Best Fender Rhodes e-piano VST (freeware)

The famous Fender Rhodes Mark II stage 73 electric piano!
Essential if you plan to do funk-jazz, deep house, or any soulul music.
The Rhodes keys can be heard on countless tracks, from Herbie Hancock to Stevie Wonder, the Doors & Ray Charles, Chick corea & JojoLapin.

It’s funky, soulful, deep, smooth, jazzy, lounge, groovy.
Here are the best FREE VST emulations of the e-piano:

 

1. MrRay73 & MrRay22 VST by Guido Scognamiglio

Mr Ray 73 VST Rhodes piano plugin

Mr Ray 73 VST Rhodes piano plugin

MrRay 2.2 ! rhodes 4 ever

MrRay 2.2 ! rhodes 4 ever

http://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=37

These two VSTi are donationware.
and they are pure synthesis, no sample involved.
The sound is very good, Mr Ray 73 VST gives you that funky feeling when you play it.
Mr Ray 22 has more parameters and some good classic effects : a chorus, a wah wah, a tremolo/autopan, a distortion and a stereo delay.

Mr Ray Charles:

stormy !

straight Rhodes e-piano

soft deep house chords

Rhodes piano through wah wah effect!

 

2. MDA ePiano

Good old no-gui MDA ePiano

Good old no-gui MDA ePiano

http://mda.smartelectronix.com/synths.htm

Based on a small but clever wavetable, the antique MDA ePiano still sounds fresh in 2014!
and since MDA plugins became open source, you can also find version for Mac & Linux, and also 64 bit versions => http://sourceforge.net/projects/mda-vst/files/mda-vst/mda-vst-src 20100214/

MDA ePiano VST is simple & effective, of course it’s more limited than Mr Ray, but sounds great!

riders on the storm!

Ray Charles – Shake a Tail Feather

 

 

3. EP-Station VST by Big Tick audio

EP station : more groovy keys

EP station : more groovy keys

http://www.bigtickaudio.com/goodies/ep-station

A very nice FM modeled electric piano. EP-station is now freeware.
The plugin is not a straight emulation of a Rhodes piano.
It can also do the ” DX 7 e-piano “, the famous FM piano as heard on 95% of the pop / ballad / tv show theme / etc.. tracks produced between 1983 & 1989.
The EP-station also features a chorus & a phaser effect.

smooth sound for deep house

phased Fender Rhodes !

ultra smooth Deep house Rhodes+phaser

FM pop piano ! the sound of the 80’s

 

4. 4Front R-Piano VST

4Front Rhodes piano VST

4Front Rhodes piano VST

http://www.yohng.com/software/rpiano.html

Based on samples, but not only, this emulation gives you a clean sound.
It comes for Windows 32 & 64 bit, and Mac OS X.
4Front R-piano also include a reverb.

soft e-piano for lounge house

plucked style

 

 

5. LazySnake VST by Andreas Ersson

Lazy Snake VST

Lazy Snake VST

download

Back to a 100% synthesis emulation !
The Lazy Snake electric piano gives you this lounge and mellow sound.
The synth is easy to tweak, and you have a tremolo + wah wah effect.
It’s not really a Rhodes piano emulation, but it’s perfect for deep house chord.

soft clean deep house chord

wah wah effect!

Ray Charles shake a snake

 

 

6. Orange Lounge 2004A by StarrFish Lab

OrangeLounge VST e-piano

OrangeLounge VST e-piano

http://www.vector.co.jp/download/file/win95/art/fh327907.html

A funky japanese VSTi , created with Synthdit.
It’s not a Rhodes MK2 emulation, but it’s also groovy, and well suited for that deep house feeling.
We can feel the FM modulation but it’s nice!

pretty hard tremolo effect for this e-piano

funky !!

 

 

7. SFZ + Learjeff jRhodes3 soundfont

SFZ+ soundfont player

SFZ+ soundfont player

SFZ+ + Learjeff Rhodes soundfont

There are some nice free Rhodes multisample bank around the interweb. So you can pick your favorite sf2 capable VST player and load a Rhodes piano soundfont into it!
Here i choosed the SFZ+ player by RGCAudio and the jRhodes sf2 , that’s the best combo!

 

 

(november 17 2014 update !!)

8. RhodyMK1 by Wahnsyn

Rhody MK1

Rhody MK1

http://www.plugindex.de/rhody-mk1-pc/

A Synthedit VST plugin from Plugindex German website : it has a clean sound, i think it’s based on a soundfont / wav bank. It’s very usable. Unlike the other “classic” emulations, it features a vibrato effect instead of a tremolo effect, it’s strange but that makes unusual sounds!

 

 

 

9. Clavia Lab by Simple Media

Clavia Lab VST

Clavia Lab VST

http://www.simple-media.co.uk/music/vsti/vsti.htm

This plugin is intended for e-piano sounds and also organ and clavinet / harpsichord sounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 thoughts on “Best Fender Rhodes e-piano VST (freeware)

  1. Pedro

    Im having trouble installing it on MAC. I downloaded expander installer for the .sit file but once I unzip it I dont get a .dmg I get a unix file. Can you help with this?

    Reply
  2. dj.mononoke

    I’m really glad I’ve came across this informative post, this really helped me out quite a bit, by answering all my questions properly, hopefully the site will grow bigger and more popular as ever it was. Keep up the good work and I’m sure I’ll visit you up someday soon for more great articles. You may find great articles and music production tools at: http://www.lucidsamples.com by the way!

    Reply
  3. aurora dsp

    We would like to introduce to you our new free plugin:
    FenrIR is the second plugin from Aurora DSP.It aims to provide the most effortless impulse response loading possible.
    Simply drag and drop IR files, blend them – and play.
    For free.
    See the changes you make in the resulting waveform and spectrum – all in real time. Then save the IR you just made to a .wav file.
    You can quickly switch between files within the same folder (separate folder tracked for each file).
    Transient indicator guide simplifies the process of aligning the waveforms while zooming in helps you make really precise time changes.
    FenrIR comes preloaded with a pack of custom impulse response files from Aurora DSP and SinMix
    Features:
    Real-time IR mixing with output IR visualization
    Output IR wav export
    Time and polarity adjustment for each impulse response
    Transient indicator system for easy phase alignment
    Drag-and-drop file import
    Separate folder tracking for each IR for quick file swapping
    Pack of custom IRs included with the plugin
    Full scaling of UI up to 4k

    Download link:

    https://www.auroradsp.com/files/Fenrir_1.0.zip

    Reply

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