From yahoogroups@bstage.com Tue Nov 09 14:38:10 2004
Subject:Re: Why did Hammond get the virtual B3 right?


Yep.. exactly. And actually, they say they have 96
tonewheels...which kind of implies a seperate sample for each level
of each drawbar, not just one sample each with a volume control...

I don't own one yet, but they also say that you can adjust bleed
through and other stuff... So..this is much much more than a simple
sampled hammond player, even though it may use some sampled data
internally. whenever you hit keys on an XK3, some combination of
those 96 sampled tonewheels are combined together, mish mashed
together with some bleed through, tuning, level differences, vibrato,
Chorusing, etc..and a unique tone comes out the other end. Does it
have as much variation as a 100% modeled one? I have no idea. Maybe
yes, maybe no. Depends on the modeling algorithms and depends on how
smart Hammond was at mixing and mashing those 96 tonewheel samples
together in real time.

I think at some point we're nit picking about how things work
though.

The real question is how does it sound and feel. I don't really care
how they got there. Which one sounds right, feels right to play, has
all the controls neccessary to play with nuance, drives a leslie
properly, has a decent leslie sim when I don't have a leslie, etc..

I've been lurking here a couple weeks and if I had to sum up the
general consensus about it from everyone here and also from Keyboard
mag, this is what I would say:

1 - Nothing beats a real B3. As good as they have gotten, they still
are not there 100%. Probably good enough for a lot of gigging use
though, and an increasing number of B3 owners are switching over,
declaring the sound and feel "good enough" to make the switch.

2 - Nothing beats a real leslie.. Period.

3 - If you will never have a leslie and don't care about the physical
controls being like a real B3, then get the Nord. The sound rocks,
the leslie sim is awesome and it has a wicked good wurly too. its
also a very light keyboard, easy to take to a gig and fit on a small
stage.

4 - If you want the controls and also want other sounds, a reasonably
good one is the Roland stuff. Maybe not quite as good sounding as
some of the others, but still pretty awesome and has other really
good Roland sounds, especially the V-760. I don't hear too many
people here talking about the Roland stuff. But there are lots of
happy Roland users on the VK yahoo forum. Supposedly it takes some
tweaking to get the sound just right. But the feel of the keyboard
is supposedly "like Buttah" according to keyboard mag.

5 - Korg seems to have a nitch of users that really like it and
certain things about it. Main complaint is that it comes in large
form factor. At least you can get a dual manual version, so if
that's your thing..Korg is probably it. Perhaps has a better leslie
sim than the XK2.

6 - If you're going to use a real leslie and want the real controls
and keyboard feel of a hammond, get the XK3, its built to sound great
through a leslie. Some say the percussion is too loud without
leslie. Some others say it can be tweaked. An awful lot of happy
XK3 users on this forum. Some of them are also very happy with their
other clones and tone modules, but most people that pipe up about
their XK3's are extremely happy about it and use it mainly over all
their other Hammond devices.. Also, many complaints about the Leslie
sim not being great. This keyboard is best paired with a real leslie.

7 - If you want to use a real leslie and don't care what midi
controller you use, the Voce may work for you or a laptop running B4.

At the end of the day, they all have some strengths and weaknesses, I
don't think any one clonewheel stands out as the clear winner. It
just depends on what you need and how you plan to use it. And pile
on top of that a whole lot of subjective opinion.

Because of that fact, I'm still torn myself on which one I will get.
I want a keyboard with authentic physical controls, so that limits me
down to about three... (Xk3, Roland, Korg). I'll probably get the
Hammond and I'll probably get a real leslie and put an end to my
crying. If the sound needs more, I'll think about bringing my laptop
along to gigs and running B4.... Or maybe..just maybe...if Dave is
nicer to me...I'll think about getting his box. B-)

cheers

-steve

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> Dean
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