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All things Keys.

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#37333 by Big Al 43
Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:46 am
Is there ANYTHING out there that can reproduce the Hammond sound? (Besides the Hammond!)

#37541 by andythekeyboardgenius
Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:41 am
Sweetwater Has some reviews already about the Hammond XK-3c I think I'm gonna check this one out.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/XK3c/

The text says that the polyphony is unlimited and with 96 VASE III generators It really could be what we're all looking for!

I always heard that the Voce V-5 was the best but that information is way old and I never had one, I did have a OB3Squared module from Oberheim that was OK eh. But one thing is for sure I will not sell or trade my Motion Sound KBR3d Amplifier which seems adequate for gigging on a budget!

Check www.motion-sound.com

#39883 by Immune
Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:15 pm
I did alot of research on this subject and the Korg CX-3 is the best out there. I am the proud owner of one. The Hammond is ok but they fell apart on the leslie emulator area of the keyboard. The Korg has an awsome leslie emulator so you wont have to haul around a leslie speaker or a motion sound amp. In my opinion its the way to go. They retail at about $1700 but I found mine in a pawn shop marked 700 and walked out of there with it for 500 which was a steal. Best of luck in your B3 sound quest :D

#43033 by Flow1
Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:40 pm
I was looking for the exact same thing and what I ended up with was the Nord Electro II...check it out on the web, there are alot of sites that let you hear what this fine machine can do! Pricey but totally worth it!

#44563 by Prevost82
Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:08 pm
If you want a true hammond B3 sound the new XK3 pro system can't be beat. I bought one last year and it sounds as good as my old B3. The XK3 has 2 manuals that weigh 40 lbs ea and split apart for good roadability. I have played the KORG C3 and the Nord and they didn't make the cut. JMO
Ron

#44591 by gbheil
Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:54 am
Man you keys guys speak your own strange language.
What the hell did he say? :lol:

#45515 by The Sparkly Cats
Tue Nov 04, 2008 3:41 pm
You can try also the cubase plug in (b4)native instruments.This playss wery good almost 25 different sounds of the famous b4 hammond.But yuu need cubase for Windows!
#53213 by gelyles
Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:00 pm
talk about being out of the loop.....(tape loop) :lol:
the one my old man played was a killer......(he killed me on it too) so I stuck to piano.....
one of my more important revalations are the yamaha motif b3 patchs where you still have damper/pedal control over the b3 sounds ...
I came up with some kool s--t....
but the most fun I had was trying this mini Leslie my old man 'donated' upon his retirement....
I used that thing with a rhodes back in the day.....That f---ed alot of 'keyboardist' :wink:
but right about then I decided that the b3's juice was coming from those damned Leslie..........(stero twins if you were GOD)
or Charles Earland...Amen......exit stage right guys.. peace :arrow:

#55563 by Diva 1
Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:29 pm
:( Hi! I am looking for a hammond style player to no avail - well paid gigs booked and all :( www.lovest.co.uk The Love street band

#77306 by bpmusic
Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:13 am
I had a B3 with two 122 leslies. The organ, after all these years, just started getting rattie sounding (the preamp needed some serious work), so I reluctantly let it go and sold it. And it seems to of gotten heavier over the years lol.
For studio, recording work, I now use a Viscount DB5, which to me blows away all those other clones. I plug it into a Speakeasy preamp and then to one of the 122's (the older one, just sounds better).
For gigging, I use a Yamaha 61 key controller into a Viscount D9e drawbar module, not the perfect Hammond sound but very, very passable. I use a Behringer EQ pedal to tailor it (basically cut the high and low end), and a Line6 Roto-Machine pedal for the Leslie, which isn't too bad. I'm pretty happy with this stage set-up.
William

#77570 by Whitesel
Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:57 am
Nothing beats the feel of those heavy B-3/M-3 waterfall keys and the growl of the tube amp through a real leslie. Someone should sell a little kit that burns hammond oil so you can get the smell from the emulators!

If you are starving musician....you can get away with getting that sound for under a few hundred bucks if you REALLY want to get a REAL Tonewheel sound.

Many people get old beat up M-100's, M-3 and L-100 spinets for free and Cut them up for portables.... but they still weigh a ton!! (PS..please don't cutup a perfectly good Hammond Tonewheel Organ) Hammond tonewheels were built to last hundreds of years and never go out of tune, with a little help from Hammond Wiki and some Hammond oil (never use anything other than hammond organ oil...and maybe a slight mix of lighter fluid if the wicks are gummed up and the tone generator doesn't turn when you first get it)....read http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/ before picking one up so you know how to lock the tone generator and reverb down and how to test it...Hammond organs can kill you hours after they are unplugged from the power stored ....know what you are doing!!

But with a little work and a hundred bucks for parts, oil and gas to pick it up (you can add foldback to spinets with a kit) You can have an awesome home made Porta-B!

Problem will always be the weight, those manuals weigh a ton and of course the Tone Generator and amp weighs a lot too, Not many places you can still play where you can get even a Chopped Hammond in there.

But...another cheap and even better option is sampling a real Hammond organ with an old rackmount so you don't have to bring a computer to a gig, lots of people on the web sell Hammond organ samples of many different B-3 type organs, Every Tonewheel Hammond organ sounds different depending on it's age, Caps, Tubes, amp settings and tone cabinets/leslie mods. By Sampling a bunch of different B-3,C-3, A-100 and even the old A and D's with the large tone generators for the full bass, you have a much better range of really good REAL organ sounds with that nice tube sound. Personally I think the samplers sound better than any of the Hammond tonewheel Emulator keyboards, and you could get one used for a couple hundred bucks. Something with as many voices as possible since the Hammond Tonewheels are unlimited polyphony and to play them the same as a B-3, you don't want long full sweeps being cutoff too much.


Check out Hammond organ Samples on youtube, lots of examples there

#88345 by 88 Fingers 1969
Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:04 pm
Have you ever considered going digital? My Yamaha DGX-620 has voice #19 on it, which is a Advanced Wave Memory Cool Rotor Organ. I feel it sounds very close to a Hammond organ, and the 620 is an 88 key board.

#98588 by Janna_G
Tue Jan 26, 2010 12:07 am
I currently use a Nord Electro II (which was previously mentioned). I have seen a lot of people do all sorts of different things with them, from simply running them through modern rotary ams (such as Motion Sound) to hooking up a plethora of pedals to alter the sound.

I find it's more than adequate.

CX3

#100858 by B3keys88
Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:43 am
Let me sell ya my CX3 (I just posted it)
I had an OLD "Blue Chip" OX7.... Loved it!!! (till it died). Tried everything out there.. really loved the CX3 sound (and the leslie sim is outstanding) BUT... for what I do, I can't dedicate a whole keyboard to one sound (wish I'd figured that out earlier) Viscount makes a module(DB-3) like the old OX7 (they made the Oberheim OB3.. I think this module is the same) for around $700 (Talk to Gary at www.galileomusic.com ). Trouble is... I haven't heard it (and I can't find one in the states.
I do like (at least in principal) The hammond rack & its companion drawbars.. (but.. wow... pricey)

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