From funkyhammond@yahoo.com Sun Apr 10 21:41:28 2011
Subject:Re: Bye, Bye VK8m

Pretty much anything sounds good plugged into a Hammond preamp -> Leslie. My old Electro 2 even sounded quite good plugged in that way. Doesn't help for gigs, though. :)

I don't think it's totally valid to compare a Leslie to PA speakers unless you're talking about running a raw organ sound without a leslie sim. Once you have a good leslie sim, it's really more like reproducing a miked leslie, which should, in theory, sound fine through good PA/monitor speakers. Unless you're saying that miked leslies also never sound right through PA/monitor speakers, which would just be a general point about accurate sound reproduction.

But I think your main point is that leslie sims are often lacking something somewhere, which is the real problem. It's a lot to model properly (speaker tone, cabinet tone, tubes, rotating sound, etc.). If we find ourselves looking for an amp/speaker that has more of the response curve of a leslie, then we're basically just trying to compensate for an inaccurate leslie sim. So I understand your point about having a good C/V, no sim, and going direct into an amp; it simply gives you more control over the sound by removing the complicated leslie sim from the equation. But if we want the sound of a leslie (rotating speakers and all) without having to lug one around, we're stuck with trying to look for the best simulation. I'm sure they'll keep improving with time, especially when ones like the Ventilator raise the bar. But, of course, we also need good, accurate sound reproduction. I don't think that means an amp/speaker that has characteristics of a leslie. That's just adding color to color, making things even more complicated. But that's what we've been all experimenting with in order to compensate for less-than-perfect leslie sims. Sometimes we get lucky and hit on a good combination. That's fine, but the better the leslie sim, probably the cleaner we will want the sound reproduction to be in order not to add extra color.

Here's hoping for more Ventilator-like products in the future (especially ones not tied to a clone).