SK-1 and 2 Tips, Tricks and Other Cool Stuff.

[tompass]

Can not seem to find what I think was an addendum to manual that showed how to control the attack and delay of the bass pedals when combined and played on lower manual. Any help would be appreciated.

[JMcS]

I don't have the manual handy but I think it is in the drawbar menu. IIRC page A Drawbar and scroll up to pedals and then across.

[tompass]

Yes! Thanks. Setting up the "thump."

[Spider76]

Hi everybody, just a quick question.

From the specs, I can't understand if the SK1 88 has a waterfall or piano-style keybed. Any owner that can tell me?

 

Actually my curiosity started while looking up the datasheets of FATAR keybeds, as it seems that FATAR doesn't have an 88-waterfall listed.

Is it custom-made for Hammond-Suzuki only?+

 

Thanks a lot guys!

[JMcS]

From the Hammond Brochure:

 

http://hammondorganco.com/support/downloads/brochures-product-catalogs/

 

Sk1-88

 

The thought of a Hammond instrument with 88 keys is jarring at first, but with a set of Acoustic and Electric Pianos like those contained in the Sk Series, it makes perfect sense that Piano players are going to want to get in the Sk Fun. The Sk1-88 has a semi-weighted action, and its variable touch lets Pianists feel right at home. When the Drawbars come into play, the HammondStyle Waterfall Keys translate the Hammond Vibe perfectly and accurately. Splitting the big keyboard gives you two 44 note keyboards side by side, which effectively transforms the Sk1-88 into a double manual organ, if you desire; or a wider berth for manual bass. Great for MIDI control as well.

[Spider76]

From the Hammond Brochure:

 

http://hammondorganco.com/support/downloads/brochures-product-catalogs/

 

The Sk1-88 has a semi-weighted action, and its variable touch lets Pianists feel right at home. When the Drawbars come into play, the HammondStyle Waterfall Keys

 

ooops, missed this, I was looking only at the spec tables.

Thank you!

 

So it seems that the SK1 88 has a semi-weighted 88-keys waterfall keybed... very interesting, as I cannot find anything like that on the FATAR website.

And there's nothing like that in the product lines of the other brands that use FATAR (Nord, Kurtzweil, Studiologic etc).

It's most probably custom made for Hammond-Suzuki, then.

 

Ok, my geek curiosity is satisfied, thanks again!

[ziquo]

Hello all,

 

my Sk2 is having an annoying problem since I did the 8.4 upgrade.

Pedal notes are cut short, even if I don't lift my foot on the pedal.

 

I checked the midi cable and the pedals with a different organ, they work fine.

 

Anyone else having the same problem? Is it a bug?

 

Is it possible to downgrade to 8.3?

 

thank you

[ziquo]

Just searched and found a previous message in this thread that says that it *is* possible to downgrade.

Luckily I have a copy of release 7 on my HD.

I'll try and see how that goes

[b3halt]

Hello all,

 

my Sk2 is having an annoying problem since I did the 8.4 upgrade.

Pedal notes are cut short, even if I don't lift my foot on the pedal.

 

I checked the midi cable and the pedals with a different organ, they work fine.

 

Anyone else having the same problem? Is it a bug?

 

Is it possible to downgrade to 8.3?

 

thank you

 

I've never had this kind of problem. Everything works perfectly with my SK1 and SK2 with the OS 8.4.

 

Maybe you can check with the Hammond Suzuki dealer in your area or contact the HS service in your country.

[JMcS]

Check the pedal drawbar menu. The pedals can be set to either stay on as long as they are held or to fade out quickly or over time depending on the settings.

 

Edit:

Pgs. 74 & 75 #'s 13 - 18

[ziquo]

Thanks for he suggestions guys

 

I did contact Hammond Europe, I'm waiting for a reply.

 

It's definitely not a problem with the menu settings, the notes are cut completely randomly.

 

I'll try another set of pedals to see what happens

 

 

Check the pedal drawbar menu. The pedals can be set to either stay on as long as they are held or to fade out quickly or over time depending on the settings.

 

Edit:

Pgs. 74 & 75 #'s 13 - 18

[cheshire1uk]

Hi everyone,

I bought an Sk2 about a month ago and I absolutely love it, I'm amazed how good the internal Leslie sim is to, so much so I actually prefer it to my Neo Vent Mk2!

I bought it with an EXP 50 pedal which seems to have stiffened up a bit, has anyone else had this problem? I read in a previous post someone had also had this problem and they mentioned slackening off a screw to ease it a bit, question is what was this screw.

 

Thanks in advance,

Keith.

[JMcS]

The nut and bolt the pedal pivots on. If loosening it up makes the pedal not stay put find thin nylon washers and put 2 on each side. The washers will slide on each other put the nut and bolt can be tightened to the point the pedal won't move when you take your foot off it.

[cheshire1uk]

Thanks, it just needed a little turn with a spanner and problem solved, and it still holds its position when I take my foot off.

[cheshire1uk]

Could any SK2 owners please let me know if the tab "Lower to Pedal" works for them. A friend of mine also has an SK2 and its the same on his, nothing happens when the tab is pressed, according to the manual your supposed to be able to play the lower manual drawbar settings with the pedals, its something I probably wouldn't use much, but I'm now curious as to what's going on, or how its supposed to work, any help or advice greatly appreciated.

 

Keith

[JMcS]

Check the upper limit for the lower to pedal coupler (Pg. 112 #3). Try setting it higher to see if that gets the notes to play.

 

Is it possible the 2 SK-2s think they are SK-1s? During OS update attempts some have accidentally held the wrong buttons and caused their instrument to think it is the other model. I think this has mostly been SK-1 to SK-2 switches. When you power on watch the display to see what it says.

 

Pressing the Upper and Pedal buttons and powering on tells it it is an SK-1, the Pedal and Lower buttons an SK-2.

[Polkahero]

I'm sure this has been covered somewhere in this thread but. . .

 

For you guys using a Yamaha FC7 as your expression pedal, what are your settings for the smoothest operation possible? Just wondering if adjusting the curve parameter in the SK1 has much effect as I was recently tweaking that parameter and not hearing much different from the 1 to the 3 setting. Any other tips for the best linear response possible? Mainly trying to avoid the "volume rush" that occurs near the end of the pedal travel. Thanks!

[mak1457]

Personally, I like to have my pedal as sensitive as possible. That means my gain is 130 and my curve is set at 3.

 

Do make sure that the pedal is set at REC instead of NORM.

[JMcS]

 

Check the monitor (Pg. 78(SK) 72(XK-1c) #5). It should reach 127 just as or as close as possible to the point where the pedal reaches the end of its travel. If you are getting to 127 with an inch or so left nothing happens in that last inch.

 

 

[Polkahero]

Monitor looks okay and yes I've had it set to REV instead of NORM. I ended up adjusting the curve to 3 from 1 and I think it sounds smoother now. The volume doesn't seem to jump at the last bit of travel anymore. Thanks for the help, guys!

[cheshire1uk]

Lower to Pedal sorted, turns out it was on the wrong Midi Template, pedal only instead of Lower to Pedal, shows you really do have to read the Manual Lol.

[Spider76]

hi guys, sorry if this is something already discussed in the topic, but it's hard to check out all the 40 pages...

I'm almost about to replace my Nord C2+Sonic Cell with the SK2, in order to reduce the amount of gear-cables-hassle.

 

I only have a few final doubts before pulling the trigger:

 

1- will the Nord half-moon work on the SK2? Is the wiring and screw spacing the same, or I'd better not even try and get the Hammond CU1 half-moon straight away?

(it's obviously much easier to sell the nord halfmoon together with the C2, and buy the CU1 bundled with the SK2)

 

2- will the SK2 fit in the Nord bag? I like the Nord bag much better than Hammond's (more handles, bigger pockets, and most of all WHEELS) and I'd like to keep it.

I'm almost sure the SK2 will fit (it's only 1cm deeper and taller, but there should be enough room), just wanting to know if anybody has tried this.

 

3- most important question. I began studying the SK2 manual in earnest, and was surprised by one thing. Is it possible that there are no upper-lower manual drawbar presets?

If I got it right, the "favourite" buttons store the whole state of the instrument (upper+lower+extra voices), is there no way to recall upper/lower drawbar settings independently?

 

It's one of the main features of real Hammonds, and every other clonewheel (even the first Electros!) have ways to recall presets. Looks like a serious missing feature, especially on a board sporting the Hammond name!

 

Or, as I hope, is there some option in the user manual that I missed?

 

thanks so much guys!

[Spider76]

slowly going through the topic, I found this:

 

I choose to use Nord's case for a C2 (...) For a soft bag it is very good and the SK2 fits nicely.

 

so my question no.2 is answered, on with the search!

[JMcS]

 

There isn't a way to store separate presets for the organ and extra voices. The closest you might be able to get is to use the Patch Load parameters (Pg. 76) These are Global parameters so they would affect all patches. They are used to select which parts of patches are loaded when a new patch is selected.

 

You could have it not load the lower manual drawbar settings so that they are always as you last left them for example. I found that what I prefer is to have everything but the EV's turned off so that the only thing that changes when I select one of the patches is the EV and its effects. The organ is always live.

[Spider76]

There isn't a way to store separate presets for the organ and extra voices. The closest you might be able to get is to use the Patch Load parameters (Pg. 76) These are Global parameters so they would affect all patches. They are used to select which parts of patches are loaded when a new patch is selected.

 

You could have it not load the lower manual drawbar settings so that they are always as you last left them for example. I found that what I prefer is to have everything but the EV's turned off so that the only thing that changes when I select one of the patches is the EV and its effects. The organ is always live.

 

thanks so much for the answer.

 

I wasn't really thinking about storing separate presets for organ and EV, but for the two organ manuals.

Basically, was wondering if there is a function like the reverse-colour keys on a real Hammond (or the "Preset" buttons on the C2 and Mojo): a quick, one-touch way to recall drawbar settings independently on one or the other manual.

So I can, for example, keep comping on the lower manual with 808000000, but on the upper istantly go from 888000000 to 888888888 for a crescendo or solo.

 

So, if I understand it correctly (can't check the manual right now) there is no such function, the Favourite buttons always store the settings of both manuals.

But it can be aproximated by telling the instrument not to load certain parts of a patch.

 

Or I can imagine other workarounds (storing several Favourites with the same Lower drawbar settings but different Upper, or simply... using the drawbars live! )

 

Still, it seems strange that such a basic function is not directly implemented, as it is in all other clones...and in the original.

 

Whatever, it's not really a dealbreaker, I think the other advantages are more than enough to get the SK2 anyway!

[Aussie_Chicago]

The way I have mine set up is saving a patch as a favorite with say 888000000 with 3rd per on upper and the typical 808000000 on lower, then the next favorite would be 888888888 top and 808000000 bottom, so you use the favorite buttons to switch like the black preset keys on a console. I have the top 4 favorites programmed like that to basically act as organ only presets with various drawbar settings on top but mostly the same drawbar settings on bottom. The other 4 favorites make use of the extra voices on bottom and drawbars on top. I also tend to play "live" a lot more than using patches, ie in manual mode as long as you are not changing both manual's drawbar settings constantly. The biggest thing you will find going from the C2 is there is only 1 set of drawbars for realtime control. It takes some getting used to but overall, the sk2 is a great board. Make sure you do some tweaking of both the organ settings and extra voice settings, out of the box it may not sound great but with some work, it sounds pretty damn good !

[MoodyBluesKeys]

I have an SK1 (but use it frequently with the PC361 as a lower manual). The ten Favorites buttons can get the job done - SK1 and 2 have a full set of factory patches that cannot be directly edited, followed by an equal number of user patches. Copy a factory patch to a user patch, modify as desired, then save it. Set the lower manual as mentioned - most changes are more on the upper manual. Then set the Favorites using those user patches.

 

I have mine set with four Hammond patches (softer to fuller), then one Pipe Organ patch, then five different Extra Voices (A.P., Rhodes, Wurly, Flute, and Pad). For my particular use, that gets me 95% there - then I can use the drawbars and other panel controls to modify those favorites.

 

Suggestion: download Jim Alfredson's tone wheel sets (available on the Hammond SK website), he also has a setup file that is a good start on other adjustments. Also download the 20 or so Added Voice Libraries, you won't be able to fit but 15 or 20% of them in, but they are useful.

 

Some time when you DO have a few hours free, go through the whole long thread, and cut and paste useful things into a separate document. The earlier part of this thread has some very useful tricks and hints.

 

Most of my one keyboard events now are either done with the SK1 or the MIDI Controller/iPad sound source. Some with PC361 and iPad as auxiliary sound source.

 

[JMcS]

 

 

I think the number of people who could make good use of a system that has presets for the Upper drawbars, lower drawbars, Extra Voices, and then also presets for C/V and Leslie etc. because quickly changing upper drawbars would also quickly change the C/V and Leslie etc. would be pretty small. The SK's are intended to be stage keyboards and in general somewhat simple in their execution. Having to remember which combinations of patches and sub patches for each part of a song would be too much work and confusing in general. For the most part I think the intention is pretty much to be able to hit a button and let it rip. For a more organ + extra stuff experience there is the XK-series.

 

For more features the XK series can be set up to do the things you want and then control another instrument/module. In fact the XK-System in conjunction with an SK-1 is fantastic. IMO. It can be a 3 or 4 manual Hammond plus the extra voices. Also, the EV's can be layered with the XK's EVs for even more variety.

 

 

I use an old Peavey PC1600x slider box to send drawbar info to various manuals and it would be easy enough to program some buttons to send specific drawbar values to change several at once. Also, A small computer/tablet running SoundQuest's MIDI Tools MIDI Mapper or MIDI-OX could do the same.

[b3halt]

1- will the Nord half-moon work on the SK2? Is the wiring and screw spacing the same, or I'd better not even try and get the Hammond CU1 half-moon straight away?

(it's obviously much easier to sell the nord halfmoon together with the C2, and buy the CU1 bundled with the SK2)

 

I use the Nord half-moon with the SK2. I even painted the Nord logo black on it. I have both, but I prefer the Nord one because it's solid. But, I never use the screws to attach it to the SK2 and the C2D. Instead, I took those screws out and put the velcro, so it's very easy to attach and detach when you set it up or pack it. I never ever used screws to attach any half-moon switches to all the clones I owned. Anyway, it's stable enough.

 

By the way, with the Hammond Suzuki half-moon, you cannot do this. The back side of it is not flat. You can only do this with the Nord half-moon and the ones from Ashby Solutions. And, Bruce from Ashby told me this idea when I bought his half-moon long time ago.

 

You can even do this with the SK1. So, some people want to use the half-moon switch with the SK1, this is a good solution too. Here is the video and you can see it.

 

[video:youtube]

[Spider76]

wow, lots of useful info, thank you all SO much!

 

And don't worry, as soon as I get my SK2 I will take the time to study the manual carefully and read all this topic, so I will not pester you with useless questions!

 

1- will the Nord half-moon work on the SK2? Is the wiring and screw spacing the same?

 

I use the Nord half-moon with the SK2. I even painted the Nord logo black on it. I have both, but I prefer the Nord one because it's solid.

 

thank you, this is exactly the info I was looking for. What do you mean the Nord is "solid"?

Is the Hammond half-moon made of plastic? Or does it feel wobbly, or something?

 

As for the velcro thing, is it not possible to screw the Nord half moon on the SK2? Is the spacing/size of the screws different?

I really like the nord half moon and I'd like to keep it (as you say, it feels quite solid and reliable), but I'd prefer to fix it with the screws and keep it in place, if possible.

 

thanks again for all the inputs, I love this community!