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Leslie Speed Control -- Foot Switch or Half Moon? And why?


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As a long time piano and organ player, I've always kept my hands on the keyboards and used my feet for the bass and volume/expression pedals. So when I got into Hammond organs and chopped my M3 in the early 80's, I never adopted a Half Moon switch and used a foot pedal with fast/slow "on/off" and "momentary" switches -- the latter being used the most.

 

I know players adopt different styles and everyone has their own preference... But especially in a multi-keyboard environment, it never made any sense for me to lose the playing ability with one hand when the feet could easily fulfill the task. So I've always wondered why the ubiquitous Leslie Half Moon switch was ever popular at all...

 

Which do you prefer and why?

 

Old No7

Yamaha MODX6 * Hammond SK Pro 73 * Roland Fantom-08 * Crumar Mojo Pedals * Mackie Thump 12As * Tascam DP-24SD * JBL 305 MkIIs

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I'm a heretic, but I like aftertouch as a Leslie switch. 100% non-authentic, but it means I can comp piano with the other hand, and operate sustain and expression pedals, while switching Leslie.

 

My old Ensoniq KS32 could do this, and I miss it on my Nord.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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If I"m kicking bass pedals the half moon is mandatory. For my single manual clone wheels floor switch makes more sense.

 

Jake

1967 B-3 w/(2) 122's, Nord C1w/Leslie 2101 top, Nord PedalKeys 27, Nord Electro 4D, IK B3X, QSC K12.2, Yamaha reface YC+CS+CP

 

"It needs a Hammond"

 

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I've never been a "real" organ player and have gotten used to using a sustain pedal (one of the flat yamaha ones). On my electro, I have it plugged into the sustain (vs the rotary) so that I could use it as a sustain if needed.

 

Occasionally I'll hit the button instead if I'm not playing with both hands.

 

That said, I just got an expression pedal for the first in my life (I'm 52)...wow, digging the capabilities--especially on my Modx as it by default maps to the superknob (which is a macro that can do a bunch of things)--hough it's going to be tricky standing up! So I might run out of feet soon and switch back to using the button more.

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It's tough most organ players are not using multi- board rigs unless it's someone that is playing a lot of organ or a national act. Your feet come in handy even though I like the rail half-moon switch. If you are kicking bass that matters also.

"Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello"

 

 

noblevibes.com

 

 

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Reason that the half-moon switch was popular: It came out at a time when a full console WITH 25 (or 32 in the case of E series) pedalboard was the norm. So, one foot was busy playing pedals, and one foot on the expression pedal (most common, although classical organists used both feet for the pedalboard to obtain a legato pedal sound). No feet left for the Leslie. At a bit later time, Hammond did bring out the kick switch on the side of the expression pedal, found mostly in their home models.

 

Current day: if one is not planning on "kicking pedals," then a floor switch works very well. That is what I use to control my SK1 or PC3 (and PC3X) which don't have a pedal clavier (in the 1970's/early 80's, I had a full size Baldwin console church organ in my mobile home, with Baldwin Leslie, but I was single then - no where in living room to put a full console now, although if some kind soul were to give me a full XK5 system or Suzuki new B3, I'd FIND a place for it, probably in my shop until I could remember the pedals well enough to carry it to church).

 

If you watch well known players using half-moon switches, they most frequently stay in chorale most of the time, and switch rather briefly to tremolo, just a wind up/wind down; so the left hand doesn't stay at the switch for very long. And, yes; it does take some time to develop the technique. Right now, I'm just trying to get down the technique of having two expression pedals, one for each keyboard, plus sustain/Leslie speed pedals, PLUS a Bluetooth dual footswitch that pages the iPad forward and backward since I've setup ALL of my church music using OnSong and making set lists. Sometimes, I just have to swipe the screen instead, since both feet are busy, and I can spare a hand easier than a foot.

 

So, personally; IF I had a full console with pedal clavier, I'd definitely use the half-moon; otherwise use foot switch. CEB came up with a really good idea for Leslie sims that will permit it - that of having BOTH switches available, to use whichever one was easiest at the moment.

 

Howard Grand|Hamm SK1-73|Kurz PC2|PC2X|PC3|PC3X|PC361; QSC K10's

HP DAW|Epi Les Paul & LP 5-str bass|iPad mini2

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Jim

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Both. Half moon and a swell pedal kick switch.
Do you have a setup with a real Leslie that works this way, or just using a sim? I've always been a footswitch guy for reasons stated above, but there are times when having my left foot free would be more useful than my left hand, and I've never figured out how I would rig up my Motion Sound to respond to both the included footswitch and some sort of hand control. It's easy to do it that way using the built-in sim on my Nord, but I only use that at rehearsals these days.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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Yes 2 consoles and two digital Hammonds do this. Kick switches are old tech. EXP100f has the kick switch. I run both real cabs and Vents off the 11pin socket.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Footswitches, keeps my hands planted to the keybed on all my clones for current live gigging and I have been that way for about 15 years now ! But I was a Half Moon guy for years and years playing the real deal on Hammonds/Leslie in my youth... and my home B3 has a Half Moon on the rail and I have no trouble adjusting for my home recording with the B that way. Maybe because of all the years I played w/ Half Moons from 1969 through '75-'76 ... hundreds and hundreds of gigs! I figure my hands planted to the keybeds are more important than being 'classic'! And I can tie things together better in my playing. Left foot switch, next pedal over to my right is Damper..then Volume or Volumes. I'm a bit different that way I guess...not sure really!

 CP-50, YC 73,  FP-80, PX5-S, NE-5d61, Kurzweil SP6, XK-3, CX-3, Hammond XK-3, Yamaha YUX Upright, '66 B3/Leslie 145/122

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Serious violator of organ convention here - I use a footswitch on my Nord - sometimes shares sustain duties depending on the gig/setup.

 

I also use my left foot for the expression pedal. :hider: I'm a piano player first and always keep the right foot available for the sustain pedal. The rotary switch goes just to the right of that.

 

 

.

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Reiterating what others have said... I wouldn't bother with a half-moon unless I was playing bass pedals. Though it does have one potential additional benefit... you can tell how it's set by looking at it. But most clones have some front panel indicator to tell you the same thing.

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Here is something I made in 2012 (?) to allow switching with both kick switch and hand switch. I sent a few out for free, never advertised them and never sold any. I have put them in a couple of local pro player's Hammonds, and in mine of course. This one uses a momentary kick switch to get slow/fast and stop. The "Sidekick" name came from Bob Schleicher. Sidekick Tremolo Controller.

 

 

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Hammond player since 1981. I started out with the Porta-B; I had the preamp pedal for the 760 so I learned on the footswitch. Years later I left the preamp at home and used the slow/fast rocker switch on the Porta-B.

 

Moving to XK3/XK3c, I started out with the volume pedal with the kickswitch. It didn't work very well when playing while standing up. I currently gig the XK3 MIDI'd to my MIDI controller which has a footswitch I use for Leslie speed. The volume pedal/kickswitch is only practical while sitting down, so I use it with the XK3c/XLK3.

 

I grew used to using my feet to control the Leslie. Last year I acquired a Hammond C-2 for the band practice room. That is the first organ I have owned that has the half moon switch, but I didn't use it because it doesn't have the 9-pin for the 760, so I had to use the preamp pedal. When the organ is finished at the shop, it will have the 9-pin retrofitted to it.

 

I don't dislike the half moon switch, but the footswitch is more practical as it frees my hands.

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Put me down in the Hammond EXP-100F expression pedal kickswitch camp. I play organ with both hands, bass with my left foot (sitting down), so combining expression and Leslie speed in one place just makes the most sense to me.

 

In fact, back in the 80's when I owned an analog Korg BX-3, I actually added a kick switch to my Morley volume pedal by fabricating a bracket and installing a Radio Shack pushbutton on/off switch. I must say that I like the Hammond expression pedal switch much better! :-)

 

Lou

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I've had console organs and clonewheel organs with real and simulated Leslie options for over 30 years. With the exception of my A101 + 122 rig at home (half moon), all of my Leslie speed switching has been via foot, enabled in early years by the Leslie preamp footswitch and later by various simulators (Dynacord CLS-222 and Ventilator, to name a couple).

 

I developed serious muscle memory for using my left foot to change Leslie speed. I can still do ok with a half moon or panel switch, but prefer 99% of the time to use my left foot. A fun story from a studio session with my former touring band in the mid '90s. The studio we were using had a really nice A100 + 122, but for some reason the only speed switch they had wired up was actually a small box with a light switch and it was screwed into the left side of the organ near the upper manual. SO STRANGE and not intuitive at all. I had a couple of songs that had very frisky speed changes and I simply could not translate well to that odd box on the organ. So how we solved for this is our trombone player agreed to stand next to me during recording, with his hand on the light switch. I would lightly step on his foot every time I needed to toggle from slow to fast or vice versa. He would throw the switch to change Leslie speed for me, based on my foot signal. It was really unconventional, but worked great.

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Kick switch here.

 

That's the Sidekick switch bracket Bob Schleicher developed. I have installed a few of the switch brackets. However I use a Carling 16-P3OFF-4 switch because it has a low actuation pressure (4 oz to 1 lb). I also use it in a generic two-button pedal used to control a Ventilator and in the single button foot switch for the Leslie I am using currently.

 

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Serious violator of organ convention here - I use a footswitch on my Nord - sometimes shares sustain duties depending on the gig/setup.

I also use my left foot for the expression pedal.

This is me exactly. I always play standing, so I often stand ON the expression pedal with my left foot, and am slowly improving my balance to cleanly do swells. Though playing mostly rock n' roll, I'm typically on full most of the time, but I'm starting to work the swell a bit better.

 

The way I have it rigged, my sustain pedal shares double-duty with rotary. For heavy B3 songs, I have the sustain disabled for most of my pianos and synths (if I'm really rocking the B3, I'm not going to want a lot of gooey piano sustain anyway). I use the rotary as a vibrato and lean into it for held notes and big chorus sections. I rarely keep it all on or off, and am constantly working the speed. I always use the pedal in momentary mode so I can purposefully keep it in motion with the least amount of "clicks".

 

Yes, I'm a piano player first, but I know what I like in terms of B3 performance, and for me, momentary pedal is for me. I like how everyone here is appreciative of different styles of play and what works best for different contexts. I've never kicked with my foot, being a big proponent of gelling with a dedicated bass player. But sometimes it fills a need. Surprisingly, some of my favorite hammond players don't kick with their feet though, so I've always seen it as fairly optional out of deep liturgical contexts.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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Footswitch guy here. My first Leslie was an 860 (a little powerhouse, I still miss it) coupled with a Farfisa VIP drawbar organ. Combo Preamp III had two switches, one for Fast/Slow and one for Brake. Half-moon was never comfortable for me.

 

On my Kurzweils I generally map it to the leftmost footswitch, leaving damper and sostenuto functions enabled even for organs.

-Tom Williams

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PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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Never use bass pedals. Actually never used a half moon switch now that I think about it. But I don't know how I couldn't possibly prefer a foot switch for switching leslie speeds.

You want me to start this song too slow or too fast?

 

Forte7, Nord Stage 3, XK3c, OB-6, Arturia Collection, Mainstage, MotionSound KBR3D. A bunch of MusicMan Guitars, Line6 stuff

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I'm really used to the footswitch myself....but I can definitely do the forearm thing Moe mentions on my A100's halfmoon. :cool:

 

Of course, that begs another question. I tap my footswitch to increase speed, then tap it again to slow down. I know more than a few guys who prefer it to go to fast when they stand on it and hold, and to ramp down when they release it.

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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Playing either rompler organ through a GSi Burn or VST organ. Rotary speed switching depends on the gig:

 

Solo one-man band sitting down and playing left hand bass, it's a footswitch. For me it's gotta be momentary to do that quick tap and release for a short burst of fast rotary (a latching switch takes way too much tap dancing to be able to do that!). Pedals = rotary footswitch on left, then sustain, then expression on right.

 

Rock band standing up, i use the Mod Wheel (i need at least one foot for standing up on !)

 

- Jimbo

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