From mrresp1@optonline.net Tue Jan 11 20:29:48 2005
Subject:Re: the leslie 2101 - my review from the Nord group -


well the leslie 21 came in today.

i don't have the electro here & my jam got cancelled for tomorrow so i'll
have to wait til next saturday to fully hook it up to to the rest of my rig.
but for the moment i put a yamaha s30 thru it and checked it out. not bad.
i'll mention a few things about it since i know some people had inquired
about how it works & the overall design. [the block diagram printed toward
the front of the manual is very helpful].

so, is it worth $995. bucks over the electro sim? well, i never felt that i
was suffering with the electro sim, but sure, as everyone knows, you can't
beat a spinning mechanical horn with all the right 'stuff' for leslie
realism. certainly, the accuracy is worth a whole lot & the fact that i
think hammond truly put their minds together on this one to come up with a
versatile design to try to satisfy everyone who would be willing to blow
$1000. on this & not end up with a toy.

the 50w worth of power (just) for the horn is very decent, but at the same
time, the true test will be playing in a band situation to see if the horn
cuts without getting into extra miking. i believe it will probably suffice.
it's not just the 50w that counts here, it's the nature of the horn driver
that really cuts through. the (synthesized) rotary (125hz-700hz) & sub
(<125hz) channels (which run internally thru the 50w & 50w - left & right -
little speakers - and can be shut off in a loud band situation) are not to
worry about since they have line outs that can go to a big stereo rig (the
lo-rotor out is stereo (but switchable to mono) & the sub-out is mono ////
there is no miked out for the rotary horn). you can actually just use this
thing 'stand alone' (like a 'mini leslie') in a studio / practice situation
if you don't mind the absence of the lo-rotor mids & bass lacking thru the
50w per side little 5" & 2" speakers.

this box is actually a pretty nice piece of engineering. other than the
small size (still 50 lbs) & the quality of the leslie effect itself, the
thing that really sold me on this is the variety of user adjustments
available that allow you to tailor the sound of the unit / cabinet to mimic
a 122 (or whatever) by push-button / rotary dial settings (saved to 2
non-volatile presets) for the values of the horn resonance, crossover,
fast-slow-brake speeds, and volume balance between the horn amp, the rotary
channel & sub 125hz. even the spin direction of the horn is adjustable
(yikes! - why would you wanna do that - perish the thought - unless you live
in austrailia???). and of course the full midi setup (which i may or may
not bother with for the electro). there are 2 footswitch controls available
(and this unit actually came with a little hammond momentary footswitch
(just one)). one is for switching between the saved presets (the defaults 1
& 2 are great - sounds like 2 totally different leslies - no exaggeration)
and the other for speed. in case nobody mentioned it, the speed footswitch
goes slow - fast & fast - slow, but if you hold it down for 1 second at any
time, it applies the brake - very nice & easy.

the backside - there's a lot of stuff on the back - power, buttons, midi
in-out, 11pin (exposed male connector - no plastic cap!) & 8 pin connectors
for real hammond keyboard people (who also get to use the available 1 set of
stereo 'stationary' inputs (part of the 11pin conn) with volumes (for synth
or piano etc) going to the same stereo internal (50w ea) amps as the
lo-rotor & sub), ALSO, a very nice overdrive / distortion effect control
(adjustable knob) (to simulate your basic tube amp - it's quite good & even
makes it louder). 1/4" phono rotary input jack, stereo low-rotor outs, 2
parallel mono sub outs, 3-position internal speaker mode/signal switch, 2 X
(7-segment) led display for parameters w/ rotary selection knob & status
leds - horn & rotor, status leds for preset (1 &2), footswitch jacks, a
remote power connection to have all this stuff (assuming leslie extension
cabs) turn-on at the same time as your hammond keyboard etc (this works for
an estimated 1000 times & then the 'non-serviceable internal battery dies)
don't ask - weird design here - why not just a little battery compartment on
the back panel?

what else, oh yeah, 2 little recessed pots that you'll need a little flat
screwdriver to adjust (tape it to the rear panel?)- one for the horn amp
level & one for the sub (<125hz) bass level. yeah, that was dumb. i think
these two adjustments deserve their own regular knob (ok, raise the price
$5.). i realize that hammond thinks that you'll adjust these once (set &
forget) & that's it. nahhhh. you'll wanna tweak them for a while until you
find your optimum balance and then you'll wanna tweak them again &
again.........

lastly, all the status lights / controls are on the rear. there are no leds
to indicate anything that you can see from the front. obviously no leds on
the footswitches to indicate speed or preset (although i'm definitely gonna
make one with a self-contained battery). the front speaker cover is on
Velcro's so you can pull it off if you feel the need to see the spinning
horn but i think you'll be able to tell from the sound. the preset setting
could be a little tougher without leds on the footswitch. the leslie
(particle mdf) case is sturdy with an ok covering. has 2 decent handles for
transport, less sturdy plastic grilles on the sides for the horn, nice
plastic corners and rubber feet on the bottom & one side. the unit is 20"
deep so i had to move the rubber feet in from the rear to sit on top of my
15" deep speaker cabinet. the unit was packaged with a little foam top &
corners but the lightweight cardboard box suffered during transport with a
few 'bashes' going completely through to the unit - though nothing was
dented - these delivery guys don't like carrying around 60lbs boxes - some
of these leslies WILL get busted up.

oh yeah, it sounds great. i only played with this thing for about an hour
or so, so don't yell if i got some detail wrong.
sorry long post - wasn't gonna write all that but got in the mood. ...
besides, inquiring minds wanna know.

my humble opinion.

mark