From tommeide@hotmail.com Tue Feb 18 05:38:26 2014
Subject:Re: software vs. hardware

Okay Christian. Jim Alfredson played the xk3(the old one) and was wery happy with it before he started using his SK-2.

Bit what he did, he tweaked it, and it has a big difference compared to the original XK-3 sound. Big difference.
This tweaking is awailible for free, and i can even send it to you.

Second, is that the XK-3 is known for its faults, thats why Hammond launched a "version 2 of the instrument, called XK-3c.

I have the xk3c, because i want the whole package. The sound, the feel, and the looks.

If you want, you can even get new tonewheen set for the xk3c version.

The xk3c sounds wery nice, and is a nice instruments.

Are you still among us?

Vennligst hilsen/Sincerely
Tommy Eide

> Den 18. feb. 2014 kl. 04:12 skrev "Christian Schonberger" :
>
> Hi y'all,
>
> At the moment I am working hard on an "d school"r'n'b project, using the Hammond-Suz XK3 (the old one) with great Mullard tubes through a serviced Elkatone Leslie-Cabinet.
>
> No matter what I do: it sounds crap compared to the software versions (NI B4 and B4II through real rotary speakers). The overall sound is more convincing, the percussio is better and the scanner vibrato is way better. The key click is bad on the XK-3: glissandi and wipes suffering greatly from the dreaded re-trigger effect (they didn't even bother to do some random round robin which is standard with most vst-instruments these days where appropriate).
>
> I guess I will go back to the NI software versions for our upcoming album and use the Xk-3 system live.
>
> My honest question: why is dedicated and very expensive hardware so much worse than software?
> Why does 14 year old software still sound better in many ways than recent hardware? What is wrong? Are they holding back to create a business model? We are planning on bringing humans to planet Mars and we can't even accurately digitally emulate (after so many years of developement) a 50-60 year old tone wheel organ. What is going on here?
>
> Hammonds are out of fashion? Far from that. The Hammond sound is coming back to contemporary old school r'n'b and soul more and more. Tess Henley, Joss Stone anyone? Both use vintage Hammonds. Tower of Power's Chester Thompson uses New B3 (9 contact) versions and it sound great because he is a great player and he uses real Leslie cabinets. But what about kinda affordable models?
> Any chance Hammond-Suz will improve on the awful key click, scanner vibrato/chorus and percussion?
>
> Any reply highly appreciated. Please don't reply: you want it: you have to pay for it. As I said: software versions (way cheaper) sound way better.
>
> Cheers,
> Christian
>