The next version of my 1977 Rhodes Mark I Stage Piano 73 soundfont is available. Only one preset at this time, just the basics. It’s a 65-sample, 5 velocity layer sampling, with the intent of getting a sound I particularly like (deep bass and clear bell-like tones when played softly, but with a nice bark when laid into).
For more info, go HERE, where you’ll find a short MP3 demo, the soundfont in sfArk format, and all the details.
The sfArk file is 21MB, and expands to a 75MB soundfont that plays well in sfz.
I wrote my own program to build the soundfont automatically from the samples and a little text-based control info. Once I got past the errors in the soundfont spec, the rest wasn’t too hard. This’ll make it a lot easier for me to build soundfonts more quickly in the future! Now all I need is a nice big grand piano – anyone got one they don’t need? 
Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to let me know what you think!
It’s sounds great, jeff. But you can’t hold out notes very long. that’s the only things I didn’t like. other than that, it rocks. best sounding free rhodes I’ve heard.
fish
Glad you like it! 
Right, the longest samples are 10 or 12 seconds. There’s no looping. Feel free to loop it for us; the best program I’ve seen for that is Extreme Sample Converter, though I haven’t paid for it yet and in unpaid mode it chops samples to 8 bits or something like that. Many of the notes just don’t last longer than that on a Rhodes anyway, and I didn’t want to make it a 200MB font just to handle the tail ends of the low notes, which can last for almost a minute. Frankly, most of the time we don’t play a note longer than 4 seconds, and someone could shrink the size quite a bit by looping at that point and trimming the samples.
Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to looping the 30 or so samples that would need it. The tricky part isn’t the loop, it’s configuring the ADSR to continue the decay naturally rather than holding a steady volume, which always sounds cheesy.
I don’t know yet how much I plan to fiddle with the control data. Frankly, right now I’m more concerned with getting the best set of samples I can. After that, the Rhodes goes back to the attic, or perhaps ebay (sob). More likely, to a local school with a jazz program.
Yeah. You get applause from me just for trying. You’ve done better that I would do. I don’t get much of how that stuff works. shrugs beyond me. But as for getting good samples, you’ve done that.
fish
since you’ve had a good response on KVR, I thought I’d add my bump here!
This is a great 'font Jeff! I like the fact that it’s fairly raw and unprocessed… whilst looping would decrease the samplesize needed, I feel it could get in the way of the great sound of your samples - but I could be wrong!
Really nice demo too!
thx again
Duncan
Right, unlooped is best. But eventually I’ll loop the end of the long samples where the notes don’t decay fully, so if you do hold a long chord, instead of hearing the notes drop off one-by-one, you’ll hear the sound change from the nice realistic analog-like tone to a similar sound that’s more stable and more artifical sounding, IYKWIM. It’s a “least of 3 evils” choice: huge files vs. chopped-off notes vs. artificial sounding sustain. The good news is you can put those loops way out at the end where you rarely need 'em, so they won’t harm the sound any.
Hi Jeff:
You’ve been very busy with this Rhodes Sampeling… Great work on the link to the page…
There happens to be a few Rhodes guys in-and-around where I live. They appear to be in the Sonar and Cakewalk Camps… Do those editors handle your sampels? If they do, I’d like to mail them the link to your page to see if they show any interest in all your hard work…
Is that O.K.? (To Mail the link to them)
Bill…
I have no idea what Cakewalk & Sonar support, but feel free to email the link. I had to move the soundfont, though – in two days it drew 4 times my monthly bandwidth limit of 5GB. The cost of success, I guess. 
The link to the HTML file is the same, it just points to a new location for the soundfont file. Hopefully that won’t be cut off (it hasn’t yet). I may need to find a new permanent home for the soundfont file.
Cakewal&Sonar support soundfonts if you have a soundblaster card without problem (yeah, with big ones can be some problems sometimes) trough the option “Soundfonts” in the menu. Instead of it, you can load it trough the DXi that is included in some versions of them, i believe.
Hi marce:
Thanks for that post…
Jeff… I’ll mail them the link … I know very little about useing sound fonts But I’m sure they’ll be able to make it work in their editor/setup…
You know you got an interesting product when you exceed your server’s bandwidth allocation… for file downloads…
Bill…
learjeff, is your soundfont still available? - the link seems to be dead.
Mark
I’m gonna have to sue my domain name provider. They expired me without warning and then due to some changeover, won’t allow it to be renewed or another provider to host it. Buncha turds. It’s been over two weeks now!
Meanwhile, you can get there using this URL:
http://www.artistcollaboration.com/users/learjeff/sf/sf.html
Try the stereo one; I really like it!
Yikes.
According to a whois lookup, the “owner” of your domain is:
Scott Mendelsohn (ds_sultan@artistcollaboration.com)
and it expired on 19 Jan 2005.
According to the Verisign site (overall manager of the .com domain)
A redemption grace period gives customers 30 days to restore expired or deleted domain name registrations, and Restore, available through the Name Store platform, makes it convenient for registrars to offer a service that helps customers manage their domain names.
So, there should be some way for you to regain control of your domain and put it in your name, either through resolution with your current ISP, or through another registrar. You may have to prove how you originally obtained the domain (contracts etc) and also be able to show that you didn’t receive timely renewal notice and anything else that proves your current registrar acted in bad faith.
My domains are registered by an independent registrar, and I just point the DNS to my ISP, which gives me complete control ( … my ISP owner also happens to be a friend, so I’m covered, i think.) But I have heard other horror stories where the ISP also provides cheap or free domain registration, but they really register it to themselves.
Good luck with this.
Thanks, but it’s more complicated than that. Scott Mendelsohn (Sully) uses a name service registrar. The registrar is hosing us royally. Sully has been screaming at them to allow another registrar to register the name, but their software won’t let it go and they’re unresponsive to his requests. I’m about to contact a lawyer.
http://www.artistcollaboration.com/users/learjeff/sf/sf.html
Try the stereo one; I really like it!
Thanks!
Mark
Hi Jeff:
You’ve been very busy at this project… Your page looks great and goes into good discriptive detail on how the samples were taken. I forwarded the link on to my keyboard friends over here. They appear to be following your progress on this project.
There appears to be another Rhodes guru in your country doing a paraellel Rhodes Sampelling project. I had the link and I was gonna post it here on your thread. But , I am unable to find it now. I thought you might be interested in browesing his page. If I can find it, I’ll put it up here… Mabey, a Google would come up with it.
The other Sampeling Project would be, a Wurlitizer A7, or whatever model they’re called… I think I mentioned it on an earlier post… I had the oppertunity to buy one of them… and I passed on it… What a shame…
Bill…
Someone who has some good electric piano samples, though not Rhodes, is Greg Sullivan. He has some Wurli EP200, Pianet, and Yamaha CP80 (electric grand) samples in giga format that are pretty darn good.
I’m familiar with the Wurlitzer EP200 but I’ve never heard of an A7. I did see a “Butterfly Grand” model, which a friend of mine had in his living room. Looks like a tiny grand piano, except it’s symmetric and the lid is split down the centerline and both halves open up, thus the name. Of course, instead of a harp like a piano, it had a speaker.
There’s a really nice EP200 sitting in my local music store, on consignment tagged at $800. I’m tempted to find out whether I can rent it for a weekend.
Next thing on my agenda, when I have a couple days to spare, is to sample the Rhodes one more time, filling in more layers at the low end where they’re really needed. Then, back to the attic I think. Before I get rid of it, I plan to sample it one last time very thoroughly, using a high sample rate, taking full-length samples rather than cutting off around 20-25 sec as I did, and sampling more keys. These files would be to save until Moore’s Law gets us to the point where they’d be usable.
(I’m beginning to reconsider some of my opinions on higher sample rates, due to new info.)
…
