Help on E-Piano

snoopy4ever · Post by **snoopy4ever** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 9:45 am

Hello pulsarians!!

I've been trying to re-produce a song originaly recorded on late 70's, it uses a beautiful electric piano with delicate action and low range fullness.

I don't know what kind of e-piano they used, neither I'm an expert on those instruments, I was wondering if you guys can give me a hand and tell me if you know any patches for Modular or any synth that can do a similar job, or any native vst instrument.

Any help would be appreciated.

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 10:27 am

There is a big, BIG chance that it's a Rhodes Mark I. You hear it in almost all recordings of those days.

Here are some recordings from my Nord Electro so you can get an idea of how some of the most common sounds are like:
http://www.iface.ne.jp/~ken/RhodesMark1.mp3
A typical Rhodes Mark I setup

http://www.iface.ne.jp/~ken/RhodesMark1alt.mp3
Alternative pickup positions. Much tougher sounding than the normal one.

http://www.iface.ne.jp/~ken/Wurlitzer200A.mp3
This is also another common electric piano of those days. ala Carpenter's "I'm on top of the world".

All the sounds a passed through Electro's internal autopan and a very light overdrive.

Emagic had released a Rhodes emulator for Logic and VSTi.. can't remember the correct name but it's something like EVP88. VEP73? Not sure. Someone on PlanetZ is using it so that person could probably give you more info.

Though lots of normal workstation synths have the "Rhodes" or "Wurlitzer" sound, it's hard to find a good one. It's very hard because the EP sound changes a lot by where you put the pickup on the tines. (the hammer hits a metal rod called a tine) And it's very hard to simulate this by EQ.

I really really like EPs, and use them alot in my tunes (not recently anyway), please tell me if you need some more info.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 11:16 am

It might help if you can tell us the track name and artist. Certainly the Rhodes is number one contender, but it might be a Wurlitzer (a la Roxy Music - great sound). The EVP88 mentioned is quite flexible but only works on on Emagic systems and the VSTi version - EVP73 - is a cut-down which I think only does Rhodes. Applied Acoustics do a modelled piano called Lounge Lizard, check: http://www.applied-acoustics.com which is available as standalone or VSTi and the UK magazine Computer Music had a free standalone PC only version on their CD-ROM with issue 47. Unfortunately I'm on Mac and can't even see the software so I can't email it to you (plus I don't know how big the file is). Maybe some kind soul can help you out.

Also DSPDEV are developing a piano module for Pulsar, but I don't know if it's going to model 'classic' sounds or what so you might want to email them to see if it's what you might want.

Also worth considering when you've got your sound source is putting it through an amp simulator (or a real amp mic'd) to grunge things up a bit as they didn't always use (or have) line outputs for keyboards in the 70s.

TonyR

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: TonyR on 2002-07-16 12:18 ]</font>

snoopy4ever · Post by **snoopy4ever** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 11:24 am

Wow..!!..Thank you guys..
That was a fast and COMPLETE reply to this question..

..

Well I've listened to kensunguro's mp3 and certainly the Wurlitzer is the one, as TonyR says the song I'm trying to reproduce uses it along with some effects and EQ and possibly other stuff, but I can tell the Wurlitzer sounded like it.

But I have no idea where to get a sound like that one. I'll try Tony's links and see if I can get it.

If someone knows about any other source please let me know..

and again
Thanks

Snoopy

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 12:53 pm

Try this one... (note: I haven't heard it)

http://samplearena.host.sk/sa2/index.htm

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 12:57 pm

There is a company called Big Tick that has a VSTi that emulates the wurlitzer.
It is free and available for both Mac and PC.
Check it out.

http://bigtick.pastnotecut.org/index.ph ... &pcode=120

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 1:13 pm

It's great to know there's lots of EP people around too!

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 1:17 pm

Ooooops.
It is a Hohner Clavinet emulator, not a wurlitzer.
Sorry for that one.

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 2:58 pm

yeh this is the EP link

http://bigtick.pastnotecut.org/index.ph ... &pcode=100

not exactly a good example of a rhodes 71.

On 2002-07-16 14:17, jupiter8 wrote:
Ooooops.
It is a Hohner Clavinet emulator, not a wurlitzer.
Sorry for that one.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Wed Jul 17, 2002 7:20 am

Kensuguro, don't take this the wrong way but I just read your comments about VA & subtractive synthesis on a different thread and you seemed anti-retro there, yet on this thread you seem quite happy to use Rhodes & Wurli sounds

Hey no-one has to be consistent!

All the best,
TonyR

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: tonyr on 2002-07-18 05:19 ]</font>

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Wed Jul 17, 2002 9:02 am

I'd recommend the Lounge Lizard Vsti, you can tweak the sound in numerous different ways and without a doubt get the one you're after