From organbarry@gmail.com Wed May 12 06:15:41 2010
Subject:Re: sample over synth

When I first got my original DX7 I was able to get some very nice
Hammond sounds out of it. If you used the algorithm with all the
operators as carriers (I haven't used DX7 lingo in years!) you could
have 6 drawbar pitches - since each operator could be individually
fine-tuned you could avoid the artificial beating effect that showed up
in some early clones, and the sine wave sound of the operators wasn't
too unlike that Hammond sound. You could also adjust the volume of each
operator over the range of the keyboard to mimic the real thing. You
could also get nice percussion, but that would use up a couple of
operators leaving you with 4 drawbars. I still have my DX7 - I should
listen to some of those patches. I also have an SY77 that I made a lot
of organ patches for - it had 2 FM generators, so you could have all
nine drawbars (or more if you wanted to be a little crazy) or 8 (or 9)
drawbars and percussion.

Paul Cunningham wrote:
>
>
> 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
>