From BenWaB3@aol.com Thu Nov 29 18:45:24 2001
Subject:Re: Nord Electro (Kind Of) pt. IV

In a message dated 11/29/2001 11:38:46 AM Eastern Standard Time, Dave O.
writes:

> Hi Ben,
> I agree the XP-80's stock sounds suck. Have you tried the 60's and 70's
> card
> for the XP-80? It has a few real good rhodes sounds (the Mark II patch has
> a
> nice bark to it) I'm real picky about Rhodes sounds (having owned quite a
> few over the years) and I like it alot. Especially when putting it through
> a
> tube preamp or my Rotosphere pedal. I used to own a Voce EP module years
> ago
> and thought it sounded good, but I also thought the Rhodes sound was a bit
> wimpy (good tone as I remember, but not much balls) and the unit as a whole
>
> was pretty hissy. (of course that was 4 or 5 yrs ago and maybe its been
> improved since then). I remember the Wurly sound being good and the auto
> wah
> effect was good.
>

I have the 60's & 70's card also. The Rhodes sounds were an improvement, but
still are lacking. They can get a kind of Bob James sound at low volumes,
which is ok for my solo jobs, where the dynamic level has goes super whisper
all the way up to mezzo-whisper - kind of like the playing volume of Chopin
in his last days of Consumption. For the jazz trio or funk/horn band jobs the
sound gets very mushy & has no drive or definition. As for improvements in
the Voce, the unit would be the exact same as it was when it first came out.

The newest line of Kurzweils have a great Rhodes sound, but they are
prohibitively expensive & thier Hammond section is definitely underwhelming.
IMO the V5 is much better. I'm sure if I had a B4 or CX3 I'd think they were
much better than the Kurzweil also. This is a newer set of Rhodes samples
than were on the PC-88 or the Kurz. Piano Module. The new Piano module may
have them, but it is a 1 space rack unit, & I was interested in the Voce
because I could velcro it to the bottom of the V5, which gets velcroed to the
XP-80 on each job.

Again the prudent course of action would be to wait to see if they trot out
any new goodies at the NAMM show for us "nichers".

Ben Ninmann

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