The Fender Rhodes is a very famous electric piano from the 80’s, especially the Stage Mark II model. It has a deep and gritty sound perfect for Soul, Neo Soul, Blues, R&B and Jazz. Famous artists such as Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock have made numerous famous tracks using the Fender Rhodes.
See below for some free VST plugin Emulators for the Fender Rhodes. E-piano. These can be used with most DAWs that support VSTs.
1. MrRay73 & MrRay22 VST
See the link to the VST below.
http://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=37
The sounds are generated through pure synthesis, no samples are used. These VSTs have a nice warm and funky vibe to them when you play. There have a range of effects too such as Wah Wah, Chorusing, tremolo, panning etc. See below for some links to samples.
Mr.Ray Charles
2. MDA ePiano
http://mda.smartelectronix.com/synths.htm
Based on of very small but neat sounding wavetable synth. The MDA plugins are open source, therefore you can find MAC and Linux version too at the link below. Not as many functions as Mr. Ray however still as solid sounding VST.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mda-vst/files/mda-vst/mda-vst-src 20100214/
Riders on the storm
3. EP-Station VST
http://www.bigtickaudio.com/goodies/ep-station
This is a very cool FM moded EP plugin. Not direct emulation but it does have some good sounds e.g. the DX-7 e-piano which can be heard on a lot of commercial productions in the 80’s. All in all a very good free vintage sounding plugin for you library. It also has a nice phaser and chorus effect. See below for some samples.
Deep House
Phased Fender Rhodes
4. Clavia Lab
This is an electric piano a little different to your typical Rhodes and Wurlitzer sound. This is a hybrid style analog/physical model using experimental techniques to create the changing complex harmonic content found in an electric piano.
It features the following
- Source, amplifier and modulation sections allowing you plenty of control over tone and playing dynamics
- precise control over all the parameters – the knobs each have around 120 steps
- A VU meter which indicates when tone is likely to distort (distortion is actually wanted in most cases to some extent)
- 8 presets plus extra room for 8 more
- lots of potential for experimentation
5. LazySnake
This is a cool Electric Piano VST plug-in with 64 voices. This VST does not have an oscillator or ADSR controls. Instead the harmonics and fundamental are controlled by controlled by volume and decay. The timbre of the sound can also be adjusted. The hardness of the sound and attack is also adjustable. Typical other features such as Tremolo and wah wah or of course available.
Some pretty good sounds can be achieved with this Free Rhodes VST. Especially if you add some reverb.
6. Elektrik Keys
A very rich sounding free rhodes VST
This VST is made up of 2 layers of 13 waveform sounds. Each layer offers the typical controls e.g. ADSR, Volume, spread, pitch, flanger and of course delay. There is also assignable automation and even portamento. Due to the sampled waveform, this electric piano VST has a very rich sound.
Download smooth R&B chords and loops using VSTs I use below
Click here for more sounds
Some of these cheap / free pluggins do real sound good, especially if you really know how the play and use a decent MIDI controller keyboard.
It’s true, I have used some really good free plugins in the past.
It’s not VST but check out the Reason Re-fill Electronic / Mechanical Pianos pack – awesome.
I truly love your site.. Pleasant colors & theme.
Did you develop this web site yourself? Please reply back
as I’m wanting to create my very own blog and would love to learn where you got this from
or what the theme is named. Thank you!
Thanks, I simply used a template, nothing too fancy.
I am using the Neo Soul Keys VST, beautiful sounds and much cheaper than using a real keyboard. In the productions I don’t think anyone can tell the difference really.
I guess of the keys sit well in the mix it may be hard to tell the difference with software and hardware. Just need to have a decent processor and audio interface to avoid any lag.
These free VSTs are nice but if you are serious about production, it is worth spending a bit of money and getting some good Electric Piano VSTs such as Neo Soul Keys etc.
I like to use VST’s however I will only stick with one track which is usually the keys or sometime drums. VSTs can be a heavy load on the CPU and sometimes causes sudden pauses which would be a disaster in a live performance. Lounge Lizard is nice however I often get problems recording MIDI using the sustain pedal.
Some good free synths there. It you are creative, you don’t really need to spend 100’s on VST’s just looking for that particular sound.
Yep, lots of nice free sounds if you look around.
Not exactly a VST but the Propellorher Head Reason Electro Mechanical free refill pack is really good and professional sounding. Reason doesn’t use VSTs.
Good line up there, thanks.
Can you tell me what exactly I’m buying with the $5.99? Sorry I’m a bit stupid lmao
That would be the 60 Soulful chord progressions as per the front page at the top left. You get the WAV and MIDI files
Hi, Im having trouble with the Ep Station plugin. I have no idea how to use it and im wondering if its just not compatible with fl studio. I cant change any of the settings. am I missing something?
It should be compatible with any DAW. Check the bit size. 16bit plugins tend not to be compatible with 32bits and vice versa.