From ches@qualcomm.com Thu Jan 18 10:16:53 2001
Subject:my wacky setup

Howdy friends,

I've searched through the archive and didn't see any mention of the
following two topics, so I thought I'd raise them here. Until several
months ago the Hammond portion of my gig rig consisted of the Hammond XM-1
module, the XM-47 interface, and a Leslie 145.

Awhile back I bought a V-3 and one of those enormous Trek II combo preamp
pedals off of Ebay. I spent some time experimenting with it, and like
everyone else I guess, I'm using the EFX out of the V-3. Even still, the
V-3 signal has a lot of noise and snot. Despite this, it beats every clone
I've heard hands down. I've really come to enjoy the way it plays and it's
become a permanent part of my setup.

My two questions are the following:

1) Does your V-3 or drawbar module occasionally go insane? I'd say that at
about half of my gigs, at some point I'll have to reboot either the drawbar
module or the rack unit because it's either locked up, or started behaving
strangely. I guess I should check the s/w version, but I think mine is a
later model as it has the little DIN jack for the R/S interface.

2) I'm really happy with the sound I get using the Trek II pedal, but I'm
not thrilled with the form factor, plus it's one more thing to set up on
stage. I opened it up, and it's mostly air. There's a transformer, and all
the magic is located on one circuit board that lies flat against the back.
For this reason, I'm looking into rack-mounting it. With a little help from
my friends, I'm designing a circuit that will allow me to use an ordinary
keyboard sustain pedal to toggle a DPDT relay which will replace the stomp
box switch. The pedal circuit will be edge-triggered, so that either
polarity pedal (ie Korg or Roland) will work, just like the XM-1. I'm going
to try to squeeze it all into a 1U track space, but I think the size of the
transformer may force me to a 2U enclosure unless I can find something with
a lower profile.

Has anyone else attempted this? I called Trek II, and while they seemed
amused by my efforts, they don't seem to think anyone would want a
rack-mounted interface. I did a fairly extensive search, and the closest
thing I could find was CAE Sound's Leslie 122 interface, which is a fairly
expensive 2U unit with a 12AX7 preamp stage.

Cheers,

Dave