KVR Audio

tboulette · Post by **tboulette** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:46 pm

OK, for years I've loved the sound of what I presume is some model of electric piano from around 1977. The sound is features on the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love" and Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are", among other recordings I can't think of at the moment. It's a really warm and almost vibraphone like sound. What is that instrument? Can anyone here enlighten me?

TIA.

standalone · Post by **standalone** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:52 pm

Rhodes MK1?.

TristezaOrange · Post by **TristezaOrange** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:52 pm

Ah yeah, the Minnie Riperton "Loving You" sound, right? Yeah, what exactly is it? Just a Rhodes?

Bonteburg · Post by **Bonteburg** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:57 pm

Hmmm.... sounds like there's a fair amount of Flanger on the Billy Joel one!

And both of them have a fairly long release and don't really go up to 11 so they are clean.

Marco

standalone · Post by **standalone** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:01 pm

Here is a MK1 library, check if it's what you are looking for:

http://www.cinematique-instruments.com/?p=143

Nystul · Post by **Nystul** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:40 pm

Sounds like a Rhodes, played with soft touch, and run through some effects.

Mokafix · Post by **Mokafix** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:42 pm

Just an info you might consider :
The DynoMyPiano preamp was very popular on Rhodes in the 80's, and I do believe that it is big part of the Rhodes tone as many know it.
http://www.fenderrhodes.com/history/dyno.php

You can get something similar with EQing I think, by enhancing Rhodes overrtones to get a bright "chimes like" tone on attacks at low velocity.
From what I know it might be around 6kHz.
It gives the rhodes a nice "less muffled" sound than the basic EQ.

edit :

The songbird/dyno CS5 stereo chorus was also popular at that time.
This could also be a hint in your research.

tboulette · Post by **tboulette** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:45 pm

standalone wrote:Here is a MK1 library, check if it's what you are looking for:

http://www.cinematique-instruments.com/?p=143

Could be. I've been messing around with Electric in Ableton Live and I start getting something close when I reduce the "stiffness" and "force" parameters in the MK1 patch. No doubt there's some studio effects going on in the recordings.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:16 am

Bonteburg wrote:Hmmm.... sounds like there's a fair amount of Flanger on the Billy Joel one!

I'm thinking it might be chorus - old 70s chorus pedals could give you some pretty extreme sounds.

Kevin63101 · Post by **Kevin63101** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:06 pm

I would have guessed Billy Joel was using a Mutron Bi-phase, but probably was a small stone phaser. Take a look here: http://www.fenderrhodes.com/history/effects.php

Electric Piano(?) sound from "How Deep Is Your Love", "Just The Way You Are", others