• With the arrival of yet another virtual electric piano with the Waves Electric 88 it got me wondering. Hp Scanjet 3200c Driver For Windows Xp Free Download. What is it about the Rhodes that inspires software developers to pursue the perfect emulation?
The history of the Rhodes piano is quite a story and you can read about the journey of Harold Rhodes and his development of the instrument. I have played one and as I recall the keyboard action was just horrible – really heavy to my soft synth hands – but the sound was sublime. Most of my experience of course comes through records it was used on. Celeda - Music Is The Answer (dancin' And Prancin') (danny Tenaglia Tourism Mix) Download here.
Riders on the Storm by The Doors, Get Back by the Beatles, I’m Not in Love by 10cc and then much of Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder’s music from the 1970’s. The most iconic performance for me is Ray Charles playing Shake a Tail-feather in the The Blues Brothers movie. There’s something in the way the sound is created. Hammers hitting strips of metal called “Tines” like a sideways vibraphone. But it’s not just the physical glockenspiel-like vibration it’s the tonebar that picks up the sound and the preamp and amplification that give it the grit and variation that we’ve come to love. And then there are the effects. The classic tremolo of course, the phaser, chorus, wah and a delay are always popular.
Pretty much every digital synth, keyboard workstation and sampler will have some kind of Rhodes electric piano going on. And this follows on into software versions – it’s a standard sound. But sometimes when a manufacturer focuses on recreating the feel, heart and soul of this classic electric piano – whether Mark I, Mark II, stage or suitcase – magic can happen. Here’s my top 5 software recreations of the Rhodes electric piano, in no particular order.