From bardian@usadatanet.net Thu May 04 06:02:41 2006
Subject:Re: my new XK-1

... I've been having lots of fun with the XK-1. I was able to set it up
side by side with my Electro 73. It is amazing how good each sounds but how
different each sounds. The XK-1 sounds more like a real tonewheel B3, but
both sound awesome. The keyboard of the Electro is much looser and lighter;
the XK-1's has a much firmer feel to it - it also has a nice aged ivory
color to it. I can't say which feels 'better', but they are very different.
I messed with the XK-1 Leslie parameters to get something that I really
like - the mid tone control frequency is tweakable and can really help
create the sound of the Leslie. It is interesting, at the fast speed it
sounds almost just like the Electro sim; at slow speeds the Electro has a
rich creaminess I haven't been able to duplicate on the XK-1 yet. Speaking
of the Leslie, if you edit it, you need to save it as a custom Leslie
'cabinet' and then use it in whatever organ preset you are creating. Unless
you do that your Leslie settings will disappear if you just try to save them
as part of an organ preset. The electric pianos are certainly not as good
as those on the Electro; they are about the same quality as the EP on the
VK7 - usable but not world class, except the DX7 piano which sounds to me
pretty much just like the original (I'm not sure everyone would think that
was a good thing). On the other hand, the Vox organ sound is very good -
when used with the proper drawbars and a 'V' vibrato setting it is a lot of
fun. I haven't played it next to my Vox yet, but I was having lots of fun
playing Door's songs and it sounded just about perfect. The reverb sounds
are very nice and I like the option of placing the reverb before the Leslie
sim - a very nice (albeit unrealistic) sound. For me, one big advantage are
the drawbars and the ability to turn the V/C on and off for both manuals
with one key stroke. When playing live with the Electro, I would find that
I wasn't changing sounds every time the spirit moved me to just because the
'drawlights' were a little awkward and turn the V/C on or off took 3
keystrokes.


>I picked up my new XK-1 yesterday afternoon. I haven't had a lot of time
>with it yet, but I will this evening. What I can say so far is that it
>looks beautiful; the wood finish is very nice. The keyboard is great - a
>nice firm feel. It sounds really good and I've just begun to really tweak
>it. The Leslie sim has lots of parameters and can sound a lot better than
>the preset sounds. The 'dirty 60's' drawbar setting has nice machine noise
>and dirt to it. The V/C tabs are really easy to use. It doesn't seem to
>have the key click problem the XK-3 supposedly has - the key click can be
>completely removed. I like the DX-7 piano sound. The tone controls seem
>to give lots of control over the sound. The bass can really rumble. I
>can't wait to put it through my Motion Sound stuff and put it side by side
>with the Electro 73 and VK7. More later...
>
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