From jackoverfull@gmail.com Sun Apr 01 15:18:32 2012
Subject:C2D - KeyB Manual

Just coming back from this showcase of clones… There it was possible to try out all the main clones.
In detail, there was the Crumar Mojo, The Hamichord, the CD2 (the only one currently in Italy!), the KeyB Mark III and a new keyboard Elvio has been working on.

All the clones were amplified with retrofitted leslies or tornados (that's basically a "real" rotary, only smaller than the leslie, built today by Silvio della Mattia), so they all sounded quite good (even if when the real C3 was fired up it these hears couldn't resist to turn in that direction…It's just more present, mellower, with that percussion that…but i'm going off topic) but you could try them with the rotary simlation as well, often trough a good pair of headphones…If you could find a moment an organ was left vacant, anyway.

I got to try in Headphones the C2D (by the way, the guy that showcased it told us that the leslie simulation is all new, not an improved version of the old one). Sorry, but still doesn't do it for me, soundwise it's still well below both VB3s and Keyb. The faders will work very well tough (and surely a lot better than the old digital drawbar) and the controls are much more well organized, also.

What you can see here is a prototype for Elvio Previati's answer to the Mojo and the CD2: http://i40.tinypic.com/14bjcch.jpg
it was presented at Frankfurt as well but i don't remember any discussion about it here…

I think it's called "KeyB Manual" (can't remember and can't read the text very well), it's basically a controller "for B4 or…something else" (using Elvio's own words…guess what else?) that you can integrate with the KeyB expander, it weights around 18 KG and offers almost every feature of the KeyB, minus the sound generator. Each manual has two set of drawbars (connecting the expander the ones on the device becomes useless…I suggested Elvio to make that 3 sets per manual but his answer was on the lines of "absolutely not") and four presets that works the usual way, currently available using the four buttons you can see on the rightmost corner at the left of each manual.

Please bear in mind that what you see here is just a prototype (Elvio said he had just the time to add the percussion buttons, which, in fact, were still without any explanatory label), the final one will surely look a lot more refinished and will probably sport several difference. It should be ready to be ordered in 3 months or so.

And so almost every major clone maker now has his own top of the line organ and a portable alternative that is very close to that anyway…Things are looking good indeed!

To sum it up the state of Clonewheels as it is now;
-Crumar has the Hamichord and the Mojo (and the Pari.e K61 which is, in fact, still available! You order it, they build it just for you!);
-Keyb has the Duo, the Manual and even a couple of single manual alternatives (The Solo and the Numa):
-Nord has the C2D and the C2 (so, no "just like a real hammond" option like the others).
-Hammond Suzuki has a whole line of organs, from the big ones to the single manual ones.

All of them with several accessories available (pedals, switches, stands, benches), many intercompatible (you can easily take Nord's pedalboard and use it with a Mojo…and actually i'm thinking about that, with it being full sized - but not radial- and costing 1400 euros it seems one of the best options).

Missing anyone else?
Really, i'm not in that condition (already a Mojo here…) but if I were to buy a new clone here and decided to go with either VB3 or KeyB I would see little point in preferring the Hamichord over the Mojo or (even more so) the Duo over the Manual+Expander (it gives you more and costs less!). Perhaps those two models will end up as being built-to-order models sooner or later, like the K61 is now…

Any insight?

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