niacin

Sure, if you want something that just does the occasional piano on the lower manual, or you want weighted keys, you’re not the target audience. If it’s the former though, there will be a few SK2s and SKxs up for sale in the near future at a much lower price point

It's the organist's equivalent of a Nord Stage 88. Sure you could use an iPad with another clone but that clone will have very limited midi functionality, just a separate channel for each manual, not to mention the extra bits and pieces you'll need. Small company. Small market. So you pay what you pay. The SKx was already pretty expensive compared to the SK2. Not sure if I'll jump or not but I have ordered some replacement end cheeks for my SK2 in case I decide to sell it, the original ones have taken a few hits.

Answers and opinions on these sorts of issues have been discussed ad nauseum here: Hammond Teaser ??? - The Keyboard Corner - Music Player Network

Sorry, I was thinking of the SKpro, but nonetheless, the answer to slider drawbar reliability is there have been no known issues with earlier SK boards, the answer to layers is yes, and the answer to "2 extra-sounds lower and organ on the upper and vice versa" is yes. Not 100% sure but the answer to using the SKXpro as a 2-manual Hammond while playing one of the other sounds from an external keyboard is probably no as you turn the voices on by allocating them to upper or lower and there doesn't appear to be any other option, but I may be wrong about this. The SKpro latest reference guide is here, presumably the SKXpro manual will be up soon: https://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SK-PRO-Reference-Guide-edited-r.pdf

I’ve had zero issues with my SK1 and SK2, and the SK2 particularly has a few battle scars, but they’re merely cosmetic. I think the answer to all your other questions is yes, but suggest you download the manual and read the relevant sections to make sure it does exactly what you require, it is in English, not Rolandese, and provides pretty clear explanations.

Clannad, Neville Brothers, Brothers Johnson, Staple Singers, The Waters, Aretha Franklin with her sisters on b.vox

I had no problems with the reverse black/red key SV1. I do have similar concerns for the black buttons on black panel on the new Vox Continental 73, it looks great otherwise but on a dark stage may be a bit of a nightmare, especially when it's partly hidden under another keyboard as mine usually is.

This. For the OP’s purposes the Vox ‘d be my pick if you don’t need splits, which are limited by not being able to octave shift each side of the split separately. I didn’t love the original AP patches but the baby grand (Upright bank #8) is IMO superb for jazz or soul. The organ is fine if it’s not a Hammond-centric gig (the Vox and Farfisa sound superb), the Leslie is better than that on the YC. And the OP mentioned working the synth patches live and the LED strips facilitate that nicely, though the filter sweep isn’t smooth.

That’s northern hemisphere spring, autumn here i.e. March maybe May, and iirc the first shipment of SKpros to Australia arrived just before the US got them, but who knows with COVID shipping chaos

Skx PRO | Hammond USA (hammondorganco.com)

Thanks Jim, that covers my last question, great to have both EQ on and overdrive back on the front panel. Any idea of shipping dates?

Yes. Want.

Thanks Jim, but damn, there goes this year's lunch money and then some

I think that Roland set up didn"t take off cause the RD64 just wasn"t a great dp. The convenience of a single board with 2 manuals with a handle hold built into the back panel is one of the things I love about the SK2. Fingers crossed the 23kg is wrong.

My SK2 is 16kg, if the SKpro is indeed 23kg I"ll pass.

Yes. But the main improvement of the SKx over the SK2 was the second set of draw bars. Without them it"s an SK2pro. I"ll probably buy one anyway for the key action, but i think my preference would actually be keep the second set of draw bars and lose the mono synth entirely. I guess we"ll know soon enough

Someone posted somewhere that it would have been cool if they had allowed 9 of the 10 mono synth sliders to do double duty and be switchable to act as lower manual drawbars, an interesting idea. It wasn"t me but I did think it cause it"s what"s done on my Korg Vox Continental, though I"d prefer two sets of draw bars with a button to toggle one set between draw bar messages and synth messages.

Be interesting to see if it is an SKpro with 2 manuals? or keep the 2 sets of draw bars and lose the mono synth? or redesign the top panel to fit everything in?

must be a thing. Solo from 1:05 [video:youtube]

I just purchased 2 albums from Bandcamp, it's still my go to: [video:youtube] [video:youtube]

fyi: https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/covid-19-is-speeding-up-australia-s-shift-towards-a-cashless-future/ar-AAS91zA?ocid=msedgntp Anyone doing anything like this?

Sheryl Crow songs usually had some Hammond or wurli. Jamiroquai: Virtual Insanity, Cosmic Girl, Canned Heat, Black Capricorn Day ... Everything But the Girl: Missing I played a set of No Doubt songs at a tribute band gig, all really interesting keys, except I'm Just a Girl: great hook but incredibly boring to play Not sure why people are mentioning Cranberries, great songs but there's no keys afaik

There was a thread about low stands a few years back. I wanted something that I could put a speaker on and have it at head height for me sitting down. I got two of these: http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/accessories/speaker-stands/ls40/

Pretty much this. In the lead up to Covid I'd been pretty busy with gigs and the occasional rehearsal, like other folks here I'd basically finish one gig/rehearsal and move on to learning/woodshedding/programming sounds for the next one: gigs accounted for 100% of my motivation. And then of course it all stopped. First lockdown I didn't play at all. Motivation zero. When we went into lockdown for the second time, in August, and gigs were cancelled, I asked myself what could I do that does not have the next gig as the goal? The first answer was to go back to pipe organ, repertoire I hadn't played for 35 years. Set up the SK2, explored the pipe organ stops and set up some 2-manual settings, started with the 2-part inventions, ordered a huge Bach compendium and a set of MIDI pedals. I love the sound and of course the music itself. It's therapy for my soul. Even if I am sight-reading the music, at half-pace, badly, lol And I bought a proper knobby synth, a Novation Summit. If I don't feel like playing Bach, I can sit at the Summit and find some happiness just fiddling with knobs: What can I do with this preset to make it into something where I can just revel in the ear candy? Totally unlike all the tweaking/programming I've done in the past which has always been for the next gig. And I'm learning the synth as I go, and just enjoying the process without having to worry about nailing some sound on a recording. Sometimes I'm really not motivated to do either, but if I can make the effort to sit down and turn the keyboard on, I quickly realize how much happiness can be gained from just playing. As for new gear, the Summit has worked for me, but at the same time I've hardly explored the SKpro I bought earlier in the year - used it on 4 gigs for Hammond+clav+wurli, sounds great, but it's really a gigging board, not the sort of thing I really enjoy playing alone for long, a run through Green Onions and Back at the Chicken Shack and I'm done.

From the product page: "The third stage includes a nine-band EQ that can be set using the touch controller. The final stage features a valve drive circuit with Nutube. All of these settings can all be saved to the scene memory." On the original with the 2.0 update scene memory does NOT store the EQ setting or the valve setting (or the 'dynamics' knob setting). Maybe there will be an OS update soon for the original as this seems to be the only non-cosmetic change, if the information is accurate.