I’ve recently realized that not everyone has had the ability to compare their modern keyboard (Yamaha XS/XF, right?) with their vintage instrument counterparts in person.  This is something I’ve had the opportunity to do on many occasions and apparently I have taken it for granted when I shouldn’t have.

While I won’t be creating my own video, I have found one on YouTube that compares, head to head, a Nord synth with a Fender Rhodes stage piano.  This is just a good example for people who haven’t heard things like this before to see just how close modern keyboards come to accurately reproducing vintage sounds.  In my opinion, Yamaha comes closer than any other which is why I chose the XS (and may soon choose the XF).  But opinions will, of course, vary wildly on which modern keyboard is “better.”

Clicky the link for the YouTube video.

Could you tell a difference without watching the video and only listening to the sound?  Could you tell a difference on a recorded track?  Could you tell a difference in a crowded room filled with cheering fans?

Where are the fu’kin filters? I don’t hear them? And what about the waveforms? There aren’t near enough. If this Fender company think that we’re going to buy their synth, they’d seriously better get serious about improving their sound. Rhodes sound way more fat than that! Only modeling could produce true result. Nord know how make real Rhodes sounds. Fender will go out of business soon if don’t start listening to customers.

*laugh*

bsmart - 04 September 2010 11:29 PM

Where are the fu’kin filters? I don’t hear them? And what about the waveforms? There aren’t near enough. If this Fender company think that we’re going to buy their synth, they’d seriously better get serious about improving their sound. Rhodes sound way more fat than that! Only modeling could produce true result. Nord know how make real Rhodes sounds. Fender will go out of business soon if don’t start listening to customers.

*laugh*

You’re not serious, right? Fender doesn’t make Rhodes pianos anymore, they stopped doing that over 25 years ago. This company now makes the hardware Rhodes:

http://www.rhodespiano.com/

Actually, Fender never really “made” the Rhodes - they licensed it from Harold Rhodes, the inventor, and marketed it under the Fender name.

Regarding YouTube - that is the worst audio quality on the planet Earth. You can’t judge anything from a YouTube video, period.

Wow. I need to make my jokes more obvious. Think of the other top threads in this forum. Read it again. Are you laughing now?

Hey, and it only has one preset! Who will ever buy it!?

bsmart - 06 September 2010 02:13 AM

Hey, and it only has one preset! Who will ever buy it!?

Hahaha… that cracked me up actually. :-)

dgarvich - 02 September 2010 12:17 PM

Could you tell a difference without watching the video and only listening to the sound?  Could you tell a difference on a recorded track?  Could you tell a difference in a crowded room filled with cheering fans?

The funny thing is, don’t vintage instruments vary in sound from one to the other anyway?  I have heard two 808 drum machines that sound very different from one another. Ditto 303s… some 303 clones (Revolution / XoXBox) sound as good (or sometimes better) than the real thing because the electronics and DA/AD are simply better (or less corroded).  Does this variance from unit to unit happen w/ old EPs as well?

But I totally take your point… emulations sound so good these days that after it ends up in the mix or on the stage, no one’s going to ever know.  In fact, how many will really care if they did know?  Did using a fake M1 Piano stop a million house records from being sold?  Did anyone on Earth say “I REFUSE to ‘Work my Body’ because that producer didn’t use a Steinway?”

Nope.

And if you can’t write the song in the first place, it won’t matter how good the emulation is… And if you are Mozart, you stuff will sound good on the most low rent Casio keyboard on Earth.