FreshTrooperXBL

The Solina patches on the SK-1 were really something else. I definitely remember firing it up for the first time after I bought it (used), scrolling through the extra voices, hmm & haw-ing as most sounds were decent …then I got to those Solina sounds. Wonderful. Those Solina sounds would be perfect for PF cover bands. Listening to the demo of the M-solo ensemble voice …I didn’t hear anything authentic sounding. Maybe it’s the one sample (on whatever drawbar it’s assigned) but it sounds like crap to me. Pitch shifted poorly or a digital imitation of what the sound is and then sampled by H-S?? Hopefully the other “voices” assigned to different drawbars are better / authentic for an ensemble or stringer sound. I feel like indie rock keyboard players may gravitate to this if the price isn’t extravagant. It’s not obnoxious fire engine red (Nord) and it’s compact. It’s basically a modern Farfisa Compact in black or burgundy. Users choice of Vox Continental, Farfisa Compact, or Acetone Top-7 sounds within one discreet looking keyboard will be interesting, hopefully those keys won’t be too cheap and have to much side-to-side movement. H-S seems inspired by Mellotron and their the various sizing options.

It’s 7 pounds 15 ounces per their M-solo Specifications page at the bottom of their main M-solo page …so 8 pounds rounded up. It would be cool to modify / customize this M-solo to have a 2nd 49 key keyboard hooked up via MIDI. I didn’t see anything about lower/upper or pedals so probably not a possibility (I can’t imagine H-S themselves would put out a 49 key dual-manual but IDk …this wasn’t on my bingo card for H-S). I’m in the process tacking on a bottom keyboard to my old Hammond SK-1 (though this is paused while I see if I could do it for the Hammond SKpro 61) …easy enough for the SK-1 since it has removable sides to work with. The lack of editing options in Leslie, effects, tonewheels, etc is probably okay since I’m sure the base tone is good (maybe the 3 presets are different models/tonewheel setups). I’d probably still use my Neo Vent 2 and a reverb or delay pedal strapped to the top anyways. This definitely answers calls for a full size Yamaha YC organ with bare bones features. I’m gonna guess $799 USD given its lack of editing, diving-board keys, no church/pipe/piano/EP/clav samples, no menu screen, and minimal knobs (bet using the push buttons they’ve been using saved them some change versus having pitch & modulation wheels). Someone on the Facebook post asked if it was battery-powered, but it appears not. I am kinda glad they are able to “trickle down” this technology into a cheaper product as it means they should sell bunches of them and get some interest in a large population of players.

I’d be really really / pleasantly surprised if it’s analog hardware. I’ve been loosely following Crumar’s social media accounts for the last few years they been doing some digital hardware synthesizers (mostly string synthesizers) and physical piano triggering/playing devices. I’m guessing it all came out of having had experience with the Mojo organ expander.

I’ve only hooked up a DLS Effects Rotosim pedal (not the newer DLS Effects RotoSPIN) and it was an interesting alternative, but not better overall than the SK-1’s internal Leslie. The Rotosim was already somewhat old by the SK-1’s time IIRC. Also hooked up a Neo Ventilator 2 (ie “Vent 2”) …of course amazing. Even with a little reverb from the SK-1 (which gets Leslie’d by the Vent 2) it sounded amazing. The Boss RT-20 twin pedal was 2005-2006 Leslie algorithms, already old by the time the SK-series was released in 2011. It might still be an interesting sound. dhmpan …some of the plastic pieces may be from the “standoffs” of the button assemblies (ie your 2nd, 3rd, Fast, & Soft buttons). Pretty sure the grey buttons are elevated above a simple switch mechanism and it looks like the switches are still working. The 3rd button looks like it is broken however. I’d open it up and see what it looks like. The plastic pieces may be able be super-glued back on so that the Fast/Soft buttons are at the correct heigh again. OR those 2 buttons are stopped / jammed up at the moment. I had a similar issue with my Fostex MR-16 hard disk recorder a few years ago …the buttons “fell in / got squashed in” when I stupidly tossed a microphone stand over the top of it after a jam session. I took it apart, looked at the assembly, and used standard superglue to fix the 2-3 buttons (it’s held and been working since that fix in 2015). The Fostex MR-16 is on borrowed time overall since I bought it in 2007-2008. If I were in your shoes I’d consider doing a “wrap job” like Spider76 did with their SK-2 or consider making wood end caps (as I did for my SK-1). It looks like only the corners are damaged and it looks the caps are 100% functional. If they are cracked near the screws are then this is not the case …then it would be time to consider finding replacements or go the custom route. The SK-1 has metal sides underneath it’s plastic end caps, with machine screw threads (I seem to remember the OG machine screws were 1/2” in length, I replaced with 1” or so). I took the screws to the big-box hardware store and found where my screws matched their fittings. I think the SK-2 may or may not have metal mounting brackets on the side of the plastic caps, but it should still be a doable job with some planning.

Interesting that HammondSuzuki marketed the XK-4 nearly the same way as the Xk1c: “2 or 3 updates to Leslie/organ sounds” which the SK-1 was never able to get in its updates. From what I can tell they were very subtle changes, most probably being along the lines of: “Heh, I can change the Leslie mic from a Shure SM57 to a broken Shure SM58. Lol cool.” When I bought my SK Pro (61 keys, used for a fair price) I definitely thought: “Oh, I bet HS will do that again.” …yup they did that again (I guess Nord, Apple, Ford, Toyota, ….heh, even US Presidents are just all slight updates to the previous entity). But really in the end those SK-1’s still serve a great purpose for organ work. It’s not like my SK-1 suddenly sounded “bad” or “ehhh decent” (no one’s saying that, but I feel like maybe it’s implied) with the XK1c’s out in the world. Who in the hell really can hear these 0.2% differences out in the wild? I’m sure if I was recording organs, the XK1c (and now the XK-4) will be 0.2% more believable to the listener with headphones. I’m sure the update is a bit more significant from SK Pro to XK-4 than SK-1 to XK1c but I doubt I would be just blown away if these were side-by-side (the extrabutton/knobs and dedicated overdrive knob is a sizable upgrade). …I really should MIDI up my SK-1 with my SK Pro before I offload the SK-1 to compare Vox, Farfisa, Pipe, pianos/EP/clav/etc/Leslie …I don’t really have the video capabilities or nice editing abilities, but do have a decent recording rig.

If you haven’t already done the half-moon switch add-on, it is 100% possible to do this on your SK1, I opened my SK1 up to see how I could go about making wood end cheeks for it and I saw empty space. Two concerns: dust (as mentioned by Spider76 above) and “tapping” your screw threads for machined screw …be sure your buying the right self-tapping machine screws. Anyways, here are those wooden end cheeks from about 6 years ago (early 2016). I used red oak since it’s a hard wood and resists dings and dents. I stained with “Gunstock” by Minwax (I think just one coat did it) and then sealed with clear polyurethane. I found that this stain is very very similar to the stain Moog used with their Moogerfoogers when side by side with one. Moog forumites suggested that the Moogerfoogers were done with Ash since it is local to the Moog factory …but the stain pretty much brings all lighter woods to the same general ballpark (even my red oak found in hardware stores on the west coast). My next project is turning the SK1 into a SK1.998 by chopping up a cheap 49 key MIDI controller or an Alesis Micron and Frankenstein’ing it to the SK1 as a lower manual.

I love SynthOne a ton. I jive with how it sounds more than other synths in the App Store going for these types of poly synth sounds (save for Moog, and some others). I utilize the Bluetooth features by hooking up with my Yamaha MD-BT01 which is awesome for the most part.

I own the DLS RotoSim. I haven't used it on organs (though I intended to do so when I bought it), but have used it on electric pianos and guitars. The effect is more chorus-ey and so works for guitars much better. Distortion is okay, but a little too sterile sounding. I leave the back unscrewed permanently so that I can tweak the pots for tonal and balance changes. It's neat in that regard.

Well I bought a used Sk-1 yesterday and love it! I've owned a Roland Vk-7 and an Alesis QS7 + Sanctuary Q card and can say the Sk-1 has them beat in spades in both Hammond organ and church organ sounds. (I've never done B3 + real tube leslie, but have played extensively an M3 + Motion Sound leslie). The Vk-7 was pretty fun, but it too also suffered from crap overdrive at high levels. The Vk-7 had 5 or 6 adjustable overdrive models, but they all sounded digital at 12 o'clock levels and up. The Sk-1 sounds nowhere near as bad as the Vk-7, but still is kinda harsh. The Sk-1 OD's are musically more useful then the Vk-7 ones. The QS & Sanctuary church organs were pretty fun since they were seemingly realistic in the middle and lower-middle range. Those sounds faltered in the extreme low end, high end, and extremely high end. The samples were pretty well hidden by church/hall reverbs, but you could hear them the moment the reverb was rolled off even a bit. The Sk-1 is ten miles above those church organs. Amazing. Then throw on the SK's reverb and you are set until you download a Hauptwerk organ. Amazing x 10! The Sk-1 reverb is worth bringing up. I have not AB'ed the Sk's reverb to my Eventide Space reverb, but it is gosh darn impressive! I know the Vk-7 reverb was never so impressive as what the Sk-1 has. I own a (previously working) 1st gen Farfisa Compact. The Sk-1 is also darn impressive for a digital keyboard. Note that the Farfisa Compact is raunchy compared to the Vox Continental. Any Farfisa Compact (duo, compact, compact deluxe, mini) is truely truely known for having the Multi-Tone Booster AKA the ability to boost the treble frequencies to extreme levels. While the Sk-1 does not model that ability of the Farf and neither do ANY of the Nord products, the Sk-1 gets the basic foundational Farf tones right. Boosting the treble gets remarkably close to the MTB though on both Sk-1 / Nords. Makes me not want to deal with and fix the Farf haha