The Rhodes piano was also made available as a suitcase piano with a pre-amplifier and two-channel combo amplifier and as a stage piano, without an amplifier. In , an key model was introduced. Smaller Celeste and bass versions were less popular. The MkII had a flat top that allowed keyboardists to place extra keyboards on top. The mids saw a decrease in Rhodes production as most keyboard players invested in the lighter and more versatile digital synthesizers that became available around this time.
These keyboards could easily emulate the Rhodes sound and also offered a range of new piano sounds. The Rhodes piano bases its method of sound generation on metal reeds, which function much like a tuning fork. These reeds are struck with a velocity sensitive hammer action that works in a similar fashion to that of a grand piano.
The asymmetrical tuning fork consists of a thin tine and a large tone bar that are bolted together. Due to construction considerations, some of the tone bars are rotated by 90 degrees. The piano is kept in tune by the mass of a spring, which can be moved along the tine. Limiting the recorded signal with fast attack and high ratio can easily solve such problems. Fast transients can be controlled easily, thus gaining dynamic range for boosting the output signal and raising the level of the natural decay.
See fig. On the other hand, a metallic timbre is generated when playing keys one octave above the C-5 and up. This makes the Rhodes recording process complicated and introduces special attention when mixing it with other instruments, as Wadhams adds in an article published by Downbeat Magazine in While this gives the instrument its pure, bell- like sound, it means that right-hand chords are clusters of midrange sine waives with lots of sustain.
Sine-clusters can cause beating between notes, sometimes in harmonic overtones intermodulation distortion … Musically, the midrange clusters tend to crowd- out the audibility of other instruments playing these same notes.
As a solution for this problem, Wadhams suggests attenuating the frequency range of the signal from the DI box around the middle C Hz by 4 to 6 dB and smoothly increase the range between 5 to 6 kHz.
Wadhams The recording techniques applied for this particular instrument research were aimed at accomplishing the best-recorded sound of the cabinet of a Fender Rhodes Suitcase piano. This decision was made based on the fact that standard recording approaches found in scholarly texts, including Mr.
Particular attention for this research was given in placing microphones in different positions away from the cabinet that would capture how tone quality 1 changes as microphone placement varies in distance and angle from the speaker such as shown in Figs.
For this matter, close microphone placements and combinations used for recording guitar amplifiers were chosen e. Different types of microphones and transducers were employed at the recording location. Additionally, this recording session aimed at exploring how the microphones captured the Vibrato effect in the cabinet. Many DAWs nowadays feature virtual instruments that simulate the classic Rhodes Vibrato sound by using stereo auto-panning processors, where the speed of the panner will be adjusted manually to work with the tempo of the song.
Gibson, Statement of Learning:. The Suitcase Piano used for the recording was not at its best condition, which altered the overall tonal quality and timbre of the instrument.
Unfortunately, this was the only Fender Rhodes Suitcase piano available at the time for this research. As seen on figures 11 and 12, tines are not consecutively aligned in height and distance with the pickups throughout the harp of the piano.
This radically affects the way each note sounds, as noted previously. Gain and timbre varied notably per key after listening through the recordings. Unevenness between the heights of some hammer heads along with missing hammer tips Figure 13 also affected the tone produced when striking such keys. Some keys had the characteristic bell-like sound, while the keys with no hammer head sounded clunky and dampened. These issues were evident on the signal recorded from the preamplifier straight to a DI Countryman box.
All of these situations reveal the importance of regular maintenance of the instrument. As Dr. As for the Suitcase recording, several results derived from the different sets of microphones and their placements.
A notable outcome was the distortion amount on the signal coming from the front speakers. These speakers sounded over-driven and buzzy specially the left speaker , while the back speakers had basically no distortion at all.
This may happen as a consequence of broken circuitry or age-worn cones at the front of the cabinet. Vibrato was perceived louder and mellower at the back part of the cabinet. In order to compare the sonic differences between the sides of the cabinet, a single note E3 Hz was recorded intro Pro Tools at No signal processing was applied. The 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th harmonics of the fundamental are present and distinguishable in all microphones spectra.
These overtones form a major triad with the fundamental tone E, G and B. The condenser microphones Neumann TLM captured the buzz louder at the front of the cabinet. In the spectrum substantial amount of high frequency content can be observed after 1.
The fundamental tone E3 Hz is the loudest at A lower harmonic tone is prominent at 81 Hz E2 , as seen in figure However, high frequency content decays faster and there is less low frequency response than in the TLM recording. A near coincident stereo technique would have provided a wider image for identifying the Vibrato bouncing from cone to cone.
The room rumble can explain the increase in the low frequency response of the microphone. Schoeps CMC5, placed five feet away from the front side of the cabinet. Simultaneously, the SM57 microphones placed at the back of the cabinet off-axis with the speakers provided a clearer and rounded tone. Harmonic content decays slower, particularly at the undertone located at 81 Hz E2. This may explain why the Vibrato effect sounds warm and sustained with these microphones.
Adlers, Frederik, and James Garfield. Bartlett, Bruce A. Clark, Rick. It has this great bell-y, gling-y sound to it, and I just love that sound.
Bill Evans used to combine it with acoustic piano, and those two sounds for me together was really an important sound. Also, Bitches Brew was big for the Fender Rhodes.
It was the work of Miles Davis, on Bitches Brew and the records that preceded it, that introduced a wider audience to the Fender Rhodes, and it was Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea who played on those records. Hancock tells a story of going into the studio to record with Davis, asking where to find the piano and being directed instead to a Rhodes. It was the first time he ever played one, and he never looked back. Overall, the s would prove to be a rich decade for the Rhodes piano.
It was the era of big studios, big labels and big budgets, and the Rhodes became the favored tool of many keyboard players of the era. The Rhodes Piano blends so well with other instruments, and I could hear myself much better!
Hancock was a true pioneer of the Rhodes. He loved the vibrato effect built into early suitcase models, and the different modifications and effects he used — including the Maestro Echoplex — are still in use today. For many, his Rhodes sound is definitive of the instrument, but his modifications have inspired experimentation rather than emulation — and that was the idea.
The Rhodes is meant to open up the sound around it, so that the person playing it is not just learning the instrument but learning how that instrument works within the greater context of music. That was how Harold Rhodes intended it to be used, and its design requires a unique touch from the person playing it because of the way sound travels from the inside to the ear.
The Rhodes is housed in a plywood case covered in a flexible vinyl material known as Tolex. Its metal legs are stored inside of the case in an interior compartment, which are removed and screwed into the bottom of the piano. There is also a sustain pedal stored in the case, which extends down to the floor in much the same way as pedals on a piano, and the sound from within comes from hammers striking electric tines. You hear the texture of the keys and feel the way the sound determines the space between movements.
The Rhodes demands you let it ring out. Like the piano, the Rhodes has 88 keys though there are 73 key models as well , and it responds the most like a piano of anything else out there.
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