From djacques@csulb.edu Tue Feb 26 12:42:26 2008
Subject:RE: Organ Ignorance in Big Box Stores
Damn. if most people did not notice Eddie VanHalen playing a half-tone flat
during an entire performance of "Jump", do you think they will notice a
missing Hammond part?
_____
From: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of tonysounds
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:49 AM
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CWSG] Organ Ignorance in Big Box Stores
I just mentioned the Foos cuz I saw them...and it was great to hear the
Electro used THAT WELL!
In fact, I mentioned to my buddy "look, they brought the B3 and a leslie, he
played 3 songs. He disappeared for the next hour, then appeared down on the
satellite stage with the band on the Electro for 4 songs, sounded great,
then "bye!". The B3 itself, to my accounting, was a huge waste of money in
this case. (Should have brought 2 Electros!) The Foos new stuff has lots of
keyboard things happening (as does the new Chili Peppers stuff), not
necessarily just Hammond. I was glad to see the addition, but if he were to
get sick, the show would work fine.
Not a lot of young bands are Hammond-y, mostly legacy acts. But we know
this! My favorite stunt is going into the music store, getting board with
all the workstations, going over to the Electro, manipulating it, making it
sound great, perking up the ears of the staff..and then changing the patch
back to its stale preset! HA!
Bruce Wahler s.com>
wrote: Hi All,
Looking at it from the mainstream perspective:
- Keyboard players are a small percentage of musicians as a whole, way below
guitarists.
- Organists are a small percentage of keyboard players, far below piano and
synth players.
- As stages and compensation has shrunk, keyboard players are looking for
all-in-one solutions, rather than "best of breed" products.
Given all that, is it any surprise that few MI stores carry drawbar organs?
While Tom T may have overstated the Nord-is-a-synth case, I understand where
he's coming from. An Electro is a digital keyboard that emulates the Hammond
Organ, among other things. So is a Motif 6. To the members of this list, the
differences are night and day, but try to convey that to a novice, in two
sentences or less. Yeah, the Electro is a much more accurate, versatile
organ emulator -- but the Motif does WAY better brass. You can't win that
argument in the 5 minutes MAXIMUM that you'll have the attention of a
prospective keyboard buyer in a big MI store. To many buyers, if it doesn't
have strings and hammers, then it's a "synth." Thus, a VK-8 is a "funny
synth with a weird control surface." ;-)
Walk into your average keyboard department, and you'll find that 95% or more
of the people fit into three categories:
1. The guy/girl who has taken serious music lessons, probably on piano.
She/he runs through the various patches on the keyboard, playing the same
song on each of them -- usually some complex Bach or jazz piece that shows
off the chops.
2. The total novice player, who tends to mostly run through the "cool
sounds" banks. He/she might not even BE a keyboard player, perhaps a
producer, guitarist, or drummer looking to expand their sonic palette.
Keyboards that do a little of everything, including arguably non-musical
sounds, are a big attraction.
3. The bored sales staff, who wish they could move to the guitar dept.,
where the REAL sales are happening! ;-)
----------
And finally, while bands like the Foos might tour with a 'B player, it's
more of an icing on the cake thing than an integral part of the sound.
Quick, name me three Foo Fighters songs that would sound ridiculous without
the Hammond Organ part? If Rami Jaffee had come down with a sudden case of
flu and missed the gig, would more than 1-2% of the audience even notice?
Hammond Organ has always had a PR problem in the rock world. Even in the
heyday of ELP, Yes, etc. very few people new what that instrument up on the
stage was. And let's not even start with "that spinney thing in the old
furniture cabinet" (my teen-years drummer's exact words).
Regards,
-BW
--
Bruce Wahler
AshbySolutions.comT
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolution s.com
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"The meek shall inherit nothing." -FZ
"You don't get tone on a diet." -T
"Hitting 'play' does not constitute live performance." -T
www.myspace.com/tonyorant
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