Getting the wrong end of the stick

[Arpangel]

It’s amazing how you can go blindly on sometimes, thinking something is that, when it’s this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34afWRQ5_-c

It’s the sound I have in my head when I think "Rhodes" but it’s not, it’s a Pinanet T, it’s sound I’ve been after for years, and not realising it was this, it’s a lot softer than a Rhodes, and doesn’t have that f*****g tine noise, that I always have to EQ out.
This is bad, really bad, as they are rarer than a MK1 Rhodes.

[Hugh Robjohns]

There's one on Reverb right now, in London, £1500.

https://reverb.com/uk/p/hohner-pianet-t-1977

And on ebay, also London (might be the same one, £1200
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28518537159 ... R6KpwsbeYQ

[ef37a]

One of two ladies was playing a keyboard last night on Comic Relief and I thought the piano sound was terrific. Anyone see it and can shed light?

Dave.

[zenguitar]

It was a nice red Nord. I am sure someone will recognise the exact model.

Andy

[FrankF]

I do enjoy these homely, not-trying-to-be-slick vids on YT. (People who start their vids with any loud noises should, of course, be taken outside and shot...loudly.)

A quick CTRL F through some manuals tells me that the late Steve Howell sampled the Pianet for his Hollow Sun libraries, so I have 2 "Pianette" samples on my Alesis Fusion.

He also sampled something called a "Vocks Conti", and a "FarCheeza", he he. Good old Steve.

[Arpangel]

There's one on Reverb right now, in London, £1500.

https://reverb.com/uk/p/hohner-pianet-t-1977

And on ebay, also London (might be the same one, £1200
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28518537159 ... R6KpwsbeYQ

Thanks a lot for that Hugh, I’d like to try these obviously, I’ve not done reverb before, but I’ve got an EBay account, I’ll log in and send him a message.

[Arpangel]

I do enjoy these homely, not-trying-to-be-slick vids on YT. (People who start their vids with any loud noises should, of course, be taken outside and shot...loudly.)

A quick CTRL F through some manuals tells me that the late Steve Howell sampled the Pianet for his Hollow Sun libraries, so I have 2 "Pianette" samples on my Alesis Fusion.

He also sampled something called a "Vocks Conti", and a "FarCheeza", he he. Good old Steve.

Of course, there is a side of me that wants to avoid vintage hardware, and thinks samples may be the more reliable and maintenance free way to go.

[FrankF]

Yes, but will they have that "bass growl"?
That was a nice detail he pointed out.

[The Elf]

Before you head off at another tangent... are you absolutely sure that the sound you have in your head isn't yet a Wurlitzer EP200?

Rhodes, Pianet and EP (and even Crumar Roadrunner) have been confused constantly over the decades.

[Arpangel]

Before you head off at another tangent... are you absolutely sure that the sound you have in your head isn't yet a Wurlitzer EP200?

Rhodes, Pianet and EP (and even Crumar Roadrunner) have been confused constantly over the decades.

Well, the sound of the Pianet T sounds like it’s the one, the Wurly is a bit too over blown if you know what I mean, the Pianet has that tightness, without being so spikey, it’s about right, I know you can manipulate Rhodes beyond beyond, and gets loads of sounds, but the Pianet just seems to have it straight there.
I’d like to try one first, of course, another reason to go to that blokes studio.

[IAA]

Tony, listen to the Pianet Sample library on pianobook https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/hohner-pianet-t/. I’ve got this and it’s very characterful. I had a Pianet back in the day. Sound was nice, playing it was awful as I recall…..

Ian

[The Elf]

They were, indeed, horrible to play.

[MarkOne]

They were, indeed, horrible to play.

I can attest to this too. The Planet T is the only keyboard I ever sold and not at some time after regretted it. The action was horrible. It was barely touch sensitive, the energy in the tine came from lifting a 'sticky' rubber pad, and when it couldn't stick any longer it release the tine, the difference between softly playing and hammering was not very great at all.

Particularly hated the fact that there was no sustain pedal, you could just about get away with a reverb pedal to 'fudge' that

Also as the key release was basically the rubber pad dropping back onto the tine, in the lower register you could get a lovely farty noise as the tine vibrated against the pad.

But as a teenager, in the 70s it was a way for me to have an electric piano because a Rhodes or Whurly were well out of my reach. Also it was basically its own flight case.

I really can't believe the prices they're fetching now.

[IAA]

This!

I gave mine away in disgust as soon as I could! BUT a well set up one did have a very lovely pure sound - lost in a rock band mix I found . In Kontact of course you can add the entire kitchen sink to make it have a real bite. I think Tony Banks did a similar thing with a fuzz box in between lead guitarists.

[MOF]

You can get a Pianet/Clavinet combo.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5rkHvsvRdBg

[Arpangel]

Nothings perfect in life, is it?

[FrankF]

Fifteen hundred quid for a bleedin' suitcase?

For that money you could get yersen a brand spanking new Hydrasynth,
and still have plenty of notes left over for a KFC bucket or three,
several boxes of Fondant Fancies,
and some of the finest wines available to humanity!

[Arpangel]

Fifteen hundred quid for a bleedin' suitcase?

For that money you could get yersen a brand spanking new Hydrasynth,
and still have plenty of notes left over for a KFC bucket or three,
several boxes of Fondant Fancies,
and some of the finest wines available to humanity!

But it’s got no Rhodes, or Pianet, plus, I don’t like KFC, but I’ll take the cakes and wine though.

[Hugh Robjohns]

But it’s got no Rhodes, or Pianet....

But you could create good emulations of both (with better dynamic control than the latter)...

[sonics]

I had a Pianet which I sold as soon as I could. I only bought it because of Tony Banks. It was horrible!

Get yourself a nice 73/76/88-note controller and a laptop running samples.

[Arpangel]

But it’s got no Rhodes, or Pianet....

But you could create good emulations of both (with better dynamic control than the latter)...

A Rhodes? On a Hydrasynth? really?

[resistorman]

But it’s got no Rhodes, or Pianet....

But you could create good emulations of both (with better dynamic control than the latter)...

A Rhodes? On a Hydrasynth? really?

I was just thinking the same thing! I get the feeling that you're looking for a sound, not a specific instrument.

[Arpangel]

But it’s got no Rhodes, or Pianet....

But you could create good emulations of both (with better dynamic control than the latter)...

A Rhodes? On a Hydrasynth? really?

I was just thinking the same thing! I get the feeling that you're looking for a sound, not a specific instrument.

As usual, it’s all down to money, if you’ve got deep pockets you just get stuff, regardless, it doesn’t have to justify itself so much.

[ajay_m]

The stage ep pack from air which I have on my akai force includes a Pianet and that pack is included in the mpc61 as standard.
All the sampled instruments are very high quality and one of the great things about the force is you have 8 touch sensitive rotary encoders each with its own little oled display that map directly to instrument settings which makes tweaking very immediate.

[Arpangel]

The stage ep pack from air which I have on my akai force includes a Pianet and that pack is included in the mpc61 as standard.
All the sampled instruments are very high quality and one of the great things about the force is you have 8 touch sensitive rotary encoders each with its own little oled display that map directly to instrument settings which makes tweaking very immediate.

OK, let’s get this correct, I’m right in saying that the MPC61 comes with these sounds as standard, just confirming.
I’m just concerned that a lot of stuff on the MPC I won’t actually use, it seems to be a workstation type thing, and I don’t need beats sequencing etc.

[Martin Walker]

They were, indeed, horrible to play.

I can attest to this too. The Planet T is the only keyboard I ever sold and not at some time after regretted it. The action was horrible. It was barely touch sensitive, the energy in the tine came from lifting a 'sticky' rubber pad, and when it couldn't stick any longer it release the tine, the difference between softly playing and hammering was not very great at all.

Back in the mid 70's I had a Pianet N ('Natural' wood finish), and although I liked the sound (it was certainly the cheapest way to add a sort of 'acoustic' keyboard sound to your rig), I totally agree about the sticky pads being a pain.

In my case (after buying secondhand), some notes hardly had any volume at all because the stickiness of the foam pads had started to wear out.

However, the most annoying aspect was that unlike the later 'T' version with electromagnetic pickups, the 'N' version used electrostatic (capacitive) pickups that placed a highish voltage between the moving tines and the nearby staionary 'other side' of the pickup, forming a varying capacitor that generated an electric field whenever any tine was moving.

Sadly, the combination of high voltage and 61 tiny capacitors distributed across the keyboard was prone to issues with dust and humidity, in my case resulting in occasional continuous 'fizzing' or intermittent 'static' background noises that could only be cured by a thorough dusting inside, and then the application of a hair dryer.

As I say though, I loved the sound, but increased its versatility by passing it through fuzz and wah pedals (as I believe Dave Stewart did in 'Egg'). Sadly of course the fuzz pedal increased the audibility of background 'fizzing'

Despite its issues, I kept the Pianet N for some years, only finally phasing it out after I had finally saved up enough to buy a Fender Rhodes Stage 73

[IAA]

I was just playing with the latest free LABS release Vintage Keys, https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/vintage-keys and it made me think about Arpangels quest for his perfect Rhodes sound. This is a very pure 73 and worth a look at Tony.

The LABS range is amazing and a real credit to Spitfire, a UK company to boot!

(I have no affiliations with Spitfire!)

Ian

[Arpangel]

I was just playing with the latest free LABS release Vintage Keys, https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/vintage-keys and it made me think about Arpangels quest for his perfect Rhodes sound. This is a very pure 73 and worth a look at Tony.

The LABS range is amazing and a real credit to Spitfire, a UK company to boot!

(I have no affiliations with Spitfire!)

Ian

Thanks Ian, we’ll, Spitfire have a good reputation, I’ll check it out.

[ajay_m]

Yes, these should all be part of the MPC61 stock sounds. While I don't own one - only the Force, which is more or less a keyboardless version of it anyway, I can say that, while it has some current limitations (lack of tempo mapping, a bit awkward to create stuff in non-common-time e.g 3/4), it is far more capable then any sequencer I've seen in a 'workstation' keyboard so far.
It can certainly record completely free-format audio or MIDI and is not a 'beatmaker' box - obviously Akai's heritage comes from this direction but it's more accurate to think of the Force and MPC61 as now being much more like 'Ableton in a box' but with linear arrangement as well.
I also do feel that the sounds are extremely high quality, obviously with the ability to plug in a large SSD directly inside the unit, you have a huge amount of storage compared to anything Roland or Korg offer, and a lot of the sample libraries for the MPC range of products are pretty good quality and will of course work with these devices.
So well worth checking out, but of course, I get that personal preferences are very different for everyone.

[MarkOne]

Of course, Akai are now part of the InMusic group, who took over the remnants of Alesis after the Fusion more or less killed that company, and have acquired Numark Ion and M-Audio.

I think the Akai products of today probably have a lot in common with the keyboard stuff being developed by Alesis, and less in common with the Akai products of yore.