From ccmacdon@rogers.com Wed Mar 06 15:02:46 2013
Subject:Re: better Hammond clones
Obviously you can't ship a clone like an XK3c or a Nord C2D with settings that will please everyone... because none of us have the same "ideal" hammond/leslie sound.. and you can't please all the people all of the time.. so there's bound to be some customization that each end user must do to create his/her perfect sound, especially if you are trying to mimic a specific organ.
The thing that bothers me about all of this is.. and I'm not picking on any particular product here, but when it takes a product almost 2 years to finally get "dialed in" and at about the same time in the life of the product, you hear the product rep exclaim, you've got to try my new leslie settings, you'll love this thing... My immediate reaction is.... WTF.. if your tweaks are so good, why are they not the default factory settings..?
The other thing that bothers me is that if/when you do want to sit down and do your tweaking, it really should be easy.. So I give kudos to a clone like the Mojo that comes with 20 different tonewheel sets to choose from that are easily accessed and switched in/out. But if the process you have to follow to get "your sound" is so tedious that it requires an oscilliscope or it's an involved 2-3 hour process to measure and change tonewheels individually, I think that's a little much. I'm not trying to promote the Mojo especially, but I really do like the idea that you can pick and choose from 20 completely different organs (and if you want to take the tedious approach and mimic or customize your own organ you can do that as well).
If a single manual clone ships with settings that are designed for use with a real Leslie, I tend to think that this is a real dumb idea because only a very small portion of the users of a single manual clone will be using a leslie, and for the record I don't buy the holding back by design either.. and I think I said this already that it's a losing strategy.. the winners in the world these days are the innovators.. KeyB, Crumar, Neo Instruments Ventilator, especially those that aren't afraid to jump into a market and set new low price points while setting a higher bar for performance.
Just my 2 cents worth..
Craig
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From: tonysounds
To: "CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com"
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 5:28:17 PM
Subject: Re: [CWSG] Re: better Hammond clones
Meh….that’s bullshit thinking. (*save some bullets for later? Isn’t that what R&D is for?)
Regarding the XK3’s over-keyclick, I believe those instruments were set at the factory for use with a real leslie. Through the leslie, the keyclick was not overbearing; but obviously if using the internal sim, the click was too much.
And regarding the tubes….all I can say is every amp on the planet sounds better with Mullards or other higher quality tubes. Funny enough, no amps ship with those tubes inside. Lol But I thought the glowing tube preamp was kind of goofy anyway.
"The meek shall inherit nothing." -FZ
"Hitting 'play' does not constitute live performance." -T
www.myspace.com/tonyorant
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From: Christian Schonberger mailto:c_schonberger%40yahoo.com>
To: "mailto:CloneWheel%40yahoogroups.com" mailto:CloneWheel%40yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [CWSG] Re: better Hammond clones
Hi all,
Bruce Wahler wrote:
"Part of the issue lies with the fact that none of us can completely
agree on what constitutes the 'perfect' Hammond sound; thus, having
tweakable parameters make sense."
I couldn't agree more. There is very likely some "overlapping" consense regarding the "perfect" Hammondf sound, but there are of course different opinions.
My issue was simply about the factory setting being obviously (meaning: to the very best of my judgement putting into consideration the opinion of other people) not the ideal - like the static, too bright key click on the original XK-3. At least that was my opinion. I dialed both key- and release clicks down, made a demo recording (straight into the computer), posted it online - and people still complained about the "clicky" sound. So I was not alone. The too harsh C-3 setting on the original XK-3 is my opinion - shared with almost an yone I ever ask. The choice of Sovrek tubes on the original is another issue since there is no "sweet spoty" - they either don't add anything or, passing a certain point, add unpleasant rasp. I replaced them by Mullards (the late Dave Salley recommended and got them for me) and the problem was solved - now at the right point they add body, warmth and power. And many people agree. But this of course is upgrading/hot rodding
, not tweaking.
Yes, the "holding back" strategy should not be taken as a given on any keayboard which is released, but there is a tendency to have "reserve" (ideas, additional sample libraries, round robin random samples to be added later in an upgrade - independently of hardware developement......). As I mentioned: this is a strategy I would recommend if that was my line of work: don't waste all your rounds/bullets right now - save some for later. They might come in very handy.
All the best,
Christian
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