New Rhodes Piano Collection from Scarbee
December 23, 2002
Scarbee has announced the R.S.P.' 73, a comprehensively sampled Rhodes piano.
The R.S.P.'73 consists of a collection of 'deeply sampled' renderings of the classic Fender Rhodes Stage Piano MK I - '73, captured in high definition 24 bit quality. Danish programming has resulted in both the 24 bit Emagic EXS24 mk II and 24 bit Steinberg Halion editions of the library being included in the same 4 CD set, with the added bonus that registered users will shortly be able to download the 24 bit Native Instruments Kontakt version at no extra cost. The same programming system allows purchasers of the 2 CD, 16 bit Gigastudio edition to download small files which will allow installation of both the 16 bit Emagic EXS24 MK II and Steinberg Halion editions at no extra charge.
The Scarbee R.S.P.' 73 was recorded at 24 bit resolution through a Mindprint En-Voice preamp (without any use of EQ, tube saturation or compression), and then digitally transferred to a Nuendo AudioLink 96 audio card. The piano sound was captured directly from the harp, bypassing the passive tone control on the front panel, in order to capture the full frequency range of the instrument and minimise unwanted noise. All sample editing - including noise reduction and normalizing was also done at 24 bit resolution.
All samples are full length and unlooped. Each of the 73 keys of the Rhodes was sampled at 12 different velocities - ranging from 0 to -26 dB - but this is only half the story. In order to capture that magical feel of really 'playing' a Rhodes, we also recorded 'release' samples for each of the 12 velocities, at the exact same level as the corresponding 12 sustain samples. The release tone - a sound created when a damper bounces against the tine as a key is released, is an intrinsic element of what musicians recognise as the original 'Rhodes Sound'.
To accommodate systems with RAM limitations, several 'Lite' versions of the piano are included. Lite versions contain the samples of the white keys, which are stretched down a semitone to cover adjacent black keys. Lite versions come in 12, 8 and 4 velocity layer flavours.
For that duller 'old school' sound, a special Hi-cut version of each program (Giga version only) is also included.
In response to a number of requests, all programs are available in both Equal and Stretch tunings.
Pricing: R.S.P. '73 (giga) US$/EUR 199.00, R.S.P. '73 (EXS24 mk II / HALion) US$/EUR 199.00
For more information, visit their web site at www.scarbee.com. | 
