how I got a faux Hammond sound that's every bit of a B3!

[Tedly Nightshade]

I know I'm not the only one struggling with this, and here's what did it for me.

Real 122, although tricked out to work with any power amp, in this case an old 70's Ampeg V4. Really nice tube mono mixer, ultra hifi stuff.

Several different faux hammond sounds from different units, all mixed together through the mixer and sent to the power amp.

 

And a player with a golden touch and plenty of real deal Hammond experience.

 

We recorded an album with this rig set up, and a vintage B3 and two 122's sitting about 10 feet away. Every now and then we'd go fire it up, confirm that in fact what we were getting from the faux rig was every bit as good, at least (we have a few things happening that real Hammonds can't do... man is this mixer approach fun), and then shut it down and go back to recording.

 

I was astonished. Still am!

 

Something magic in the blend of all the by-themselves-incomplete sounds, some controlled by volume pedal, some not, and a really fine tube path to the healthy 122...

 

Now to box this all up so it's as simple to set up as a B3!

[eric]

Sounds cool. The question I would have to this approach is it sounds like all the different modules stacked and blended to create the massive organ sound may be difficult to replicate consistently, unless you sampled it or had an intricate MIDI switching rig set up. Additionally, it seems that you are missing the key ingredient to Hammond heaven, which is drawbar control of the sound. How would you go about tweaking the sound in real time, or would you just program a lot of preset "blends" and fade volume up and down on the various components?

 

In my experience, trying to stack a lot of sounds together in a live gig setting can often result in the sum being less than the individual parts. I have found that one great sound sits in the mix better than a MIDI'd stack of 2 or more sounds. For Hammond, I've had great results using the various clones--XB2, XK2, CX3, V5, Electro--through a real 122 or Motion Sound products. Lately, I am using the Electro's internal simulator and a Speakeasy stereo tube preamp into stereo monitors and the sound is so realistic, it is scary.

 

What you did sounds like a great studio trick, but wouldn't it be hard to box it up for repeated use on the gig?

 

Regards,

Eric

[Tedly Nightshade]

It'll take some doing, but I'm gonna box this thing up like it was a B3- it'll weigh a little bit less, I'm sure!

 

I avoided naming brand names, but the Hammond Suzuki tone module with the drawbar controller is part of the deal- can't live without drawbars. To further confuse things, the drawbar moves are fed from a sequencer repeating two different length loops, a never-repeating pattern- yes, replication is pretty much out of the question! Of course that can be turned off and the usual manual moves can happen, or they can happen while the drawbars automatically virtually wiggle away.

 

As complicated as this set-up sounds, it's simplicity itself for the player, who is strictly old-school and analog-oriented.

 

After much consideration, I decided that having it simple to set up was more important for our purposes than having it small and portable, quite an irony, considering. However heavy a B3 is, it's the work of moments to plug it in and fire it up. Ours will be less heavy, a bit smaller, but it won't fit in your Honda hatchback.

 

This particular player's style is not really about repeatability, it's all magic in the moment, and shifting colors. Just leaving the drawbars untouched (virtually or manually) for a minute or so is enough to induce serious restlessness...

 

The rack is the keyboard stand, on casters, you roll it all around like that, all plugged in.

 

Keep in mind these are not layered midi voices, but separate audio signals mixed in the analog domain. That's got to be part of why it sounds so very groovy...