From djacques@csulb.edu Sat May 15 08:52:02 2004
Subject:Re: XK-3 Miscellany
Bruce,
Thanks for your thoughtful input... You raise a few important points for
consideration. I too am amazed that H/Z charges extra for an
"expression" pedal... Its like selling an SUV with a four cylinder
engine... Well, I guess you can drive it, but forget about pulling a
boat.
I also agree about the unlikelihood of H/Z coming out with a dual manual
portable. I think that would be a serious marketing gaff. You're
correct, the two manual portable is a very limited market. Personally, I
can;t lift one, or depend n help to get it in and out of my car. Unless
they make it under 60 lbs, forget it. Considering that the XK3 is a
heavy MF at 47 lbs, I doubt that they could develop a dual manual that
does not have to be moved by more than one person.
And your last point is quite astute!!! The future (like it or not), is
with software synths... Soon, we may all be using our expensive clones
as controllers. Better have one that is 3rd party friendly....
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Wahler [mailto:bruce@ashbysolutions.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 8:35 AM
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CWSG] Re: XK-3 Miscellany
Hi All,
I've been watching the XK-3 mania from the sidelines -- both because of
financial limitations and because it's a 1-manual clone. It seems like
a pretty cool clone, though, and it definitely raises the bar on
tweakability -- something that makes the engineer/programmer side of my
personality salivate! Here's my $0.02 on some of the things I've seen
in the threads over the past week or so:
1. Expression Pedal "Option" -- H-S has been using this
feature/trick/ploy for years. An expression pedal is an OPTION? I
don't buy it; an expression pedal is a necessity. The only reason to
make it an option is to hit a better price point for the organ itself in
the marketing collateral. Before deciding if the XK-3 is right for you,
add in the price of the expression pedal. If the dealer has to
special-order the pedal, make sure you get it prior to buying the organ.
2. Wheel Brake ("Power Down Effect") -- This is a nice feature on my
Korg, but not an absolute necessity. It's the kind of effect that
sounds cool once or twice a night; annoying once or twice a set. In
many cases, the pitch wheel will provide a close enough approximation.
3. Chorus/Vibrato All-or-None -- This is a more serious gaffe, IMHO.
It's especially frustrating to see because H-S has been doing this for
years, and has been dinged for the omission in the past. It's also
disappointing because it looks like the designers spent a lot of time on
the little details that make a B-3 unique, yet missed this one. It's
one of the nice things about my BX-3: the ability to add vibrato to
either manual or both, at MY discretion. Left-hand bass with vibrato is
just plain wrong, and left hand comping with vibrato is sometimes even
worse.
4. A Cheap Dual-Manual "XK-4" -- It's not going to happen. The
dual-manual market is very small these days, and the only reason to do
one is to satisfy the players (like yours truly) that just HAVE to have
two manuals sitting in just the right place. Small market + unique
features = higher price. If H-S comes out with a dual-manual XK-3 (and
the B-3P is not what I mean here), expect the price to be around
$3500-4000 street -- almost as much as buying two XK-3s -- or maybe even
a little more, depending on the cabinet and such.
5. MIDI Implementation -- This is a personal question I'm tossing out.
Every H-S clone since the XB-2 (and maybe XB-3?) has used an unusual --
some might say bizarre -- method of mapping all nine drawbars of each
manual to one MIDI CC#. This is possible because 9 drawbars * 9
positions = 81 choices; however it's counter to "normal" MIDI
implementation, and makes slaving other non-H-S products to the XB-2,
XK-2, etc. nearly impossible. Does anyone know if the XK-3 follows
suit? (I suspect that it does.)
Why is this last point important? Because a year or two from now,
another vendor will leapfrog the XK-3, and list members will again be
stricken with H.A.S. Right now, if I wanted to (and I don't), I could
use my BX-3 to drive a V5+, an Electro Rack,or a B4/EVB3 soft-synth,
simply by re-mapping the drawbars to the proper MIDI CC values. Some of
the other clones can't re-map their MIDI data, but a MIDI Solutions
Mapper will fix that up. A VK-8/8m is a little trickier because it uses
MIDI SysEx, but the Mapper can probably fix that, too. The H-S
implementation I described above is another story: it's unlike any
other commercially-available slider/knob/drawbar scenario, so there
aren't available solutions to the problem. Without some slick
programming in between the pieces, an XK-2 can only be slaved to another
H-S product.
Regards,
-BW
--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby SolutionsT http://music.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com
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