From Gmarsh4719@aol.com Tue Feb 17 06:15:42 2004
Subject:KB3 Mode on Kurzweil K and PC2 Series and Classic Keys ROM

Fellow Clonewheelers,

Takin' it out of the traditional Nord/Roland/Korg/N.I. realm for a
minute, I was wondering if any of you had any experience or comments
on the KB3 organ simulation mode on the Kurz K series or PC2 family
of keyboards? (TZ_ZKG_ID_XYZ, you have a PC2, no?) I have a Electro
(and my old EMU B-3) for organ sounds, and bought a PC2r to fill the
acoustic piano void in the Electro - and was messing around with the
KB3 mode for grins. I was initially dissmissive of it, but after
setting up my M-Audio radium controller to control all the drawbars,
CV, Perc and Leslie settings in real time (not with the 4 knobs and
tristate LED switches!) I was able to find some neat sounds. They
obviously tried to cover many of the peculiarities of the Hammond, and
got some but missed a few. There is no lower foldback, for example,
so the bass notes on the lower harmonics just keep going down, down
down into the subsonic dingweeds! Cool for pedal tones, I guess :-)
The keyclick, while adjustable, is just a noise spike. Not musical at
all. There is leakage available. As you turn it up, its as if you
have your entire forearm on the keyboard. Keep it throttled back. The
CV has all the settings, as you know its hard to nail the sounds, and
no one seems to agree on what's right anyway, so YMMV. Same with Perc.
The standard settings are there, but they don't respond as I expect
them to. Perhaps I need to edit the patches somewhat. There is a
leslie sim. I think its implemented in the KDFX subsystem. There
definately does seem to be a lower/upper accel/decel action going on.
You can hear the lower rotor taking a while to spin down. I find the
slow speed to be kind of phase-y, and the really pans from side to
side a lot, and the fast speed has a AM choppyness to it in the upper
register, but not as unusable as I initially reported. Apparently,
the good people of the KurzList tell me that for the K series, the
best of VAST upgrade has vastly improved lesie action. I have a PC
series, so I will check out the editable parameters when I have time.

I posted my impressions to the KurzList in response to a query that
said, in essence, "I just ordered a K2600 (or something) and I heard
that the KB3 mode is the best Hammond emulation out there, including
dedicated clones - I need this for my recordings" Hold on, Bevis!
I must say, its no competition for our beloved "dedicated clones" but
its probably the most indepth attempt at Hammond emulation on a
synth. I told him to search the Clonewheel archives for more info
about clones.

When I mentioned my impression on the Kurzlist, a R&D sound
designer from Kurz emailed me back personally and sent me some of his
personal patches to try out. He was not present at the creation of
the KB3 mode, but hopefully will pass on the feedback. He said he
was, though, involved with the ROM4 (electric pianos) for the
Kseries, and the new PCR2 Classic Keys Rom for the PC2 family. He
says more info and some demos should be up soon. He mentioned the
following new sounds and claims they will give the Nord a run for
its' money. (actually a slightly stronger opinion, yet admittedly
biased!)
>
Its got Clav (both pickups plus release thump), PIanet, RMI, CP80
(dual strike), ARP String Ensemble, Mellotron (str, choir, flute)
as well as more vintage-sounding KB3, Rhodes and Wurly programs.
>

Just thought I'd post this for the record, since the KB3 and the
Classic Keys ROM could be considered a "clone" and might be of
interest to a future archive searcher.

Discuss...
Greg