How to design a realistic electric piano

[lolilol1975]

How do you synthesize the most realistic Rhodes and Wurlis with a subtractive or FM synth ?

I have Dune 3 but it would be interesting with charlatan 3 too.

[NAD]

If you have Zebra you could try learning something from these patches from 3ee. They are quite complex though and I doubt they could be easily replicated on most synths, but perhaps you can glean some insights that can be applied elsewhere.

[BertKoor]

Most FM synths have reasonable e-piano presets. Even with simple 4-operator FM it's doable.

I think one pair of operators is used for the 'ting' attack full of harmonics, and the others for the mellow sustain part. Good luck further dysecting the secret...

[imrae]

I think a lot of gigging musicians were interested in leaving the Rhodes at home and approximating it on the DX7! So it's no wonder this is a well-studied problem. I'd have a look through the preset banks of Dexed, FM8, OPS7 and any DX7 patch collections you can get hold of (which can be imported by those softsynths) and try to reverse-engineer the ones you like!

Getting the most realistic may take a bit more processing and layering from there?

[Benedict]

Depends on how you define "realistic". If you are being literalistic then just get one like this UAD thingee, you'll feel like you have the perfect thing nailed:
https://youtu.be/FGxhNKpSwrQ?si=uZSZ6YfybgWMkQu9

Me, I prefer to make something that suits the needs of my piece so that can vary from a sine wave alone through layers of tones and "hammers". How it then is played and mixed defines the sense of being "realistic".

[Chris-S]

Hi, Eric Bowman has a nice tutorial for Vital.

https://youtu.be/HpSC2SFb9E4

[tasty tatsyn]

Depends on how you define "realistic". If you are being literalistic then just get one like this UAD thingee, you'll feel like you have the perfect thing nailed:
https://youtu.be/FGxhNKpSwrQ?si=uZSZ6YfybgWMkQu9

Me, I prefer to make something that suits the needs of my piece so that can vary from a sine wave alone through layers of tones and "hammers". How it then is played and mixed defines the sense of being "realistic".

Agreed, although it's not "perfect" i like the results i get with a synth and some FX's, i find them interesting too!
- not the greatest keyboard playing but enough to get an idea of what's possible....

A small sunday experiment...


It uses external FX's obviously, that was one of the purposes of the experiment.
I like the results although i must say the CPU usage is to the high side after FX's added.
It should be fine on a track with just a few instruments and drums, maybe an issue on a track with massive ammount of VST's...

2 Icarus instances, 1 excellent preset from BT (suitcase MK1) and one of my own as a second layer.

https://hearthis.at/10487523/

Here's another (monday morning) experiment: [creamy drive]
diferent FX's obviously..
https://hearthis.at/10488948/

[tasty tatsyn]

Hi, Eric Bowman has a nice tutorial for Vital.

https://youtu.be/HpSC2SFb9E4

Excelent Sound Design