From eslawson@juno.com Sun Feb 10 21:18:57 2002
Subject:Make your CX3 think it is a V5

Folks,

After my earlier rant regarding the first gig using the CX3, I
decided to work on it a bit. My main problem at the gig was that the
CX3 lacked balls and definition. It was harsh and digital sounding
through my Motion Sound.

The sound to beat in my opinion is that of the Voce V5. It is such a
simple little box with no hidden parameters and it just growls like
nothing else on all settings. So I set up my CX3 and V5 side by side
and decided that I would edit the CX3 until I could get it to sound
as close as possible to the V5.

I did this with a completely dry signal going into my KB300 amp with
the amp channel knobs set identically for each clone. No Leslie
simulation or chorus/vibrato. I took the CX3 and basically zeroed
out all of its parameters, set both clones to 888000000 and started
tweaking the CX3. Once I got into the ballpark, I switched to
888000008 and made some additional edits. Finally, I used 888888888
and completed my CX3 edits. Switching from the V5 to the CX3 does
have a slightly noticeable difference in tone, but I have come pretty
close. There is still no beating the ballsy tone of the V5. It has
a more defined attack and release whereas the CX3 almost feels like
it slips or glides into the attack instead of walloping it like the
V5. That's a minor quibble, but probably the most noticeable
difference in the two. Hard to define in writing, but the dry tone
of the V5 sounds better than the CX3. It also has a hotter signal
than the CX3 and would probably overdrive a Motion Sound or real
Leslie more quickly. Guess I will keep the V5 for awhile.

Here are the settings I ended up with on the CX3:

-Output level 127
-Wheel clean
-Overtone 20
-Leakage 0
-On click 45
-Off click 15
-Amp type preamp
-Gain 0
-Treble 0
-Mid 0
-Bass +10

The real magic seems to be in the amp type. When I switched to
preamp, the CX3's shrill high end was dropped significantly and it
sounds much more like a dry V5. I did not hear a whole lot of
difference between clean and vintage wheels, but I really like the
clean sound of the V5 and so I went for this on the CX3 as well.
Overtone is a strange parameter but at 20 seemed to sound ok.

After setting up these baseline levels, I then tweaked the percussion
settings and other (reverb, chorus, etc.)

This was part 1 of my experiment and I must now hit the hay.
Tomorrow I will run both through a Dynacord CLS222 and a Motion Sound
to see how they sound processed. I have a bunch of gigs this week so
I will also be able to try it on stage.

I'd be interested to hear what other settings are out there. I'll
let you all know how this works when Leslie-fied.

Regards,
Eric