The famous Fender Rhodes Mark II stage 73 electric piano!
Essential if you plan to do funk-jazz, deep house, or any soulul music.
The Rhodes keys can be heard on countless tracks, from Herbie Hancock to Stevie Wonder, the Doors & Ray Charles, Chick corea & JojoLapin.
RhodeZ by DSK Music is a free Rhodes Rompler (sample-player) with 6 different Rhodes piano variations. The VST plug-in features an amplitude envelope, velocity response, tuning, filter, chorus, flanger, and a reverb (although not a very good one, so you might want to use a VST reverb instead).
It’s funky, soulful, deep, smooth, jazzy, lounge, groovy.
Here are the best FREE VST emulations of the e-piano:
1. MrRay73 & MrRay22 VST by Guido Scognamiglio
MrRay 2.2 ! rhodes 4 ever
These two VSTi are donationware.
and they are pure synthesis, no sample involved.
The sound is very good, Mr Ray 73 VST gives you that funky feeling when you play it.
Mr Ray 22 has more parameters and some good classic effects : a chorus, a wah wah, a tremolo/autopan, a distortion and a stereo delay.
Mr Ray Charles:
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Mr-Ray-Charles-Shake-a-Tail-Feather.mp3
stormy !
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/riders-on-the-storm-mrray22.mp3
straight Rhodes e-piano
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mrray73.mp3
soft deep house chords
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mrray22.soft_.mp3
Rhodes piano through wah wah effect!
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mrray22.wahwah.mp3
2. MDA ePiano
Based on a small but clever wavetable, the antique MDA ePiano still sounds fresh in 2014!
and since MDA plugins became open source, you can also find version for Mac & Linux, and also 64 bit versions => http://sourceforge.net/projects/mda-vst/files/mda-vst/mda-vst-src 20100214/
MDA ePiano VST is simple & effective, of course it’s more limited than Mr Ray, but sounds great!
riders on the storm!
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/riders-on-the-storm-mda-epiano.mp3
Ray Charles – Shake a Tail Feather
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ray-Charles-shake-a-mda-epiano.mp3
3. EP-Station VST by Big Tick audio
EP station : more groovy keys
A very nice FM modeled electric piano. EP-station is now freeware.
The plugin is not a straight emulation of a Rhodes piano.
It can also do the ” DX 7 e-piano “, the famous FM piano as heard on 95% of the pop / ballad / tv show theme / etc.. tracks produced between 1983 & 1989.
The EP-station also features a chorus & a phaser effect.
smooth sound for deep house
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ep-station1.mp3
phased Fender Rhodes !
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ep-station2.mp3
ultra smooth Deep house Rhodes+phaser
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ep-station3-effectrhodes.mp3
FM pop piano ! the sound of the 80’s
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ep-station4-dxpop.mp3
4. 4Front R-Piano VST
Based on samples, but not only, this emulation gives you a clean sound.
It comes for Windows 32 & 64 bit, and Mac OS X.
4Front R-piano also include a reverb.
soft e-piano for lounge house
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4frontrpiano.mp3
plucked style
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4frontrpiano2.mp3
5. LazySnake VST by Andreas Ersson
Lazy Snake VST
Back to a 100% synthesis emulation !
The Lazy Snake electric piano gives you this lounge and mellow sound.
The synth is easy to tweak, and you have a tremolo + wah wah effect.
It’s not really a Rhodes piano emulation, but it’s perfect for deep house chord.
soft clean deep house chord
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/lazysnake-smooth.mp3
wah wah effect!
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/lazysnake-wah.mp3
Ray Charles shake a snake
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ray-Charles-shake-a-snake.mp3
6. Orange Lounge 2004A by StarrFish Lab
A funky japanese VSTi , created with Synthdit.
It’s not a Rhodes MK2 emulation, but it’s also groovy, and well suited for that deep house feeling.
We can feel the FM modulation but it’s nice!
pretty hard tremolo effect for this e-piano
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/orangelounge-deep1.mp3
funky !!
https://blog.wavosaur.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/orangelounge-deep2.mp3
7. SFZ + Learjeff jRhodes3 soundfont
SFZ+ soundfont player
SFZ+ + Learjeff Rhodes soundfont
Free Vst Rhodes Piano Vst
There are some nice free Rhodes multisample bank around the interweb. So you can pick your favorite sf2 capable VST player and load a Rhodes piano soundfont into it!
Here i choosed the SFZ+ player by RGCAudio and the jRhodes sf2 , that’s the best combo!
(november 17 2014 update !!)
8. RhodyMK1 by Wahnsyn
A Synthedit VST plugin from Plugindex German website : it has a clean sound, i think it’s based on a soundfont / wav bank. It’s very usable. Unlike the other “classic” emulations, it features a vibrato effect instead of a tremolo effect, it’s strange but that makes unusual sounds!
9. Clavia Lab by Simple Media
Clavia Lab VST
This plugin is intended for e-piano sounds and also organ and clavinet / harpsichord sounds.
Electric pianos Rhodes MK II and Yamaha CP80 with 106 ready-to-use presets.
RACK
An additional package of effects on the output: compressor, cabinet, saturation and limiter.
• Compressor controls: attack, ratio threshold and output level
• Cabinet controls: treble, bass and cabinet size, out level
• Saturation controls: saturation and output level
• Limiter controls: release level and master level
SEND EFFECTS
Instrument Send Effects: delay, chorus algorithmic reverb, phaser, gainer and flanger.
• Reverb controls: predelay, size (of the simulated room), color, stereo and damping
• Delay controls: time, damping, pan feedback and gain
• Chorus control: depth, phase, speed and gain
• Phaser controls: depth, speed, phase, feedback & gain
• Flanger control: speed, phase, depth, feedback, color and gain
• 11.37 GB (Lossless compression) library size, 5035 samples
• 30 Built-in Effects: Compressor, Delays, Reverb, Limiter, Cabinet, Gainer, Rotator, Stereo Panner , Skreamer, Distortion, Flanger, Four-Band EQ & more
• Full set of effects in the settings for total customization
• 106 Presets (nki files): Rhodes MK II, Yamaha CP80, Hybrids with: Piano, Hords, Keys, Guitars, Mallets, Bells, E Pianos, Processed Pianos, Effects & more
• Sampled with Analog & Digital equipment
Kontakt engine features
• Custom User Inteface
• Compressed 24Bit / 48KHz Samples
• Fine-tuned four-band EQ for each channel
• A flexible user interface that allows you to control all aspects of the sound and fx (layering, morphing, blending all kinds of sounds with each other)
• Each preset has two layers (mixing with volume knobs) with the ability to mix an electric piano with additional sound
SOURCES
• 106 Classic Piano & Hybrid Sounds
• 5035 Yamaha CP80 & Rhodes Sounds
• 2 Channels With Individual Sounds
QUALITY
Buy Rhodes Piano
• 24BIT / 48KHZ Quality
• Over 11.3 GB Content
• Recorded With Analog Gear