From den121961@yahoo.com Wed Aug 25 18:18:54 2010
Subject:Re: Epoch


I still remember the furor when Diversi came on, and I opened my big mouth about hearing Joey at a McGriff benefit and not being impressed. Tom from Diversi ended up opening their showroom, bringing Joey in and letting us all come in and play the thing, and compare it to everything out at that time, I think the C1 wasn't out yet. They even had a few real hammonds there. I went to that and was totally sold on the diversi as far as sound went (still couldn't afford it though). I still don't know everything that happened there with the Joey split, and I don't need to. Bottom line is as good as it sounded it never really caught on. The nord did in spite of (puts fireproof suit on now) it's drawbar system. I've seen hammond clones out there with bands; Korgs, Rolands, Nords like crazy (Bruce Katz was using one a week and a half ago still, makes me curious why he didn't mention the ventura at all) and am still seeing real hammonds. For some reason other than when Joey was with them I've not seen a diversi with a band yet. Bottom line to me seems to be the market has a way of straightening this stuff out, and it's not always what you'd expect that comes out on top. I wouldn't have any clone except the Korg, and finally have that sounding the way I want it to, and I know of a few other guys that feel the same way. But I also know guys that feel the same way about all the rest of em (oddly enough the nord guys seem the most passionate about their clones). Somehow Ventura needs to capture some of that passion, and I don't know how you can do that unless you have guys able to try them out. Incidently, that's how I went for the Korg. It happened to be sitting used in a sam ash. I was leaning heavily toward the roland after playing that a few times and spending the time with it, but the Korg just felt right for some reason (most likely it was because it must resemble one of my hammonds as far as feel goes). I ended up going back to that store a bunch of times that day, and my wife could see I wanted the thing. I went back and got it a few days later, would have taken it home that day except I felt some loyalty to the salesman that worked with me patiently and he went home. SO you gotta get these where people can play them. There's no way I would have considered the Korg even if someone offered me a try it and return it policy.
Another sidenote, I love the Korg's sound, but the sound irritated me for a long time. One of the things that kept me from bailing on it and kept tweaking it was the fact that I heard Medeski (my favorite hammond guy) use it on two video's. I knew he got the sound I was looking for out of it, so I kept messing. SO there is something to be said about big name guys using something.
Den