R.S.P. '73

Fender Rhodes Stage Piano mark I sampled by Scarbee.

Reviewed by David Mondrup .

Available in a 16 bit GIGA edition and a combined 24 bit Kontakt/EXS24mkII/Halion edition.
Additional info and ordering: www.scarbee.com

Test equipment:
2.2 ghz AMD athlon/1024 mb ram/separate Seagate Barracuda 60 gb 7200 rpm HD for audio/RME HDSP9652 audio interface/emagic MT4 MIDI interface. Running Logic Platinum 5.5.1 and EXS24mkII on windows XP home.

Controller: Kurzweil PC88mx

R.S.P.'73:

Initial impressions:
After having first loaded one of the exs's, and started playing around with it a little, my first thought was that this sounds and feels like a rhodes. Playing around a little bit more and doing a few recordings, my impression was that this is good - real good! At the end of that day, I found that I had spent quite some time playing the R.S.P.'73 patches, and I was most pleased by it - I felt like I was playing right out of a 70's record ("Still crazy..." by Paul Simon comes to mind), and in fact the feeling and the sound of it felt vastly superior to my memory of the real Rhodes pianos I've encountered in the different educational institutions and band rehearsal facilities that I've frequented. None of these real Rhodes have ever been in such good shape as this appears to be, so for me, this is not a truthful emulation of my experience with the real thing (thank God!), it's better than the real thing.

So, what's on the disc?
Included are eight different instrument presets, all relying on the same set of samples, consisting of 2.25 gb. The major version of these has every key sampled at 12 different velocities, which makes use of the whole load of samples, but also taxes your CPU, RAM and HD the hardest. For lighter wear, there are three versions with only the white keys sampled and stretched to fill the whole keyboard, equipped with 4, 8 & 12 velocity layers respectively. A nice way to meet the fact that not all computers out in the wild are up to the job when it comes to heavy HD streaming; or, even if your computer easily outruns anything found in the depths of the NASA headquarters, you might still prefer to use the lite versions while building the song, leaving some CPU headroom for the other tracks. Then, when you're done, you could always substitute the light versions for the full 2.25 gb 12V version. The lite versions also feature sustain and release samples, and, honestly, even the lightest of them still sound great and can easily be used to do very realistic rhodes parts.

That makes up for 4 instruments. On top of that, there are also 4 extra instruments in the same fashion, only these feature stretch tuning; a tuning standard that accounts for the human hearing sometimes perceiving higher harmonics as a little flat, even if they are mathematically correct, according to the welltempered scale. Which mode should be used depends absolutely on what other instruments are included in the song; if you're playing it together with strictly well tempered instruments you might run into trouble. On the other hand, some instruments, including a few mallet ones, are traditionally stretch tuned. Use at your own discretion, and feel happy that you have the choice.

Features of the R.S.P. 73
The Fender Rhodes sampled here was recorded directly from the harp, rather than from the output jack as one would traditionally have done. This way, all electrically induced noise sources were eliminated, and the result is a very clean-sounding Rhodes indeed, yet it still has that punch that many of us love. The library consists of 12 velocity layers for both sustained notes and release samples, resulting in 24 layers with 73 samples in each, or a total of 1752 samples.

Basic sounds
The most important thing in a sample library aiming and claiming to be a realistic reproduction of some real-life instrument must be if it immediately sounds and feels like that instrument. Does it sound like a Rhodes? The answer is; yes, it does. The sound that leaves your speaker is basically that of a Fender Rhodes as we know them from numerous records over the past 30-40 years. Have a listen to this mellow improvisation for a glimpse of what my first initial impression was like ...

R.S.P.'73 mellow tones (mp3)

EQing
That's all very well, what with the noiseless samples and all, but what about that special muffled sound of the Rhodes that we're used to? A Rhodes signal from the front panel jack never sounded that bright...
Well, no it didn't. If you're one of those purists who feel that the classic sound is what is called for, Scarbee helps you out by different means, depending on the platform. Giga editions include a "classic" set of instruments, while the EXS24mkII and Halion editions contain precise instructions on setting the EQs of Logic and Cubase SX respectively to get the right classic sound. Look in vain for the preset files for these EQs that are promised on the CD cover; they're not there. Then again, the instructions are so precise that you can't go wrong.

I'm a Logic user, so I set up the Fat EQ plugin according to the instructions; listen to the results here:

R.S.P.'73 blues without classic EQ (mp3)

R.S.P.'73 blues with classic EQ (mp3)

At 32, I'm too young to have actually sat around in smoky jazz clubs in the 70's getting used to Rhodes sound with less than desirable high end definition. That could account for me actually preferring the non EQ'ed version, but the EQ setting here certainly sounds authentic.

Realistic extremes
The thing that defines an instrument is of course the basic sound, but it's also the extremes. The Fender Rhodes have some pretty recognisable characteristics when pushed to the limit in some certain areas. One of these is the almost distortion-like sound that occurs when hitting those deep keys really hard; another one is the bell-like sound when playing the high keys softly, making the Rhodes sound almost like a celeste.

When hitting the deep keys hard, there's no doubt; this is right. The deeps have got just that extra grain that's needed for a real Rhodes in the low keys. Listen to this for an example:

R.S.P.'73 bass distortion (mp3)

When trying the high keys softly, the result is also very pleasing and beautiful:

R.S.P.'73 high bells (mp3)

- but is it right? Isn't it almost too bright to be really truthful? Let's try it with the classic EQ:

R.S.P.'73 high bells with classic EQ (mp3)

- right on, there you are.

Release the releases
One of the facts making the R.S.P.73 special is that even the release samples are velocity-layered. Going to that extra trouble pays off in the final product. The feeling of the Rhodes when letting go of the keys is very natural, and if you take a listen to some of these release samples you will quickly learn that the velocity plays a great part in doing the release samples right; there's a great sonic difference between a soft and a hard release sample.

Listen to this example to hear some of the release samples in action. Of course, you'll have to listen pretty hard; the release samples are just that extra touch. They are not, and shouldn't be, the most prominent feature of the instrument. However, when playing staccato, as is sometimes done here, they are more easily spotted.

R.S.P.'73 release samples (mp3)

Pros:
- Superb sound. With this almost almost scientifically correct reproduction of the instrument at hand, you would of course expect this to get as close to the original as current consumer DAW system specs will allow, and in this case you would be absolutely right in this expectation. Furthermore, with all the work put into preparing this Fender Rhodes for sampling, the instrument you're getting here is top notch.

Cons:
- The documentation is in html format only; an extra service could be a couple of extra formats, like pdf and rtl.
- When you make a promise on the CD cover, you gotta keep it. If you promise preset files for the EQs, they had better be there, or you're not delivering what the costumer paid for. Then again, this is fairly easily overcomed, as explained in the EQ section above, and I wouldn't let this be the determining factor if considering this purchase. My first impression was that to me this is better than the real thing; after working with it for a while that impression hasn't changed.