From melvinnich@aol.com Sat Jun 18 20:31:07 2005
Subject:VK8M, Nord, and V5 help; help with pedal drawbars

I would greatly appreciate the list's help. Two questions have become
rather urgent for me since my XK3 is in the shop, probably for weeks.

QUESTION 1: Does anyone know if Roland did the VK8 pedal drawbars "right,"
so that you can actually hear articulated pedal bumps when doubling manual 2
l.h.?

I was thinking of getting a VK8 module as a backup to use now. But I would
want it if and only if THE PEDAL DRAWBARS DO NOT SOUND IDENTICAL TO ITS
MANUAL 2 DRAWBARS--as is unfortunately the case with the V5, or with two Nord
Electros that are used to run two manuals with pedals.

QUESTION 2: Could someone tell me what I am doing wrong with the V5 and
Nord when it comes to manual2/pedal mix? As far as I can tell, with a V5 and
Nord, any two manuals plus pedals setup has a weird, unacceptable manual2/pedal
mix. Here is the situation as I am experiencing it:

As far as I can tell, the V5 is poor as a jazz B3 module if you play pedals.
(Am I missing something?; it seems no one has mentioned this before.) The
basic problem, as I am experiencing it, is the pedal drawbars are the same as
the manual drawbars (no foldback on manual drawbars). This means with
standard settings, if you play an l.h. note and then tap the pedal on the same note,
you hear NOTHING, NO BUMP AT ALL.

And even if you set the V5 man2 drawbars to contrast with the pedal drawbars,
you still get almost zero bump. I forced a pedal bump out of a V5 by using
very quiet drawbar settings on manual 2 with loud middle drawbar against a
setting of 808 for pedals; in this configuration you get a small bump that you
can hear until the drummer starts playing.

And I'm not having luck with combining the V5 with the Nord. As far as I can
tell, the V5 pedals with Nord manual 2 (again, using standard settings) just
becomes an additive big bassy woof that presses on your ears, not an
articulated bottom with good growl, definition, and bump.

As for CX-3: I was semi-happy with the V5 running pedals against CX-3
manuals; I could hear a reasonable bump with V5/CX3, because the CX3 manual 2 has
foldback and tinny harmonics that made it stand out against the bassy V5 tone.
But I traded in my CX3, so I can't use that setup anymore.

Again, (a) could someone tell me if am I doing something wrong with the Nord
and V5, and (2) does anyone know if the VK8 got the manual2/pedals mix right?

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