From jukefox@jukejoynt.com Mon Jun 18 11:05:16 2012
Subject:Control Locations for Clones Re: Got My Mojo Working


This topic tends to come up with just about every new clone released.

Many, if not most of us who came to clonewheels from Hammond console and spinet organs would certainly be most comfortable with a cloned B-3/C-3/A-100 control panel as well or, failing that, an M3 or L100 style control surface, all of which, while near the instrument's top panel, do not occupy it, thus giving us a built-in keyboard stand that allows us to place another instrument in very close proximity to the manuals of the organ...certainly closer than is possible by using any of the current crop of keyboard stands, and especially if you are using an adaptive bracket on your B-3 that holds a top keyboard on a downward slope, getting the keybed just above the drawbars.

I suspect that most of us who are old-school Hammond players also prefer having our clonewheel, whatever model it is, as our bottom-tier keyboard...if for no other reason than that is where our Hammonds HAD to be...and, likewise, if we wanted another keyboard in the same plain, it HAD to go on top...again, why we have a difficult time adjusting to clone top panels completely populated with controls.

I have a couple of theories regarding reasons clone manufacturers aren't putting these controls more "out front" for us. For one thing, the current electronics require much less physical space, allowing for less massive cabinetry, resulting in less front-to-back real estate to accommodate forward-mounted control surfaces.

Another possibility is that they view these instruments more like the synthesizers that most of them already manufacture, which also have top-mounted control surfaces, and nobody's ever complained about those...or at least their location...and folks seem okay with these mounted among other boards on multi-tier keyboard stands.

In fairness, Korg did a pretty good job with both incarnations of CX-3 and BX-3s, albeit the vacant horizontal plains topside aren't really large enough to accommodate any instrument with even a moderate footprint. KeyB, Roland VKs and Hammond/Suzuki's XK3 series don't seem too bad either, but the Roland and H/S boards still have the top-panel space limitations.

Still, the latest crop of clones, particularly those from Nord, Crumar and H/S SK series, seem to presume that everyone is going to place this instruments on the top-tier of their stand...and seem to go a step further to insure that you MUST put it on the top-tier, if you want to play the instrument's drawbars and access its presets easily.

This ties in to my third theory...which has more to do with marketing than anything else. Any keyboard sitting on the top tier of any player's keyboard stand is the one most visible to the audience...and is most likely to bear the brand name that will stick in one's mind when describing that keyboard rig to anyone else. It is also the brand name that most will associate with any great dominant sound emitting from that rig, irrespective of what module may actually have produced it. If a manufacturer gets enough of their brands on the top-tiers of stands (particularly those of "name" performers...that's why endorsement programs exist), that manufacturer realizes incremental gains in name-recognition (both brand and product). Enough incremental gains in name-recognition result in positive perception. Positive perception + name recognition almost always translate to gains in market-share. Enough market-share gain = market-domination.

Soooo...I suppose that I would propose that the ideal clonewheel would be a 15# keyboard the size of a B-3 (with an accurately cloned control surface) that folds up into a case the size of an iPad that, when fully-deployed (which happens automatically at the touch of a button), sports a large flat top and a deploy-able 2-tier keyboard stand. Ideally, the back-panel (audience side) of this instrument will sport a fully-animated and backlit LED light-show that dances around the brand name (in 1.5' letters) in time to the music, changing in intensity with the volume and feel of the music.

It would be nice if they could include authentic "start/run" switches in the control set for turning the thing on and activating wheel-brake effects...and while we're at it, let's make everything wireless, with bluetooth audio interfaces and midi implementation!

But, if I can't have anything else, could we just have 2-manuals, a forward position, non-top-panel FULL control set accompanied by a 4' wide by 14" deep flat-top surface sturdy enough to support 150# of keyboard gear?

Or not...maybe I should keep hauling the B... ;^}

Best,
Fox

--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, Jack Overfull iMapc wrote: