The Rhodes Mk8 Piano: Inside The Factory

[Music] [Laughter] [Music] see you later [Music] welcome to dr mix hi how you guys doing you guys super cool it's early in the morning today is a very special day because i am going to rhodes music group up in leeds here in the united kingdom and see how they build a rhodes piano you want to really really really be subscribed to this channel and you want to stay until the end because they're going to reveal to me my very own roads i don't think it's finished yet but we'll be able to see at what stage of built it is are you ready for a road trip and who do we have in the car the doctor makes him meet alex and louie yeah let's go [Music] so basically we're going to the factory so i understand that the factory is like a boutique company and uh they make this individually so we're gonna see different stations the man in charge is dan and uh he is a rhodes technician one of one of the best ones turns out dan is a lot more than just a great roads technician as you will find out later in the video back to it as far as i understand management was clever enough to put him in charge of the product because he knows a lot more than anyone else in this country it looks like we're gonna have quite a bit of fun [Music] all right so we've driven what three hours and a half yeah yeah and we're finally there if anyone told me man you know that one day i would be driving in a car with my team to go check out the roads that they're building for me [Music] hey nice to meet you man good to see you hi hi nice welcome to leeds so this is top secret oh yeah this is the top secret lab dub secret lab hello everyone this is the team here oh wow yeah welcome guys way this was like um this is an old piano that we're using as a test bed for for the parts um it's actually from a mark 7 piano which had a really nice action um so this is a max 7 piano yeah this is a this is the insides of a rosemary 7. um and the the black cameras here are new hammers that we using the market and the white ones are the the original mark seven hammers wow see we're doing we did a few experiments on here we were trying different put a little stop in here to stop keybounds and things like that so we basically used this as a test bed for to prove all the new parts before we started rolling them into bigger bulk orders so it was probably like two years of testing of parts uh you know just to make these hammers you're actually you deal on like a micron level it's like travel up and down in a in a linear way with a min you know minimal amount of side to side movement you know the old pianos would have a lot of the hammers would kind of go all over the place like when when they dropped down and so that basically every every part of this piano has been a project in itself right down to the last screw you know this is a marquee this is a mark eight the inside of a marquee yeah this is this yeah so all the other pianos that are in this room yeah of course yeah no way are you joking what what do you think wow you see we've almost completely killed all the keybounds uh it's just so snappy and like compared to an old one dude this feels like a ferrari you know what's surprising the the precision between keys the the alignment no gaps no slack yeah like yeah it's like solid the whole keyboard and the frame underneath it coming to us from a company called kluger in germany who are part of the steinway group so they make all the keyboards that you'll find like steinway concert grounds it's the same quality of workmanship and and materials that you'll find you know he's really shows man so if you pull a key out you know you'll see the the beauty of the workmanship you know for taking up they stamp these on the bottom and that's the company there so this is specially made for roads to our specifications so every key has its own number so every keyboard that's supplied to roads has it has a unique uh stamp on it serial number wow yeah so we can trace it to batches um and these are these pianos that you see in here these are literally the first 12 in the world in case you missed it these are the first 12 rhodes mark 8 in existence on the planet all right let's go what do i see there this one yeah this is a walnut based version of the piano so we have two versions that will be available to start with which is the okay that i'm getting hot yeah sorry i have to we haven't got any spring we haven't got any sprinklers our car switch now it's just the temperature is raising inside of my body oh the majority of the parts on this piano are all made in the uk by local local suppliers within an hour two hours of leads and a lot are actually made in leeds [Music] there's so much amazing industry for woodwork metal work the wood one is nuts it's definitely a nice piece for the studio isn't it [Music] it's one of the prototypes so there's still more work to do but um gives you an idea the electronics are prototypes at the minute so hence this long cable and everything but yeah you can see the precision of all the the parts and yeah wow so i can go through every single part and tell you where it's made you know as well i know i know it like like for example like how about like the tines for example so the times are made in leeds about a mile from here um the felts are made in lancashire the dampers are made in leeds the hammers are made in huddersfield plastic all the plastic parts so the dials the hammers the logos everything's made in huddersfield dude the action on this thing is guys give me objectives here it's it's super real until you feel it all you can equate it to is an old road but it's nothing it's not even in the same boat it feels like i'm i'm playing like a high quality piano with the feel of the roads this is nuts yeah nuts the shape of this front panel it's so classic in a way and so modern so how did you come out did you decide i'm gonna take the lines and how did you do that so we enlisted axel hartman you know axel who designed all the moog instruments and arturia instruments he was my first port of call i didn't know whether he'd be interested but when i first told axel he was just i remember him saying the hairs on that on my arms are standing up with a feeling that you just told me that i could be part of designing the new roads and it still is very reminiscent of a mark one it's definitely very reminiscent of the mark one but going into the future as well that's what we that's that represents the new roads is paying massive respect to the past but also taking it forward at the same time which is the whole remit of the instrument so on this panel we've got the volume obviously envelope is a is what an ottawa is that what it is so that's essentially that's an amount to the filter the the um the mid-range on the eq is actually a voltage control filter oh resonant filter so you can assign the envelope you can send the amount of keyboard signal that goes to that filter like you said like an ottawa wow and the drive obviously is a drive and uh yeah this is all completely analog so the the entire signal path is analog this is the the famous pan effect and then i see that you can choose different waves yeah so you got sine waves triangle this is a sort of ramp yeah an opposite ram yeah and square which is the original one and here you got compressor yep chorus face and delay yeah i need these are bucket brigade effects so these bucket brigade shapes the delay and the chorus the compress is kind of like a classic like a bus compressor that you'd find in like a classic kind of mixing desk can i take a look to the black one yeah sure black looks slick it looks nice isn't it full black another lid which is kind of like a classic roads lid really yeah yeah and and it's great because you can actually lay other keyboards on top of it yeah it's completely flat on the top okay and also we have this kind of grill in the back where there'll be like an upgrade pack where you can specify leds to go under the lid and it will light up the badge at the back as well so i am about to see my actual unit being built that is correct which one is it it's this one this beauty over here which is in progress that's my roads not set up yet and about to have hammer tips put on and all be regulated yeah we're just putting it together and this is the very first time i play it you ready yeah tell me that stevie's getting one oh steve stevie will be getting one yeah i'm sure so it can be any of those colors yeah there's a we've got a red one as well which we haven't got here all right so here's the question internet what color should i get in my roads you have to leave a comment here below and i really want to i want to see that right so that that that's how it should go right yeah yeah you choose it for me so this is the translucent smoked translucent as well which is nice this is the first prototype one that we did that's pretty sick yeah wait didn't you tell me that on the website i can do a mock-up yeah mocha time internet let's choose my rose now look at that so if we make it red that's sick to the bone look at that um bottom shell let's i think oh can i say that's classy black and wood all right is that the one all right you think i don't know i i don't know i have to listen to the internet i i have to check with you guys you know everyone knows about my fixation for red yeah red isn't bad either black and red is pretty sweet or it can be also what transparent transparent and wood is pretty significant as well now you can change the front panel there as well oh oh you can make it all black yeah and you can put the effects on as well if you want effects of course i want the effects obviously yeah oh and you can change the stand between black or chrome as well at the bottom black or silver or classic chrome yeah so the stand looks like the old rose legs but it's actually a stand self-contained in itself when you pick a any of the colored lids the pedal goes along with it goes along with it as well so it's coordinated to match yeah so what do you say is it time that we uh play these roads yeah yeah i was playing all right let's do it that room through here oh [Laughter] what yeah that's from 2010 that's a marvel movie yeah [Music] 1984 this one i remember chikoria using this on the electric band tour that's right he had one of only three that were made by rosa had midi yeah yeah yeah he had a midi output on it i have yeah to be fair this one hasn't this one's hardly been played it's like almost it's factory fresh it's still really clean inside listen the keys are so light yeah about one mark one that's 1970 79 yeah wobbly yeah super wobbly but great instrument but then and then i'm okay [Music] so [Music] you [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] see you later [Music] so [Music] so [Music] really [Music] wow [Music] wow [Music] do [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] dude i'm i'm speechless this is this is incredible i don't think i've ever played a better road than this he'll go right up and here's the moment i realized that this guy was a serious keyboard player look at my face dan goldman who is a famous musician and record producer he has worked with here more chiba more more more more shiba and also was brutes maneuver and nightmares on wax there now you know so like right [Music] ring mod type stuff [Music] so on the next version of the firmware it goes so fast that it actually becomes a polyphonic oscillator which you can then lay with the rub so it becomes like a synth laid with the roads it's unbelievable wow [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] dan come here give me a hug man pleasure thank you for coming such a pleasure thank you so much if i ever thought in my life that this would happen one day my mind boggles and it's such a great feeling playing with you too thank you man likewise yeah great to have you it leads and uh show you the mark eight guys i think that you have to keep an eye on the roads i'm going to leave a link in the description and remember to tell me which color i should get it because i'm really undecided go around nice one

Channel: Doctor Mix

Views: 71,015

Keywords: Rhodes, MK8, Electric Piano, Rhodes Music Group, Dan Goldman, JD73, Claudio Passavanti

Id: 42e5HuHLrsQ

Length: 24min 31sec (1471 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2021