From k2mojo@groovedaddies.com Thu Oct 10 10:44:38 2002
Subject:Live Sounds (was CX3 Frequency Deficiencies)

Tony touches on some important points here that I think are worth exploring.
For those of us who play in loud bands, the sounds we are forced to use to
cut through the din are most often not the most pleasing to the ear when
played alone in our home studios (read: spare bedrooms). Playing at home or
recording is an entirely different beast than playing out live. Whenever I
get a new piece of gear, if possible I try to set up my rig in my house
spread out over the living room and spilling into the dining room while
nobody's home. That way I can really crank it without giving myself ear
bleeding. I've found it's the only way I can see how the rig is going to
behave at the volume I'm usually playing at live; this really cuts down on
surprises when you get to the gig. Some gear really comes into it's own as
the volume kicks up; I've found my Speakeasy behaves like this. While it
made a very noticeable improvement the first time I hooked it up at home,
that weekend when I got it out to an outdoor gig and fed it some serious
signal it just came alive; the more you give it the better it sounds. Last
night at practice we were working on an original that called for a very
piercing clav part that I could barely stand to listen to when I played it
solo, but it fit wonderfully into the mix when everyone was playing. Tony's
right, pads are pretty in the showroom or with headphones on, but I find
them to be pretty useless when I play out. This is also why I set the
virtual mics very close on my CX-3's virtual Leslie; it's too extreme for
quieter solo playing, but works great in the band. Almost all clones have a
preset called "Gimme Some Lovin'" or "Deep Purple" that tries to emulate
major grunge. Well, Winwood and Lord didn't use any such preset, they got
that sound by pushing their gear to the point of breaking up, something you
can't very well do at home. I never use those presets (and we do play Gimme
Some Lovin' & Hush), instead I use my Speakeasy at a high volume to get that
tone, the way God intended for it to be done. I know most of this doesn't
apply to the Jazz and Blues heads who are playing their clones at
"reasonable" volumes, but IMHO, Rock organ, and Rock keyboards in general,
requires a palette of cutting sounds played at a significant decibel level
that can compete with the rest of the band. And yes, I can still (mostly)
hear.

"I could be wrong, but I'm not." ---Don Henley

Ed Fliege
k2mojo@groovedaddies.com
www.groovedaddies.com

> These things were all satisfying to me in varying
> amounts in my studio. But live??? Deficient.
> Absolutely. I've come to the realization with this
> clone thing that I came to with many popular synth
> products. Most times when I go see bands, the
> keyboard player tends to be invisible aurally. Not to
> bash any particular products by name, but you see some
> popular items in the store, and you go check em out.
> (Screw it, I'll name one) The Triton for instance:
> you play it, and it has some gorgeous textures in
> there, 3 dimensional things that just totally blow you
> away. But if you can even find a context for 1/4 of
> those sounds you'll be lucky (or doing film work).
> Those huge pads do NOT cut through elec guitars, mic'd
> drums, etc. Now, go find an old Minimoog, or better
> yet for this example, a Jupiter 8 or 6. Those 2 units
> were groundbreaking for their time (so was the mini).
> But if you played them next to a Triton, you'd go
> "ecchhh!" And probably not buy them. But take them
> to a gig, and all of a sudden, that not so pretty,
> almost dirty grainy sound not only is heard, but
> actually finds its own sonic niche. Is it only
> because they're analog? I think it goes back to the
> actual sound they produce. The prettier and nicer the
> texture, the more polite, it's almost like sonic
> Darwinism. It's survival of the fittest. And that's
> what happened in my experience with these clones. Why
> does everyone go back and say "my V5 is still smokin?"
> It's not a pretty sound, but it is actually the most
> realistic and most ballsy. When I packed my CX3 up,
> and fired that V5 up, I was smiling instantly. Yes,
> the chorus isn't right...the percussion is a little
> weak, but the drawbar sound is correct. There are no
> sonic deficiencies in its core sound. The CX3 had the
> prettiest most real chorus, it sparkled in all the
> right places (that's what made me crate up my XK2 and
> sell it), but when it came to the gig, all that
> prettiness made it get eaten up by everything else, no
> matter HOW I eq'd it. And shrill doesn't mean cut to
> me...shrill means....S H R I L L. The XK2 through the
> leslie didn't leave me wanting for something like a
> tube pre to make it sound good...it sounded good right
> out of the box (through the leslie, not anywhere
> else). It's not necessarily pretty, but like the V5,
> it has girth. I had never messed with any of the
> internals on that organ...I found the one preset that
> actually worked for me (Jimmy) and then started
> working the drawbars. I set up one split on that
> patch, and honest to god, even though I'm a tweaker by
> nature (look at the synths I still own), any sound I
> needed I was able to obtain via the drawbars, and the
> immediately accessible controls.
>
> Sometimes the more options you have the more
> possibility of diminishing returns (I do not like the
> sound of that sentence). Maybe that's what makes the
> V5 work? Less processing (editing)capability
> translates to more processing power dedicated to the
> core sound? Not being a tech-head, I don't know how
> that whole thing works. But the synths I liked had
> lots of editing power: The minimoog and the Yamaha
> CS80. But they were the exception rather than the
> rule as far as editing power=sonic power.

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