From artist piano presets to audio-rate vari-panning, here are some of the greatest things about Rhodes’ first plugin.
It may have come as a surprise to some when Rhodes announced a software version of its MK8 electric piano. Historically, the Rhodes trademark and brand have been strictly protected from the gaze of analogue-modelling developers, and so many have become used to seeing words only hinting at the identity of the vintage piano plugin they’re eyeing.
The Rhodes brand is now standing firmly in the digital present, and as over 25GB of samples demonstrates, they’re very serious about creating the ultimate Rhodes sound.
So what’s so special about the Rhodes V8? Here’s what we think…
1. It’s modelled on latest and greatest Rhodes hardware…
The V8 and V8 Pro both model the MK8 electric piano. Announced in 2021, the MK8 was a ground-up redesign of the classic piano for modern times, crafted by hand by experienced Rhodes technicians using ideal materials.
The same people who created the MK8 have guided the sound of the V8 plugins as well. While other Rhodes plugins are modelled after old MkI, MkII or Mark V pianos that have seen better days, the V8 takes its sound fresh from the factory floor.
2. …but it can emulate older Rhodes models
Having said that, the V8 can satisfy your desires for a dust-covered nostalgia trip as well. Thanks to the V8 Pro’s Profile EQ and per-note Tuning, Timbre, Damper and Level dials, you can dial in your own wonkier Rhodes sound – and the standard-issue V8 can also recreate these characteristics through its Profile selections.
3. It has effects made just for the Rhodes sound
The V8 Pro goes far beyond just vari-pan effects, adding in compressor, chorus, phaser and delay effects, with a good selection of controls to tailor them to your liking.
Rhodes pianos are classically paired with ‘third-party’ stompbox pedals or other studio effects devices, giving the instrument more life and more versatility across different tunes. But since the V8’s effects were tailor-made by Rhodes for the piano and its unique sound, they’ve been sourced and tuned to go perfectly with it.
Both the delay and chorus modules use bucket brigade delay components to generate their effects. These components are hard to source nowadays, but they made it into the MK8 FX hardware, where they were modelled into the V8 and V8 Pro plugins.
Meanwhile, both the compressor and phaser modules are VCA-based designs. These are precise and predictable for compressor design, and a less common choice for phaser design, but one that works perfectly for a moody, vibrant Rhodes sound.
4. Audio-Rate Vari-Pan
Vari-Pan has been an inbuilt option for Rhodes players for a long time, but never before has it offered quite the feature set as the MK8’s. Since the V8 takes its vari-pan setup straight from that hardware, it gives you Rate and Depth on the V8, and additional choice of waveshapes on the V8 Pro.
On the V8 Pro, the vari-pan goes all out, pushing into audio-rate modulation past 12 o’clock, just like the MK8’s vari-pan can do. The result is a ring-modulation-style sound that opens up whole new ways of expression for the Rhodes. Check out how the MK8 does it below – start at 14:10 to get a load of that high-speed vari-panning.
This audio-rate vari-pan sound is rough and highly distorted, and changes drastically when you tweak the vari-pan’s rate or change its waveshape. Luckily, you can use the vari-pan depth dial to dial it back, but if you want to push your Rhodes to never-before-heard heights, you could even add some Drive over the top for an extra hit of dirt!
5. Every note is adjustable
Inside the V8 Pro’s Setup screen, you get four rows for taking command over four properties – Level, Timbre, Damper and Fine Tune. These four properties are applied for every single note separately, if you want them to be, and it’s this flexibility that makes the V8’s sonic ‘profiles’ so powerful and flexible.
You can send your Rhodes into a detuned spin, emulating the feeling and sound of an older or badly-kept model, which can be great for a nostalgic vibe. Or how about emulating the instrument’s pickups being slightly off-centre after years on the road, using the Timbre row in the Setup page? With any tweak in the Setup page, you can choose to keep it restrained or make it full-on, or even to keep the bass notes solid and in-tune while the highs get a little looser.
6. Filter envelope effects – auto-wah
With the Envelope function – only available on the V8 Pro – you get access to another new sonic option for the Rhodes: filter envelope effects.
Turn up the Envelope, and the equalizer’s mid band Frequency control begins to be modulated by the volume level of the notes being played. The result is an auto-wah effect with a funky sound that still has a classic Rhodes vibe. Turn up the Drive and you can get biting, squelch sounds at your fingertips.
This filter envelope modulation also works when the mid band is cutting frequencies, not just boosting them. You can use this pioneering new Rhodes feature alongside all the other functions of the piano – vari-pan, delay, phaser and so on – to give yourself new sonic expanses to explore.
7. It’s an audio technician’s dream electric piano
Sure, many producers and songwriters will just want to load up the plugin, choose a nice-sounding patch and start fingering their way forward, but things go deep in the V8 Pro’s Setup and Detail screens – and we mean very deep. We’ve already mentioned the ability to tweak parameters for every single note on the Setup page, but the Detail page deserves another look.
Pedal Noise isn’t just emulated here – it’s given its own special set of controls. When you press the sustain pedal on a hardware Rhodes piano, all the dampers are lifted off their tonebars at once, leading to a slight ringing. In the V8 plugins, not only is this reproduced, alongside the sound of the pedal being moved itself, but you can customise exactly how loud the sound is and at what point in your sustain pedal’s movement it gets triggered – some serious attention to detail.
How about the Velocity Curve settings? In these, you can change exactly how the V8 and V8 Pro respond to your input MIDI velocities. As part of this, there’s a Velocity Curve function, which can tilt the response in favour of lower- or higher-velocity notes dominating; and there’s also a Velocity Depth function, for when you want to keep the velocities totally consistent throughout, regardless of your playing, or accentuate the effect of the Velocity Curve setting.
What else? The vari-pan waveforms are hugely customisable thanks to the Slew and Smooth parameters; you get Mechanical Noise modelling and a whole separate EQ for the piano’s cabinet and internal resonances; and the modulation effects get some action round-the-back too, with plenty of advanced controls to shape their behaviour.
8. You can create totally new EP sounds
Remember that audio-rate vari-pan we told you about? And the Envelope modulation? And all those built-in Rhodes-friendly effects? Well the V8 Pro hosts these and more, and they all go into making it a new type of electric piano plugin – one that lets you go wild with sound design, if you’ve got the stomach for it.
In fact, the V8 Pro can even get some synth-like timbres out of it, if you can believe that. Turning the vari-pan up into the audio rate and cranking up the depth dial lets you get some pretty out-there sounds to begin with, and these change significantly if you make any alterations to the rate or the waveshape that’s driving it. Already, this gives you a huge variety of timbres, but with Slew and Smooth controls ‘under the lid’, you can take waveshape adjustment even further.
Add to these the effects, and you’ve got a whole new recipe book for making innovative Rhodes sounds. These can get quite out-there, but there’s always a sonic reminder that what you’re playing is an electric piano – even if it’s further removed than the usual straightforward keys people are used to hearing.
Going even deeper, there’s adjustment over mechanical noise, plus a timbre shift parameter to alter how the pickups are ‘hearing’ the tines. Throw these into the mix and you can have distorted, percussive Rhodes sounds or smooth, glassy Rhodes sounds that don’t even feel like there are hammers at work at all.