From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Sun Feb 18 13:32:07 2001
Subject:Re: More on the CX3

MP,

>I knew this would happen!
>
>I thought I was doing a (very) small service to the group by posting my
>preliminary impressions of the CX to the group. As I said, I only spent
>about 1/2 an hour with the machine...However, FIRST impressions can be
>critical.

Please don't take my responses as a flame! Your impressions are as valid
as the next members'. To be perfectly fair, I didn't like the CX-3 when I
spent a half hour on one in Mars Music in November. I even said so, on
another forum. (At the time, the VSG was limited to Voce products, so I
didn't post the review here.) Another list member brought his CX-3 over to
my house in December to see if we could fix a MIDI problem he was having,
and I got to a) play it some more; b) test the hack that removes the
"short-stroke" keying, c) compare it to my V3, and d) hear it through a
real Leslie. After that day, I was sold -- although, only with the
full-travel keyboard hack.

I plunked down my $$$ based on the second experience, used the keyboard
hack, and was satisfied with the results. Because of other issues, I now
have a replacement CX-3, and so can speak to both keyboard actions. For
whatever reasons, I really like the newer keyboard, with the "hot" action
restored. To really use it well, it requires one to put aside the
knowledge that the keys trigger a bit early and play the instrument as if
it required more travel to trigger the notes; if played this way, the
"Hammond feel" seems to be there. A good analogy would be how some cars --
ex: my Nissan Maxima -- handle well on curves, yet sometimes leave a
lingering impression that they are going to "lose it" on a tight curve, due
to yaw or sway. Once that felling happens a couple of times, and yet
nothing bad happens, you adapt yourself to the fact that the car hangs in
there, and begin to treat it like any other sport-minded vehicle.

The actual triggering of a Hammond key is complex, due to the nine switch
contacts. The first couple of them trigger pretty early in the keystroke,
probably at about 1/8" or so of depression; others take longer to fire,
with the 1' drawbar kicking in near the bottom of the keystroke. What this
means to the player is that "machine gun" trills often only use 3-4
drawbars, even if all of them are pulled out; i.e. an 888864444 setting
will actually trill at a setting something like 888000000 or
888800000. Since the tone is partially masked by key click, the ear
doesn't pick up on this fact.

A modern digital keyboard, however, has only two switch contacts: one near
the top of the travel, and one near the bottom. Making a special keyboard
with nine contacts would raise the cost, weight, and complexity of the
organ, with questionable payback. If KORG wanted to be really accurate, I
suppose they might have done something like trigger the first three
drawbars on the first switch contact, and then add in the others over time,
based on the velocity of the key hit. This approach is easier to describe
than to implement, however, and it's not fool-proof: On a Hammond, if I
press the key 1/2-way down and hold it there, 5-6 drawbars will fire; if I
did the same thing in a system like I just described, the first three
drawbars would sound, but the rest of them would be held off indefinitely,
waiting for the second switch. At any rate, implementing this kind of
action would take a lot more CPU power than the current approach -- again,
raising the cost. I also wonder whether the effort would really result in
a more musically useful instrument than with the current method.

>The keyboard deficiency I experienced in no way replicated a real Hammnond.
>The throw or key travel seems to be much longer than I remember on every
>Hammond I've played. The triggering issue is debatable since many people
>have different preferences as to optimum "feel". I should have said the
>triggering on the display unit I played seemed (to me at least) a bit
>inconsistent. If this, as Bruce says, is not the case with the later
>machines, I look forward to checking out a different unit with a higher
>S.N. and provide my feedback.

The inconsistency leads me to believe that you were hearing the
double-strike bug in action. I wasn't willing to believe that the
correction of this bug would appreciably change the feel of the action, but
it does.

>And last, let's be honest, if it was a perfect replication,(even for
>$5000.00) I think every user on this site would probably purchase one.
>I certainly would!

I, OTOH, certainly would not, and I suspect that many other list members
would also walk away. The price of the CX-3 was just about at my
"threshold of pain," and I shopped around to get the best deal I possibly
could, not because of any sort of thrifty nature on my part -- my wife will
be happy to tell you that I have none ;^) -- but because of the sheer cost
of the thing. I have never seriously considered the VK-77 or XB-5, based
solely on cost issues, regardless of how good they might sound or play, and
I felt the same about the BX-3 back in '82.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions"
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice
978.776.0096 fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com

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