Ironically, in hardware, if you asked me abot my favorite Rhodes sounds, I'd lean toward Korg/Vox or Kurzweil, neither of which were represented in this shootout at all! I think Yamaha has gotten more competitive lately, though.Ĭomparisons like this are largely meaningless, especially when they don't even have a real rhodes involved. Even the sounds of these boards as they appear in this shootout would likely be somewhat different if he had been playing them from their own actions.
![keyscape rhodes keyscape rhodes](https://ahseeit.com//king-include/uploads/2020/11/thumb_125347341_130508691859384_7278567019707284589_n-8846110822.jpg)
Since it is highly likely that you'll be playing a board's sounds from its own action, you also need to allow for the possibility-especially in the case where you think two of these sounds are "close"-that while you might prefer the sound of A over B when played from action C, you might prefer the reverse if each were played from its own action. While it does provide an indication of the characters of the sound-and was an approach that was in part nececssitated by including Keyscape and the Reface-another variable remains that a board's sounds can play differently from an action that is not its own, as given finger forces may be triggering different velocities/samples. My other issue with this particular test is that the playing, as good as it is, tends to be in a narrow dynamic range, which really limits our ability to evaluate even those 1-of-each sounds that are demonstrated.ĮTA: It is an interesting choice, also, to play them all from the same action. But the Nord and Yamahas have quality sample sets of numerous entirely different Rhodes pianos, and we're only hearing one of them, which may not be the one you'd like best. Keyscape only has one straight Rhodes sample set (an early ‘70s Mark I Suitcase), and the VR730 has probably just one EP sound worth comparing, the 75 Tine that is one of the VR-730 sounds that are not in the VR09. In this respect, Keyscape and the 730 are probably well represented by the one sample each. I'm not talking about accounting for those virtually infinite knob-tweaking variations one can create out of any single piano sample set but rather, that these instruments often include entirely different Rhodes sample sets in them, with characters that can be as different from each other as they are from those of another keyboard. One of my issues with anyone basing their "Rhodes board preference" on this comparison, though, is that the video does NOT compare these keyboards, but rather, the video compares ONE SOUND from each of these keyboards.
![keyscape rhodes keyscape rhodes](https://dtf.ru/cover/fb/c/723893/1620241928/cover.jpg)
But you can still discern the basic characters of the sounds. they're all tweakable in a wide variety of ways. There's a lot of front panel buttons that you can set that immediately change the character of the thing.That's really true for all of them to some extent or another. Quite disappointing, really.Īs a Nord owner, it's just not as simple as pull up the rhodes and play it. Keyscape is great in the studio, but I ran it live in Mainstage and it didn't cut through at all - stereo trickery, phase cancellation, something? Fiddled with the character knob, the EQ, just didn't work. It just goes to show how everyone's idea of 'what a Rhodes should sound like' is different. For me it’s a very important part of the sound of a well maintained Rhodes, that it has no short sustain.Īgreed, with a bit of fiddling that Nefertiti is my go-to Rhodes sound. All in all i think the Nord Nefertiti is one of the best Rhodes samples you can get in hardware - the only problem i see there is in the envelope: It has a very immediate attack and then the decay/sustain is way to short - not very realistic for my ears.
![keyscape rhodes keyscape rhodes](https://cdn.korn.eu/pictures/product/1500/set105637.jpg)
And it has great dynamics, it can really bark, if you grab in, what the player in this video didn‘t do at all. You can really bring it to shine, if you turn down the bass and crank the high mids and highs. They chose the Nefertiti EP8 sample from Nord and this sounds very dark and dull, if you don‘t eq it properly - what they didn‘t do for this video.