From ccmacdon@rogers.com Wed Apr 27 07:18:12 2011
Subject:Re: Hammond SK1 & SK2

Regarding the SK2, having two manuals and only one set of drawbars (physical or electronic), is a real deficiency (my opinion of course).

However, beyond the quality of the basic hammond sound and traditional hammond controls, I am really interested in two things:

1. Quality and completeness of the non-organ sounds. Does it really have a full set of high quality sounds, including all the sounds that a typical gigging keyboard player needs?
2. How easy and flexible is it when it comes to setting up multi-zone, multi-layered sounds, with separate effects and controllers etc..

My current gig rig is a Nord C2 and a Roland Sonic Cell, and this is an extremely flexible rig.. Not only does it have electronic drawbars for both manuals, but I can use both upper and lower manuals for organ sounds or use them as independent MIDI controllers. Using my Sonic Cell I can easily map up to 16 difference sounds across either of the two manuals, and define upper/lower split points, independent volume levels, separate effects etc. etc. My sense is, from reviewing the videos, is that there the SK2 has some serious limitations with respect to splits/layers, and I'm not gettng the sense that the additional sound set is particularly good, or comprehensive.

So as much as I would like to further simplify my gig rig and only carry one keyboard, I'm not sure the SK2 would satisfy my requirements.

I'll have to wait and see once I can get my hands on one.

Craig

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> First thing I noticed was that the SK2 only has one set of drawbars, the Nord C2 has two sets of electronis drawbars, the SK1 needs another set of drawbars and drawbars for bass pedals to compete with Nord. The SK1 is basically the same as a Electro3 but the piano sounds on the Hammond needs improvement, in fact the only advantage the SK2 has over the Nord C2 is the other instrument sounds which I can use my roland for that. It seems that whenever the subject of clonewheels come up, the xk3c comes up. I think that because of the wieght and size of th C2 and the fact that it has two manuals, it's a better buy than the xk3c, unless you just want to be sitting behind the Hammond name.
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