[linux-audio-user] Rhodes sound

[Larry Troxler]

Dave Phillips wrote:
> 
> Larry Troxler wrote:
> 
> > > Anyone know how I can emulate a rhodes using the computer keyboard?
> > >
> >
> > That's a tough one. Just now I tried shaking it. That didn't work.
> > Giving it a good sharp hit sounds percussive, but more like a snare then
> > a Rhodes ;-)
> 
> LOL! I tried it too: I've owned a couple of Rhodes ep's, no way I could
> get my keyboard to sound like one. I can get close to the sound of a
> broken tine, but that's as close as I've got. ;)

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about the broken tines until now! I should
say  instead, that 
I remember hearing what now I can ascribe to a broken tine. Sort of a
buzzing noise behind the note, or in the extreme case, _only_ a buzzing?
Am I on the right track here?

The Rhodes electric piano, to me, supports my theory that musical
tastes, whether they be in tunings or timbres, are based as much in
culture and history as they are in physics. I'm not saying this to be
funny (although reminiscing about the Rhodes _is_ funny). 
As a high-schooler in the jazz ensemble and wanting to play out
elsewhere, I found myself in need of an electric piano (this was before
good piano synths, around 1978). I went with my dad to look at a used
one. I played it, and for a Fender Rhodes, it seemed to my ears to be in
perfect condition. But dad, having never heard a Rhodes, thought the
sound was horrible!

Something interesting about the Rhodes electric piano, I found, was that
I played it quite differently from the way I would play an accoustic
piano. The expressive character of the Rhodes was concentrated in the
low-middle register, where you get that characteristic grunge; unlike a
good piano where you could sound beautifull all over the range. When
playing jazz, this led me to a quite different style of playing when I
was on the Rhodes, instead of an accoustic piano. When playing jazz
ballads on the Rhodes, I would always put the weight in the left hand,
and be more likely to create secondary melodic lines (or well, just
passing tones) in the left-hand harmonization. 

Larry Troxler