From paul@cometway.com Tue May 11 16:43:48 2010
Subject:Re: sample over synth

Come on Tony, don't be like that.

Here -- I'll type using upper and lowercase just for you. ;-)

There have been a lot of arguments in the past about samples vs synthesis with regard to creating an authentic B3 tone. Samples actually do a great job of capturing the authentic tone of a particular instrument, but are considered to be relatively static and don't go far enough to model the idiosyncratic physics of an actual tonewheel organ hooked up to a leslie. They also don't do drawbars very well.

Before there were any real "clonewheel" organs I spent many years of my life trying to use conventional synthesizers to generate sounds that replicated a Hammond sound. Some attempts came really close, and others were noticeably flawed. Ultimately there was no single synthesizer which could emulate every aspect of the Hammond that I considered to be an essential part of the Hammond tone.

The best tones I ended up with came from using the ROM samples from an X5 though the built-in effects (overdrive and leslie) played through a guitar amp with 10" speakers. It's laughable to this particular group of experts, but I still use it today because it's the best I've got. I've had reasonable success with the Kawai K3 going through a tube preamp and Korg G4 leslie effect. I've made a great Hammond M1 patch for my Jupiter-8 back when it actually used to sit on top of my M1 for comparison.

The VOCE DMI-64 Mark II was the first really good attempt at a Hammond synthesizer engine, modeling lots of things like 60 cycle hum, partial wrapping, and whatnot, but was eventually outclassed by all the clonewheels that came after including my favorite, the Nord Electro.

According to the participants of this list, there are only a few dedicated clonewheel organs even worth considering (Nord, XK, etc) and all of them must be played through a real leslie or the Ventilator. Nobody here seems to be the least bit interested in talking about any other alternatives, even though there are many I feel are worth consideration depending on your needs.

A real multi-purpose synthesizer is generally not suited for replicating the actual Hammond tone, but that doesn't mean you can't get a sound that you and your audience are extremely pleased with. I'm also of the opinion that the music world is ready for some variety in organ tones and that duplicating a Hammond is the holy grail of someone who would much rather just have a Hammond B3 but can't for one reason or another (expense, massive size, etc).

I bet you can get an awesome sounding organ using a $200 Emu sampler and a ventilator! Not good enough for most people on this list, but certainly not unmusical! -pc

On May 11, 2010, at 5:36 PM, tonysounds wrote: