Rhodes Piano + MIDI + Ableton Live + Live Looping

Reader Alex Hoteck shared this looping keyboard jam, featuring a custom custom 1971 Fender Rhodes Suitcase, with a built-in spring reverb and MIDI.

Here’s what Hoteck has to say about the technical details:

“In this video, the looping and instrument switching was pre-programmed in MIDI envelopes. The Rhodes sound is the real audio from the piano. The rest of the sounds are instruments and samples included in Live Suite. The wireless Numark Orbit makes a brief appearance for a sick filter sweep.

Gear Used:

  • 1971 Fender Rhodes 73 Suitcase with MIDI and built-in stereo spring reverb
  • 2010 Apple Macbook Pro
  • Ableton Live Suite 9
  • Presonus Firestudio Audio Interface
  • Numark Orbit Wireless MIDI controller
  • SKB 2U Studio Flyer Rack Case

Hoteck directed the 2016 film True Sound: The Vintage Vibe Story, which won best college documentary at the Garden State Film Festival. He’s now working at Vintage Vibe, producing videos and other digital media.

There’s a blog post at their site that details the creation of this custom piano.

4 thoughts on “Rhodes Piano + MIDI + Ableton Live + Live Looping

  1. Nice, i wonder how he handles the latency the looper introduces, i can´t get usable results if i use external gear to be looped because the looper is before the latency compensation, hm …

    1. Ay Tom! I can get relatively low latency using the Presonus Firestudio Audio Interface. I believe I was working with an in/out sample rate of 44,100, and a buffer size of 64 samples. Ableton registered an input and output latency of less than 5 ms for sure. After filmming this video I started using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, with that I can get i/o latency of less than 4 ms. From what I understand, it’s all about the quality of the drivers used.

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