CLS-222 VST

[wd8dky]

 

[Mark Schmieder]

I listened to the demos earlier today and wasn't impressed by the B3 examples but thought the guitar usage might be its forte after hearing those samples.

[RABid]

Saw this today. Funny that it is an emulation of an emulation instead of trying to emulate the real thing. Started to upgrade my Arturia Effects Collect 3 up to 4 to get it but they have an issue with the web site quoting one price then trying to charge a much higher price. Got a ticket in with support.

 

 

[The Real MC]

49 minutes ago, RABid said:

Funny that it is an emulation of an emulation instead of trying to emulate the real thing.

 

The Leslie was designed to emulate the motion of sound from a pipe organ, so the VST is emulating the emulation of an emulation. 

[The Real MC]

Well I listened to the demos.

Emulating a rotating speaker has always been a challenge, especially when aimed at a tough crowd like Hammond players (guitar players are easier to impress).  The animation of the Leslie has amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, and phase modulation all at once, and getting the right balance of them all is a hard task. Tremolo speed is easy, but chorale speed is MUCH harder.  The designer admitted he was aiming to duplicate the sound of Hammond through a Leslie 760 - and I play a Hammond through a 760.  When I checked out a CLS-222 in a store back in 1989, I took it home.  It really nailed the sound.  I kept that CLS ever since.

 

I was curious how close the VST is to the real CLS.  Unfortunately, I can't make that assessment as the source sound in the demos won't tell me how authentic it is.  You really need multiple drawbar configurations and Hammond chops to run it through its paces, which neither player had.

But the VST can get FX that the real one cannot, which are unusual and interesting to a non-Hammond player.  I'd give that a plus.

One other quirk of Leslie speakers is they are NOT flat frequency reproducers - the drivers were selected to augment the sound of an organ.  Program material and most other instruments sound like crap through a Leslie, but the tone of the drivers are optimized for a >Hammond organ<.  To a Hammond player they are that crucial.  Also since the horn of the upper rotor is not exponentially flared that is going to shape the sound.  Many rotating speaker emulators miss those important details, but I can hear the filtering in the VST to emulate the frequency response of a Leslie speaker.  Good points there.

One negative of the VST is the ramp time from chorale to tremolo (and vice versa) - the ramp time is too short in the VST, and the ramp time sounds the same between both rotors.  The bottom rotor of the real deal has a much slower ramp than the top rotor because of its mass and inertia.  Maybe ramp times per rotor are buried in the menu system.

I'm reserving judgment until I hear a VST demo with a Hammond player using different drawbar configurations and V/C settings.

[The Real MC]

This is a better demo but no Hammond playing.
 

 

[Moonglow]

22 minutes ago, The Real MC said:

When I checked out a CLS-222 in a store back in 1989, I took it home.  It really nailed the sound.  I kept that CLS ever since.

I have kept mine, as well. It was the gold standard of Leslie sims for many years.

[Bobbo Fett]

I bet when someone finally makes that "Crumar Organizer" VST it'll sound KILLER through this.....

[Baldwin Funster]

To me a CLS222 vst would be like a Roland Vk7 vst. It was a step up for a time but nothing I know that was iconic was recorded with it and I don't know of anyone pining away over not having one.

[Mark Schmieder]

I found one on Reverb; Dynacord was the manufacturer, made in Germany, sold for over $700 new, on sale for around $300. 🙂

 

According to the seller, this is the unit David Gilmour uses. Kind of reinforces how I felt about the guitar demos.

[The Real MC]

I may not be an iconic artist but my CLS has served me well for years with my Hammond.

Years ago a musician with very discriminating ears came to our gig and asked me where I was hiding the Leslie.  His eyes popped when I showed him the CLS.

 

Here's a live recording of the real CLS-222 with my XK3.

[eric]

I bought a Dynacord CLS-222 new for $695 in 1990 or thereabouts and used it first with the analog Korg CX-3 and then with a Hammond XB-2 for over a decade. It was the industry standard of this era and I loved it. I used the Super Stereo setting and it was a workhorse for me on a busy decade of touring and recording.

 

I eventually sold my original one as the internal Leslie simulations in a few of the early '00s keyboards were getting better (e.g. digital Korg CX-3, Nord Electro 2, etc.) and I bought another one somewhere along the way out of nostalgia. I think I still have it in a closet somewhere.

 

I've been using a Neo Ventilator since 2011 and I view it as the modern day CLS-222. I keep wishing Neo would make a rack mount version with expanded features.

[Theo Verelst]

One trick has been built in this simulation which does something unusual, I don't know who led that DSP development, but compared to my own experience of the time with self built BBD Leslie and digital effect equipment from before that time, I had lots more fun.

 

T