DanL

Um, no. Some of us actually USE the Combo organs in the real world. I play with Nigerian musicians who require that sound for Afrobeat and Afropop. Right, let's have him remove "organs" from an "organ" keyboard to put in a piano that was an afterthought to begin with. lol. Ask 10 people what they want and you get 10 different ideas of what should be in there.

Bi-timbral.

Dan, the Gemini offers alot of instrumentation. Guido expanded the wavetable about a year ago. So in addition to the acoustic piano and the electromechanicals, it also offers strings, brass, VA Synth, FM pianos, flutes, pads, and a myriad of other instruments/sounds and is bi-timbral, so you can blend two sounds at a time. Check the link below: http://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=page&p=TBLEXP01 I'm familiar with it's capability, it doesn't do what I need. My gig is either organ/piano/ep, or full blown workstation requirements along with the organ/piano/ep.

There are a few things I'm checking during these days to see if the AP model can find its way into the Gemini as the 16th engine, but I'm not sure yet. Fingers crossed. This may end up being my holy grail. I think I need to be thinking about rack options that allows me to rack the gemini and other connecting devices like my mixer and audio/power cords, transport the rack with ease and allow for quick connection to my keyboards. That would be a good move. I've heard you talk about how long it takes you to set up. With my rack prewired, I can set up my Echoes rig in about 10 minutes and most of that is running power and pedals. If I were really industrious I'd get a 2nd set of all the power stuff and pedals and make 1 loom for that too.

I like those Rhodes demos. I think this is a cool form factor vintage looking yet modern on the inside board, and if my performance needs were where this board's capabilities lay, I'd give it serious consideration. Just like some of the other newer boards liked the Legend or Mojo, if I were in a situation where I only needed that sound then those would be the way to go. Unfortunately pretty much every project I'm in needs a lot of versatility from the keyboard chair and having a board that can only do a few things puts them out of contention. I suppose I could say that about my Electro, but with 73 keys it has the ability to cover certain gigs by itself for me and then integrates well with the rest of my rig for the other projects.

The GSI one. It's very thin sounding to me. The versions in my Electro and even in my FA08 are much richer sounding with nice sustain.

I've never played an Electric Grand, but have certainly heard my share on many, many recordings. To me, it just doesn't sound like any recording or sample of a CP that I'm used to. Feels like there is so much character missing. (Feel the same way with the modeled CP on the Gemini). I wasn't impressed with this sound either. Almost pianet like, very plinky with no sustain.

couldn't agree more...

Many clones have those transistor organ sounds built in.

If that's the price, no way. You can get an 8 channel stereo ashley for much less than that.

If the SK2 is discontinued, then it would be the lightest 2 manual they have.

I could use this. The floor/desktop version has stuff I'd never use on it.

I think when you look for a 1 or 2 board solution, there is always some kind of compromise, especially if those 2 boards need to wear multiple hats. Doing a piano/clone rig wouldn't be too hard, you buy the one you like from each category. When you need more than just those base sounds, then the options increase and the tradeoffs increase. I've been real happy with my FA08/E5d combo, but both lack in areas while they are standout in others. They also complement each other well. If a piano/organ gig was all I did, meaning, I didn't need the synth capabilities of the FA, then I could realistically get by with the E5 and a nice weighted controller midi'd to it to trigger the pianos, while having the E5 keyboard to play organ from.

Or use the Gemini for organ and the Dexi for piano. You could use 1 board and set up a patch to send on a different channel for each module, or use 2 boards and control each from it's own board.

It could be like the Electro 5 where you set the split point to "midi" and then that automagically sets the midi in as one of the 2 manuals.

page 37 gives all the leslie parameters. The standard variety but surely tweakable enough.

You can download the manual from their website.

Actually, the technology was already present and ready when Hammond released the original SKs but Nord had the leap on them in terms of the vast amount of work and investment they'd put in to their piano and sample libraries. In retrospect, the extra voices feature was a bit of a half-assed attempt to move in on Nord's territory, and in the intervening years, they've spent almost zero time and investment expanding or improving the library (reed organ, handbell, anybody?). During the same period, Nord has released several new grand pianos alone. It could be, of course, that the amount of memory in the SKs just wasn't sufficient for decent size samples I'm not sure how much memory there is on an SK but I'm guessing the fact that Hammond never mentions it means it's negligible compared with its Scandinavian counterpart. Of course, it could be that the reason Hammond hasn't bothered much with the current SK library is that it realised its limitations and decided to work on a new library for a more capacious successor (the SKX?). Let's hope so. I can't remember the amount, but I remember having to delete librararies to install others, and they were not that large.

Um....maybe not on the Electro, but the Stage gave you bank and program select, as well as a USEABLE and PROGRAMMABLE set of controls, independent on each panel. The SK....beyond the Program/Bank select, all zones are forced to use the same expression pedal curves, which sucks. Yes, I was comparing the Electro and C1/C2 since those boards are what the SK is going up against. The Stage is in a different category.

I thought the SK midi capabilities were pretty good, at least compared to Nord's. You could map program changes and do bank select, which you can't do on the nord.

I saw a screen shot of an editor that has "lower" "coupled" and "main" as part of a part select screen, that might indicate it can do at least 2 sounds at once.

Thanks! Yes, very much fun!

Some of the keyboard section from Pink Floyd's "Dogs" performed by my band Echoes on Friday night. Cheesy strings are from the FA08, with 2 sounds layered. One is a solina type sound and the other is a heavy phased string synth sound that I fade in and out with an expression pedal. The lead synth is a sound I programmed specifically for this section of the tune. Echoes- Dogs

I think you got this answered on the FA Facebook group? You have to route sounds to the sub output for anything to be heard.

I just checked the documentation, you're right- it's whatever you have the pads assigned to for the virtual pads.