From bgvocals@yahoo.com Tue Mar 12 10:27:34 2013
Subject:Re: What defines your "ideal" B3 sound?

This is so cool!  And I feel it really is on-topic.  We struggle so much, tweaking virtual clonewheel parameters to get what each of us thinks is that best sound.

Alas, I do not feel I would be as eloquent at stating what I thought that ideal sound would be as you are!  I do have feelings about what that sound is, the same feelings I get when I actually hear the sound, whether it be from a real B-3 or a clone.

Electronically, it seems the simulated "Hammond sound" is fairly easy to come by.  It is the simulated "Leslie sound" that is more complicated, and that varies so much from one clone maker to another.  I contend when we try to describe the ideal B-3 sound, we really are describing a basic B-3 sound beautified by either a Leslie cabinet, or an internal or external simulator.  To backup my viewpoint, try playing any clone or B-3 with the simulated or real Leslie rotors stopped.  True, some styles actually require that condition, but not many in my opinion.  That rotating horn, or simulation of it, just really makes "that sound."

Great post!

Lou

>________________________________
> From: raisindot
>
>Anyway, for me, the ideal B3 whines like a coyote in a valley with its foot caught in a trap and howls like a lonely wolf. It wails like a distraught gospel singer at the funeral of her husband. It's got the slight grit of a lightly-washed grouting knife. The sound doesn't sting the air like a lightning strike or a guitar note; it shoots out like a geyser, spreading from a central column and sending colliding sound 'droplets' that dance and fight with each other,cancelling out some frequencies while accentuating others. In slower, mellower pieces, it has the winsome sadness of Billie Holiday singing the blues at 2:30 in the morning in a 52nd Street drive. In rockin' pieces, stacatto notes or chords sounds like the angry quacking of a rabid duck or the snorting of an overstimulated horse. You don't just listen to the sound with your ears; you absorb it through your feet and you gut as well. 
>
>Pretentious, no?
>

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