Radio Head Every Thing In Its Right Place Electric Piano tone???

[sctt_stone]

Can anyone tell me how to get a wide up front Electric Piano tone like this?
Please listen to the song before answering.
Thank you?

[themaidsroom]

2" tape recorder

[kedbear]

synth sound came from a korg prophecy

[sctt_stone]

What I mean is how wide the Rhodes sis in the mix.
2 track? Really I did not know that a two track made everything sound a mile wide and up front.
I have a Rhodes and a nice API 7600 as well as a nice amp and mic.
I have not been able to get that sound milking or DI.

[shaggseb]

I think it's layered with the same parts played by a low pass filtered synth. Maybe a Prophet V or something.

But I might be wrong

S.

[Silver Sonya]

I never thought that was a Rhodes!

I thought it was one of Radiohead's many antique, esoteric modular things. With tons of clever outboard tonal trickery applied by Nigel Godrich. But this is only speculation on my part.

What I do know: this sound is hyper compressed. If you're pursuing this with a Rhodes piano, I would suggest playing lightly (for a warm, intimate tone as opposed to an aggressive bell-like tone with lots of upper frequencies) and apply heavy compression to the resulting signal.

It will not ever sound anywhere close to "Everything In Its Right Place," which is a sonic masterpiece. Let that go, though. It's alright. That's what makes them them and you you.

- c

p.s. band's name is all one word, btw.

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

I never thought that was a Rhodes!

I thought it was one of Radiohead's many antique, esoteric modular things. With tons of clever outboard tonal trickery applied by Nigel Godrich. But this is only speculation on my part.

.

yeah - well it's as much jonny and thom as nigel - i'm telling ya......

[Sui_City]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

I never thought that was a Rhodes!

I thought it was one of Radiohead's many antique, esoteric modular things. With tons of clever outboard tonal trickery applied by Nigel Godrich. But this is only speculation on my part.

What I do know: this sound is hyper compressed. If you're pursuing this with a Rhodes piano, I would suggest playing lightly (for a warm, intimate tone as opposed to an aggressive bell-like tone with lots of upper frequencies) and apply heavy compression to the resulting signal.

It will not ever sound anywhere close to "Everything In Its Right Place," which is a sonic masterpiece. Let that go, though. It's alright. That's what makes them them and you you.

- c

p.s. band's name is all one word, btw.

Chad,

there is a BBC gig that the band did around the time of the release of "Kid A", and sure enough, Thom sits down at a Rhodes and just bathes you in that incredible sound. And that gorgeous phrase.

If you can find that gig somewhere, check it out. Worth watching.

[lakeshorephatty]

It honestly sounds doubletracked really tightly on the rhodes panned reasonably hard, with an overlayed synth.

[sctt_stone]

It is a Suitcase Rhodes layered with a Prophet 5.
My question was about the actual mix technique.
Compression.
I believe that is the rite direction as I have tried compressing the snot out of it and it did make it sound closer to what I hear.
However I have noticed that the mix in that song is super wide left to right and I am curious about how to achieve that.
It also sounds saturated to me.
If you mic a mono source with a stereo pair of mics will it give you a wider sound?

[Nolet]

Originally Posted by sctt_stone

It is a Suitcase Rhodes layered with a Prophet 5.
My question was about the actual mix technique.
Compression.
I believe that is the rite direction as I have tried compressing the snot out of it and it did make it sound closer to what I hear.
However I have noticed that the mix in that song is super wide left to right and I am curious about how to achieve that.
It also sounds saturated to me.
If you mic a mono source with a stereo pair of mics will it give you a wider sound?

Spot on on the Prophet 5. You can hear the filter open up near the end of the song. Try doing that with only a Rhodes! Also the bassnotes are way to sustained and round to be coming only from a Rhodes.

[sctt_stone]

Not that I am an obsessed fan or anything but I at this moment have a Prophet 5 to my right and a 1975 Rhodes to my left.
And I still cant make the mix sound close. I have tried the double tracking thing as well.
For what its worth the synth sound is really basic and easy to program.

Originally Posted by Nolet

Spot on on the Prophet 5. You can hear the filter open up near the end of the song. Try doing that with only a Rhodes! Also the bassnotes are way to sustained and round to be coming only from a Rhodes.

[shaggseb]

Not that I am an obsessed fan or anything but I at this moment have a Prophet 5 to my right and a 1975 Rhodes to my left.
And I still cant make the mix sound close.

That's why Nigel Godrich is paid twenty times (at best) what we can get.

Just Kidding...

Actually I think the Rhodes is not THAT compressed, and the Prophet really squashed.
I think the Prophet's ADSR is moving a bit during the song too.
And maybe the Keyboards bus is compressed quite heavilly.


S.

[peeder]

I always thought it was correctly chorused...delay and mod delay.

Getting a correct chorus & delay is how you get those big bucks.

[sctt_stone]

Right. I am not trying to get the tone of their song.
Simply trying to understand how you mix something to sound so wide.

[Vum]

Have you listened to it in mono? If it collapses imperfectly then maybe there is a phase trick going on. Perhaps creating an m/s matrix in the mix to get it wider is the method.

[YetiHunter]

I never once figured that sound to be either a Rhodes or a Wurlitzer; but it could be in there, who knows? Using only my memory, I recall that sound being reminiscent of the electric piano emulating synths that came out in the early 80's. Also, that sound is pretty much a staple patch on Juno's and Prophets. I think you can get there with pretty much any polyphonic synthesizer. Now, for the exact approximation, I have no clue.

A sidenote - Wurlitzer made an electric piano that came inside a miniature baby piano/harpsichord style frame. The tiny speakers inside make a sound very similar to the electric piano synthesizers. Sooooo; which ever way you shake it; I guess.

Sorry for being of little use. :(

[YetiHunter]

I'm sorry, I realized your question was different. If it was a synth, it could have a dual or multiple out with panning. You can modify a synth to do this if it doesn't already come with said feature.

In the case of an electric piano; being that there is an individual pickup on every single tine/tonebar (rhodes) or...erm..(whatever is in the wurlitzer), you can actually modify those things to have as many sections you want. There are currently stereo preamps pre-made and available from a few electric piano boutique shops.

Start here

Vintage Vibe

and maybe check out Major Key.

If your question is geared toward the actual recording; well, I don't know.

[seaneldon]

Why not go for a sound that WASN'T already done on a fairly well-known record? Do something new and exciting, y'know? The sound in question is unique...find another unique sound and run with that.

[Bob Ebeling]

I have read (from one guy) the sound is a Crumar DP-50 Dynamic Piano. I just picked one up and I nearly agree. Play those three chords on this crumar and you are pretty much there. Obscure electric piano synth with two filters that open with velocity.
Get's my vote for probably it or very very similar.

I'm sure there are newer ways to getting that sound, but this was what, 1999

And it sure is not a Rhodes. The crumar is an analog approximation of a Rhodes from 1981ish with the velocity sensitive VCF's.

There's some videos on Vimeo of the guy who first made the claim playing the dp-50. He plays some weird style, but now with one in my garage I'm going to 95% agree with his theory.

Sean, some tones are just worshipable.

[Kiwi]

Sorry can't listen right now, but note to self: check this out.

But getting a very w-w-i-i-i-i-i-d-d-d-e-e-e EP sound should not be difficult. I'm pretty sure I could take any EP and make it sound TOO wide.

The hint about checking mono compatibility was spot on. Many widening tricks involve delays which create phase nightmares when collapsed. Listening to Mid and Side is going to tell you a lot about how they actually created this particular sound.

Simple tricks for widening are:
EQ - low pass the left, high pass the right. This should collapse to mono with no phase issues.

Delay and/or polarity inversion - simply delay and/or polarity invert one side. This can be as little as one sample, or milliseconds ... how wide do you want it? Can create an ugly phasy notch filter when collapsed. Try within the Haas zone (<30 ms) or even as high as an 1/8th note delay. This is not layered delay - shift the whole channel 100%.

Pitch - sharpen the left side 10 cents and drop the right side 10 cents.

Modulation - phase, flange, chorus etc ... these all give moving variations of all of the above effects, and because any ugly notch filters are constantly moving they can be less irritating.

Once you've made your massive width by making left and right very different - don't glue them back together again with reverb or other effects that sum them and bring them back into the centre again. Careful use of mono reverb can preserve much more width than typical stereo reverbs.

If this was actually a synth, then it's possible the oscillators were all panned differently, or a big analog chorus was used.

There are only so many ways to turn a mono EP into massive stereo. Just make left and right very different somewhow - it's not hard.

[audiogeek]

Yeah, all that.




Or, just move your speakers farther apart.

[excitableboy]

A friend of mine who's a die hard Radiohead fan said it was a modified Rhodes that was used on a Japanese game show that the band bought while on tour. I don't know where he got that info though, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Lumin One]

ive heard it was a dp50 as well. on tour you see thom yorke playin a rhodes though. whatever it is, that shit is fresh.

[Bob Ebeling]

I suppose if you protools to death some rhodes pianos you could get there but this DP-50 just nails it. Even the part later in the song where the filter opens up more on the attacks of the notes. Does the whole thing.

Way underated synth but they are super rare. Does a very impressive Rhodes and then about 12 other really cool sounds. Electro powerhouse.