Paul Harrison

Just wondering what sites folks here recommend (in terms of finding compatible collaborators and coordinating recording projects) and what are the main things they do and don't like about them. From a quick look around, BandLab and Kompoz appear to be popular options?

I run my clonewheel through a Tall & Fat into a Ventilator. The T&F sits beside the keyboard within easy reach, and the Vent sits on the floor where I rarely adjust it. I usually leave the Drive control on the Vent around 12-1 o'clock, and I dial the Fat (drive) control on the T&F down around 9 o'clock for a touch of grease on jazz, or up around 11-12 o'clock for more growl on blues and rock, adjusting the Tall (level) control to keep the gain even. The overdrives on the T&F and Vent play well together and both respond with a smooth increase as the volume is raised via the expression pedal.

I started piano lessons when I was 8, picked up organ when I was 12, and got into other keyboards over the next couple of years when Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, Hohner pianets and clavinets, Moog, ARP, and Roland synths, Mellotrons and Solina string ensembles started turning up in my father's music store in the early 1970s. In junior high school, I got together with classmates in the music room at lunchtime to jam on jazz and pop tunes, and listen to ELP, Yes, Pink Floyd, Focus, and other early prog rock that was catching our ear. In senior high school, I joined a garage band playing Beatles, Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, and Santana songs on a red Yamaha YC10 combo organ, and then hooked up with a series of organ trios, playing jazz and pop standards at wedding and restaurant gigs on an Acetone GT7 clonewheel through a Leslie 147, which I carted around in a Honda Civic that I bought with the proceeds.

I think of "pro" as shorthand for "can do X competently, collegially, efficiently, reliably, promptly and politely, using suitable tools and materials, endeavouring to provide what clients request in the way that supervisors (e.g., bandleaders) direct"; i.e., in the way you would expect it to be done by someone who did it for a living. An amateur might be equally or more competent but might not be collegial, efficient, reliable, prompt or polite, or might not have pro-quality equipment; i.e., they will do only what suits them the way it suits them. In other words, the difference between professional and amateur is more about approach and attitude than skill.

I believe it's a Hammond M100 (with "contemporary" cabinet style = M102). I used to have one of these with a Leslie 145 ... it has tonewheels and tube circuitry with 2nd/3rd harmonic percussion and scanner vibrato/chorus. This was the organ he used on the original recording of "Gimme Some Lovin'" ... you can see it in this live video (synced to the original recording ... check out 0'13"-0'25", 1'03"-1'15", and 1'53"-2'05"). These videos give an idea of its sound and specs. An M100 was also used by Matthew Fisher on the original recording of "A Whiter Shade of Pale".

Here are some tunes that work well in an organ trio. - Alligator Boogaloo (Lou Donaldson) [Lonnie Smith] - Autumn Leaves (Joseph Kosma) [Eddy Louiss] - Back at the Chicken Shack (Jimmy Smith) - Blues for J (Jimmy Smith) - Carrot Cake (Peter Bernstein) [Larry Goldings] - Chitlins Con Carne (Kenny Burrell) - Dragonfly (Peter Bernstein) [Larry Goldings] - Green Onions (Booker T & the MGs) - Jeep on 35 (John Scofield) [John Scofield w. Medeski, Martin & Wood] - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Joe Zawinul) [Mick Weaver] - Mixed Message (Larry Goldings) - Midnight Blue (Kenny Burrell) - Moanin' (Bobby Timmons) [Joey de Francesco] - Molto Molto (Larry Goldings) - Play It Back (Lonnie Smith) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2H9PGxilyM [iron City] - Return of the Prodigal Son (Harold Ousley) [George Benson w. Lonnie Smith] - Road Song (aka "OGD") (Wes Montgomery) [Jimmy Smith w. Wes Montgomery] - Satin Doll (Duke Ellington) [Jimmy Smith w. Kenny Burrell] - Summer Samba (Marcos Valle) [Walter Wanderley} - The Cat (Lalo Schifrin) [Jimmy Smith] - West LA Fadeaway (Jerry Garcia) [OJT] - Yaya & Kiwi (John Arman) I have lead sheets for most of these.

According to [this info], my Ventilator is above the serial no. for the stereo bypass modification (I bought it new in 2013), but it has not been modified, as I only use it in mono.

+3

I can see and hear the high-frequency noise you are talking about, but I don't know what the cause might be. Because it is only happening in your setup, and with two different units, it appears that the cause might be some interference being picked up, or oscillation being generated, somewhere in your setup. When you say "different locations", have you tried it in a different building some distance away with different power and audio wiring (and possibly further away from a source of interference)? If you try changing various factors one at a time, you might be able to identify the cause by a process of elimination.

Same here. Here is a .wav file of my Viscount Legend organ going directly into my Ventilator 1, which is going directly into a Zoom H1 recorder with the recording level set just below clipping. The Vent has the original power supply, the Lo/Hi switch is on "Lo", the Guitar/Keyboard switch is on "Keyboard", and the Balance, Drive, and Distance controls are all at 12 o'clock. I played nothing for about 10 seconds, then a chord with all drawbars out for 5 seconds, then nothing for another 5 seconds. There is a little background noise from the Vent but not much. [Ventilator 1 noise floor]

I have a Ventilator 1, and it does make a little noise, but not an excessive amount. Even with the volume turned up high in a quiet room, the noise is barely noticeable. On my unit, the level and character of the noise are affected a little by the Balance, Drive, and Distance controls, and by the Guitar/Keyboard switch, but the Lo/Hi switch does not affect it noticeably. I use unbalanced cables, and I normally use the power supply that came with the unit, but when I checked it with a spare generic power supply, the noise level was about the same.

#1 (VB3) and #2 (B5) were at the top of my original list, but they were overtaken by #5 (Numa) and #7 (Nord) when a Ventilator was added. Without a Vent, it is now a close contest between #1, #2 and #9 (HX3), and with a Vent, it is a close contest between #5, #7 and #9. The best of the internal Leslies are very good, but the Vent (especially its overdrive) still sounds better to me.

If you manipulate the drawbars *really* skilfully, you can literally make a Hammond organ talk. [video:youtube] See also: https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2018/08/03/manual-vocoding-on-a-hammond-organ/

"Glass" on the album "As One" (see from 1:42): [video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSeIIp35XnM "Come in and Pray" on the album "Sweet Science": [video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEQ75t4HWXI "Crying Time" live with John Scofield & Greg Hutchinson (starts at 18:35; you can hear this technique at 19:08-19:45, and 20:53-21:53, and you can see it clearly at 21:23-21:35). I really like the outro of this track, which is a soulful and funky 5-minute jam starting at 22:50. [video:youtube]

Still very close: with no or 1/3 overdrive, I prefer #7 by a whisker; but with 2/3 or full overdrive, the percussion pushes both (esp. #7) too far into clipping. I use a combination of a Lounsberry Tall & Fat pedal and the Vent itself for overdrive, as I find them more "growly" / less "fizzy", and less prone to clipping on percussion than inbuilt overdrives. This is my benchmark for heavy percussion & keyclick with overdrive (see 08:45 - 10:02): [video:youtube]

7, with 5 a close second...and yes, day-and-night better with a Vent than without. Both leap frog over the rest easily (at least in the context of this song). Agree 100%. These two sound very close here, but the overdrive on #7 has a tad huskier (better) growl. I'd be interested to hear how these two compare on "Green Eyed Lady" through the Vent.

From the updated "Yours Is No Disgrace" samples, focusing on the overdrive and Leslie, I still preferred #5 overall (although the overdrive is a bit mild), closely followed by #1 (least "fizzy" overdrive) and new #2 (overdrive a bit "fizzy", Leslie a bit "phasey"). From the "Bits" samples, the differences were less noticeable, and it was a close call between #1, #2, #5, and #7. From the "Green Eyed Lady" samples, focusing on the percussion and keyclick, I preferred #2 overall, closely followed by #1 and #7. #5 might have been a contender, but the percussion level pushed the overdrive too far into clipping. Overall, my vote for best all-rounder is a close call between #1 and #2.

So which ones did you find the more satisfying "growly" ones? That is very much one of the key differentiators I was looking for in this test. While 5 was at the top of my list overall, I thought its overdrive was a bit mild, and of the others, 1 was next on my list overall, and I thought it had the least "fizzy" overdrive.

From a quick listen, I put 5 at the top of the list and 8 at the bottom. Mostly, the overdrives were a bit "fizzy" (rather than "growly") and the Leslies a bit "phasey" (rather than "swirly") for my taste.

+1

Cool sound, nice groove.

Hiromi Uehara & Edmar Castaneda - Live in Montreal [video:youtube]

Website of Edmar Castaneda Video about his harp: [video:youtube]

Not bad, but if the benchmark is a vintage Hammond console (A100/B3/C3), then an M3 or M100 spinet might be the next best thing. Although they are smaller, they both still have tonewheels, scanner vibrato, harmonic percussion, and tube circuitry. The M3 also has waterfall keys; the M100 and other spinets all have diving-board keys. "Green Onions" was recorded on the M3, and "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "A Whiter Shade of Pale" were recorded on the M100. Next in line might be the L100 or its Porta-B portable version, which have tonewheels, harmonic percussion, and tube circuitry, but not scanner vibrato. The T100 (no Leslie) or T200 (inbuilt Leslie) might be next on the list: it does have tonewheels and scanner vibrato but does not have tube circuitry or harmonic percussion, although it does have some percussion effects: "Marimba", "Xylophone", etc. The T200's inbuilt Leslie has a single 10" speaker with a drum rotor and is OK but not in the same league as a classic 2-rotor Leslie like the 122 (or shorter 142) usually used with vintage Hammond consoles or spinets, which has a separate 15" speaker with a drum rotor for bass, and a horn driver and rotor for treble. The tone and interaction of the tube amplifier, speakers, rotors, and cabinet of the classic 2-rotor Leslie (and the rapid speed-up/slow-down of the horn rotor) give it a distinctive sound. Once upon a time, I had a Hammond B3 with a Leslie 122, and a Hammond M100 with a Leslie 142, and over the years, I have played various Hammond L, M, and T models. They all sound good, and better with a Leslie (or even a Ventilator through a good powered speaker.)

Jimmy Smith, Kenny Burrell, Grady Tate - 1965 [video:youtube] John Abercrombie, Jan Hammer, Jack de Johnette - 1974 [video:youtube] John Scofield, Larry Goldings, Jack de Johnette - 2006 [video:youtube] Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart [video:youtube] Starting at 3:55 is a great performance of Larry's tune "Molto Molto" from a 2015 concert in Italy. Recent albums are billed as "Goldings Bernstein Stewart" ("Live at Smalls" 2011, "Ramshackle Serenade" 2014, "Toy Tunes" 2018). Earlier albums are billed as the Peter Bernstein Trio ("Earth Tones" 1998) or the Larry Goldings Trio ("Moonbird" 1999, "As One" 2001, "Sweet Science" 2002).