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Would you use the New Rhodes Mark VII as a midi controller for Live And studio?


minimoog

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If I had lots of extra money lying around, yes, I'd use one - the 88 version - for the studio. For live, not so much, except when there are roadies available because I'm not carrying that thing by myself. I'd love to test the poly aftertouch.

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Nobody loves analogue or the Rhodes more than me. But using the new Rhodes as a controller and for playing live seems excessive to me. I suppose it depends on the style of music and whatnot. My favorite instrument on earth is the Rhodes, but if you're playing rock, a tube driven wurli is a million times better for piano. Too many compromises when it comes to playing live. Just use a hammer action controller. Most people don't care anyway. Why spend 5 grand on a piano just to beat the crap out of it moving it in and out of your wife's station wagon every weekend?

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Would you prefer that to a kursweil pc3k 88 or motif XF keybead?

 

 

I'd have to try all three keyboards first. Keyboard action and how the sounds respond to the players touch are such personal things. I was in a room with several keyboard players all trying out, for example, the Nord Electro 3. Half of them loved the the response of the piano sounds to their touch and the other half did not.

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Wouldn't it be really annoying to listen to the internal sound of the Rhodes
all the time
, while using it to control, say, drums, brass or strings?

Or can they be muted on the newer models?

 

According to this picture, it has a headphone out. So plugging a stereo plug should mute it:)

 

P.S: gotta love those balanced audio outputs!

 

1600-Mk7AM-73RBK_midi.jpg

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Gus,

we see what you're driving at ...

but pretty sure one isn't going to hear what you're driving at.

 

Unlike, say, a Yamaha CP-60M, whose strings being struck by the hammers as you play can actually be heard - even while MIDI'ing Out to another keyboard/module - the Rhodes' acoustic sound is very faint (or, if you will ... tiney ) :)

 

and, Mediterranean,

you wonder "Where is the sound coming from in this vid? From an amp the keyboard is connected to [see cable] ... ?" You got it. Of course it's electrical (for the tiney pickups and the pre-amp and front-panel volume and EQ controls). The Rhodes doesn't have built-in speakers, so that's all you need to line out to (and control) an exterior amp/speaker system.

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I know it's "tiney" :)

 

... but the ones I've played, the actual mechanical "tiney" sound would make it an annoying MIDI controller... just saying. Perhaps those ones belonged to a very old generation and had more notorious sound by their own (before being connected to whatever amplification system).

 

I may be wrong, anyway :D

 

... but I do remember clearly playing a Wurly, too, whose sound was pretty loud, without being connected to an amp.

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The MK VII seems to be pretty much the Ultimate Pinnacle of Rhodes Freakdom,

the kind of axe that one builds their (keyboard) life around.

 

To this kind of player,

the MIDI capabilities of this instrument are wa-a-a-y down their list of joys :love: and concerns :cool: .

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Really, when it's unplugged you can barely hear it. It's quieter than, say, headphones laying behind it. I played one at Sweetwater a few weeks ago. I don't remember ever trying an old Rhodes unplugged, so I don't know if it's different or not. And yeah, Wurlies can be easily be heard without power.

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Maybe not perfectly clear, but you can hear the sound of the tines or reeds underneath all the clicking and clacking of the keys. Same with electro-acoustic pianos like the CP-70 and EP-608. If there are real hammers inside striking tone sources as full velocity, you'll hear it. But not well. Alone in the dead of night, sure. During the day, with the washing machine going and 2 kids jumping around upstairs while the dogs are barking? No.

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LOL. The acoustical sound of Rhodes is extremely low... it was really a surprise when I tried to listen the acoustic sound without amplification and I could barely hear it at all, even with the open tonebars after the top taken away. Trying to mic the acoustic sound is really out of the question, unless you like to listen all the key mechanic sounds (the hitting key action makes a lot of noise). I also own Yamaha CP-60M electric upright and it's totally different thing when compared to acoustics of the Rhodes. As being told about Rhodes before, if you listen without any amplification, the key mechanics are making more sounds than the tines itself, but of course when amplified, the sound is very clear and distinct, but the key mechanics are not really making any significant part of the sound, or that was my impression when I was playing my Rhodes (Mark 1, 1979). In Electric grands, like the Yamaha CP-series they are using piezos which are much more sensitive for any vibration so it amplifies every noise of the all mechanics as well, but Rhodes uses magnetic pickups which are not that sensible for mechanic noises at all since it's pointed into the tines.

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A Rhodes has no internal speaker. You have to plug it into an amp to get the Rhodes sound. You don't have to plug something into a jack to silence it, because there's a volume control on the front panel.

 

It does make noise when you play it, about as much as a "silent piano" if you've even played one of those. More thumping/clacking than tine noise per se. More noise than a turned-off digital piano, less than an unplugged CP70 electric grand (by a wide margin). Is it loud enough to bother you? That depends on how sensitive you are to noise. It wouldn't bother me, playing with headphones or speakers at home practice levels.

 

I bet the Mark VII is louder than the original thanks to the fiberglass case rather than a wood case, but probably still a lot quieter than the CP70. The mechanism is nearly identical -- tines are interchangeable, hammers strike them the same way, etc., so they'd make the same kind of noise unplugged. It still wouldn't be enough to bother me.

 

Regardless, I wouldn't want a Rhodes for my main controller, because the action doesn't feel like a piano. I've played Rhodes steadily since I got mine in 1978 (and am in the process of refurbishing). The Mark VII has an improved action, but still feels more like a Rhodes than an acoustic piano. A good digital piano action will be faster and dynamically more responsive (for most players) than a Rhodes keyboard using MIDI.

 

The reason to get a Rhodes is because you want a Rhodes. If you also use it as a controller, cool. I know I'd enjoy layering other sounds with Rhodes. However, these days when I do that, I use a digital piano keyboard and my Rhodes soundfont. Sure, not the same as the real thing, but I'd rather play a piano+rhodes patch with a piano keyboard than a Rhodes keyboard. Also, while the Rhodes soundfont is inferior to the real thing in many ways, it's also superior in many ways (less noise, stereo image carefully built into the samples, compression added to samples for artistic reasons, etc.) When I sampled mine, I had a list of the problems I'd faced over the decades, and addressed them. The biggest disadvantage is I should have sampled more velocity layers, and I plan to do that soon. Plus I goofed up the top velocity layer at the bottom end of the keyboard. The reason for that is complicated but I hope to solve it next go around.

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