Hammond Tease XK-4

[AnotherScott]

2 hours ago, Chummy said:

I wonder what was Jim referencing when he said it's not only an organ board.

He didn't say it was not only an an organ board, he said it isn't just an SK Pro without the non-organ voices. So (just pulling something out of the air), it could emulate additional transistor organs, and it would still be "only an organ board" but it would also not be the same thing as an SK Pro with its non-organ sounds removed.

[stoken6]

16 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

could you assign aftertouch to the CC# that controls rotary speed?

16 hours ago, CEB said:

I had a KS-32 that did that.

Loved that feature on my KS32 as well. Didn't love the weight of the thing.

 

Cheers, Mike

[Delaware Dave]

10 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

He didn't say it was not only an an organ board, he said it isn't just an SK Pro without the non-organ voices. So (just pulling something out of the air), it could emulate additional transistor organs, and it would still be "only an organ board" but it would also not be the same thing as an SK Pro with its non-organ sounds removed.

It does.  If you look at the video from page 1 on this post and slow the video down, towards the end you get a picture of the face of the XK-4.  There were 4 choices, VOX, Farfisa, ACE (not sure what that would be) and PIPE.

 

[Markay]

Ace would be Acetone, now known as Roland, what I shoulda bought instead of a Farfisa Fast 4 back in tha day.

[kenheeter]

Yup, my Fast 4 sounded pretty good through my Leslie 145 but the Ace Tone would have been better. At 15, how would I know?

[AnotherScott]

Trivia: Hammond's first portable "clonewheels", the X2 and X5, were made for them by Acetone.

[Outkaster]

23 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

I admit I have never tried the CU-1 on the single manual SK Pro models, but I've used it with the SKX Pro. Not sure why it would be any different other than no stock way to mount it. In regards to software, shouldn't it be the same?

Apparently because the SK Pro 93 has a beveled edge it doesn't attach well.

[HammondDave]

I am so tired of manufacturers ignoring one of the best sounding combo organs of the 60’s, and that Is the Gibson G101 (Aka The Lowery Kalamazoo). This is the organ that Ray Manzerek used from Waiting for the Sun onward. As it was basically a Lowery product, it had features such as sustain and tremolo which makes the sound of this instrument unique (think the opening keyboard line of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, the sound of “Unknown Soldier” “Touch Me” or “Waiting for the Sun”). I own one and have samples of it that I used to sell.  I still use those samples live in my MODX+ for some Doors songs we cover. 
 

 

[Adan]

I've watched that Doors Touch Me video before a few times but never noticed that Robby Krieger has a massive black eye.  Now that's Rock 'n Roll baby!

[HammondDave]

7 minutes ago, Adan said:

I've watched that Doors Touch Me video before a few times but never noticed that Robby Krieger has a massive black eye.  Now that's Rock 'n Roll baby!

From Ray Manzerek:  "Back in the 60's it was dangerous to have long hair. Rednecks would beat you up because you were considered un-American. If you had long hair, it meant you were against the war in Vietnam. And REAL "Americans" love killing! They love booze! Drinking! Whiskey! and they love guns! Instead, the hippies like to get high on pot and then they like to make love and dance and make music and sing and have a good time! Hippies were against killing. So, three rednecks got in a fight with Jim and Robbie down the street from the Doors' office at a bar and there was pushing and shoving and Robbie Krieger got whacked in the eye. Jim ducked a punch, Robbie wasn't able to duck the punch. That was 2 days before we went on the SMothers Brothers' Show. They said to Robbie on the show, let's put some make-up on that black eye. You don't want to be on national televisoin with a black eye. And Robbie said, Yes I do! No one has ever gone on TV with a black eye. I'm going to be the first! It's a badge of honor. The End!"

[pjd]

3 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

It does.  If you look at the video from page 1 on this post and slow the video down, towards the end you get a picture of the face of the XK-4.  There were 4 choices, VOX, Farfisa, ACE (not sure what that would be) and PIPE.

 

Hammond gets it. If you make an organ keyboard, you put organs in it, including pipe organ. Yamaha adds EDM voices in their latest update. Yamaha still doesn't get it.

 

I need more coffee -- pj

 

P.S. I love the covers-off keys in the Smother's Brothers video. never noticed that before... Stronger than dirt. 😀

[MAJUSCULE]

Well, here’s the announcement.

 

https://hammondorganco.com/xk-4?fbclid=IwAR0KyXVOxlbv0A5Zvvt7FF3A3HRAMkMke6VH4sqXG1TtdFqDEW0T9Zgz6HM

 

“NEW “MODELED TONE WHEEL 2” SOUND ENGINE

VIRTUAL MULTI-CONTACT KEYBOARD

NEW DIGITAL LESLIE ALGORITHM

NEW TUBE MODELING SYSTEM

USER-ASSIGNABLE KNOBS/SWITCHES

COLOR DISPLAY

11-PIN LESLIE JACK

PITCH BEND/MOD WHEELS

STANDARD AC PLUG”

 

 

[Jim Alfredson]

 

[Jim Alfredson]

So yeah, when I said it isn't just an SK Pro without non-organ sounds, what I mean is that it's an update to the MTW engine called MTW2. No more sampling. Everything is modeled. Also, new Leslie sim, new overdrive emulation, and the 'virtual' tonewheels even have slight random pitch variations.

I couldn't stop playing it. I had a great time making the demos. It sounds really really good.
 

 

[niacin]

so the XK4 replaces the XK5 ? 

[M_G]

Hopefully they will make an Software Update available for the SK Pro and SKX Pro !!!

(maybe the XK5 is too old for an update....)

 

I don't think the XK4 replaces the XK5. First of all it replaces the XK1c.

The XK5 was introduced  in 2016. I guess we will see a XK5mk2 in the near future....

 

[Jim Alfredson]

1 hour ago, niacin said:

so the XK4 replaces the XK5 ? 

No. It's a replacement for the XK1c. Very lightweight single manual organ only board.

[bjosko]

Saw a preorder ad - $2900 UGH 🤐

[Dockeys]

Any idea of weight? The spec links on Hammond site don’t work. So they have the XK5, the XK4 and the SK pro series? It’s getting a little like an Apple lineup. I get the entry level of the xk4 but where does it sit compared to the single manual sk pro? Sk pro has more non organ sounds?

[bjosko]

20 pounds / 9 kg 

[niacin]

1 hour ago, bjosko said:

Saw a preorder ad - $2900 UGH 🤐

link? (google throws me nothing). Coincidentally that’s the listed price of an SKpro73. The XK1c was significantly cheaper than the SK1. 

[bjosko]

21 minutes ago, niacin said:

link? (google throws me nothing). Coincidentally that’s the listed price of an SKpro73. The XK1c was significantly cheaper than the SK1. 

https://www.hudebnicentrum.cz/hammond-xk-4_z32038/
 

Shows another price now, I used the short text google found. 59.900czt 

(Chezk) , but preorder and final price might differ a lot. 

[niacin]

ok, so costs marginally less than the SKpro-61.  And at the lower end of Hammond's line-up which now consists of the XK-4, the SKpro series and the XK-5, except that the XK-4 has the best Hammond and Leslie sound of all of them!  I guess there's an XK-6 on the horizon with a full set of drawbars, standard layout and additional seperate lower manual.

[niacin]

Based on Jim's videos the big win is the overdrive, which he's obviously cranked cause he's digging it.

[stoken6]

Seems to be an amazing board, but entry-level this is not.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[AnotherScott]

7 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

So yeah, when I said it isn't just an SK Pro without non-organ sounds, what I mean is that it's an update to the MTW engine called MTW2. No more sampling. Everything is modeled. Also, new Leslie sim, new overdrive emulation, and the 'virtual' tonewheels even have slight random pitch variations.

 

Cool! Any idea when this will be shipping?

 

Sk Pro has a ton of deep editing parameters for the organ and Leslie... is the editing ability comparable here?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't everything on the organ side of the SK Pro modeled? I thought all the sampling (which is gone here) was only for the piano/ensemble section voices (which are likewise gone here).

 

I wonder how this compares to B-3X. 

[Delaware Dave]

Not to take this topic "off topic" but I've always wondered why Hammond never updated the XK-5's internal leslie; that's the only thing 'wrong' with that keyboard (and its price) and as the flagship you'd think they would have put the best available internal leslie into it.

[Chummy]

Nice demos, love the prog style by Jim.. 

 

I see it's a 61 key board. Any 73 version? The video didn't mention it

[Outkaster]

Nice but I have an SK Pro 73

[AnotherScott]

34 minutes ago, Delaware Dave said:

Not to take this topic "off topic" but I've always wondered why Hammond never updated the XK-5's internal leslie; that's the only thing 'wrong' with that keyboard (and its price) and as the flagship you'd think they would have put the best available internal leslie into it.

 

Hammond seems to rarely if ever provide significant functionality updates to their boards. Maybe most of it is simply not designed to be updatable? Honestly, I was surprised that even the interface improvement of the SKX of allowing for selection of 10 banks of button-selectable Favorites (instead of just the one bank) wasn't made available for the SK1/SK2.