From b3burner@ca.astounditv.net Sun Dec 22 15:56:07 2002
Subject:For VK-7 Owners

Fellow Cloners,

Those with VK-7's...I have some parameter settings I'd like to share, and maybe some of you will find them useful.

I know most of us use the VK-7 for its organ sounds, but we all probably lament the fact that there is no acoustic piano in the ORCHESTRAL VOICES, and the electric piano....well let's just say...that if the factory setting is supposed to sound like a "Suitcase" Rhodes, one had better leave it locked up in the suitecase!

I tweaked the electric piano voice settings, and got results that aren't perfect, but they are appreciably better. While there's no way to get the true Rhodes "tine"/"bell" sound out of it, what I was able to do was achieve sharper attack when first striking keys, and a quicker decay upon release. This to me gets away from the more pop/ballad like e. piano of the 1980's, but sounds more like the Rhodes used in early 70's funk and R&B.

My settings are as follows:

ORCH VOICE LEVEL 127
ORCH ATK TIME -50
ORCH RLS TIME -50
ORCH BRILLIANCE +50
ORCH PLFO DPT -50
ORCH LFO RATE 0
ORCH KEYSHIFT 0
ORCH PIT FINE 0
ORCH VEL SENS 127
ORCH VEL OFST 127
ORCH CHR SEND 0 (though this one could be adjusted up to taste and still sound good)
ORCH REV SEND 30 (optional if you don't like reverb)
ORCH AUTO GLIDE Has no bearing
ORCH GLIDE RATE n/a
ORCH PTCTL SENS +12
ORCH MODCTL SENS 0

I hope that helps some who want to sometimes use e. piano on VK-7.

The other tweak I can share is what I use for a Steppenwolf (Goldie McJohn) MAGIC CARPET RIDE sound.
This adjustment was inspired by my learning that McJohn did not play with a Leslie 122, but rather a 125....A single rotor speaker with no upper horn, only a lower drum rotor.

Consequently, I used the following settings to imitate his sound on the VK-7:

In the EDIT 5 "ORGAN EFFECTS" section I did this:

AMP & SPEAKER Type II
EQ BASS 0
EQ MIDDLE +1
EQ TREBLE +5
ROTA SPREAD 6
ROTA LEVEL WF: 127 TW: 0
(the tweeter set to 0 is what mimicks not having an upper horn, like on a 125)

WF TRANSITION UP: 50 DWN: 50
TW TRANSITION N/A
ROTA WF SPEED SLOW: 0.45 FAST: 7.00
ROTA TW SPEED N/A

On the EDIT 4- ORGAN BASIC menu, set the ORGAN LEVEL to 127.

Write the organ voice modification with the OVERDRIVE knob turned all the way up. And finally the drawbar settings: you may not like mine, but I use 88 8855 555.

Anyone who tries either of these adjustments, I'd be curious what you think of them.

John O'Flaherty (The B3 Burner)