From breynold@usc.edu Fri Jan 17 17:09:21 2003
Subject:Re: NAMM Observations

I'll add a little that I learned from John and Dave Amels:

At 03:26 PM 1/17/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>I just returned from the Namm show and had a pretty good look at the two
>products of interest to this group, The Motion Sound Pro145 and the Voce
>Key 5 organ.
>
>John Fisher walked me through the pro145 and I must tell you that I was
>quite impressed. This little unit (about 2 1/2 ' high and 60 lbs!)
>really was LOUD. It sounded great as I played the VK8 that was set up to
>it. Love all the tweakable parameters and the three internal
>microphones.

They are three of the same Kobitone elements John has recommended
before. People liked these and installed them in Leslies.

>The best thing about this is the size. I could easily roll
>it to my car and lift it in my back seat. I suggested I give that a try
>but John would not go for it. DAMN! John said that the MSRP will be
>about $1700.

He told me $1900, but maybe I was dressed better! Maybe it went down since
Thursday morning. One gets the impression that a buyer would have more
negotiating room on this item than the usual 20-30%. I won't say any more.

>Also played the Voce Key 5 . Nice.... It was hooked up to a real Leslie
>so of course it sounded very good.

To my ears it sounded much more authentic than other clones---and I own
both the CX-3 and the Nord, but, heck, having a real 122 or 147 there
wasn't exactly a level playing field.

>Its nice to see a clone with a full
>set of drawbars.

I noticed there were no presets; Dave said this machine was for players. I
do like to hit a full organ preset during the last chorus. I also like
lower manual presets that are the same timbre but different volume, to
complement the volume of the upper manual.

>I was not crazy about the look or the cabinet (like the
>Electro, I feel it will be a love it or hate it thing), but at least it
>was a neutral black. This too only weighs 60lbs! Now THAT is great,
>considering that other double manual clones weigh twice as much. The
>keys seems a bit high in stature, but I am sure that is a minor cosmetic
>thing.

The real hammond keyboard feel is the holy grail. Dave said the key5
keyboard was same as Electro, made by Fatar. I got used to it soon enough,
but sitting down at a dual manual clone from Dave led me to the wishful
thought that it was gonna feel just like my B3--it didn't, but probably is
the best of the clones.

>It is important to know that it does not have a Leslie sim, so
>you would have to have an outboard one.

It has 11pin Leslie out. It has separate midi outs for the manuals and
easily found dedicated local-off buttons for the organ sounds separately
per manual, so you can switch easily in midsong. It may only have one
1/4in output--might by mono like the real thing! Not sure about this.