Pros and Cons
If you’re looking for a realistic Fender Rhodes piano VST, the Arturia Stage 73 V2 is a must. With matching effects, amp simulations, and voicing and tuning options, you get much more than just the authentic sound of the beloved vintage electric piano.
Many still avoid physical modeling technology altogether, often underestimating software tools because of their “synthetic” origins. In recent years, however, this technology has undergone a massive developmental leap. The Arturia Stage 73 V2 obviously benefits from this and sounds much better than its predecessor.
Anyone who owns an original Fender Rhodes from the ’60s or ’70s has formed a deep bond with their instrument over the decades. However, the unique and vibrant sound and playability of mechanical sound production often go hand in hand with several weaknesses, resulting in a love-hate relationship.
The keyboard, the hammer action, the dampers, the tines, and the tone bars all need care – and last but not least, a good Rhodes needs a repair kit with spare parts. You also need a good preamp, effects, and ideally a tube amp, preferably a Fender Twin Reverb.
The Arturia Stage 73 V2 combines all this in a single plug-in or standalone program, including voicing options to create custom Rhodes sounds. While the voicing features are well worth exploring, there are also plenty of presets to get you started right away.
The Stage 73 V2 considers both versions: With four metal legs and a sustain pedal, the Stage is certainly the most common design. On the other hand, the Suitcase sits on top of a solid amplifier box and is basically the deluxe version of a Rhodes electric piano. It has a 2-band tone control, while the Stage only has a tone as well as bass boost control.
The Suitcase also emulates the preamp and the stereo tremolo known as “vibrato”, which also gives it its characteristic sound. The settings in the main menu are pleasingly simple – but the presets reveal that the Arturia Stage 73 V2 can do more, much more.
The Arturia Stage 73 V2 is not only authentic in sound but also authentically flexible. Whether soft, rocky, percussive, bell-like, or smooth, the Rhodes sound is extremely versatile. If you want to tweak the sound yourself, you will find all the functions you need in the Advanced section.
Handling is simple, as the seven models already provide the most important characteristic sounds. For further refinement, you can adjust the mechanical, noise, and acoustic parameters to influence the dynamics of the sound.
This schematic diagram describes the relations quite well. The distance between the pickups and the orientation of the pickups determines the basic sound. The shorter the distance between the reed and the pickup, the stronger and richer the sound. Pickup alignment determines the angle of the reed in the magnetic field of the pickup; the smaller the value, the softer the sound. The higher the value, the more nasal the basic sound becomes, until finally, the octave dominates the overtone mix.
The two sound samples show how the pickup distance affects the sound. It is the same initial sound – first with a wide pickup distance, which produces a softer basic sound. The hammer noise becomes a bit more pronounced, giving a slightly woody sound to the attack. You can also find this timbre in some Mark I Rhodes from the ’60s.
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For the next example, only the distance between the pickup and the reed has been changed. It is now smaller than in the previous example. Even with the softer notes at the beginning, you can hear that the attacks have more grip. On the other hand, the louder notes become almost brittle, and the sound becomes denser and a bit creaky at the end. It doesn’t go into overdrive though.
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You can also adjust the damper behavior – this goes for both the decay time and volume of the damper noise. The Tine Noise parameter adds the typical Rhodes bell-like tone to the sound. The more of this, the more bell-like or wiry the sound will be, depending on the pickup settings. The parameters influence each other, which takes some getting used to. Fear not, for you will soon get the hang of it. And turning up the Tone Bar resonance makes the sound even more wiry. If you love the crystal clear Dyno Rhodes, go all out on this parameter.
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If you are looking for maximum voicing flexibility, you may miss the note-by-note editing offered by Modartt Pianoteq or the Rhodes V8 Pro. However, the virtual Rhodes voicing on the Stage 73 V2 is very well implemented, and the focus here is certainly on ease of use – and last but not least, a reasonable price compared to the two aforementioned competitors.
A Rhodes sound really comes to life through the use of effects – this is where Arturia’s modeling quality comes into its own: Be it chorus, tape delay, analog delay, phaser, flanger, chorus, or wah pedal, the effects all sound really good and authentic. The glitch effects of the tape echo are simply amazing, and the analog delay modulation gives you fantastic BBD-style chorus effects.
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There are six effect slots, allowing you to combine up to four stomp-box effects units, each with a choice of 13 authentic effects. There are two additional effect sections for reverb (from plate to spring reverb) and amp simulation. The latter distinguishes between Twin Amp (Fender Twin Reverb) and Rotary Speaker. I’m thrilled with the amp simulation, which includes tremolo and spring reverb. Awesome!
Excellent! The Arturia Stage 73 V2 is a high-quality Fender Rhodes electric piano simulation. While the previous version was not really convincing, the quality here is much better. The Stage 73 V2 shows how much potential there is in a well-made physical modeling sound generation.
The Arturia electric piano is extremely dynamic and produces a wonderfully warm and rich sound. Anyone less than convinced by physical modeling instruments in the past should give this modeled Rhodes a chance. In addition to the very well-structured voicing options, the excellently modeled vintage effects and amp simulation of this piano VST are the icing on the cake.
Release date: 05.2022
Platform: Standalone, VST2/3, AU, AAX, MacOS (10.13+), Win 8.1 (64-bit)
System Requirements: Low
Manufacturer/Distributor: Arturia/Tomeso
The price of just below 150 Euros is almost cheap considering the quality you get – but the Stage 73 V2 is also available as part of the current Arturia V-Collection. As one of the largest collections of synthesizers and keyboards, this is a no-brainer anyway.
Pros and Cons
Jörg Sunderkötter
The Arturia electric piano is extremely dynamic and produces a wonderfully warm and rich sound.
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