KVR Audio

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Sat May 12, 2012 5:19 am

@egbert: I have the scarbee stuff (well, whatever comes with komplete) and find myself frustrated with it. I actually like the stuff that is regular kontakt the best. Not weird, a little eq, sounds "ok" But still lacks the "shine" of a real rhodes.

Again, I have the "neosoul" and it's ok. but I find virtually NONE of these satisfying in any music I do.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat May 12, 2012 5:41 am

Hibidy, have you tried Tim O'Grady's free "Old Dirty Wurli"?

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electron ... ument.html

egbert · Post by **egbert** » Sat May 12, 2012 5:46 am

I have the NeoSoul also and like it - I think the new SC is quite appealing too. I - personally - don't quite get what is unsatisfactory about these things. I would probably like a Rhodes to write songs on if I had a bit more space - just switch it on and go. I used to write a lot of stuff on a Yamaha electric piano with built in speakers that sounded like shit compared anything we are talking about.

The genuine article? I played lots in the 80s and many were quite uneven action-wise and were typically played through guitar amps with FX pedals they were heavy bastards to lug around. To me the sounds we get now with well tuned samples and as much processing as you like are great - I use modulation, tape sims, compressors and saturators (Bootsie's Thrillseeker is worth trying on this sort of thing) and amp sims and delay/verb sends. These sounds work well for me in support of guitars and horns I'm recording over them.

Perhaps you have had a Rhodes for years and got a vibe from it that you just can't get out of a computer in which case there ain't no substitute for - um - hammers and tines.

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:14 am

Uncle E wrote:
michael2 wrote:i've had a rhodes for a long time (and played a ton of wurli's). if I'm going to play a software version, I opt for samples myself. I don't really think the physical modeling EPs sound very realistic at all. BTW this thread is making me wish I hadn't sold my rhodes recently.
What do you think of Arturia's new Wurlitzer V? How about Pianoteq?

Haven't tried those actually. I tried Lounge Lizard and something else (was awhile ago, can't remember which). Just checked out the Arturia video, sounds decent, but not my cup of tea. When I think Wurli, I picture something darker and more kind of dirty and almost muddy sounding. I always liked the sound of the built in speakers, which sounded pretty broken up. I also have only played old Wurli's and they seemed to always have less of a defined attack.

But I'm not a jazz guy or a real muso. I like a muddy swampy sound. Maybe I have just spent too much time with old broken down gear. I love the sound of this one (never get this without hardware). Shit, I just realized I need to actually buy a wurli now. My wife is going to kill me.

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:17 am

I still think those examples I gave are suspect. But I guess if nobody else notices it it's just me.

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:22 am

hibidy wrote:I still think those examples I gave are suspect. But I guess if nobody else notices it it's just me.

just checked out the audio demo's. there are some good points (like how you can hear the mechanics of the thing when the note strikes), but yeah: sounds sampled.

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:29 am

Thing is, that when I use the samples I have, I don't get that "sounds like a sampled bass" thing on the low end (sorry I don't have a more technical explanation) So though all the other examples sounds awesome, I'm worried I'll be disappointed.

Remember older sampled bass with all those overtones? That is what I'm hearing.

ooohhh2 · Post by **ooohhh2** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:39 am

There's a sample library made by a german guy. It's called Cfrentzen Suitcase, it's hands down the best and most realistic Rhodes library I've ever heard. It's rather unknown cause he doesn't do any advertising. Google it. You won't be disappointed.
Check his wurly and clav library as well. I'm saving up to buy all of them. They are the best.
In the meantime I'm using the suitcase patch from Colossus which also sounds very natural and a bit dirty.
You can hear it in some tracks in my soundcloud site.

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:40 am

hibidy wrote:Thing is, that when I use the samples I have, I don't get that "sounds like a sampled bass" thing on the low end (sorry I don't have a more technical explanation) So though all the other examples sounds awesome, I'm worried I'll be disappointed.

Remember older sampled bass with all those overtones? That is what I'm hearing.

after reading this thread, I started comparing tracks I did on my rhodes and tracks I did with a sampled rhodes. the thing that immediately struck me was how the hardware was more unpredictable where it was going to get cranky and break up. you can really hear how the playing is not machine like at all, theres and ebb and flow. and it's very musical sounding (I guess because it's a real instrument). when I listened to the songs done with samples, even though the songs were played live on a keyboard, you can hear the same idiosyncrasies popping up over and over when notes are repeated. lsounds ok in a mix, but not so awesome when playing alone. guess that's why people use piano libraries with thousands of samples.

wonder why the bottom end always sticks out so much. maybe because those notes get held longer when you play, so they are more evident?

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:50 am

michael2 wrote:Just checked out the Arturia video, sounds decent, but not my cup of tea. When I think Wurli, I picture something darker and more kind of dirty and almost muddy sounding. I always liked the sound of the built in speakers, which sounded pretty broken up. I also have only played old Wurli's and they seemed to always have less of a defined attack.

Yeah, I feel the same way. I like some of the non-Wurli sounds they coax out of it, really unique stuff there, but the normal Wurli sounds aren't nearly smooth enough. This EP73 Deconstructed really does it for me and is going on my desktop, now I'm trying to find something small and fast loading for my laptop.

Shit, I just realized I need to actually buy a wurli now.

Give Soniccouture's Broken Wurli a try. It's excellent.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:55 am

hibidy wrote:I still think those examples I gave are suspect. But I guess if nobody else notices it it's just me.

Oh, I don't think you're wrong, I didn't care much for those patches, either. It's just the other patches blow me away so much that I'm willing to look past the less stellar ones.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:58 am

ooohhh2 wrote:There's a sample library made by a german guy. It's called Cfrentzen Suitcase, it's hands down the best and most realistic Rhodes library I've ever heard.

1.4GB and €79. Not bad, especially after the ringing endorsement!

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:59 am

Uncle E wrote:
hibidy wrote:I still think those examples I gave are suspect. But I guess if nobody else notices it it's just me.
Oh, I don't think you're wrong, I didn't care much for those patches, either. It's just the other patches blow me away so much that I'm willing to look past the less stellar ones.

AGREEED!!!!!!!!

agree completely! WANT! Like what you mentioned........sounds amazing.....unlike anything else. I guess considering the discount I'd get I should just go for it.

soniccouture · Post by **soniccouture** » Sat May 12, 2012 6:59 am

hibidy wrote:http://www.soniccouture.com/en/products ... nstructed/

In my never ending search I came up on this. Something things sounds perfect.......but! Would someone please listen to the cuts

crunchy mallet
phase mallets 2
Stage 73-3
Stage 73-4

And tell me if I'm being too picky when hear the "samples" too much? God, the rest of it sounds DREAMY, but I listen to these and think sounds like 99.9% of sampled bass.

Hi hibidy,

I think there may be some confusion here : the first two demos listed there are made with the EP73 Mallet instruments - this instrument was created by manually striking different parts of the harp mechanism with a tiny jewellers hammer. As such this is not designed to be a natural Rhodes sound, but a variation on it. One of our demo makers really liked this sound and found he could get some Rhodes tones that he liked from it, so used it quite a lot.

the other two demos were by the same guy, and i'm not clear right now if these are layered with mallets or not ; i suspect they were. Either way, the demos reflect the fact that you can tailor the velocity/sample response to your taste, resulting in a different feel and sound.

personally, i find these two demos sound the most realistic representation of a classic rhodes sound :

http://soundcloud.com/soniccouture/plunk-the-funk

http://soundcloud.com/soniccouture/angela

Any other questions, please feel free to email us via the site and we'll do our best to help.

James

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sat May 12, 2012 7:01 am

Uncle E wrote:
michael2 wrote:Just checked out the Arturia video, sounds decent, but not my cup of tea. When I think Wurli, I picture something darker and more kind of dirty and almost muddy sounding. I always liked the sound of the built in speakers, which sounded pretty broken up. I also have only played old Wurli's and they seemed to always have less of a defined attack.
Yeah, I feel the same way. I like some of the non-Wurli sounds they coax out of it, really unique stuff there, but the normal Wurli sounds aren't nearly smooth enough. This EP73 Deconstructed really does it for me and is going on my desktop, now I'm trying to find something small and fast loading for my laptop.

Shit, I just realized I need to actually buy a wurli now.
Give Soniccouture's Broken Wurli a try. It's excellent.

thanks for the tip; that sounds pretty good, I think I am going to have to try that one out. it has more of that dark sound. I like how they play songs that everyone knows for their demos, gives you a good idea of what to expect.

soniccouture EP73