From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Thu Sep 01 09:12:30 2011
Subject:Re: CLONEWHEEL SHOOTOUT 2011!! Let's Git Busy!!

Hi Gary,

The results of the 1996 Shootout were:

* The Voce V3 won.
* The Hammond XB-2 was a *very* close second.
* The Hammond XM-2 (?) came in third.
* The Viscount D9 wasn't considered close enough to bother with a
full set of tests.
* None of them sounded exactly like a B-3. All of them had
weaknesses in things like percussion 'thump,' chorus vibrato, and
crosstalk. But any of the top three was more than usable for gigging.

* No sim -- including the original MS Pro-3 -- won the Leslie Sim
Shootout. In 1996, you could get closer to 'the sound' with any
clone and a Goff Professional Leslie than even the B-3 with a Pro-3.

The testing was mostly the brainchild of Mark Longo, who at the time was
the Hamtech moderator. We did the shootout live, to try to eliminate
setup and playback differences -- and because it was cool to meet
clonewheelers from around the world. It took a lot of work to arrange
the date and keep track of just four clones. It would require a bit of
commitment on the part of someone to collect, log, and distribute MIDI
files and MP3s to make a virtual shootout work. It's certainly a lot
more work than Norm's suggestion, and maybe less fun, too.

The reason that we did it the way we did was two-fold:

1. At the time -- and it's still kind of true -- the Keyboard Mag
shootouts were full of subjective impressions, but not a lot of
useful data. They got a bunch of famous players together, had
them play around for a day or so, then asked for vague impressions
like 'which clone is the most "ballsy"' and such. That's
interesting, but it doesn't give one much to go on to try to buy a
clone online.

2. Having me play Clone A, and you play Clone B introduces a lot of
variables: technique, chops, daily attitude, etc. Let's face it,
an awesome player on a $100 Casio might sound better than me on a
real B-3!

Regards,

-BW

Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions.com^(TM)
bruce@ashbysolutions.com
http://music.ashbysolutions.com
877.55.ASHBY (877.552.7429)

On 9/1/2011 11:24 AM, Gary Brumm wrote:
> Hi Bruce,
>