DealsIf you've listened to any western music over the last 50 or so years, you've heard the Fender Rhodes electric piano.
The perfect accompaniment to musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles etc., the Rhodes is essentially the sound of 70s pop music.
Here's the essential list of free Rhodes VST plugins:
- Keyzone Classic
- Mr.Ray
- Clavia Lab
- DSK Elektrik Keys
- EP-Station by BigTick
- 4Front R-Piano
- NoiseAsh Sweet Case
- Big Blue Piano by Daniel Smith Music
- MDA E-Piano
- LazySnake
- DSK Rhodez
Contents
Keyzone Classic
Bitsonic's KeyZone Classic is one of the most well-known free piano plugins. Available for both Windows and Mac, KeyZone features one of the best free fender rhodes electric piano tones.
In addition to the Fender Rhodes, you also get a Steinway Grand, Yamaha Grand, Basic Electric Piano and the Keyzone 1 Piano.
How Does It Sound?
KeyZone Classic is a sampled instrument, which was recorded using real instruments and professional mics. The audio quality is great, and with some added processing can start feeling very real and organic.
The rhodes sound is very warm and thick, sounding extremely close to the original Fender piano.
Our Thoughts
KeyZone Classic is a nice collection of different pianos. It's impossible to pass up, since it's free. The sound quality is also great, and we find ourselves reaching for KeyZone Classic quite often.
KeyZone Classic by Bitsonic absolutely deserves your attention.
Mr.Ray
Mr. Ray is an awesome free Electric Piano VST, designed to emulate the sound of the 70s.
With Mr.Ray, you can reproduce the sound of a Wurlitzer, as well as the Fender Rhodes electric piano.
In addition to this, the control you get over your sound is inspiring, with creative effects like phasers and tremolo, you can customize your sound however you want it!
How Does It Sound?
Mr.Ray is designed to recreate the imperfections of these vintage instruments.
The mallets and noise can be individually controlled. Additionally, you can change the age of your instrument, which will further increase the amount of imperfection you'll hear.
The awesome growl feature can also create some interesting overtone effects.
Our Thoughts
With an inspiring amount of variety and customizability, this is a great option for most of your electric piano necesities.
It's said that you'll never hear the exact sound twice, and we believe it, the playability and organic quality of this plugin makes it one of the best free Rhodes VST plugins.
Clavia Lab
Unlike the VST instruments on our list previously, Clavia Lab is a digital emulation VST, rather than a multi-sampled electric piano.
That being said, Clavia Lab is an inspiring electric piano vst. With 4 switchable waveforms, you can create entirely unique electric piano tones.
How Does It Sound?
Clavia Lab uses experimental techniques to recreate the complex harmonic content, that's characteristic of an Electric Piano
The added modulation and tone distortion makes the sound even more pleasant.
Lastly, you can also use a wah-wah effect, for more 70s vibes.
Our Thoughts
Sometimes however, Clavia Lab can feel almost like a caricature of an Electric Piano, so we tend to use it with plenty of processing.
While it's not our go-to, for an authentic Fender Rhodes sound, it has it's place in your toolkit. Offering a more creative look at the Electric Piano, Clavia Lab is inspiring, if, a little cheesy.
DSK Elektrik Keys
The DSK Elektrik Keys is another banger from the developer, offering a whole lot of stuff, in a small, free package.
With 13 waveforms, a full ADSR section, a Delay and Flanger, as well as de-tune and more, Elektrik Keys offers a lot of control. In addition to this, Elektrik Keys is essentially two Fender Rhodes pianos together.
How Does It Sound?
DSK's Elektrik Keys comes with a decent amount of presets, some of them weaker than others, but some tweaking and processing later, these can start sounding awesome.
In addition to this, layering both voices together can create really thick and realistic classic vintage piano tones
Our Thoughts
DSK's Elektrik Keys is one of our favorites on this list, offering great modeling of the physical hardware, with plenty of features, and layering.
While the interface may look a bit dated, any user can easily pick it up and start using it right away.
EP-Station by BigTick
EP-station uses FM modeling, to emulate and recreate classic vintage electric pianos. Available for both Windows and Mac, EP-station is an interesting plugin.
The interface can be confusing at times, but the included tremolo, phaser, stereo chorus and auto-pan effects help it out massively.
How Does It Sound?
The sound is made by mixing 3 raw electric piano FM models, and effecting that, to create the final output. EP-Station also includes a bunch of presets, which are hit and miss. Most of them tend to sound quite cheap, but there's some good ones ther too.
Moving away from presets however, you can't expect the most realistic sound out of this vst plug in. It might be best for more creative EP sounds, rather than trying to replicate a classic fender rhodes piano.
Our Thoughts
EP-Station just looks bad, sorry to say it so bluntly, but it's just what it is. Probably designed for more advanced users, the interface and control can be less than intuitive.
That being said, the sound of this keyboard plugin isn't all that bad. This won't replace your multi-sampled plugins, but will be a nice creative tool to use.
4Front R-Piano
The 4Front R-Piano is both a synthesized and sampled Free Rhodes VST plugin.
With a filter, ADSR envelope and dynamics section, you get enough control with R-Piano to adjust your tone how you want it.
Available for both Windows and Mac OS,
How Does It Sound?
The synthesized part of R-Piano sounds quite good and with the added samples, manages to replicate the sound of a Fender Rhodes, quite closely.
With harder velocities creating characteristic growls and overtones, this reminds us of a vintage Wurlitzer or Rhodes piano.
Our Thoughts
While you don't get much in terms of effects, the sound of R-Piano is great, offering a lot of the qualities associated with a Rhodes Piano. While the interface is a 2006 free-ware throwback, it's easy to use, and never crashes or freezes.
The combination of Synthesized and Sampled sounds, makes the 4Front R-Piano an awesome Free Rhodes VST plugin.
NoiseAsh Sweet Case
The Sweet Case by NoiseAsh is a beautiful plug in. Available for both Windows and Mac OS users, this free rhodes VST sounds and feels incredible.
The control options on the Sweet Case are limited, however, the plugin revels in it's simplicity, and excels with it's warm and fuzzy sound.
How Does It Sound?
Warm and fuzzy, this realistic rhodes sound is awesome to use. With really good sound quality, you don't need to endlessly tweak this rhodes VST, to get a good sound.
All samples used were recorded and mixed with vintage analog gear, tube saturators, eq's and compressors, with tons of velocity layers.
Our Thoughts
The interface of Sweet Case is great, it's 3d and just looks stunning. While the control options you get are limited, this is one of the best sounding free rhodes vst plugins you can get.
Add your favorite effects after and you'll have an incredibly rhodes piano sound, to use in your music.
Big Blue Piano
The Big Blue Piano by Daniel Smith Music is a Windows-only virtual electric piano, developed with the JUICE open-source framework.
With a minimal interface, it's awesome to get an instant electric piano sound, without any tweaking necessary. With full after-touch support as well as a great sound, this is an awesome little free vst plugin.
How Does It Sound?
While it's not a one-to-one recreation of the Fender Rhodes, it's similar enough, to get out your 70s vibes.
In terms of control, other than your keyboard, there is none, no ways to shape your sound or adjust effects or anything else.
Our Thoughts
Big Blue Piano is a super simple free vst plugin. Reminiscent of “one-knob” style plugins, this is just a keyboard and nothing else.
Sometimes you need such simplicity, to not get bogged down in unnecessary detail, so Big Blue Piano is a yes from us.
MDA E-Piano
The MDA E-Piano is a synthesized Fender Rhodes VST plugin. Modelled around 12 meticulously sampled and mastered Rhodes samples, the MDA E-Piano has a unique sound.
The interface is lacking, to say the least, but the functionality and sound of the E-Piano can become quite dreamy and soft.
How Does It Sound?
Since the MDA EPiano is a synthesized instrument, you don't get any of the classic Fender Rhodes character. But the sound of E-Piano is awesome.
Dropping a reverb or delay unit on this is a sure-fire way to get awesome, dreamy EP atmospheres.
The muffling filter also helps, to ground the sound more, creating a more organic character.
Our Thoughts
E-Piano looks like trash, there, we said it. We hate seeing plugins that sound as awesome as this, look so ugly and uninviting.
That being said, at the end of the day, it's all about sound, and the MDA E-Piano sure can sound really good.
LazySnake
Excellent for more mellow piano tones, the LazySnake by Andreas Ersson is a quality Rhodes free vst plugin. Available for both Windows and Mac OS, LazySnake may not be close to a real Rhodes sound, but considering there's no physical modeling involved, this is a great little piano.
Added to the standard controls are a self oscillating wah as well as a tremolo, which can be easily adjusted and tweaked.
How Does It Sound?
LazySnake is a software emulation of an Electric Piano. While it's not advertised to be a free Rhodes vst plugin, it sounds really close.
LazySnake has a mellow sound, which makes it awesome for more subtle virtual emulation tones. That being said, it can start to feel a bit robotic and cheesy at times, so don't expect to have the most realistic and organic model emulation out there.
Our Thoughts
LazySnake is great, the interface isn't bad and you can model some great electric piano tones, from a Rhodes, to a Wurlitzer.
Great for soul and lounge music, these mellow tones can be a great addition to your music.
DSK Rhodez
The second entry of a DSK plug in on our list, the DSK Rhodez is specifically modeled after a Fender Rhodes.
With 6 different rhodes variations, a full ADSR section, HP and LP filters as well as reverb, chorus and flanger, the DSK Rhodez is one of the best free electric piano vst plugins.
Sadly, Rhodez is only available for Windows machines, so if you're a Mac OS user, you're out of luck.
How Does It Sound?
While the DSK Rhodez may not have the roughness and warmth of a vintage rhodes, the airy qualities of DSK Rhodez makes it an awesome secondary piano.
That being said, you still get the awesome velocity sensitive growls and overtones, that a Rhodes is so known for.
Our Thoughts
Another victim of horrible interface-itis, the DSK Rhodez just doesn't look good. That being said, looking past the artifical, this plugin can sound really great, especially with some reverb.
The DSK Rhodez is perfect for a backing piano, offering a nice pad like quality and versatility with the added effects.
Finishing Up
Whether you're looking for the most realistic virtual instrument, or creative free vst plugins, to add to your piano vst collection, we hope you've found something new on our list.
If you enjoyed this list, we have more awesome plugin lists you can check out below!
Toms is a music producer & DJ, born and raised in Post Soviet Latvia. Currently based in Brighton, Toms has had over 6 years of experience with all things production and in that time, he's done a tonne of cool stuff! He's played multiple festivals, had experience in the field with mixing & mastering and even become a freelance journalist in the music industry.
Toms currently creates music under the alias Sovereign. Producing music that's intimate and subtle, while full of edge and energy, the young producer combines the artistic sounds of Trip Hop artists like Massive Attack, with the energy and youthfulness of producers like Flume, Jamie XX and Yaeji. You can check his stuff on Soundcloud.
