Recreating Stevie Wonder's Keyboard Sound

Preview of the keyboard lecture from the Jack Stratton Mixing Masterclass.
Enroll in the full course here: vulf.co/p/mixing
(use code BLACKFRIDAY for 25% off until end of year)

[@bensoohoo659]

Jack doing a Stevie Wonder tone speed run is the most impressive things I have seen in a long time. Not to mention, it's really accurate!

[@El_Villan0]

Now I want an entire community around tone matching speed runs, then for summoning salt to make a 2 hour video diving into the history

[@JerryWhiteheadIII]

Stevie Wonder is 100% on the Mount Rushmore of all-time great American artists. Just so damn smooth. "Sir Duke" followed by "I Wish" has got to be the best 1-2 punch on any album, ever.

[@rozkaz661]

"As" to "another star" is also insane for being on the same album as the above

[@rafiki_9562]

"Time" to "The Great Gig in the Sky"

[@spinaltap526]

Winning 3 Album of the Year Grammys in 4 years, capped off by that album, is just so crazy to think about.

[@bassplayerbyrne]

@@rafiki_9562stevie clears pink floyd imo

[@menriquez89]

if someone else had written “I wish“, then Stevie would’ve been mentioned in it

[@LWmusik]

at around 1:04 you can hear the rhodes hammers double hitting the tines, creating a laggy muted sound. In general, that means that the rhodes is set up poorly. It is a special and unique sound though - and I doubt any sample library will ever contain a "perfectly poorly setup" rhodes. This is why it's so much fun to play a real rhodes - you can change around all the stuff inside to create your very own rhodes sound. Just wanted to point that out because Jack said something like "those perfect rhodes don't even exist anymore!". They do! Pretty much every rhodes could be setup to sound like that :) And regarding preamps - there's no need for heavy modification to get a nice preamp, you can just tap out the direct output of the pickups and connect it to any preamp you want

[@keeffan49]

I thought of that as well. The sound of a real instrument is obviously hard to recreate in a simulation, regardless of how good the software is. On the other hand, Greg Phillinganes sounds just as good (or better!) with presets in the keyspace clip.

[@scarbee1]

When we created Scarbee Classic EP-88s we looked for a Rhodes with “used” dampers - that had a slight “damper kiss”. Our goal was to get the “sloppy” release sound of Patrice Rushen: Remind Me. For me that “life” was the perfect sound. ..With our previous Scarbee Mark 1 we setup keyboard with new dampers and the sound is more “factory-perfect”.

[@LWmusik]

@@scarbee1 cool, thanks for sharing!

[@Bitclef]

@@scarbee1 Holy cow you're actually the Scarbee account! This video made me buy that plugin! Thank you for all your great work!

[@scarbee1]

@@Bitclef Yeah its me.. Thanks for ysupporting my company.😃

[@Hexspa]

Gotta respect someone saying, “Mixing doesn’t matter,” while trying to sell you a mixing course. Might even sign up now.

[@laylover7621]

Such a g for putting up these previews. Jack has such a contagious massive passion for music

[@geraldheffel]

Truly so exciting for all involved.

[@tykuresa22]

One of my favorite songs. Thanks for the sneak peak in the genius of this stuff

[@TheMujiFuji]

Epic. Big fan of the high nerd level content. Well done indeed!

[@An_Arbitrary_Miscellany]

He really does specialize in everything.

[@dy5682]

But nobody hires him...

[@jrector04]

I have the scarbee EP88. I got into keyboards and digital recording late in life, and don’t have unlimited time to pour into the hobby. Videos like this are very helpful.

[@tom_something]

This was really fun to follow along with. I'm still very much getting started on learning the ropes to this stuff. I enjoyed listening to the comparisons as the MIDI sound evolved and trying to guess what Stratton was going to do next. This was so genuinely, richly educational that now I'm actually thinking he may have been serious about that underwater thing. What brand of nose clip was he using again? I want to get the best possible mix.

[@tim5749]

Jack currently I am going to wait to purchase this course, but I hope to one day. Love your creative energy and have always looked up to you. I love how you show off how mixing is a mix of creativity and science, and I love to see the combination and interplay of that. Thanks for this video!

[@WILLIFM.]

classic jack stratton line

[@RobertMargouleff]

Close but no cigar!❤

[@aidanknight]

😮

[@WILLIFM.]

let’s see you do it, old man! 😉😉

[@xelaalvarez]

what was the original chain you used back then? thanks

[@zsomalino]

Wow, just an hour after Jack puts this batman symbol on the sky batman actually shows up! Mad respect Bob!

[@infinitemonkeyproject]

Whoa there he is!

[@TheLivirus]

Mixing is just a black box for me. An absolute joy to watch a pro work.

[@baptistec.4546]

Trust in your ears is the only secret. There’s a famous maker called Jimmy Diresta who says « if it looks straight, it is straight ». I think he’s absolutely right and you can apply this to sound. If you feel it sounds good, it sounds good 👍

[@mdhazeldine]

So glad I got to see Stevie live in Hyde Park a few years ago. Now I need to top it off and see Vulfpeck live :) Please come to London!

[@AJL200]

Agree 👍🏼 on both counts!

[@joshtomlinson8169]

these classes are so good! yall gotta bring vulf comp to ios homie for all of us ipad musicians

[@tiaanengelbrecht]

I Wish Rhodes Tone Speedrun (Any%) - 6:65 WR GG Jack!

[@danyomega1472]

That sounds amazing! Can you replicate Bernie Worrell's moog synth bass sound in Flashlight by Parliament?

[@micahstolfus5169]

Legendary synth sound

[@baptistec.4546]

That's precisely the process he's demonstrating here, and the role of this masterclass: to show how he achieves the sounds he loves, and to point us in the right direction. Take a Moog, a Worrell sampled sound, play the match EQ, processing, another match EQ for fine-tuning, and you should come up with a rewarding result . Tweaking is the key, that’s what he says 😊

[@twally87]

I think you were wrong initially when you said Stevie's had less low end. I think it just sounded that way before you had it eq'd because the grinding 'crunch' of the mechanical percussiveness really cuts through the mix and stands out so much it masked the underlying bass. Upon your final comparison Stevie's still had that warmth intact.

[@flakoka44]

Bravo!!! more Vulftutorial Jack!

[@cowbellthunder]

Mixing may not matter, but Stevie Wonder definitely sounds funkier through the Firefox browser.

[@jessetimmmiller1870]

Dudes in the San Fernando Valley tricking out the Fender Rhodes... Ken Rich comes to mind. Thanks for the video!

[@jaywalker1233]

OK, so you’ve recreated (brilliantly!) a few bars of a Stevie Wonder riff with your considerable knowledge, effort + time. Now imagine the gargantuan task facing the team of composer/arrangers who were tasked with notating the complete 1973 Innervisions album (no score exists) and then recreating and arranging the entire soundscape of the original recording *just by listening to the album* . And doing all of this in just a few months in order to enable a handpicked assembly of world class acoustic and electronic instrument players and singers (Cory Henry, Stanley Randolph, Jules Buckley orchestra etc) to give a one-off never-to-be-repeated 2 hour live performance of the whole album plus more on 21 August 2023 (the 50th anniversary year) at the Royal Albert Hall in front of just 5,000 people (plus a few more on the live broadcast/stream). I was lucky enough to be there and don’t know how they delivered an impossible task with such outstanding brilliance.

[@edburns00]

Please do the keyboard bass from Boogie on Reggae Woman.

[@fragwagon]

Without glasses i read Steve Winwood. I was like, yes what is that lead sound! Feels weird to say I have to settle for Stevie Wonder's Rhodes

[@emj-music]

just plain awesome! thanks for sharin

[@papepcool]

Awesome sound designing skills

[@benharris1906]

God these videos are so great.

[@seanephram]

so damn thrilled you guys worked with mr_jackio on that ident 😭

[@Iconoplastt]

Jack is a wizard in the studio

[@oinkooink]

He mixes great music, played brilliantly by a highly cohesive unit of A1 musos. I mix mediocre, pedestrian stuff I record in my spare bedroom alone. I wonder if spending $200 odd on the course will help.

[@Clippers0507]

Thats some good work!

[@lukedominick7742]

Love that Dean Town is one of Jack’s recommended videos on KZbin

[@schultzvil]

Boy, I would love to see you do a Richard Tee episode of that same theme…

[@papa_pt]

Hahaha oh man I just stumbled on that "how it was made" clip a month ago. Stevie is a crazy genius

[@LennySugiono]

I bloody love this

[@MrIhateposting]

fucking love you jack Stratton....teaching while inspiring at the same time....DOPE AF!

[@ryanmelvey8764]

sounds like a really fun patch

[@sinewavealex]

It's almost identical buuuut If I'm nitpicking the only thing I'd personally change is the mechanical Rhodes screeching sound in Jack's version which is much more audible, I'm fairly sure it can be dialed back a notch in Scarbee itself, or so I think?

[@ErixSamson]

Super interesting, thanks

[@rockfree2639]

What a great guy!

[@defrigge]

I'm a bit late to the game and just detected this. Great job on nailing Stevie's Rhodes! Using the Scarbee 88 myself, my question is, if you used a factory preset as starting point (the basic sound you start with before adding compression and crunch). Any hint for basic settings or patch appreciated.

[@yuvalkarpovski5571]

You really are a genious man

[@emapage8914]

The final sound is really good but in my opinion is sounds a bit thin compared to the original, maybe it makes more sense in a final mix

[@TheRealCowlick]

Yeah the original has some weight and roundness in the midrange, while although bright in the top end, it seems quite more contained and smooth to listen to.

[@cesarcamacho2266]

more vulf and less tiltshift and you are good to go

[@loubamour]

too much compression too@@TheRealCowlick

[@synchronizerman]

I’d love a preset of this. Thanks for the tutorial.

[@rodri8419]

omg, you mastered that 💎 blaster

[@muffntheB]

what a wonderful day for canada and therefore the world truly exciting for all involved

[@kommissioned]

This is awesome

[@Usul]

Incredible.

[@carstenaltena]

Spot on!

[@Awildfjellman]

Now I'm excited, where do I get involved?

[@mazgan3890]

Nailed it.

[@Obscurity202]

In all fairness. Excellent work there bruv

[@joshmills754]

Dang. Wizardry ❤🎶🎹

[@BaBoUSoulChild]

wooooow amazing video

[@zepplondon]

Amazing

[@Journeymanlive]

sweet, the whole course on Logic ?? that'd be perfect.

[@pastor.adrian]

brilliant

[@cookerjam]

Mr jackio intros 😎

[@andreaperelli5323]

Damn nice job

[@josephpickard3108]

That was crazy.

[@harveydean7952]

One giant leap for Vulfkind.

[@fg87fgd]

Jack, great work. But did you miss to tackle this tiny stereo effect? Maybe I'm wrong, but I hear a wee bit of something like a Roland CE-1 in Stevie's sound.

[@mechasartre3694]

It’s probably a stereo tremolo from a Rhodes Janus (or similar) onboard preamp

[@facelessman7733]

Give it a touch more low-mid in that tilt-shift and it would be closer.

[@mdp303]

We need a Stevie plugin…think we might be waiting a lifetime for that one

[@flopasen]

you can hear all the strange harmonics coming off the tines like analog aliasing

[@mechasartre3694]

That’s the pick ups being super close in to the tines, and slightly above. The closeness drives the sound a little (only on hard strikes) and the tine being above the pick up centre increases the loudness of harmonics.

[@sonidojamon]

Nailed it

[@MattGlennSoundDesign]

Jack the Logic PRO!

[@amadeocupo]

I must protest the stock Logic Rhodes are lush!

[@pavelpodzimek1475]

take us home baby!

[@ts4gv]

(pro q 3 has a tilt shift too)

[@penja1646]

Do a tutorial on how we get your incredible video. Recreate the vulf colorgrade for me. please. I will pay lots of money.

[@jakehendriksen2841]

Great ears.

[@Yancho00]

Jack didn’t use his right thumb when playing

[@WILLIFM.]

you can't not laugh at 5:14

[@oinkooink]

I'm just glad he didn't use that O face for the video thumbnail like everybody else on the planet would.

[@txikitofandango]

Even though they did not always get the thang they were happy with the joy that it would brang

[@joe6281]

Musical genius

[@cultleaderglobal]

yeah

[@PedroPetracco]

Scarbee rules

[@mariusjacob877]

Hi Jack !

[@enzotorrente1032]

And hit the road ! :D

[@imothy]

only thing left is that leslie effect!

[@ghadymrad]

now the real question is: how do these WH-100XM4 (or 3?) headphones compare to studio headphones?

[@AlexK-jp9nc]

I have some and they are very good

[@mattconns626]

I have them as well. They're good for the office. If you have a controlled environment (i.e. quiet) it's hard to beat open backed headphones for the larger soundstage though. But if you need something that cancels noise, they're very very good.

[@Whywhatwherehowwhen]

Hi can do a tilt shift in pro q too.

[@veekayhooray]

Holy shit he did it

[@DojoOfCool]

Wasn't a lot of the piano parts on the album done by a 19 YO Greg Phillinganes and wasn't Herbie on one track too.

[@SteveBiedermann]

This looks like catching magic in a bottle

[@ilovemodphys]

off-topic question: how does Jack get the videos to look like this? I don't know anything about cameras, but the color and quality looks very "Wes Anderson" to me

[@JakeWildMusic]

It's all about the colour grading. I'm no expert but colour grading is the key to any kind of unnatural colouration like this - lots of videos on youtube about it, if you want to dig in.

[@ilovemodphys]

@@JakeWildMusic thanks for the pointer!

[@Microtonal_Cats]

This autoplayed after "Bank Account" by Louis Cole

[@Jonas-jr7oq]

How do you do the spinning effect? It's no Leslie... idk.

[@fabfab4453]

Why do you need to stack EQs ? I admit doing it myself but i always wondered if it was necessary....

[@fabfab4453]

well i did a little research and it seems it's common practice along your chain. I'm reassured. 💆‍♂

[@schalomforever]

I'm just a beginner at mixing. Can someone please explain to me where (I mean which plugin) the stereo image comes from?

[@planej6315]

You mean the panning stereo image of Stevie's Rhodes? That's a tremolo and if you want a spinning tremolo effect like that I'd suggest the Cableguys Pancake plugin, it's free.

[@schalomforever]

@@planej6315 Yes! That's what I meant, thank you sm! I thought Jack put the tremolo on in the mixing process somewhere as an audio effect but now I suspect that it's probably a tremolo knob in his Rhodes plugin and the panning just gets more pronounced when mixing it further 🤔 thanks!

[@AfferbeckBeats]

@@schalomforever yeah it would be the trem in the plugin. But if you want a lot more control and to keep things 'in house' with the rest of the Goodhertz on display here, you could go for Trem Control.

[@generalkenobi6869]

Vulfmon has a very good American accent

[@tomcapobianco4507]

jack why do you have the Six Eyes

[@rabidmonkeys15]

OK so what are we using to get stems?

[@Poincianaa]

😮

[@harpoolmusic]

Im hearing a bit more mid or low in stevie's but overall very impressive sound match

[@jonasvm]

does anyone know what midi controller he is using?

[@808arne808]

Crumar MOJO-SC MOJO Suitcase

[@davidtate6264]

Stereo Spread

[@crosswick]

That first chord definitely sounds minor to me, instead of major how you play it

[@ltbruun3991]

Its the creamy midrange that makes Stevies (tape)sound tiny bit different and smoother. Jack is close but still not there yet.