NOVEL SOLO

A variety of MIDI connected YAMAHA REFACE YC & NORD ELECTRO 6D drawbar organ keyboards controlled by a special “MIDI “Y” connector to ROLAND JUNO DS 61 or JUNO DS 88 MIDI OUT main keyboard controller provides real time YAMAHA YC & NORD ELECTRO 6D organ analog sound modifications to the YAMAHA / NORD digital signal processing. The YAMAHA REFACE YC & CP mini keyboards are capable of producing up to 88 notes of the musical scale when MIDI connections to full sized MIDI keyboards are available. There is zero latency with YAMAHA REFACE YC / CP keyboards linked NORD ELECTRO 6D & ROLAND JUNO DS 61/73/88. Plenty of rotary speaker emulation options, speaker “grit” / distortion possibilities with this proven ROLAND, YAMAHA, NORD organ MIDI trio. Dual channel /. Stereo outputs to a mixer for each keyboard are not necessary, the single channel output provides awesome audio quality. YAMAHA, NORD & ROLAND keyboards connect to VISCOUNT & CRUMAR digital keyboards equipped with MIDI output for an amazing boost of turbocharged drawbar organ sound. The ROLAND JUNO DS series offers several dozen organ presets that can be combined with ultra realistic pianos, percussion & instruments of all types!

Yes I have performed on both the VISCOUNT & HAMMOND XK-5, testing the effects of digital latency. The Hammond XK-5 digital scanning keyboard technology is accurate enough unless you are holding down 3-4 notes simultaneously while pulling & pushing drawbars - a slight delay or latency is noticeable to some keyboard musicians. Creative software coding can optimize some of the lag or latency on digital keyboards while still retaining fun and complex features depending on the manufacturer’s willingness to invest in the redesign when microprocessors evolve to the next level of performance. BTW, these comments offer no criticism of the use of “presets” by any tone wheel drawbar musician. If you use “presets”, that’s awesome! Even Hammond has had to upgrade their microprocessors and software coding during the past 20 years to add new features in order to offer Hammond portable drawbar tone wheel keyboards like XK, SK & HK at competitive prices levels to dealers and end users. In summary, drawbar tone wheel digital organ presets are like a pool cue bridge on a 7’ pool table. If you need a pool cue bridge on a 7’ pool table for your performance, use it !

Contemporary digital microprocessor technology organs, especially dual keyboard models, with draw bars / tone wheel designs are driven with coded software features like effects & modeling that can cause latency issues when manipulating drawbars during live performances. “Presets” keys might be timed by factory coding for consistent switches and less latency than manipulating changes by pulling & pushing drawbars. Users can modify presets for personalized content and the keyboard manufacturers software timing coding keeps the preset change consistent while executing the performers commands. NORD ELECTRO 6D 61/73 single keyboard has improved microprocessors & storage capacity to allow for faster processing of drawbars changes without latency issues. Dual keyboard designs like Viscount & Crumar have to scan & process more data changes with performance compromise for price point sales competition. When microprocessor technology improves keyboard manufacturers have to invest in software upgrades, or a complete rewrite to take advantage of computing power which unfortunately is a labor intensive and expensive investment for low production niche musical keyboards..

One set of “DRAW-BARS” per manual is all that any tone wheel keyboard musician really needs. The prewired Hammond B-3 style presets were rarely used by legacy Hammond organ performers. These Hammond organ presets were preferred by students and amateurs for quick, accurate easy registration changes. 1950’s-1970’s Hammond performing organists preferred to make drawbar adjustments in real time creating instantaneous, unique momentary sound bites for every time the drawbars were “grabbed” & “shoved” during registration changes. Perhaps there’s one instance where a Hammond preset was special, and only available on the Hammond X-66. “NOVEL SOLO” was the name of the X-66 upper keyboard 🎹 preset. The Hammond X-66 “NOVEL SOLO” preset sound was awesome, unique to the X-66, and almost impossible to recreate quickly with manual drawbar adjustments during a performance.