From carl@vanselman.co.uk Wed Jun 26 01:18:45 2002
Subject:Re: Nord Electro impressions

Its interesting to see the latest comments regarding the nord electro. These echo the kind of comments I was making on this list months ago but at that time I guess not so many of you had tried the electro out. funnily enough I hasve now come a complete circle and founf how to get the best from the electro with no external FX or pre-amps.

First - I'm used to playing everything in stereo and there is no doubt that the electro rotory sim had great stereo imaging but it changes the whole tone of the organ. So I now only use it in mono and when playing live (3-4 times a week) It sound nuch better.

Second - I play into the bands PA. On the desk I take the mid pot down by half and the bass pot down by a quarter.

Third - on the electro I rarely use any drawbar configs that use most drawbars out. I have found that all the hammond sound I want and used to get from hammonds I've own before I get from a different drawbar setting e.g. a stock sound for hammond has got to be 888 800 000 with C2 and maybe some 2nd perc a bit of overdrive and creative use of the rotor speed. When at giging volume this is just muddy from the electro so I go for 866 000 000 2nd perc, overdrive, rotor but no C or V. Result? To my ears pretty much that sound. If you realy want to try an Electro you do need to try it at the kind of volume you are most gonna use it because the tone of the whole thing changes.

Fourth - You have to use the expression pedal. Set the sustain pedal to switch rotor on/off. The expression pedal needs to have you 'main' volume at about haflway through its travel. This is because as you increase the volume by pushing the redal down those cleaver boys at Clavia have made the output 'warm up' (distort/overdrive) as the pedal reaches the end of its travel.

Fifth - no external FX, I use no reverb, EQ, tube driver etc. I know it sound dry in you music store but when its kicking in with the rest of the band you won't notice.

Here's some of the drawbar settings I keep coming back to on the Electro, next time you want to try one out....

671 163 004 C2 no perc overdrive and leslie as wanted
568 003 000 C3 2nd perc overdrive and leslie as wanted
852 036 046 no C no perc overdrive and leslie as wanted
804 400 001 C2 2nd perc overdrive and leslie as wanted
845 000 050 C2 no perc overdrive and leslie as wanted

Carl

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