From tonysounds@yahoo.com Tue May 11 12:55:42 2004
Subject:Re: Thanks for all the XK-3 info - how about Internal Leslie simulation?

Hey Steve....

Contrary to what I'd hoped, I haven't been able to spend 5 minutes with XK3 in the last 2 days. Business affairs preoccupied me yesterday, and my son's baseball game last nite; today I planned to spend time, but when your wife appears outside with hedgeclippers and garbage cans.....well, lets just say it was me and the gutters today. I'm going to wash up and then head to another ball game this evening. I will in fact spend time with these questions this evening after the game, so I promise to get you the info if Mitch hasn't beat me to it.

However, I'm pretty sure that the XK3 defaults to the upper manual when using an additional keyboard. I'll check it out to be sure, but I think that's the deal.

With upgrades, I never even asked about that to be honest. I'm just not one of those guys who keeps loading new OS everytime there's an update. I haven't updated my Electro (it's a 2 though!), and I never updated any of my Roland gear. The only update I loaded was on my EX5 to fix some midi bugs, and the updates didn't fix the bug. So, I guess I'm just one of "those" guys! Hammond wasn't really known for doing many updates were they? (Should I have wondered about that?) Either way, I'm pretty happy with the way it is right now, so I'm not sweating that.

I still like my Electro, and I'm going to concentrate on the non-Hammond sounds in it for a while. I like the idea that with my Xk3 and Electro, Pro 145 and Yorkville combo, I have a ballsy yet small and powerful rig that goes in and out in 2 trips. But before I start tweaking the Electro Rhodes and Clav things, I've got more time to spend on the XK3.

One of the things I love the most about the XK3 is the fact that I get really good grinding tones out of the Speakeasy Leslie combination that I was absolutely unable to obtain with the Electro. There's a lot to explore right there!

I'm going to design a couple tonewheel banks....set up a Tom Coster bank (Moonflower-era Santana, solid state pre, Fender Twins/Leslie combos).....a Greg Rolie Bank (totally fuzzy leslies)....a Tony Kaye bank (arguabely my favorite Hammond sound)....and of course a Jon Lord Bank, and an Emerson bank (leslies on fire!). It appears you can duplicate some decent "combo" organs of the Italian variety as well, but I'll let you know how that actually sounds in reality.

T
Steve Moenssen wrote:
Tony and Mitch,

I too appreciate all of the work you guys have done
feeding us information on the XK-3. My previous post
pleading for some negative comments was strictly
selfish, as I think I've only owned my Electro for
8 months or so. T, I know you've been a big supporter
of the Electro so I was thinkin', "Oh no, say it ain't so!"
As in the past you've been honest and objective in
your reviews. A lot of what you recommended helped
me make decisions and turned out to be right on, at least
for my tastes, so I'm having difficulty taking what you
have to say with a grain of salt.

So... let's say I've psychologically taken the plunge
towards the XK-3 by resolving my cognitive dissonance
(heh-heh): I'm with Eric, I don't want to part with
the Electro. But I also don't want the Electro to end up
like an ex-girlfriend. You know, "Honey, we've been through
a lot and had some great times, I hope we can still be friends
and keep in touch..." and then put her in the attic for safe
keeping so nobody else can have her (...uh, by her I mean
the Electro). I'd prefer to keep the Electro as part
of my rig, so I'm interested to here how or if it could
perch on top of the XK-3.

That brings me to my first question:

1. How does the XK-3 implement the upper/lower manuals? If
I want to use 2 manuals for some songs, I'd want to have
percussion on the "upper" manual, but if the XK-3 is
physically underneath, it then becomes the lower manual.
Does the XK-3 allow configuration of the upper/lower manual
in this way? Ideally, I'd like to save this per preset since
sometimes I'd be using the XK-3 as a single (upper) manual
and would want the percussion back on the XK-3 manual.
I remember this was an issue with the Electro when I tried
to use another keyboard physically above the Electro as the
upper manual. I would have had to switch MIDI channels that
were assigned for the upper/lower manuals since they were
global settings that couldn't be saved to a preset. I guess
this isn't an issue if the XK-3 allows you to assign percussion
to both upper and lower manuals (hopefully this question makes
sense, it was hard to word).

2. Also, do you know how HS will deal with software/firmware
upgrades for the XK-3 (i.e., bug fixes and updates)? In the
past this has been a chip that you had to buy.

I think that's another reason I want to hold on to the Electro.
From all accounts, it sounds like the bar has been raised for
Clavia. This could burn a fire under them to make improvements
for the next OS. I'd hate to let go of it and find out that
Clavia came out with a free update that vastly improved the sound
or functionality of the organ. I love the Electro and can't imagine
it sounding too much better, but allowing more tweakability would
be a welcome improvement. I'm not holding my breath, but it is a
possibility.

Sorry for the tedious questions...

TIA,
Steve

--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, "Eric Lawson"
wrote: