From benjamin.kuris@hp.com Tue Feb 24 11:07:19 2004
Subject:Follow up on hammond chopped controller / VST rig

I did gig w/my hammond action + fatar electronics midi controller
last week. It worked great.

The action is an improvement in playability esp. for slides, etc.

However as has been much debated, not having key contacts is really
more of a factor in nailing the feel of a real hammond then the keys
themselves.

Another thing I discovered was excessive MIDI latency in my rig. I
switched to MIDIox + MIDI yoke instead of an external midi merger
(Midiman Merge 2x2). Along the way I found out that my Chroma
Polaris (which I had been using as a controller) sends midi-active
sensing messages which once filtered (by MIDIox) really improve the
sense of immediacy.

So I would say to anyone building up a B4 or softsynth rig should
definitely try to minimize MIDI delays and filter MIDI messages along
with minimizing audio latency.

My current (and well tested) organ rig:
Windows XP armada M300 laptop (P3-600 w/196Meg ram)
Ground lift the laptop!
Disable unused Windows services
Midiman USBmidi sport 2
Echo indigo I/O (set to either 256 or 512 sample latency)
Audiomulch VST host
B4 software
Freeverb reverb VST
MidiOX/MidiYoke (filter, map, and merge midi ports).
V5 as drawbar/plugin controller
Any midi keyboard (either my top tier Chroma Polaris or the chopped
hammond controller depending on the situation).

Amplification:
Speakeasy Classic pre (I'm evaluating a homebrew pre right now)
Leslie 45/47 w/dual motor conversion and SS motor control.
Furnature Dolly!

The solution ends up costing about as much as a clone, but it is
modular so I would expect ~$200/year as maintence cost vs. buying a
new clone every 3 years.