From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Thu Aug 14 05:48:51 2003
Subject:Re: CX3 horn transit

Hi Walter and Steffan,

Walter wrote:
>The transit times, i.e., ramp-up & slow-down of the horn are as
>important a part of the Leslie "effect" as their counterpart in the
>drum rotor. I want to hear a fast horn, when switched back to slow,
>sound like, "wu wuh wuuh wuuuh wuuuuhhhhhhhh" - you get the idea, I
>think. Almost instantaneous slow doesn't do it for me, a couple of
>sweeps barely discernable before correct slow speed = waste of a
>great effect. There's nothing like a held ending chord with the horn
>slow-down equal to most of 'a bar' or a bit more depending on song
>speed, while the drum takes its sweet time.
>
>

Steffan wrote:
>But that's it how a real horn works.
>Due to the fact, that the inertia of the horn is very low and the motor
>stack makes very good brake, the speed-up or slow down times are very
>low.

The horn inertia is much lower, but it's not as low as some of the presets on the Korg. Both David Jacques and I have posted suggested Leslie settings for the CX-3 (and BX-3); mine are on my CloneWheel Page website, while his can be found in the CWSG archives on Yahoo. Take a look at those settings. I am using settings 5, 7, 10, and 15 for horn Up, Down, Start, and Stop; my rotor is set for 60, 33, 82, and 66. All of these settings were developed by visually watching my MIDI'ed Leslie while listening to the simulator.

And on a related note (and I'm sure this will open up a can of worms):

I auditioned the patches the day I bought my CX-3, and erased all but 3 or 4 of them. I can't even remember exactly how "Organized" or "Whyter Shade" sound. Why did I do this? 1) I have very strong preferences about the "right" level of key click, leakage, overdrive, etc.; and 2) it forces me to get in there and understand the abilities and limitations of the instrument by taking the time to create my own "perfect" organ sound.

The Korg CX-3/BX-3 is perhaps the most tweakable clone ever made. It has dozens of adjustable parameters for organ tone, amp tone, reverb tone, and Leslie tone/speed. It saddens me to see how many players are still exclusively using the factory presets for their organ sound -- and how many are complaining about defects in the sound of these presets. These presets are good, but they aren't necessarily the best for your use, so change 'em. Pick one that is close to what you want, and fiddle around with the settings until you get them to where you want the sound to be. It's not possible to screw up the sound so badly that you can't tell it's supposed to be a Hammond B-3 anymore.

Regards,

-BW
--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions™ http://music.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com