From BenWaB3@aol.com Fri Feb 07 20:42:54 2003
Subject:Re: music, glitz, and purists (hopefully on topic)


Speaking from my own experience, in the days before acceptable clones were
available - personally the V3 was the first acceptable one in my book - the
synths we were having to use at the time to get our Hammondesque sounds were
usually velocity sensitive on the organ patches. After getting used to that I
really wanted that feature on the V, or whatever clone I would have ended up
with. Now after using the V3 & V5 and owning a VK-77 for awhile, I've gotten
so used to using the pedal for dynamics that it wouldn't feel right trying to
use or, worse, having to rely on vel. to control dynamics, an opinion
reinforced whenever I might sit in w/ a group where the keyboardist uses a
synth for Hammond sounds. So it's pretty much a case of acclimation. Whatever
we're used to gets the job done most efficiently. That said, I wouldn't be
averse to having the lower manual (at least the lower range of the lower
manual) have at least a bit of velocity control. It seems, to my ears anyway,
that on the real Hammonds the bass notes don't rise & fall in exact
proportion, volume-wise with the rest of the organ. I welcome anyone's
opinions either agreeing with or refuting that observation. This will have a
greater effect on those who play thier own bass lines, but with the clones if
you have the bass at a comfortable level when you're comping it jumps up &
overpowers the rt. hand when you're soloing. Conversely if you have it where
you like it while soloing & then take it down to for either comping or
arrangement purposes the whole bottom just drops out because the bass has all
but disappeared. It's another one of those "flaws" in the real Hammonds that
has turned out to be a very useful feature for us. It sounds like
'melvinnich' is addressing that issue w/ the combining of the V5 w/ CX3 for
bass. Anyway, please let me/us know if you think the bass level on the real
deals does or doesn't rise & fall as much as the upper frequencies. TIA.

As for pitch bend, I don't use it for organ, but there could be situations
where it might be appropriately worked in. You wouldn't want it to become a
gimmick though. I did see Joey D. do it once many years ago when he was
playing the Ham/Suz the first time around. The expression on his face though
seemed to indicate he was doing it just to fool around & get a rise out of
his bandmates.

< in awhile, like Jerry Lee Lewis ? ? ? (tastefully of course! ;-)>>

The vast majority of my playing is done on a solo job in a restaurant. Even
in the smoking section they don't let patrons smoke cigars. Do you think
they're really gonna let me hoist my smelly pods up there to tickle the
plastics?!?!?!?

Ben Ninmann

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