Hammond M-Solo

[nadroj]

Well this came out of nowhere. Seems to be designed as a dedicated 2nd tier board. From the website: 

 

- Smallest and Lightest Genuine Hammond EVER!

- Classic B-3 Tone•Classic B-3 Feel

-Virtual Multi-Contact Keyboard

-Authentic Digital LESLIE™

-Chorus-Vibrato and Percussion

-3 Vintage Combo Organ Models

-Twin-Oscillator Polyphonic Synth

-70’s-Style String Ensemble

-Pitch-Bend/Effects Button

-Programmable Patch Memory Buttons

-Available in Black and Burgundy

Doesn’t look like it has waterfall keys. 

https://hammondorganco.com/msolo?fbclid=IwAR1g4FEc_mYnRweshT7NDTxD4Z8W0WCzNLNh-f-jkwqeiNbRzOpRukFhxpQ

[Adan]

Something fresh and useful in the clone world! The XK4 engine in an 8-pound, 4 octave version.  Looks very useful for the player who is pairing up with another keyboard and probably never has two hands on organ, which is a lot of us.

 

I assume no waterfall keys because the fatar keyboard only comes in 5 octaves.  That's ok, though the feel of the action is more important than waterfall, and we won't know about that until users start getting theirs.

 

I would guess $1500, but wouldn't be surprised if it was more.  I guessed $2,100 for the XK4 and was $400 under.

[kenheeter]

Sure sounds cheesy in some of the demos.....

[drawback]

It's using MTW-II, the same as in the XK4. The SKPro uses MTW-I. Not sure if MTWII is a "lite" version of MTWI, or if it's a later (as in updated) version....?

[niacin]

MTWII is later, better.  Colour me interested.

[pjd]

At 8 pounds, if it’s better than a Reface YC, I’m very intrigued. (Hey, where’s Poppy?) I’ll give it a serious listen on Monday. (Tomorrow is gig, God and football.  )

 

Someone at Hammond needs to hire an English language tech writer, stat! The manual reads like the output of Google translate. It’s bad, Hammond, it’s very bad. Get on the stick, please!

 

— pj

 

[Chris Link]

2 hours ago, kenheeter said:

Sure sounds cheesy in some of the demos.....

That is exactly the word I used about the synth and strings in sending an email to a friend who might be interested in this as a second kb. 
 

But overall a great concept. 

[AnotherScott]

I like it, but pretty much all the customizable parameters are gone. So if you were happy with how the XK4 (or, probably close, SK Pro) sounded out of the box, that could be fine, but if you felt they had to be tweaked in some way to get them sounding the way you wanted (as I did on my SK Pro), those adjustments won't be available here. So for example, you can't vary any of the Leslie parameters, much less pick an alternate Leslie emulation. Or a different emulated tonewheel Hammond model, or do practically any of the plethora of other tweaks available on those others. Besides product line segmentation, the minimal configurability may also relate to the fact that there's no screen, no menu mechanism. Though I think it would be cool to have a computer-based editor and be able to load a customized parameter set into one of the preset locations.

 

There's also no pipe organ, which is a bit unusual for them. And it's surprising to see only 3 user presets.

 

But here's a nicer surprise... for a change, it looks like all the parameters (e.g. percussion and CV) are standard MIDI CCs. This should make it easy to use as a controller for an iPad/laptop-based organ emulation, too. It looks like there's even enough free panel space for a tablet. (And the manual says it is "USB Audio class" compliant, implying it should be able to take audio in over USB, eve though the rest of the paragraph where they mention it only talks about MIDI.)

 

At it's size and weight, if the price is right, this could be pretty handy as an easy organ add-on to a rig, where the internal sounds will probably be useful themselves, but there would be the option of attaching to an iPad or whatever for those times you couldn't get quite what you want out of the available internal sound options. It could even tempt me to turn my typical 2-board rig into a 3-board rig.

[FreshTrooperXBL]

It’s 7 pounds 15 ounces per their M-solo Specifications page at the bottom of their main M-solo page …so 8 pounds rounded up.

 

It would be cool to modify / customize this M-solo to have a 2nd 49 key keyboard hooked up via MIDI. I didn’t see anything about lower/upper or pedals so probably not a possibility (I can’t imagine H-S themselves would put out a 49 key dual-manual but IDk …this wasn’t on my bingo card for H-S). I’m in the process tacking on a bottom keyboard to my old Hammond SK-1 (though this is paused while I see if I could do it for the Hammond SKpro 61) …easy enough for the SK-1 since it has removable sides to work with.

 

The lack of editing options in Leslie, effects, tonewheels, etc is probably okay since I’m sure the base tone is good (maybe the 3 presets are different models/tonewheel setups). I’d probably still use my Neo Vent 2 and a reverb or delay pedal strapped to the top anyways. This definitely answers calls for a full size Yamaha YC organ with bare bones features. I’m gonna guess $799 USD given its lack of editing, diving-board keys, no church/pipe/piano/EP/clav samples, no menu screen, and minimal knobs (bet using the push buttons they’ve been using saved them some change versus having pitch & modulation wheels).

 

Someone on the Facebook post asked if it was battery-powered, but it appears not. I am kinda glad they are able to “trickle down” this technology into a cheaper product as it means they should sell bunches of them and get some interest in a large population of players. 

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, FreshTrooperXBL said:

It’s 7 pounds 15 ounces per their M-solo Specifications page at the bottom of their main M-solo page …so 8 pounds rounded up.

Thanks for that link. The specs link I tried earlier didn't work. 

 

1 hour ago, FreshTrooperXBL said:

It would be cool to modify / customize this M-solo to have a 2nd 49 key keyboard hooked up via MIDI. I didn’t see anything about lower/upper or pedals so probably not a possibility

Yeah, I think it's strictly single manual. Though might also make a nice lightweight second manual for something else.

 

1 hour ago, FreshTrooperXBL said:

maybe the 3 presets are different models/tonewheel setups

They appear to be savable spots for variations of what you can do from the front panel.

 

[cphollis]

Well, the demo didn't do them any favors.   1973 called and wants their disco lights back.

 

It looks like it'd need a Vent and a Tall and Fat to sound ballsy, so probably more trouble than it's worth. 

 

Depending on price, might make an ideal controller for B-3X software.

[MathOfInsects]

No preset button on the front panel for harpsichord?? Pass.

 

[Baldwin Funster]

41 minutes ago, cphollis said:

Depending on price, might make an ideal controller for B-3X software.

With synth keys? I fail to see it as any better than a Roland A X00pro.

Yeah the drawbars are sort of DBs and not sliders, that's a plus. Rocker switches instead of push buttons, another plus. But you can get the Roland for $250, I think this thing is going to be a grand. I happen to like 49 keys for gigs in small places but I think some people will not want spinet format.

[CyberGene]

I’ve never been interested in Hammond instruments but this seems fine. Where are they manufactured? I read they are owned by a Japanese company, so I’d assume they are manufactured in Japan.

[niacin]

There's some 10 official videos up: lots of organ plus some ensemble voices, string machine, bass synth.  I'm in a Pink Floyd tribute and a 4-octave Hammond/string machine should be right in my wheelhouse.  Sad to report I found them all underwhelming, ymmv.  

[CyberGene]

19 minutes ago, niacin said:

I'm in a Pink Floyd tribute and a 4-octave Hammond/string machine should be right in my wheelhouse.

I’m interested in this for exactly the same reason (well, not in a tribute band exactly, we’re all just enormous fans of PF). But the string demos are awful. As are the synths, I hear no Prophet character (since it’s a poly), nor Minimoog and that’s a pity. 

[Adan]

I guess for me it will depend on the price point.  My first guess was $1500, but given the lack of adjustability and other factors, I'm going to lower my guess to $899.  It's a Ham-Suz, so it will probably be overpriced. 

 

If it's under a $1K it would be interesting to me for the cover band gigs where organ should good but doesn't have to be top tier clone quality, and being able to easily add it to a rig is a big plus. From a tonal quality standpoint, this might slot in between top tier clones on the one hand and organ sounds found on the typical all-purpose boards on the other.

 

But is it really easier, from a space/ergonomoic perspecvtive, to add an 8 lb, 4 octtave keyboard than a 20 lb 5 octave one?  That's not an obvious point in the MSolo's favor.   but maybe there are more possibilities with this.  I could see maybe using a superlighweight stand and setting this to the right of a 2-keyboard stack. Then organ would always be there for the right hand, no need to think about whether you've programmed it in to another keyboard split, etc.

[Adan]

The real question here is, which M-Solo thread will prevail to become the main thread.  Having invested my blood, sweat, and tears into this one, I'm Team Nadroj all the way!

[ProfD]

7 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

No preset button on the front panel for harpsichord?? Pass.

 

The harpsichord and musette may be under the Other button.😁😎

[AnotherScott]

7 hours ago, cphollis said:

It looks like it'd need a Vent and a Tall and Fat to sound ballsy, so probably more trouble than it's worth. 

 

Ballsiest demo so far is this one: 

 

 

 

It would have been nice if they'd given it a pre-Leslie effects loop (like the Viscounts), though maybe that's too nichey of a feature.

 

7 hours ago, cphollis said:

Depending on price, might make an ideal controller for B-3X software.

6 hours ago, Baldwin Funster said:

With synth keys? I fail to see it as any better than a Roland A X00pro. Yeah the drawbars are sort of DBs and not sliders, that's a plus. Rocker switches instead of push buttons, another plus.

I don't think they're rocker switches, but they still have a benefit of being logically grouped and labeled for their organ tasks. And I do like properly shaped/colored/sized/spaced/labeled drawbars. As a soft-organ controller, it also has the benefit of built-in sound for times when it's "good enough" and the external connection is not worth the bother; and to whatever extent the internal sound works for you, it has the multi-contact simulation.

 

On the downside as an organ controller, it doesn't do high trigger over MIDI, which surprised me, especially since the transistor organ settings use the high trigger point internally, but the low for MIDI. it seems like a missed opportunity, maybe there was some technical reason behind that implementation, though it's hard for me to imagine what it might be. (As a controller, the Roland would have its own advantages, of course, including aftertouch for any synth stuff.)

 

4 hours ago, CyberGene said:

I’ve never been interested in Hammond instruments but this seems fine. Where are they manufactured? I read they are owned by a Japanese company, so I’d assume they are manufactured in Japan.

 

Although designed in Japan, their SK Pro is made in China. (I believe Yamaha/Roland/Korg all have at least some of their boards made elsewhere as well.)

 

3 hours ago, CyberGene said:

 the string demos are awful. As are the synths, I hear no Prophet character (since it’s a poly), nor Minimoog and that’s a pity. 

 

Well they don't claim it has string sounds, their target is "70s string ensemble" which is a much lower bar. 😉 For the string ensemble and especially the synth, there are numerous ways to alter the sound, so I wouldn't judge them entirely based on a couple of demos... but OTOH, I would certainly not have anything like Prophet/Minimoog expectations either (in sonic character, or in available parameters which you can already find in the manual).

 

41 minutes ago, Adan said:

I guess for me it will depend on the price point.  My first guess was $1500, but given the lack of adjustability and other factors, I'm going to lower my guess to $899.  It's a Ham-Suz, so it will probably be overpriced. 

 

If there were a computer-based editor where I could tweak a lot of the same stuff that is tweakable on an XK4 and load that modified sound into the board, that would make a big difference to me... possibly the difference as to whether I'd feel it was worth your original $1500 or revised under a grand price projections. (Or possibly whether I'd buy it at all, for that matter.)

 

41 minutes ago, Adan said:

If it's under a $1K it would be interesting to me for the cover band gigs where organ should good but doesn't have to be top tier clone quality, and being able to easily add it to a rig is a big plus. From a tonal quality standpoint, this might slot in between top tier clones on the one hand and organ sounds found on the typical all-purpose boards on the other.

 

But is it really easier, from a space/ergonomoic perspecvtive, to add an 8 lb, 4 octtave keyboard than a 20 lb 5 octave one?  

 

Even the size/weight difference between the 8.4 lb Korg Kross (2) and the 11.75 lb Juno DS61 is noticeable... I know there's one forum member who chose the Kross largely if not entirely for that reason. (That said, for organ in particular, I think anything below about 15 lbs is probably going to need to be velcro'd to a stand if you do smears and such!)

 

I guess it's biggest competitor--even if someone only cares about organ--might be the ($1200, 12.25 lb) Roland VR-09B? If the M-Solo had that XK4/SK Pro tweakability, I'd know it could sound a lot better than the Roland. But with no adjustable parameters except for overdrive and leakage amounts (and amount of multi-contact spread), I'm not sure I'd like its sound better than the VR's, I'll have to wait for more demos (or, better, a chance to try it in person). Oddly (for something named Hammond), I think its biggest organ sonic advantage over the Roland might be in its transistor organ emulations. 🙂 But the proper drawbars/controls, potentially better action with the multi-contact simulation, and more compact/lighter box, could remain Hammond advantages regardless. And that its MIDI implementation makes it much more conducive to also functioning as a soft-organ controller. Plus that nice big Hammond name on the back of it. 😉

 

 

[CyberGene]

5 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

Well they don't claim it has string sounds, their target is "70s string ensemble" which is a much lower bar. 😉

Sure, I expected Solina sound but hear something pretty different but I’ve only heard the video linked in the first post. I should find more demos. The most typical sound of Solina as heard on the 70s recordings is mostly because of the onboard “ensemble” effect (which I believe is a triple chorus or something similar) and/or a vintage phaser effect. 

[drawback]

From some of the later posts on the XK-4 thread, the stock Hammond sound needs to be edited (WWW said “Got it yesterday.  Unimpressive presets.  Shrill and thin sounding.  Percussion too loud.  But, wait, open up the hood. Pick the Mellow B3 or A100.  Warmer.  Internal eq to tame the shrill.  Dial down the volume of the percussion.  Now, it sounds much better.  Add a Ventilator and you have it!!! ”)

 

Shrill and thin sure describes what I’m hearing on these M-Solo demos, but it doesn’t appear fundamental editing is even possible… .

[Adan]

Aside from the VK09,  the CK61 is also a competitor: organ good enough for cover band gigs, lightweight, and relative to the MSolo a whole host of other sounds to use. Pluse the easy ipad integration.  It's not obvious that the MSolo is clearly better than those other two soundwise.  For someone who's really discriminating in their clones, the MSolo won't be satisfying.  For the cover band niche (which is where I see the MSolo working best), the CK61 or VK09 internal sounds also qualify as "good enough."

 

The MSolo really should have had battery power option; that would have gone well with the uber-convenient theme of the keyboard.

 

Again, is a 4 octave keyboard really giving you options you wouldn't have with a 5 octave?  Let's put aside that it might be more carryon-able, because I don't think that's a critical point for most of us.  A 4-octave keyboard sits on a keyboard stand tier just the same as a 5'er.  I'm just not seeing the compact/lightweight thing as a big selling point when all single manual clones are fairly easy to sling around.  Lower price could be a selling point relative to the XK4 if the sound is "good enough," but then have to consider the other "good enough" options.

[ElmerJFudd]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

The harpsichord and musette may be under the Other button.😁😎

You may need to press a secret button combination, or hold down a function key and press a keyboard key to get the “easter egg” sounds.  😉

[ElmerJFudd]

“Who is the M-solo for? The working piano player who’d like the classic Hammond sound at his fingertips. The small studio where space is at a premium. The mobile musician who carries his studio around, and the keyboard player who wants the real-deal Hammond experience, with an eye on economy in space, weight and financial consideration.”
 

Wow, how often do any of them flat out state their thinking on who a board is for.  

 

“Specs

 

Sound engine

• Tone-wheel organ (B-3)

MTWII (Modeled Tone Wheel II) sound engine, Polyphony: 61

Transistor organs (Vx, Farf, Ace)
Sampling sound engine, Polyphony: 96

String /vocal ensemble (Ens)
Sampling sound engine, Polyphony: 96

Polyphonic synthesizer (Syn)
Analog modeling sound engine, Polyphony: 8

Keyboard

49-note lightweight keyboard (with velocity)

Organs

Drawbars: 9 pitches

Organ types: 4 (B-3, Vx, Farf, Ace)

Percussion: buttons (ON. SOFT, FAST, THIRD)

String vocal ensemble

Voices: 7 (Male 16', Strings 16, Male 8', Female 8', Strings 8', Female
4', Strings
4')

Envelope: Attack, Release

Polyphonic synthesizer

Oscillator: Waveform (triangle, sawtooth, square, pulse), Sub-oscillator

Filter: LPF 24dB/oct

Modulator: LFO 1 (Delay Vibrato & Wah-Wah/PWM), EG 2 (filer, amplitude)

Effects

Tone wheel organ (B-3): Leslie, Vibrato & Chorus, Overdrive

Transistor organs (Vx, Farf, Ace): Leslle, Vibrato, Overdrive

Strings ensemble (Ens): Vibrato, Chorus

Polyphonic synthesizer (Syn): Delay Vibrato & Wah-wah/PWM, Chorus

Master: Delay/Reverb

Key map

• Octave. Transpose

Controllers

Leslie: Bypass, Stop, Fast

Pitch bend: Octave, Down, Up

Connection jacks

MIDI: MIDI IN. MIDI OUT

USB: TO HOST

AUDIO: LINE OUT(L/R), PHONES, AUX IN (with input level control)

CONTROL: EXPRESSION IN (with polarity switch), LESLIE FAST

Dimensions (width/depth/height)

731 x 274 x 85 mm (28-25/32 x 10-25/32 x 3-11/32 in)

Weight

3.6 kg (7 lb 15 oz)

Accessories

AC adaptor (AD3-1230-2P) x 1, Power cable“

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, Adan said:

Aside from the VK09,  the CK61 is also a competitor

 

I think the VR09 organ sounds much better than the CK61 organ, and is somewhat tweakable (i.e. rotary parameters). I think the CK is even less tweakable than this new Hammond (no adjustable key click or leakage levels). Even just based on these lackluster demos, I'd already say the M-Solo is a better sounding clonewheel than the CK.

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Wow, how often do any of them flat out state their thinking on who a board is for.  

Not often but it makes sense.

 

There are many non-organ players who need the flavor and some tactility without catching full blown B3.😁😎 

[konaboy]

very cool if the price is right.

midi it up for a 61 key lower manual.

i'm holding out for M-DUO, the compact dual 61 manual version.  hammond don't currently offer a reasonably affordable double manual organ. the one they have has too many useless bells and whistles if you only want a hammond organ.

[ElmerJFudd]

16 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Not often but it makes sense.

 

There are many non-organ players who need the flavor and some tactility without catching full blown B3.😁😎 

Right?  Perfect paired with a real piano or N3 at a piano bar gig.   
 

This reminds me of an organ 101 class. Organ majors don’t need it to graduate. They go straight to Organ IV. 
 

Yes it has to be priced right or why choose it over more capable competitors. 

[ElmerJFudd]

Is this thread going to win over the other?  I just can’t decide who to vote for. It’s like having two home teams.