From goffmac747@aol.com Thu Sep 01 10:39:06 2011
Subject:Re: CLONEWHEEL SHOOTOUT 2011!! Let's Git Busy!!

Remember how in judging tape machine quality back in the day, (yes kiddies, spools of magnetic tape was a medium for sound and music), the "wow and flutter" spec was something we as buyers looked at as a criteria for a good player/recorder. The lower the percentage the machine would deviate from keeping the tape steady through its pinch roller and drive motors, the better we liked it. Today's digital "flutter" is called "jitter." And if you are anywhere near a pro recording studio, after they buy the expensive digital recorder, they are buying an equally expensive aftermarket master word clock synchronizer to stabilize the jitter of the recorder, the recorder maker claims to be complete, its word clock is the best, nothing more need be added.

What I would like to see added as a category in this new shoot out, is a "loop effect." Meaning the clone with the least noticeable loop sound. Today's clones get sound from long loops. Some players are sensitive to this and those who aren't may not notice that they go through a lot of adjusting while playing a clone, pulling bars, fiddling with amp modeling on the fly, constantly tweaking. This is a symptom of the long loop syndrome. A real B3 is an infinite variable of real wheels turning in infinite combinations, nothing loops or "glitches" on a real B3 tonewheel.

The scores we may give at this state of the clone may be dreadfully low, should the rest choose to go through this and add it to the shoot out. Since we are at least one list of the many that clone makers may listen to, it is a way of getting these clones improved in a direction, I feel, the clone makers have left off the drawing board. Not that they have not thought of this. The truth is they have. Hammond-Suzuki for one was made aware of this by then Ham-Suz development specialist, Tom Tuson.

Now I know some may feel they have "the" clone and are quite happy with it. But to be real, we may suspect that we know the next clone is supposed to be better than the last so the upgrade phenomenon is part and parcel of owning and playing a clone. Its a given. Same for software.

Many businesses will not address an issue if no one complains about it. Their mentality is, if nobody complains, why change? We as consumers and players have the responsibility to keep an eye out for these, scrutinizing and comparing as we normally do.

At the risk of sounding like a teacher who has just ruined everyone's weekend party by giving out a 9 chapter reading assignment due Monday, I offer this as an additional constructive criteria to be acted on if not now, in the near future.

Goff

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Wahler
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, Sep 2, 2011 12:12 am
Subject: Re: [CWSG] CLONEWHEEL SHOOTOUT 2011!! Let's Git Busy!!

The results of the 1996 Shootout were:

* None of them sounded exactly like a B-3. All of them had
weaknesses in things like percussion 'thump,' chorus vibrato, and
crosstalk.




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