Lou_NC

I'm considering buying myself a Viscount Legend or Legend Live as a retirement present to myself. I've been casually watching these models and comparing to similar Hammond and Crumar models over the past year or so, as I approach my "big day". Recently I looked online again and noticed that the Legend model is priced about $1000 higher than the Legend Live. I could have sworn when I started looking at these organs a while back that the Legend model was priced only a few hundred higher than the Live. Am I remembering this correctly, or is old age blurring my memory? I do like the idea of the Legend since it has the identical switch and preset key layout to the B3, but not sure it's worth $1000 to me. Thanks, Lou

If you need to watch costs regarding your amplification/speakers, you may want to look for a recent thread that discussed speakers for clonewheels on this forum. Here is some of the text from a post I made on that thread: "For home use, I've been using a pair of older JBL Control 1 monitor speakers, mounted on the wall at ear level (my XK-3/XLK-3 setup is placed against a wall), along with a 8" JBL powered subwoofer that I bought off Craigslist. I kick pedals and at moderate (home studio) volume levels, this setup is really great! Plenty of bass. I had to adjust the percussion and keyclick volumes on the Hammond to match the high-fidelity speakers, but now that it's been tweaked down a bit, it all sounds fantastic." My point here is simple.......if you need to keep cost low on the sound system in order to stay within your budget and still afford the organ, you may want to consider using smaller, less expensive speakers and a used "home-theater" subwoofer. This will give a nice stereo image for the Leslie effect on the organ, and has enough bass and volume for "home" volume levels, in my experience. Good luck, Lou

I am an EE by trade, but I like to keep things as simple as possible when I make music. So I use an old iPod playing MP3's for this kind of thing, and run the audio from the earphone output to a vacant input in my trusty Kawai MX-8SR stereo rack mixer. (Yes, there are iPod's still in use these days......!) There have been songs that have really stymied me, and in those cases I'll resort to loading the original MP3 into Audacity on my PC, slow it down as much as needed so that I can play along, and either play it from the computer 1/8" audio output jack into the mixer, or make a custom "slow" MP3 and play that using the iPod into the mixer. Lou

Will he be transporting the organ to gigs? If not, I would suggest considering the Legend vs. the Legend Live, in order to get the controls/switches in the "right" place to duplicate the B3, in addition to more preset keys. I would definitely lean toward either Viscount model vs. the Mojo, in order to get two sets of drawbars per keyboard, but that is a personal preference. Does he need/want an 11-pin Leslie connector? That's another checklist item for the Viscount as compared to the current Mojo "Classic". Lou

What about my feet? My teacher was big on "roots and fifths". Did I mention that my lessons were on a spinet organ (rental)? I do wish sometimes that I was able to learn on a full pedalboard, and learn some more "interesting" approaches to pedal bass. Lou

So glad I learned keyboard by taking organ lessons instead of piano lessons. I only had to learn about 100 chords for my left hand, instead of scales! Lou

I have a simple Casio weighted-key piano that I bought a few years back, and love it because it has 5-pin MIDI connectors on it. It has limited internal voices, but that doesn't matter because I use the MIDI-out to drive things like my Alesis Nano-Piano, Nano-Synth, and other sound-generating boxes. I'd like to get a second piano and I see that the newer ones only offer USB "B" type connectors on them, they no longer offer 5-pin MIDI. I have no plans to connect the keyboard to a computer, and thus I would like to know whether there's a "simple" hardware interface box available that I can simply connect to the USB "B" connector and go directly to 5-pin MIDI out, without a computer "in between"? (MIDI-in to the keyboard is not a use-case I care about). Does such an interface box exist? If not, I'll probably start shopping Ebay and Craigslist for an older Casio piano that has the "legacy" 5-pin MIDI connectors. Thanks, Lou

Konaboy, For those of us who learned to play "keyboards" on a home spinet organ, it's completely obvious why there are two manuals and a bass pedalboard on an organ. It's so you can make music WITHOUT NEEDING A GUITAR PLAYER! Or, a drummer, if your Wurlitzer organ had a "rhythm unit" built into it (like mine did)! I'm only half joking here about the guitar player..........I don't need a "backing track" to make music, if I have my left hand playing chords, my left foot tapping out bass, and a drum machine ticking along in the organ. I may be a fossil, but I still enjoy being a "one man band", even if I sound like elevator music to most people..........I'm way past worrying about being "cool" at this point in life! I never took theater organ style lessons.........but talk about a "one man band"! Those players definitely did not need a guitar player....... I would actually flip the question around and say...........if it *doesn't* have two keyboards and a provision for bass pedal input (including separate drawbars for each keyboard, and the pedals), then by definition, it is *not* even an organ! Lou

I'd use a simple line-level mixer to combine signals from the keyboards, then route through a stereo volume pedal. Here's a simple mixer option for you: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/rolls-mx28-mini-mix-vi/632003000000000?cntry=US&cur=USD&source=3WWRWXGS&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1KiBBhCcARIsAPWqoSrScgd8w_DLI-ROwZzx_BYYHEb8EzHjItO6y1wMmwyG-g3vksGX5moaAiRKEALw_wcB For stereo pedals, I still occasionally use my vintage Morley SVO pedal or my Yamaha FC9. Lou

I 2nd the motion for finding a used Alesis NanoSynth (or NanoPiano). I really like these units.....decent enough sounds for me, super convenient to use. "They just work". The NanoPiano has a lot of piano sounds as the name implies, but also has some string sounds (that's what some of us used to call "pad" sounds, back in the day). I have one of each, and won't be selling either one soon. I use them with a Hammond organ when I'm playing mainly organ sounds, and an inexpensive Casio piano (with weighted action) when I'm playing mostly piano sounds. I wonder why nobody has ever come up with an affordable follow-on product to the Alesis Nano series............probably not nearly as profitable for them as coming out with new keyboards over and over.......... Lou

Thanks to all who replied.........I was keeping my use case intentionally vague in order to get the most answers.........and in fact it is a general type of question, I'm not trying to solve a specific situation, at least right now. My current home keyboard amplification setup uses a repurposed "home theater" type sub/satellite speaker arrangement where the sub has some active circuitry to manage this (I'm actually using stereo speaker-level input from a stereo power amp to the sub's panel, then sending L/R speaker-level outputs to the satellite speakers). This is certainly not a "pro-audio" setup, so I'm trying to figure out what I would do if I were starting over from scratch, still wanting to support a separate sub and stereo speaker setup. So, future use cases could include running from a single set of line level stereo outputs (from either a mixer or a single keyboard) to a separate powered sub, and separate 2-channel power amp, then to passive speakers. I know if I'm using "modern" powered PA speakers, many offer line level outs that I can daisy chain, but that's not my current setup. Thanks, Lou

How do you guys handle the situation when you have a single line-level output (whether it's from a keyboard, mixer, effect box, etc.) and want to run it to multiple amps? Do you use a "Y-cable"? Is there a "1-in, many-out" box that I'm unaware of for this purpose? Thanks, Lou

Not totally related to this new model, since I also noticed on the Mojo "Classic"..........what happened to the 11-pin Leslie connector? Any idea why it was dropped from the Mojo design? Lou

Actually, depending on the "sattelite" speakers you use, they can have a pretty full range, and you definitely get a good amount of lower rotor frequencies through them. Naturally they won't cover much below a few hundred hertz, but there isn't that much "directonality" to the audio frequencies that route to the sub, anyway. Definitely not trying to "oversell" this approach, but I have been playing Hammond clone organs for a long time, and I think it sounds pretty good for a space-saving approach. You may want to give it a try by cobbling up some borrowed stuff, before sinking money into two large PA speakers. Best of luck in your decision, Lou

For home use, I've been using a pair of older JBL Control 1 monitor speakers, mounted on the wall at ear level (my XK-3/XLK-3 setup is placed against a wall), along with a 8" JBL powered subwoofer that I bought off Craigslist. I kick pedals and at moderate (home studio) volume levels, this setup is really great! Plenty of bass. I had to adjust the percussion and keyclick volumes on the Hammond to match the high-fidelity speakers, but now that it's been tweaked down a bit, it all sounds fantastic. I would definitely consider a Spacestation for small venue gigging, but I actually tried the predecessor speaker of the current Spacestation (SFX MK2), and it definitely needed a subwoofer to satisfy me. Again, I play pedals, and the 16' bass pedal sound needs some "oomph" to satisfy me, I find even a small sub works well for that. I've purchased two powered subs used, from folks who were upgrading or simply selling off their "home theater" setups, to replace them with sound bars. I find the home-theater subs provide sufficient low-end and enough volume for my home studio needs, and they are quite inexpensive when purchased used (in the neighborhood of $100-$150 USD). Lou

Definitely play against a drum track. BTW, if you want to try this without acquiring yet another piece of gear, there are drum tracks available on You Tube that you can try. Search on "latin drums 140bpm" and you'll end up with something useful I'm sure. Same goes for rock, waltz, swing, etc. I was lucky........I learned to play keyboards on a 70's vintage Wurlitzer spinet organ that had a grand total of five (count 'em, five) built-in drum beats (including "march" which was never used) and I acquired a great feel for playing along to a beat. Now if I could only improvise solos.......... Lou

I don't think I've heard this mentioned yet, but you could probably find an inexpensive "home theater" receiver and 5.1 speaker setup on your local Craigslist for well under $200. The key is the SUBWOOFER which will really make a difference in combination with the small speakers. Set up the "front" and subwoofer, and you'll have a really good home sound setup for keyboard. You can also do this with a "computer" speaker setup, provided it has a sub. I'm sure that powered computer speakers with a sub are available under $200, certainly used in that price range. Lou

Get yourself a bunch of these: https://www.amazon.com/6-Inch-Power-Extension-5-Pack-Outlet/dp/B00DVRUTXW/ref=asc_df_B00DVRUTXW/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=194017009123&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4838027801951794085&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009736&hvtargid=pla-309635891176&psc=1 You can use every slot in a power strip if you insert one of these short "pigtail" extension cords between the wall wart and the power strip. Zip tie everything securely, and you'll be good to go. Lou

Gee, maybe there will be a corresponding resurgence in spinet organ sales? Maybe Lowery, Yamaha, and Wurlitzer will all make a comeback? Sometimes I miss my old Wurlitzer with the "Orbit 3" synthesizer mini-keyboard! Lou

Thanks for the tips! I believe I have a CF card somewhere, will begin the search shortly! Is having a CF card installed the *only way* to save the custom tonewheel set? Or can I overwrite one of the built-in sets without requiring a flash card? Thanks, Lou

I know this is a 'blast from the past' type of questionâ¦â¦â¦..please bear with an old guy who"s FINALLY getting around to loading Jim Alfredson"s custom tonewheels into his Hammond XK-3. I"m slightly confused by the Hammond Owner"s Manual information regarding the tonewheels. Basic question is this â do I have to 'overwrite' one of the three sets of tonewheels that are currently 'in' the XK-3 by default, in order to load the custom set? The ones I see are: B-Type Mellow Brite When I update the individual tonewheel entries with the 96 values in Jim"s document, will I be creating a new (4th?) set of tonewheels upon saving, or will I have to write over one of the three above? This is a lot of manual data entry, so I don"t want to screw this up when I complete the process and hit "save"! Thanks, Lou

The song that was ruined for me was Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan. I played in a jam group after hours at work, and we had a fairly proficient guitar player, but he just couldn't "get" that the timing of the guitar strums in that song was on the "and", not on the main beat. It was a completely different song when strummed on the beat, and NOT different as in "better"! I don't think we ever got that one right, so we just moved on to another song. I still cringe when I hear it played, and think about good old Scott..........and his timing challenges....... Lou

If you can connect two standard WiFi routers at various points in your home via an Ethernet cable, this may be a good solution for you. Do you have a basement? I ran a 100' Ethernet cable between the main router and secondary router in my home by running the cable in the crawlspace, into my garage. My primary router is adjacent to the cable modem at one end of my house, and the secondary router is on top of a cabinet in my garage, right under my bonus room, at the opposite end of my house. I get excellent coverage throughout my house. I have a Netgear as primary router, and an Asus as secondary. Follow the simple instructions in the article to change the IP address of the 2nd router, turn off DHCP in the 2nd router, and configure the WiFi channels so they don't interfere (there's info in the article on that for the 2.4GHz band, I also made sure my 5GHz channels were different in the two routers). You use the same SSID throughout your house. Works like a charm and you can use the cheapest routers to do this, nothing fancy is required. https://www.hanselman.com/blog/ConfiguringTwoWirelessRoutersWithOneSSIDNetworkNameAtHomeForFreeRoaming.aspx Good luck, Lou

I play a good bit with 88833000 and will sometimes add the 1' drawbar at some point in a song, usually pulling it to 5 or 5. Another registration I use a lot is 846450000, and I'll move the 2 2/3' drawbar in/out one or two "notches" to taste for the particular song I'm playing. Both are played with leslie alternating between slow and fast. Lou

I don't gig much, but do play for fun with friends fairly regularly, and always sit when I play. I suppose it comes from my keyboard origins as an organist, playing bass pedals and working the swell pedal. I haven't seen anyone talk about playing while sitting, but setting up their keyboards and bench on a small riser........has anyone ever tried that? I would think that having a 8"-12" riser would put a sitting keyboard player at about the same height as a standing player, no? Maybe there's a business idea here........ Lou