JMcS

Page 93 has a couple of Velocity adjustments that may help bring out the dynamics. If these work the way Velocity Offset works on the SK-1 they allow the user to add (or subtract) a value to/from the value generated while playing. On the SK-1 it is hard to generate a high velocity value which makes the tone sound dull. Adding to the generated value brings out the attack and other harmonics. Good Luck.

The Hammond EU website has a newer release (8.7) than Hammond US. The readme lists a few bug fixes and improvements between 8.4 and 8.7. http://www.hammond.eu/Support/SystemUpgrade

There is a readme file in the zip file that covers several releases since the last one on the Hammond US site. Remember to save a Whole Setup before installing the update.

From the Hammond website: Jazz players who kick bass can add the XPK-250 two-octave radiating pedalboard, which includes our new EXP-250 expression pedal. Though the XK-5 is compatible with previous XK-3 and XK-3C Pro System expansion products such as the XLK-3 lower manual (though youll only get the multiple key contacts on the XK-5 itself), all the new components interconnect via H-BUS, our new connector that simplifies setup by carrying both data and power. http://hammondorganco.com/products/portable-organs/xk-5-pro-system/ The XK-5 Owners Manual shows a setup diagram connecting the XK-5 to what it lists as the XLK-3 and XLK-B3 which looks like the XK-3c Traditional System lower manual (Pg. 25). So whichever lower manual you have should work.

No

I seem to recall either an interview with Keith Emerson, or an excerpt from his autobiography, in which he went to see Jimmy Smith play one evening. Emo and perhaps his driver were the only two white people in the club, and Smith pointed them out, said something to the effect of "and now, some music for the white folks" and played something totally insipid like "Tea for Two". Emerson, quite embarrassed, said the only thing a civilized man could say: "Waiter? Check please!" It is my understanding that Mr. Smith was something of a curmudgeon in general. His statement and song choice were probably intended as humor for the rest of the audience and maybe a little stereotypical of what that audience may think of white people's taste in music as being less "hip" than theirs and Mr. Emerson would probably have been better served to have applauded the song and asked a waiter to bring Mr. Smith a drink. I saw Mr. Smith along with Jimmy McGriff and a local organist whose name escapes me now some years ago. Mr. Smith did not seem happy to be there, made a few comments about the audience's reactions and other things and walked off stage a couple of times. The general consensus of the people sitting near me was that was just Jimmy being Jimmy.

Have you used the Velocity Offset adjustment? Adding some velocity to the actual generated velocity makes a big difference in how many of the instruments sound. I found it difficult to generate velocity values in the 90's or higher without feeling like I was playing Whack-A-Mole with the keys. Adding some via the velocity offset adjustment helped bring out initial attack harmonics and added life to the instruments that sounded dull and lifeless.

I don't remember ever losing saved data during an update but it is possible. It would be a good idea to save a setup and if you have installed any Extra Voice libraries a whole setup just in case.

I checked mine and the Release 8 file list. It looks like you are up to date already.

Scroll up to Pg. E: System. They are all listed there.

What are all the version #'s in your SK-1 now?

You should be able to just install the 8.4 update.

Do you really think they would risk selling many fewer instruments in the hope of selling a few more Leslies? People who want a Leslie are going to buy a Leslie, people who don't won't. If one can't have a Leslie due to whatever reason (cost, logistics, spousal disapproval etc.) then it may be necessary to make a decision about which instrument to buy and having every feature be as good as possible is in the manufacturer's best interest. Besides, there is no reason why the digital Leslie and real Leslie can't be used together to have 2 Leslies.

I agree, no company should allow itself to be dependent on another. Refer to Diversi and the company in Missouri that thought they had deals with the guy in Italy. How did that work out for them? The way it was explained to me was that originally the SK's were intended to be organ's with a few vintage type keyboards - AP, EP, Wurly and Rhodes. After the product hardware was designed and ready to go into production marketing came in and said " Hey, you know what would be great? Adding a bunch of other instruments." So they did what they could without going back to the drawboard.

Lets face it, its an organ. The real quick start guide is: Turn On Play The quick start guide actually seems to do a good job of walking new users through attaching a lower manual, pedals and other attachments and then using the menus to adjust the various features. It seems more of a tutorial and could make navigating the manual either easier or unnecessary.

Not at all, thanks for starting it. I haven't purchased an XK-5 (yet) and couldn't find the manual anywhere so I didn't have anything to contribute. I just downloaded the manual and may be starting to feel some gas. Have you tried any button combinations to see if there are hidden voices etc?

Just save your setup file to a USB drive. If you have installed libraries that the presets use, save a Whole setup. IIRC, whenever I installed an update the presets were still there afterward. But there is a risk of losing them so save the setup first. If you go to the Custom Tonewheel menu page (the screen that displays Custom Number) and can scroll to the left you have the most recent version. Or scroll up to the System menu page and the main version should be 1.621

When you go to the load a tonewheel set file screen you should be able to select which location you want to put it in. I haven't tried it but I think you have to save them to the USB drive first. You can't just copy location 1 to location 5(the extra location) and then location 3 to location 1. The ability to save and load individual tonewheel sets was added in update Rel. 8 so make sure you have that installed.

I think the way to get what you want would be to save the two tonewheel sets as tonewheel files and them load them into the other location. Put Noisy 60 in the BType2 1 spot and Real B3 in the BType2 4 spot. This will cause any presets saved with the BType 4 tonewheels to use the Real B3 tonewheels for example but if you want to start with the Noisy 60 this should do it. Good luck.

I was just suggesting a number you probably hadn't already done something with. If there is a given organ patch you like and want to use with a variety of EV's, just save that patch to a number of other patches and then change the EV in each one and save it with another name. For example try this, if you like Patch 1 (or any other patch) for its organ, save it to patches 21 - 30 and select the EV you want to use for each one and resave them. Go through each patch and tweak them as you want them. Tweak them one at a time and save each one when you finish it. After you have saved each patch, assign them in order to the Favorites buttons so that you can get to them with one button press. Because I only want the EVs to change and not have to worry about organ things such as drawbars, Leslie speed, and C/V etc. I have all the organ patch load parameters turned off. I have each of the favorites buttons assigned to a Patch with an EV I use. I can get the EV I want with a button press and that is the only thing that changes. The organ is always just live.

When you make changes to a User patch and then save it as a separate patch file I don't think that also saves it in the currently loaded setup. Is it possible you turned the organ patch load parameters off (Pg. 76)? Either I misunderstand what you are doing or you are making this much more complicated than it needs to be. Why are you saving patches as separate files? Try this: Load the Whole setup. Pick a user patch like #99 just to pick a number. Go through it and change the EV to something you want, set the drawbars and other features etc. Keep it simple just for test purposes. Save the patch to User patch 99 again. Save it as a new Whole setup. Save it as a new setup. Does all that work correctly?

I'm pretty sure the setup files you can download use only the System libraries that come installed from the factory except for the one Whole setup file. The process that I use is to load the libraries I want to use, set up the patches I want and then save it as a Whole setup. Then save it again as a regular setup for quick loading if necessary. If I change installed libraries I do the same process again. I try to name the Whole and related regular setup files in a way that helps me remember what they contain.

When you save a Whole setup the file contains all the currently loaded extra voice libraries. You can have many setup files that make use of the currently loaded libraries. The only sure way to know which libraries are needed for the patches in a setup file is to keep notes/code the setup name. If you develop an idea of what you want a setup file to contain as far as sounds and patches, load those voices into the SK2 and then set up and save the individual Patches to the user patch group. After you have all the Patches tweaked the way you want them, save it as a Whole setup. Name it something that indicates the voices you have in it. If you need another group of voices for patches, load those voices into the SK-2 and repeat the process of setting up patches that use those voices. Again save it as a Whole setup. It is possible to save Patches as individual files IIRC so that they can be loaded into different setups. I haven't done much with this capability primarily because I didn't need it but mostly because it seemed trying to keep it all organized would be a huge PITA. If a saved Patch file needed a library that wasn't currently loaded it would use a default voice (I think a piano sound but I'm not sure). I hope this helps.

The Extra Voices don't go through the digital Leslie. See Pg. 38 of the manual.

Since it is possible to have both the organ and EV active simultaneously, using one pedal would cause the Leslie speed to change every time you held the EV notes or vice versa. Edit: However, if you use a female to 2 male Y cord and connected it to the footswitch and Damper jacks it might do what you want.