From k2mojo@groovedaddies.com Tue May 11 21:43:03 2004
Subject:Re: Digest Number 1702

While this is true, when the day finally arrives that in a blind test we can no longer hear the difference between the latest
state-of-the-art Clone and a real Hammond with mic'd Leslie (and I have a feeling that day is coming soon), do we really care if the
sound is generated by a spinning tonewheel or a circuit board? Yes, it's a lot of fun to sit at the helm of a real B3 with all the
real wood and the sweet aroma of Hammond gear oil, but in reality it's always been foremost the "sound" of the instrument that made
the Hammond/Leslie the timeless icon it is today. Give me a tone generator that sounds exactly like the original deal, a keybed
that feels good, and put it in a 25lb. box and that's the keyboard I'll use to make music. If today's (and tomorrow's) technology
had existed when Laurens Hammond was creating his brainchild, do you really think he would have used tonewheels? As much as we all
love the original Hammond/Leslie sound, it is conceivable that it could actually be improved on, just as the piano took many years
to develop into the modern instrument we hear today (he bravely writes as he ducks the rotten produce flung at his head). I guess
my point is that once you achieve the tone you're seeking, whether it comes from real strings or an oscillator or a silicon chip,
that's when you have the real thing, a real instrument. I'm old enough to remember that synthesizers were initially considered toys
capable of only making FX noises useful for cheap sci-fi movies. Then Walter (Wendy) Carlos released "Switched on Bach" and the
world discovered that Dr. Moog's plaything was indeed a musical instrument in it's own right. I see a day in the near future when
the instrument we consider to be the best Hammond Clone is actually an instrument of superior quality, both in it's tone and
playability, to the original B3. And again, if that instrument only weighs 25lbs., I'm certainly not going to complain.
Just talkin' out loud here.

Ed Fliege
k2mojo@groovedaddies.com

> Just to play Devil's advocate a bit here......
> For the violinists, guitarists, et al., the main diference, for this argument anyway, is that they're playing the original version
of thier instruments, allowing for the differences between individual brands, models, etc. So they aren't playing clones - they're
playing "the real thing". For us we're playing a clone of the Hammond or a clone of the accoustic piano. So each new generation gets
us a little closer to our "real things" wherein lies the tempatation for serial cloning. So violinists, guitarists, etc. don't have
the problem of thier "real things" being often too big or heavy to haul as we do, which sends us seeking ligther weight clones to do
the best we can to emulate our original instruments. Anyway, another 2-cents worth to either clear or further muddy the waters.