What's your favourite way of recording Fender Rhodes (Stage Model)?

[Magnus]

What's your favourite way of recording Fender Rhodes (Stage Model)?

What gear do you prefer:

- Amps?

- Mics+Pre's?

- Compressors?

- DI?


Personally, I like a good amp like a Fender Twin or something + an SM57 + Condenser for the room sound. Pre's vary but a Neve is never wrong IMO

/Magnus

[Dave Martin]

I usually go into a little Labs DI to the console. No EQ.

[Sharp11]

Straight to SF Fender Twin, mic'd with the Sony DMXR100 pres. Classic Rhodes.

DI through Summit MPC100A -very nice, clean sound; lots of depth.

DI through Mesa Boogie VTwin (guitar pre). A nice, midrangy texture. Good gain and crunch possible with the interaction of controls. Not as deep and fulll sounding as Summit, but nice.

I love the Rhodes, it's a sound I really miss on records, especially jazz records. It's so easy to get a great sound, I'd never use a simulation at this point.

Ed

[James Lehmann]

Unfortunately I don't have a Guitar amp to hand but a Fender Twin is definitely on the shopping list. I've tried all manner of budget DI's and Pre's with never quite satisfying results - my current input of choice is the Instrument input of my dbx386, which seems to match the impedances nicely and adds some subtle tube sound. But there's not really quite enough gain as I have to boost everything to max, including the digital out. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else not going the mic route on pres with oodles of gain and a good instrument input...

BTW Joemeek is my compression of choice for Rhodes (and most keyboard sounds in fact).

Like any acoustic source though, 80% of the sound is having a well set-up and maintained instrument.

[Sharp11]

Originally posted by James Lehmann
Unfortunately I don't have a Guitar amp to hand but a Fender Twin is definitely on the shopping list. I've tried all manner of budget DI's and Pre's with never quite satisfying results - my current input of choice is the Instrument input of my dbx386, which seems to match the impedances nicely and adds some subtle tube sound. But there's not really quite enough gain

If you haven't already, try taking the signal right off the harp, bypassing the tone and volume control entirely.

A good pre-amp -DI is a must. I use the Summit MPC 100A and I can't say enough good things about it: adjustable impedance, tube DI-tube pre w phantom (jensen transformer and 990 op amp), solid state output; lots of sounds possible. I use it as a bass DI as well.

The Summit is not cheap at 2g's per channel, but one of these or something like it is a studio essential IMO.

Ed

[Jim Williams]

I pull the signal out of the RCA jack on the harp. It's feed through a one foot run of silver Kimber Kable to a custom 1 meg ohm input buffer/preamp. This is then fed to a Crystal 5381 AD chipset and to the HD24XR HDR. Works like magic, especially if it's a Rhodes with the hard hammer mods. Bells from Heaven!

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[Chad]

Originally posted by Jim Williams
I pull the signal out of the RCA jack on the harp. It's feed through a one foot run of silver Kimber Kable to a custom 1 meg ohm input buffer/preamp. This is then fed to a Crystal 5381 AD chipset and to the HD24XR HDR. Works like magic, especially if it's a Rhodes with the hard hammer mods. Bells from Heaven!

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

I wanna hear some of your recordings, Jim. Seems like you go through so much to make your signal path better than everyone else's, I wanna hear where it actualy adds up. Like your gonna realy benefit from only using 1 foot of cable....

[Kestral]

It's not a Rhodes but in the studio, we have a Wurlitzer and we go direct into a Neve 1073 into an 1176 and then into Pro Tools.

I used to own a Summit MPC-100A and agree with Sharp, it's a great preamp/compressor. The lack of an EQ was one of the reasons why I ended up selling it and going 1073/1176.

When I'm using the Emagic EVP88 electric piano plugin, I usually run it out to my Vox AC15TBX guitar amp and then mic it with a 57. From there, it's 1073->1176->Pro Tools.

[axtrak]

I like my Rhodes most through my 2-610 into Logic and then some LA2A....

[Elsteve9]

Kestral:
Are you happy w/ the tone of your software synth run into a real guitar amp?
'Specially for Rhodes, wurly, etc.



On a related note:
If you're gonna buy a stage Rhodes, what do you look for? What models, etc? What common problems do these things have?
Eye towards cheap, and MIDI would be super... (See, that's why I'm using soft synths now. :-) )
-Stephen

[chrisso]

I use a custom tube amp I bought from Speakeasy Music:
https://secure.creativepages.net/cgi...id=917558.9959

[robot gigante]

Amps- Fender Bassman, Twin or Vox AC15. Sometimes even a Champ.

Then whatever mikes sound best depending on the song into 1073's with maybe a titch of compression (maybe Vari-Mu).

Or maybe I'll go direct and not compress at all.

It really depends on the Rhodes and the song and what sort of Rhodes sound I'm shooting for, because there's a lot of different sounds you can get- the mellow thing, the bell sound, or all out crunchy bark (mostly comes from the way the Rhodes itself sounds and the from the player). Generally I don't eq either.

My favorite Rhodes' are Mark I's, I have two Stage models and a Suitcase. And a Wurly.

[stealthbalance]

with a sledgehammer !

s

[Kestral]

Originally posted by Elsteve9
Kestral:
Are you happy w/ the tone of your software synth run into a real guitar amp?
'Specially for Rhodes, wurly, etc.

On a related note:
If you're gonna buy a stage Rhodes, what do you look for? What models, etc? What common problems do these things have?
Eye towards cheap, and MIDI would be super... (See, that's why I'm using soft synths now. :-) )
-Stephen

The software synth is surprisingly highly useable, but it's not the Wurly, that's for sure. I find the EVP88 a little muddy in the low mids sometimes so I usually have to use the EQ on the 1073 to fix that. But running it through the Vox class A tube amp, micing the speaker so you get the sound of pushing air and then going through the 1073/1176 makes a huge difference. The Native Instruments B4 sounds especially great going out through this chain.

I'm actually in the mood these days for collecting a few beloved keyboards. I definitely want a Wurlitzer electric piano. The other one on my wish list is a Yamaha CP70 electric grand.

[Your Add Here!]

two mics on Lesie 66s.

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by Kestral
The other one on my wish list is a Yamaha CP70 electric grand.

Really? Why????

[NeoVXR]

whattabout Roland Jazz Chorus? (ok some noise..)

[Sharp11]

Originally posted by NeoVXR
whattabout Roland Jazz Chorus? (ok some noise..)

This is a very good amp for a rhodes.

[Kestral]

Originally posted by Dave Martin
Really? Why????

It's the U2 piano!

[steins]

Originally posted by NeoVXR
whattabout Roland Jazz Chorus? (ok some noise..)

I heard this comination in a solo-performance a few weeks ago (Singer + Rhodes Mark I/JC 120), and it was just wonderful. The JC 120 sounded sweeeet, even when overdriven a little.

Stein Tore

[NeoVXR]

not to forget, it needs 2 mics! it is a stereo device, due to the nature of the implemented effect.

[Fletcher]

Originally posted by Magnus
What's your favourite way of recording Fender Rhodes

My favorite way is with a Yamaha DX-7 on the 'Rhodes' patch through a direct box into a pre and into the recorder... no fukking around with tuning the damn thing, little to none of the noise associated with Rhodes... and the most fukked up thing is that it'll sound more like a Rhodes than more than half of the Rhodes I've seen in the last few years.

Best of luck

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by Fletcher
My favorite way is with a Yamaha DX-7 on the 'Rhodes' patch through a direct box into a pre and into the recorder... no fukking around with tuning the damn thing, little to none of the noise associated with Rhodes... and the most fukked up thing is that it'll sound more like a Rhodes than more than half of the Rhodes I've seen in the last few years.

Best of luck

Well, it'll sound like a DX7 Rhodes. The DX7 patch sounds vaguely similar to that mod that some of the LA guys (Was that Grey Matter?) had back in the day, but it's not the same thing as a real Rhodes. Depending on the application, that might be a good thing....

A great quote from Charlie Peacock, a Contemporary Christian Music producer in Franklin, Tennessee: "God must love the sound of a DX7 rhodes, because we sure do use it a lot..."

[chrisso]

God and Fletcher need to get out of the 80's!

[TriTone Digital]

Of course it all depends on the song, Rhodes and sound you're after ,but some nice sounds have been had recently by:

Speakeasy tube preamp pedal (with barker mod for more crunch) to a Leslie 25, stereo miced with GT44 SD tubes to GR-NV preamp or Grommes tube mixer if mono

Great River MP2NV DI all by its lonesome

Fender Vibrochamp with a humble 57

Compressor? Not usually during tracking for Rhodes unless the part really needs it for vibe

Damon

[Olimeister]

I use MK1 -> Crybaby Classic Wah -> MXL analog stereo tremolo pedal -> Speakeasy stereo vintage tube preamp -> 2 Motion sound KT 80's (tube channel -> large diaphragm room mics. Sometimes I use a Silvertone amp for bite.

[trident fan]

there used to be a thread on here about cheap or old modules with a good rhodes sound. can't find it. even if all the other presets suck, i'm interested. any modules you guys can think of?
thanks,
TF

[Jon Estes]

Sorry for the shameless plug, but I actually just released a sampled Rhodes and Wurli.

Check them out at redtapesamples.com

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far, and right now you can get both for just $40.

[kalynbaur]

Thanks for all the info y'all. One question though:

What do you do as far as panning? I tried a few different ways but none of it matches what the headphone output on the keyboard sounds like. (I'm playing a KORG SV-1, the Rhodes-y patch)

I tried hard-panning the left output (hard left) and the right output (hard right) I tried keeping both outputs centered, but neither sounds as good as the headphone out.

Do I have this all wrong? Is a Rhodes typically recorded one mono channel? I didn't think that was the case because i hear so much space when I listen to good records with Rhodes on them.

[SRDigital]

i had a lot of fun using one through an ancient silvertone instrument/pa combo amp . . probably early 60's. for a mic i used a royer 121 into a 1073