MescaL

I use the original Hammer 88 as a controller for my Nord Electro 5D primarily for Piano/Rhodes/Wurly. It sits at home and I just take the Electro out for gigs. Whilst I haven't tried a huge range of different weighted actions, for the low price and not wanting any other functionality it works really well for me. Shame you had so many issues with the Pro MMM, and there seems to be a few. I've had my Hammer 88 for 4 or 5 years now and never had a single issue with hanging notes or anything, but hardly ever use it for VSTs or anything and it's not the Pro.

I went to the launch event in London, Ronnie Scott's is an incredible venue. Very much appreciated the free beer on the way in hah! Sound in the room was incredible. When played on its own I recall it have a crisp bell attack whilst retaining that well rounded thick/creamy sound. I wasn't sure whether the Mk 8 was being run through the Fender Twin Reverb or DI. Dan demonstrated the versatility of the preamp section, and it was pretty amazing what you could achieve just with the preamp creating phaser-ish affects and layering synth like effects with the wave shapes. The distortion sounded sick too and would suit me playing in heavier Rock bands. I remember there being quite a lot of control over the bell/attack using the EQ which could have been a personal choice/factor in the attack in this video of Bill playing, it looks like the high is way up. I'm younger so haven't toured extensively with Rhodes but have been playing predominantly Wurly/Rhodes samples for 15 years in bands and played/recorded with 5 or 6 different Rhodes before. Personally, I thought it was one of the best Rhodes I had heard. A few lucky cats even got to have a play around on it at the end! It was amazing hearing the passion Dan had for the instrument and everything that went into it. I definitely recommend hearing one in the flesh.

Agree, leslie off, distortion, optional vibrato. It makes quite a cutting bright sound in a band situation, and sometimes I prefer this to using the Vox/Farfisa settings on the Nord. My favourite from that era is the Yamaha YC organs run through a tube amp (I own 2 of them!), and you seem to get a bit closer to this sound with a non-Leslie Hammond. From Ray Manzarek doing a spoof version of Doors songs for Weird Al Yankovich ; I sometimes used his NE2 setting: 888004043. There's a fuller setting I preferred with a few scoops cut out of the high drawbars but I can't quite recall what it was. I'll see if I've got it saved on my NE5 when I get home.

It looks like Pablo from Nord US Tech support uses a Spacestation too (bottom R corner). Also a relatively rare Nord NHC73 flight case sitting by it. http://www.nordkeyboards.com/man-behind-nords-us-live-tech-support