From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Thu Jan 17 16:14:16 2002
Subject:Re: Roland VK-8 debuts at NAMM

James,

>Seems to me like the display on that KORG organ is getting in the
>way of putting extra drawbars on there!!! Hammond seemed to do
>without a pesky backlit display for decades. Why does this Korg
>seem to need one ? Looks like Roland once again has taken the lead
>and got rid of theirs. Wonder how long it will take Korg to do
>latch onto this 'radical' idea?

The Roland has a display, it's just smaller; too small to be useful, IMHO. Most modern clones (especially, the modeling ones) have a lot of adjustable parameters, and that calls for a big display. You may not use it when performing, but I'm happy for the CX-3 display when programming it. The alternative would be to supply a PC/Mac editor with the organ, but even many of the popular synths don't have one, so don't hold your breath waiting for an organ editor.

>When I press the preset for the new setting I then have to press
>a sequence of other buttons to keep my chorus/leslie settings which
>are changed by the new preset. And having the physical drawbars in
>front of me tells me all I need to know, without having to remember
>what I programmed in last week - the drawbars are self documenting.

You shouldn't have to do this, if you don't want to. At least, both of the clones I've owned, the V3 and the CX-3, have options to change the percussion, vibrato, and Leslie settings with each preset, or to leave them as a global setting that inits once on power-up, and stays put during preset changes. Personally, I like the new-setup-with-each-preset method, but it is very easy to disable. I know that the BX-3 will operate the same.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions™ http://music.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com