Pitched Electric Celeste
The ultra rare Fender Rhodes Electric Celeste beguilingly pitch shifted...
The story
I’m a type one consumer, an impulse buyer, but I’m not worried about that, most people are. Reverb chased me around the net advertising this thing, the Fender Rhodes Electric Celeste. BUT is it ACTUALLY a celeste or just a small and very rare Rhodes? Check out the video to find out more.
Interface
Reviews
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Warm and powerful celeste sound
The sound is very warm yet so powerful! Below C2 or c3.. not sure the international standard the sound of C has a strong taste which I liked : Upper range has a gentle and stable e-celeste sound which is nice to mix with other libraries.
Dark Ear Candy
This instrument is a nice treat to have at your disposal when you are looking for those darker tones. Although, when playing full chords it can get fairly muddy at times. Overall, I'd say this instrument would be great for those composers needing a little ear candy in the background of the music.
Very Pretty and Gentle
Nice smooth celeste sound, thanks for uploading.. just wished the GUI would of featured that lovely vintage orange color!
Was hoping for a sound similar to the video
It's worth picking up and having a go, I probably won't use it in my compositions. I was hoping for more attack and definition. I will continue to play around with it, the sound is darker and lower than a typical celeste.
Not what I expected, but cool
I thought it would sound a little bit more like a Celeste. Or a bit more like an electric guitar. It's still a cool, sine-y kind of patch. Mellow and moody. Would likely take well to some more effects.
I like it, I'm just not sure how much I'd use it.
I'm not sure how useable this would be within the context of a thick piece of music, due to the specific timbre of the sound. But it does give you either haunting or very delicate beautiful textures that I've found work best in sparse moments within a piece of music. It's not quite what I imagined having watched Christian's video first, but it's nice nonetheless!
Couldn't stop playing those low notes!
First word that came into my head upon first playing this pack: "Merry-go-round". Favourite chord to play with this pack: Ab Major. Having watched the video for this sample pack, I really wasn't expecting the sounds that came out of this pack. I was happily noodling until I accidentally went a bit low and then BOOM there they were. Gorgeous low notes which I fell in love with and kept going back to. I'm not sure that this was the point of this pack but it worked for me. I think I would have liked a cleaner sound than the one we get here, I couldn't seem to get the clean sounds from the video.
Something haunting to it...
My kinda sound after tweaking the reverb and release way up. Something haunting to the sound. Love it!
Start of a journey...
Sample pack was quite good, actually... I mean, it's a simple enough instrument to begin with anyway... no bells and whistles, and I like that because I can add my own bells and whistles in my actual projects. Nothing to do with the sample pack but I just wanted to say that, as someone new to Decent Sampler I find it to be fit for purpose. Normally I would use Kontact, but it appears that Decent Sampler is used a lot at pianobook, so I felt it was essential to sell my soul give my e-mail address to Decent Sampler. apologies for the low-ish star rating... I followed the "what the stars mean" guide and I have tried to rate according to that guide and how this sample pack will work for me personally. cheers, and thank you so much pianobook, the founders and all the content providers, you are awesome andy
Really Solid!
Good sound quality, nice interface, reverb sounds really good! All around, a really good sample!
The Rhode to distortion
A fun instrument, with lots of potential when it comes to processing the samples. I personally am not as inspired by the out of the box sound, but mangle it up a bit and it is quite fun. That being said, I do love the extremely high end on its own with its sci fi bell esthetic.
Waiting for the real release
When will we see a solid sample collection of this amazing piece of kit from SF? ;
It couldn't be any other way....
If I dropped the price of a small house or big car on an orange keyboard, and it turned out to be as delightful as the video reveals, I, too, would be reluctant to share a sample pack of such quality as to undermine the original investment. And who could blame you, Christian. Well, me, obviously, but that would be churlish. It's a perfectly ok sample pack, drenched in a bit of reverb and some eq. But it ain't a Fender Rhodes Celeste!! A niche sound, but somewhat lacking in character.
Ok
This is ok, but not what I was expecting, especially after seeing CH's video. But I guess Christian wants to keep the real magic for himself who can blame him, hence this pitch shifted version.
Something special!
I really like the sound because I think it's quite unique. I love the low end and the really high frequencies because it sounds kind of spacy. However I think the attack wheel doesn't work in DS and the tone wheel only responds in the first tenth but could be that it is some issue on my side
Disappointed
I was really disappointed in this especially cause christian is so brilliant and has such a great ear but it just kind of sounds like a very short sine wave type bell with no sustain, I thought it would have a nice resonant bell like sound like a celeste and if i recall, in christians video it did kind of sound like that, I feel like this sample doesn't sound like it did in his video. This is just my personal feeling about the instrument, I know christian knows a million times more than me and i love most of that he does
Unique Sounding Instrument
Nice little wobbly instrument which is full of character.
Too processed
I was very excited about this sample pack after watching the video on it; I did not realize it would be so sampled. Quite frankly I would prefer a clean sample of the celeste I find that all this processing just takes away the character of the intrument.
Henson's greatest instrument
I was blown away by the amount of emotion this instrument can evoke. Appart from the mediocre to good GUI, the playability, the settings offered, the sound, and pretty much everything about this wonderfully done instrument is amazing. I also admire Christian's effort of making it for DecentSampler, offering such perfection to everyone. People need to grasp this opportunity and set for themselves quality fundamental instruments,and possibly kickstart hidden carreers.
Oooooh YES! What a bass what a mids and what a highs!
This is killer! This sound is just stunning. Really love the all the bass notes with small tone and lot of reverb. I would welcome more sound editing options like vibe, tremolo, overdrive etc....also knobs should be more responsive. But overall this is amazing sounding and ispiring instrument.
LOL These comments are what you get Mr. Henson when you teach people how to comment critically
I enjoyed it. It was supposed t be unique, not the end-all be-all instrument. I enjoy softer sounds, so I will most definitely be using this. Thanks Mr. Henson!
Lo-fi keys
Honestly not the sound I was expecting at all out of something with the rhodes name. This keyboard is very soft and almost has a lofi vibe to it, reminds me of a patch you'd find on a ROMpler not a bad thing. Worth checking out if looking for some unique soft electric keys :
I-magine!
Keith Jarrett has a nocturnal mid-summer dream. The grand piano is lost and only the electro-mechanical whispers of Middle Earth remain to entice his fingers. The playing yearns for staccato at dizzying tempi, but his disobeying fingers desire long release and warm held spaces.
Wait for more
Despite it's based on an ultra rare instrument, the sound produced by this pack lacks of character ... A more deeply sampled one should probably be more "Alive"....In my opinion Samples are way too short to do justice for the RAREST Keyboard In The World!
Soft heart with character
I really enjoyed watching Christian's video about this instrument, so I definitely had to download this library and I found it really matches the emotions that we feel when we touch with our fingers a rare and peculiar instrument, as Christian did in his video. It's a soft, delicate sound and yet full of character. Some small issues the attack knob not working properly, some notes sounding a bit more "weird" than others, which however do not interefere with playability and enjoyability too much. I definitely recommend it. Thanks Christian!
The Instrument To Use When You Don't Want People To Notice It?
I watched and loved Christian's video about the purchase and unboxing of this enigma, so I am definitely primed to look for and find the things I enjoy about this instrument: This instrument is mellow, almost to the point of sounding like a sine wave - though still rather musical. It spans the entire breadth of the keyboard without sounding too artifact-y at any point, which is remarkable. I concur with similar comments about portions of the lower registers - roughly D2 to B2 - sounding boomy and woofy. Below that, though, I was really surprised by the clear and strong bass... "it's a fcking celeste", after all, right?! It also appears that the "Attack" knob doesn't affect the sound; I can really picture a smoother attack making this into an interesting pad, and hopefully this is just a small oversight that can be addressed. I can picture myself using this instrument, not as a star performer, but as an ensemble player, doubling parts to add energy - without anyone other than me ever really knowing that it was there.
Pitched Electric Celeste: Warm but Bassy Beauty
A warmer, relaxed voicing with a surprisingly characteristic low-end. If you're looking for spacey bass or arpeggiated goodness then this instrument should be locked in your sights. The sound of the instrument is good and the signal is clear. The sound is short with no kind of noticeable release but comes with a reverb that needs to be tuned to fit your mix or it'll become too muddy. On certain notes, there's sometimes the sound of what I'm presuming is a fingernail hitting a key, which may be irritating to mix or filter out with EQ but perfect for an intimate, up-close performance. I created a demo with the instrument which focuses on arpeggiated rhythms, so because of that, it adds a percussive nature to the sound. With no surprise from Christian's love for low-end bass, the nature of the original Fender Rhodes being pitched down leaves it with strong and concrete bass frequencies - combined with its synth timbre, it's a charming sound with a wavy feel to it, making it grander than your typical sine bass. With the in-house reverb, you may need to compress and EQ the sound to fit your liking and the sounds around it. This instrument is formatted into Decent Sampler, so the UI is very plug-and-play, as well as playing it just like you would a piano. Overall, this short noted synth can bring an other-worldly texture into your palette and your low-end crafting.
Simple and effective.
I really like this. Not too complex which allows for immediate playability. Works for me.
An expensive grab!
Having watched the YouTube video of Mr Henson getting this instrument and seeing him touch it for the first time I am so confused as to which this is still. Having listened and played this through my headphones the higher registers have a very nice quality to the sound which isn't to sharp in my opinion however it is, in my opinion a very niche instrument, which I know, Mr Henson loves, its not my bag personally but I know someone will love to play around with this and it may well come in handy one day, for a little motif over the top of something, maybe and spooky bit of music as it is soon to become Halloween at some point. Gret job on the recording of it though!
Nice Sound But Lacking EQ Clarity
A little too dark and muddy to fit in a mix well straight out the box. Would love for this to be re-sampled with a brighter pre/eq/harmonic combination.
Expectation not met
Having heard this played in the video, I was expecting something more. I found the upper register lackluster and the mid and lower end very boomy. I'd have to work this over with an EQ to make it fit a mix.
Interesting but limited sound
First off, definitely sounds like a Celeste if it had already been run through a reverb module, at least to my ears. It's a very dampened sound, that would work better in the background of a larger piece, I couldn't find anything that made it stand out on its own, but it definitely has a lovely quality. The sound itself is pristine, only hiccups I found were when I turned the tone knob to a value somewhere between 2000 and 60. Aside from that, I think this would be a lovely instrument to thicken up a mix, but don't think you can make it stand out without heavy adjustment of the sound with other plugins/effects.
Didn't do it for me...
An interesting piece of history... But no MIDI Controllers, unfortunately - I can add them if you want! There are a couple of errors in the .dspreset file - it has a LoVel value of zero, which is a MIDI Note Off - It should be '1', and 'tuning' is not spelled correctly.
Gleeful Celeste
I didn't need a Celeste, but I need this one. Great sounds and will fill in a lot of interesting detail in hopefully more of our music. This physical instrument is rare - so would not have been used in many scores or music, but now with a quality virtual instrument available, certainly will start to show up. Thanks to CH for sharing this one.
It's a fucking Celeste!
See above :-... A2, A2♯, B2, G3, G3♯ and B3 have slightly different velocity/attack characteristics to the rest of the keyboard I found...also the lower octaves of the keyboard seem louder when played at the same velocity as the upper keys...
Unheard Magic
I never knew that Fender made this kind of instrument and I have to say, I absolutely love it! I think its usable in Drama as it is in Horror & Scary Szenarios but also as a "backpocket-sound" as I call it, which means It sits well in the background and does very well with lots of splosh. So amazing Instrument as always and watch the video on CH Youtube channel! if you haven´t already watched it. -JS
Inspiring for us guitar pedal users!!!
It seems to want to be distorted, mangled, and Spaced out!! I love the tone but all I hear are the credit rolls and intros!! Thanks so much for this and this site... Now for a new adventure on learning how to produce my imagination into existence!!
Wonderful!
Lovely tone that will find itself adding character to all sorts of different inspirations.
