty distorted so quickly is maddening. I know the developers said that's the way the original instrument they sampled from behaved, but in that case, they really should have sampled an instrument that wasn't broken, because surely that's not normal, is it?
Fausto skipped it - probably says something.
Full disclosure: I could be biased because he rates VTines which is my favourite ep.
Best Out the Box: Gospel Musicians
Most Tweakable: Pianoteq
I made a Rhodes MKII soundfont in SFZ format for multi-samples obtained here: https://reverb.com/item/10319985-the-chicago-electric-piano-co-sample-series-vol-3-rhodes-mark-ii. I think it sounds nice across the entire keyboard range, but have no idea what anyone who knows what they're hearing may think. Each note is sampled at three velocities, and there is hammer/release noise as well - 352 samples total. The release noise is adjustable.
I've tested it in Sforzando and sfizz on the Mac, and KQ isfizz on iPad.
I can't include the samples, of course, but if you would like to try it you can obtain them from Reverb for free (account required).
Make a folder for the instrument, unzip the attached sfz file into the folder. Then unzip the download from Reverb. Find the folder
Reverb | CEPCo Sample Series Vol. 3 - Rhodes Mark II Samples_WAV_Filesand copy that folder into the folder you made for the soundfont. Make sure you have the right folder. It should have four sub-folders in it with HI, MID, LO, and hammered.Release noise can be dialed up or down using CC 20 or from the sfz player.
There is a product (which I have) called Neo-Soul Keys. It includes Suitcase, Stage, Wurli, Dyno, and EX5 and is under 1 GB in size. It sounds great and is a manageable size with local iPad storage. The only thing I don't like is that they eliminated the PRESETS that came with the original Neo-Soul Keys. (There was one Jamal preset called "Cream" that I miss.) This product was a PAID upgrade for me and yet it came with ZERO presets. It's available on the app store.
NOT to be confused with Neo-Soul Keys Studio 2, which is like 20 GB and probably would be best if used with an external drive.
I mean, it's not a terrible sound per se. It just sounds nothing like a real Rhodes. A DX7 can produce Rhodes-ish sound, and you might actually prefer that sound for a certain track, maybe an 80s vibe. As we know, the DX Rhodes was so popular that it mostly replaced the actual Rhodes for many years in the 80s.
But for this test, I am looking for something that sounds like the actual Rhodes I used to own back in the 70s. I looked around my Mac to see what I had and I think any of these ones that I chose could work to create something essentially indistinguishable from the real thing in a recording.
There were certain ones that I have that were deemed not worthy to be included. The SampleTank 4 Rhodeses were terrible. Sounded more like a 90s ROMpler. (Although, as I recall the Wurlies for ST4 were decent.). Another one was Lounge Lizard 4, which is based on physical modeling. Close but no cigar. Lounge Lizard 5 is much more realistic from what I'm hearing in the demos, but I don't own v 5 yet.
Thanks for this, sounds great to my ears. I see the “unlock all” is on sale at 4.99 but I’m unclear as to what is Bing unlocked if I can already access each keys version offered in the app. (The size reduction compared to 2 is a lifesaver for me 👍)
Love the Rhodes sound and have enjoyed reading this thread.
I’m partial to the Electric Vintage app from Apesoft myself. And I remember Beatmaker3 has an IAP for a sampled Mark I or II. Been years since I’ve opened BM3, but I do remember this instrument sounded really great. (I’m going to revisit BM3 today maybe to load it up and play)
😂 you might notice that I studiously avoided saying it was a comparison and I was going to let the keyboards speak for themselves 😉. House: Mark 1 isn’t the ultimate recreation but is what it is and @PapaBPoppin is not alone in thinking it is the Rhodes sound they want.
I'm still stuck in VTines and thinking if i saved enough to buy Pianoteq... but VTines + Wurly Audiothing is a good mix. Electric Vintage i like a lot because sounds more "unique" Rhodes sound.
Pianoteq has a big range and lots of tweakability, and the ep sound is getting there. VTines still edges it in terms of character within its much narrower sonic palette imho, and I like to keep it handy as a grabbable and supremely playable instrument. As I used to do with Electric Vintage but could never go back now.
I just purchased VTines based on all this great info, but have a question.
Caveat is I'm not a keyboard player, just getting into keys a bit using an Akai Mini Plus and (now) using VTines as AuV3 in Loopy Pro. I have some other electric piano auv3s and I'm noticing with VTines that the notes seem to get "choke"d off (if that's the right term) when I play multiple keys in succession...I'd like the notes to ring out, if possible as they do in my other ePianos. Is this something that can be adjusted or is it based on the nature of the instrument or perhaps have I caused this by something else going on in my host/other plugins that I should explore. Thanks for any thoughts
Does it happen when you play VTines from its built-in keyboard? (I'm not smart about this stuff, I'm just trying to narrow down the options.)