From richardhunt502@comcast.net Sun Apr 15 07:42:06 2012
Subject:Re: Some extensive ventilating

I have no engineering degrees to stand behind but to me a leslie is a boxy sounding mid-rangey,noisey,mechanical device that in no way tries to be a high end do-it-all speaker system. Crossed over at 800 hz you trade off all the the high end sizzle of the horn driver by forcing it to try to reproduce the upper mids and highs together and then shutter its’ sound through the down-facing louvres in the cabinets design and it also compromises the Lf driver by making it try to reproduce the lows and the mid range frequencies together from one speaker facing the floor. The mids and highs are directional so spinning them around the room causes all the reflections to cancel and combine with other soundwaves in ways that create a magical experience when working together. With the sounds being bounced around the room they enter your ears from all different angles and volumes which create that natural chorusing which to me is the Hammond Organ sound. Without this chorusing the organs sound brittle and clinical, not natural to my ears. And to me the magic sound is when you switch from slow to fast speed and you hear the horn getting up to speed faster than the bass rotor and then the opposite action when slowing down the speed. It’s that transitional time period of a few seconds that give life to the organ sound. It’s animated and moving , not a static sound coming from a single point in the room. To approximate this lo-fi nirvana one can simply roll off some highs on your organ channels to get that nice warm tube-like sound that compliments the organs strengths . And adding a little chorus effect if you don’t have a real leslie or ventilator at your disposal. But you still need to have a somewhat clean and powerful system to reproduce the acoustic pianos frequency range without distortion or crap outs’. One exception though is with electric piano sounds, whether Rhodes or Wurlitzers. They both sound better IMHO when a little bit of dirt is allowed to mix with the clear chimey sound of the reeds or tines. To me that is the bark that is needed for those instruments. Played a Rhodes stage 76 for years, it had that clear bell like chime but really came into itself when you spanked the keys and got that bark that made it so recognizable and authoritive when played. A little overdrive/distortion added at the board helped give it that edge it needed when playing at lower volumes for me. Another thing is I want to control my own mix and tone from the stage so as to blend in when needed and still have dynamic control of my instruments. FOH should be used to control overall mix and overall volume which usually means trying to keep things relative to the drum volume in the venue. Loud drummer= loud mix usually, because it is nearly impossible to isolate the acoustic drummers’ kit in most club situations to reduce its’ volume. And very few drummers want to be hitting electronic pads and flimsy toy-like sets when in front of an audience, even if they do sound good. My point is: I feel that a small P.A. type set-up with ample power and a small mixer and some decent speakers will always be better in terms of flexibility and usefullness than a one trick pony amp set-up that is easy to load in and out. Who cares how quick you can get away after a gig if your sound suffered all night and made your whole experience unpleasant at best. If you’re too old to hump your own gear to a gig and then bitch about the sound you get from a 10 inch guitar designed loud speaker the solution is simple. QUIT. Music is to be enjoyed by the player and the listener. When the fun is done it’s time to pack it in. Again this is only my take on what I think makes a good keyboard sound good on stage. Some may agree with my opinions, others may not, and that’s what makes the world what it is. But having the ability to use information to decide for yourself what works best for you is key. Peace ya’ll

From: Dennis
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2012 8:23 PM
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CWSG] Some extensive ventilating


Well, in my quest for the perfect small live sound I've been really putting the vent through it's paces with the Korg CX3. I have it where it sounds pretty good through the studio monitors (running first through a presonis bluetube tube pre, then into the vent). So now I tried it through the Behringer B215 eurolive (cheapo Mackie 450), and that horn was killing me. Found two things that finally mellowed it out. Number one, I faced it to the wall instead of me. That made such a difference it isn't funny! The other was back off on the distance knob (or increase it I guess). I always liked it close miked, and that worked through the studio monitors in stereo, but for some reason the horn doesn't like it. I have a usable live sound now! And I'm also thinking a lot of the harshness in my setup is because a horn wasn't meant to be pointed at me the whole time, it's meant to be against a wall or something? I wonder if anyone ever thought of spinning a horn so it only points at you for a split second and then passes by? Might be a cool invention

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