The Clav that played on Superstition can now live in your DAW.
Rhodes Music has built the Clav Pro plug-in from a rare 1977 Clav D6 “Transition” model, capturing the sharp attack and percussive bounce that pushed the Clavinet to the front of so many funk, soul, disco and rock records. Sampled by the company’s sound designers, it brings the D6’s bite and immediate response to keyboardists, composers and producers working in the DAW.
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The original D6 let players bring the drive of rhythm guitar to a keyboard. You’ll hear its sound through a long list of tracks – Stevie Wonder’s Superstition and Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon to Bob Marley’s Could You Be Loved, Fleetwood Mac’s You Make Loving Fun and plenty of Bee Gees sessions. Five decades on, it still turns up everywhere.
Rhodes sampled an original rather than modelling it from scratch, recreating the pickup selection, mute controls and EQ circuitry along with the dynamic response of the hardware.
“With Clav Pro, the goal wasn’t only to recreate a vintage Clavinet authentically, it was also to capture the very essence and spirit of why players fell in love with the instrument in the first place,” said Dan Goldman, Chief Product Officer at Rhodes. “The remit was to preserve all the feel, bite, and attitude of a beautifully set-up original D6, while extending its sonic and sound-shaping capabilities far beyond its original design.”
Dedicated Drive, Compression and Envelope/Wah sections take Clav Pro from tight rhythmic stabs and muted funk grooves to expressive lead sounds. It also adds sustain pedal support and pitch bend, neither of which the original hardware had.
Clav Pro uses the same engine as Rhodes Anthology. Timbre Shift moves the tone between clean studio sparkle and gritty, road-worn character, drawn from different eras and conditions of the original. There are also L5, JC and Duo amplifier simulations, dynamic and condenser microphone options, adjustable cabinet resonance, key noise modelling and the Rhodes FX suite of chorus, phaser, delay and reverb.
Clav Pro is available now from the Rhodes Music store in VST3, AU and AAX formats for macOS and Windows.
