From groovecake@yahoo.com Wed Jan 08 11:11:22 2003
Subject:Re: Medeski and the old CX-3

Bruce pretty much summed it up, Brian.

Regarding John Zorn and Wayne Horowitz and such, I am
curious as to what draws you to their music. What is
it in their music that you like as opposed to, say,
listening to Art Blakey?

(You might want to reply to me privately since this is
not clone related.)

Just curious,

Mitch

--- Bruce Wahler wrote:
> Hi Brian,
>
> >mitch, hey, interesting comments. You say, ".the
> old
> > CX-3 is a bad clone of a B-3 to begin with", can
> you elaborate?
>
> I'm not Mitch, but I'll add my $0.02 ...
>
> The original CX-3 and BX-3 used analog electronics
> that simulated sine waves, like a B-3 does, but the
> resultant waves were not quite the same as the
> Hammond TG -- not necessarily a worse approximation,
> but definitely DIFFERENT. Also, the "tone
> generator" in a CX/BX had 96 oscillators, rather
> than 91, meaning the foldback on the top started
> higher up the scale. These two items together
> resulted in an organ with a noticeably brighter
> timbre than the average B-3. Some players really
> liked it, but if accuracy was the yardstick, the
> CX-3 and BX-3 definitely failed the test.
>
> The CX-3 didn't have vibrato of any kind -- just the
> Leslie sim, which was fantastic for its day, but
> sorely lacking by modern standards. The BX-3 had
> vibrato, and vibrato chorus, but the effect sounded
> nothing like a real scanner vibrato, IMHO.
>
> The percussion on both organs was brighter and more
> "digital" than Hammond percussion, and lacked that
> authoritative "thump" on the low notes.
>
> Now, none of this means that the original CX-3 and
> BX-3 were not useful instruments, but even their
> proponents were known to say things like, "I really
> like it because the sound is a lot crisper than a
> B-3." This probably sounds a little sacrilegious to
> many list members, but take it in the context of the
> mid-80's, when Hammond owners were selling their
> decidedly old-school instruments for a song to pay
> for a Prophet 5 or a DW6000, and you couldn't even
> GIVE away an A-100. (I personally gave away a
> beautiful Leslie 147RV to my roommate because it
> wouldn't fit in my new apartment -- on of the dumber
> things I've done in my life!)
>
> Regards,
>
> -BW
>
> --
> Bruce Wahler
> Ashby Solutions™ http://music.ashbysolutions.com
> 978.386.7389 voice/fax
> bruce@ashbysolutions.com
>

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