OK this is a 2 part issue. 1. Anyone have a patch just like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPgct4wpgw0
and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pnBR0Ec7yc
2. How do I get my pianos to sound louder and shine more without banging hard on my montage? All the current are too soft no matter which global velocity setting I choose (except fixed which of course will not do)

I found this library. but do I need it to get close to this sound? https://www.musiconplanet.com/mk-i-1975-sessions

When getting into a discussion on programming or customizing any of the sounds, it is probably a good idea to breakdown things, as follows:
Choose the sound that has the behavioral characteristic you desire, then go about adjusting how it responds to what you are going to be playing with this particular Performance. I know you are into programming, so I hope the depth of the answer is not over-the-top… and that it is helpful in your endeavors.

There are several basic characteristics to the classic Rhodes… the early models used felt hammers - although this seemed like a good idea, in reality, it caused many problems that required maintenance and replacement (often). As the Rhodes evolved, they switched to neoprene rubber hammers, which held up better from a maintenance standpoint, but there was an increase in broken tines (the rubber however lasted longer and was lower maintenance than the felt. The characteristics of the sound of these two Rhodes is significant!

A few years later, the pre-amp was changed to give the instrument a more consistent sound through the all important mid-range (which could tend to get muddy)… needless to say there were significant changes in the way a Rhodes sounded throughout its history as an instrument.

The various Rhodes types are featured in Parts 1-4 of the Performance “Rd 1 Gallery”
Part 1 = early felt hammer (softj
Part 2 = neoprene hammer (hard)
Part 3 = improved pre-amp (Stage) barks
Part 4 = late seventies (Suitcase)
__ What that means - you choose a Rhodes emulation — simply, pick the Rhodes timbre that appeals to you (they are very different), then go to work on customizing it for your needs__
Part 5 in this “gallery” is the mechanical noise of the keys, action, and tines of the unamplified instrument. You mix in just a bit of this to taste (it is like a spice, too much you ruin the dish, put in just enough to give the right feel… this subjective, of course. You want “feel” it not hear it.
Play the Audition. Notice how it recalls Parts 1+5, then 2+5, then 3+5, and then 4+5… It ends with just 5 — a wink to those who actually owned a Rhodes and know this is how it sounds when the power is Off.

The simple answer to the question “How do I get my pianos to sound louder…?” Turn up the Volume. But it is clear what you are looking for falls under the heading of ‘how to give the Rhodes sound that you have selected, more presence (not sure, what you mean exactly by “shine”… but I’m reading your “louder and shine” to mean a Rhodes with more presence, more beef, a much more “in-your-face” quality.

You can achieve this, not by adjustments to any “global velocity setting” because ‘global’ changes the behavior of all Performances. You really just want to change this one Performance and how it responds to your playing style. (Adjusting the Velocity within the Part is another way to go… a bit more down at the source. You can adjust the Velocity response of each Element, and then there is a Velocity Offset at the Part level of the architecture. We’ll leave that for a different discussion).

As you would with an actual Rhodes, you change the quality and playability of the selected sound by applying Effects. The standard, first purchased for any Rhodes owner back in the day, was either a “Chorus” or a “Phase Shifter”. MONTAGE features physical modeling versions of most of the classic era effects. Use these to create ‘movement’… those you do to taste…

To create more of the presence (this will include it being louder with less effort, and it being fuller, beefier and weighty) you could use the MONTAGE Insertion Effect to recreate a “Compressor”; and use the internal dB offset to increase the overall output.

Using a Compressor (Insertion Effect) for More Presence
A Compressor is an amplifier that the more you put in, the less you get out.
Once the signal reaches a specific level, the compressor starts to reduce the signal Gain, preventing it from increasing beyond a point; this reduction is set by a specific ratio… a 2:1 compression Ratio, for example, means that for every 2dB the signal would have increased above the threshold, the compressor engages and only allows 1dB increase. It puts a kind of ceiling up for the loud signals

This tends to reduce the dynamic range… the distance from soft to loud.
It reduces the dynamic range.
The key to why this is helpful in this situation is in the Output parameter— this allows you turn the entire signal up louder. Even though the compressor reduces the distance between the softest and loudest signals, the OUTPUT lets you return the signal to what is called “unity gain”.
Means it is again as loud as it would have been, except now, the softer sounds are closer to the loudest sound

If the softest sound you play on the Rhodes gets lost in the mix, when you “compress” the dynamic range and then increase the overall Output, you are turning up the softer sounds at a steeper rate than the compressor allows the loudest sounds to increase. This will give the Rhodes sound more presence, more weight, it will sound fuller — you will not have to bang on the keyboard when playing the pianissimo parts, they will simply be more present with a lot less effort.

Warning: A compressor is a serious tool that will take some time to master. Too much compression is the equivalent of Fixing the Velocity [or worse). The dynamic range can be made so narrow that it warps our sense of soft-to-loud. But used properly, you can bring up the volume of your softer playing, without squeezing the life out of the sound.

The settings of the Compressor must be made according to *how* you intend on playing. In other words, it might be very different for a ballad than it would for a tune where you are banging out a part. I suggest using some of the Preset setups to get a feel for what they can do, and begin to tweak.

The skill in using a compressor is knowing what to listen for. Remember it is the soft sounds you want to increase. You want your lighter playing to be louder… you want it to increase how your soft playing is output, at the same time your hard playing still increases but not as before.
The Ratio determines the Gain Reduction.
2:1 is a small amount
8:1 is extreme
Anything much higher is called Limiting.
The difference between a Compressor and a Limiter is one of degree. At 20:1, the Limiter must see signal that would have shot up 20dB, to allow an increase of 1dB.

To get a clear understanding of a Limiter… it is used on stage as a safety item (particular with pop bands at large concerts)… you have a $100,000 sound system and the person on the mic yells “Good night, Cleveland!” and then throws the microphone down to the floor. We’ve all seen it done. Without a drop-dead Limiter, you may have blown every speaker in the house, making it a truly expensive gig.

Too much compression sound weird because the sounds that you anticipate being soft are now much more present in the mix… when you use too much you get a very strange feeling the soft sounds are now louder than the loud sounds. For example, the classic *over compression* of vocals causes things like breath intake, and lip smacks, usually very soft, now go through uncompressed and the actual words the vocalist sings (which you’d expect to be loud) are not as loud as you anticipate … in fact, because this is unexpected it sounds funny. The sounds you expect to be loud and robust never get there, and the sounds you normally ignore are now in-your-face.

Final word on compression… you will hear engineers say this, and it is like a Zen lesson where ‘less is more’… “Compression is one of those things you feel, not hear. By the time, you hear it, you probably have too much.” It is one of those tools that severely punishes those who are not listening closely and those that turn Knobs to the extremes. Listening for how the soft played sounds are responding, is a skill… given that most people only pay attention to the loudest sounds.

Listening for increase in the soft, takes knowing that this is what you are listening for. The maximum (how loud it goes) is easy, anyone can set that.

How to Increase OUTPUT LEVEL Gain per Part
Each MONTAGE Part has its own OUTPUT LEVEL that lets you turn that Part’s overall gain up or down, individually. This device is located post (after) the Insertion Effect Block but before the signal reaches the Output assignment. This is different from “Part Volume” (used to balance the mix of multiple Parts in relation to each other) which is used like the Faders on a mixing console. This “Output Level” parameter is used primarily in situation where you need to adjust the gain from a particular Part that was played with a very light touch, and you wish to record it with good audio level.

Often when a keyboard player creates a MIDI sequence, they tend to record the drums with lots of velocity, but when they are adding the strings as backing, they use the velocity to play softly, naturally; they play the keys to make the string soft and ‘behind’ the other tracks—then later when they try to take an individual Out to record the audio to their DAW, they realize the output level is really low and hardly makes their meters move…

(Sound familiar, there must be hundreds of threads on this subject in the forums) MIDI MIXING is a musician not recognizing that if you play soft, the MIDI data will not necessarily meet the level requirements when you attempt to record Audio from data on that MIDI track. There was nothing wrong with playing the strings with less velocity, you simply need to know you can adjust the audio Output level of what was played without disturbing how it was performed.

Enter this individual Part “Output Level” parameter. It gives +/-12dB of boost or cut. Allowing you to adjust the Output Level of each individual Part, as you may require. Specifically for recording, but useful when building sounds for “live” performing.

You can save a track that was recorded with low velocity by simply adjusting this Output Level parameter.
Press [EDIT]
Select the PART
On the Part Common level of the architecture
Touch “Effect” > “2-Band EQ” > in the lower right corner is the OUTPUT LEVEL
Each Part has its own.

Final Word:
Hope that is helpful. I try to separate “character” as the reason to select a particular sound to begin with… the “character” of the Rhodes (Rd) is fundamentally different from the Wurlitzer (Wr) and even though they are both Electric Pianos, you choose one or the other for its basic character.

Even among the different Rd (Rhodes) sounds in the MONTAGE Presets you’ll find these character differences. If you are looking to do Donald Fagen’s “Green Flower Street” — you must choose a Rhodes sound with the Hard character, trying to turn a Soft character into the Hard character is futile— start with something you like… work from there.

Hope that helps.

Thank you. that is helpful.