Rhodes samples on NS2 73

[hijlko]

Yes, I believe they are more than useable. I do not agree with the terms thin and weak. Maybe they are not perfect but neither is my original Rhodes 73 Mark I.

Personally I have more problems with the missing key off sound of the clavinets and prefer the clavinet of the Yamaha MOXF therefore.

[daniel70]

No, they only look like Wurlys, technical they are purely Rhodes! Tines instead of reeds... and so they are sounding, much like an early MkI.

[cheopsnet]

Thanks for the info on the Vintage Vibe Rhodes. They sure look nice! Would go well with my vintage '66 Fender Vibrolux Reverb amp..

[cheopsnet]

Yes, I believe they are more than useable. I do not agree with the terms thin and weak. Maybe they are not perfect but neither is my original Rhodes 73 Mark I.

Personally I have more problems with the missing key off sound of the clavinets and prefer the clavinet of the Yamaha MOXF therefore.

@hijlko: That is my perspective as well here.

This is not my first gear purchase and I have followed closely forums for various pieces of gear I have been interested in. I consider myself a bit of a collector and therefore enjoy both a good instrument, a nice instrument and a rare/vintage/part-of-history instrument. However over the past few years, I have gotten rid of a fair amount of 'collectible' stuff, in favor of getting tools that will be the job. In my case, the job is to get good instrument that are inspiring to play and that can create different/complementary layers of sounds.

While I agree with the Rhodes/Piano soloists here who are frustrated by the seemingly-agreed-upon limitations of the Rhodes models, it sounds to me that [and this may lead to a lot of people getting pi$#@d at me]: If Stevie Wonder was to record an album using tweaked Rhodes samples from a Nord, in the context of a band, very few people would be able to pick this up.

Again, I am no douche trying to poke at certain opinions (I have put the Vintage Vibe on my wishlist to try at the next NAMM and to potentially get down the road), but the Nord samples may not be as terrible as mentioned when slightly adjusted..

[white elefant]

of course this is true, but if you would ask Stevie Wonder what is more fun to play a Vintage Vibe Piano or a Nord Rhodes the answer would be clear also. Of course you can make great music with every gear and sometimes it´s even better if you are limited in the possibilities of your instrument. But still if you are looking for a one single solution, easy to carry, for classic sounds than the rhodessound is the weak point of Nord. A friend of mine, a fantastic jazz musician, brings always his laptop with his Nord Electro to play Rhodes. That doesn´t make sense für me. So I´m looking forward to the clavia answer in 2015.

[dangerous]

I've owned my nord stage since ... well, whatever my join date is on the side of this post. At first, I thought the Rhodes sounds were all pretty shitty, and I posted as such. I came from the Yamaha world where I pretty much exclusively used the one Vintage '74 patch. All the Rhodes sounds on the Nord sounded kinda ... flat ... even the "non-vanilla" presets. I moped a bit about this and then one day downloaded a few patches from this site - there were three in one thread - Chick's Rhodes, Herbie's Rhodes and Galper Rhodes. The Chick's Rhodes patch wasn't quite what I was after, it seemed to distort a bit easy, but it had so much more life and sounded much better than any of the presets. I looked at how that had been set up as a guide, and now I have adjusted that one and have quite a few different patches that to me, sound AWESOME. My basic sound would be to take EP2, put it through a twin reverb amp, add drive, roll off the bass, and adjust tops and highs. Add to that some tremolo or autopan, some stage reverb and a little bit of compression and you have a sound that is SO much better, to my ears, than what is stock.

What I don't do any more, is try and compare it to other keyboards. For me, it's the UI and the immediacy of the Nord that makes it the best keyboard out there. I think people get too focused on the sound and to me, it just doesn't matter whether it sounds "exactly like a real Rhodes", it's whether it sounds good.

Since I sold the Yamaha and bought a Nord, I probably play piano 15 to 20 times as much, no joke. That's what counts to me.

If anyone wants me to upload one of my patches to use as a starting point, I'll figure out how to do it.

[spradders]

Yes please - if you have a fantastic rhodes, upload it for us!

[stiiiiiiive]

For me, it's the UI and the immediacy of the Nord that makes it the best keyboard out there. I think people get too focused on the sound and to me, it just doesn't matter whether it sounds "exactly like a real Rhodes", it's whether it sounds good.

Words of wisdom.

Since I sold the Yamaha and bought a Nord, I probably play piano 15 to 20 times as much, no joke. That's what counts to me.

Voilà! That does count indeed.

We, geeks, sometimes need to be reminded why we have instruments. Well, I do need it at least

[white elefant]

sorry, but that is not the point. People and the music they make are different. Give a classical pianist for his Beethoven concert an Upright instead of a Concert Grand, what would he say! I know keyboardplayers, they use for special projects only cheap vintage gear, even little toy pianos. This thin, crampy whatever sound fits perfect to the atmosphere, they want to create. If you want a Rhodessound for a Jazzcombo and you are not able to play the original (too heavy, too unreliable ....) until a few years it was always a compromise and the musical output was not that, what it could be. It doesn´t matter if Stevie Wonder or an amateur would have played. Now in 2014 there are solutions very close to the original, but not Nord. Nord has IMO the best interface, that allows you to feel like a musician and not like an IT-expert diving menues. But it is totally okay not to be satisfied with the rhodessound they offer. Because that point is important for the music I play I decided right now against using the nord stage. If the situation chances in 2015 I would be glad to return back to Nord. That´s all. Everybody else who can cope with the actual sound and is able to somehow improve it, wonderful for you. But I think nobody here would refuse a better sample if Clavia would offer it........

hope I´m not to persistent

[stiiiiiiive]

No, we are chatting, no problem
Hmm... look, I'm even maintaining what I've quote just before

- being focused on the best imitation is not the point to me; it is rather how good you find it sounds, no matter how close to the real deal it is.
- an instrument that makes you play more often is a good thing in all ways.

What I want to stress here is that is subjective. If I find a rhodes sound that suits my ears and needs and you people tell me "hmm this is not the most accurate imitation you can get", well... to quote you: people and their music are different.

If my classical pianist bro does prefer an upright for playing Bethoveen, who will blame him? Will you? I won't.
If you tell me "I need the closest imitation because it suits my ears and music", well I'm ok too and won't blame you neither.

But let's not make a Truth of what one thinks. This is subjective.