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

[DanL]

Re: sound library's... When one "installs" a library does it overwrite anything, or just add to? Been quite awhile since I actually installed one, and if I remember correctly, I just installed a few instruments instead of the whole library.

Been looking through the manual, can't seem to find the topic..

would like to install that new "taped" library, but ...

 

It doesn't overwrite anything, it adds to it as long as you have space. I had to delete a library I wasn't using to make room for the tape strings sounds.

[Phil M.]

Hey Facundogarde have you made it through your problems? Sorry, I've been offline for a while... And thanks to JMcS for giving you the link to the old versions of firmware.

[Phil M.]

So far I'm very satisfied with my SK-1, for the sound of course, but also for its ease of use and customizability. There are really many possible tweaks and controls to make it behave the way I need during a live performance.

 

There's a small nagging detail which bothers me a little bit: it has two separate buttons for 2nd and 3rd percussion harmonics (which is good!) but it is possible to set both on at the same time, which I can hardly find useful. Not a big deal for sure, but it's nagging (me at least) when I want to switch between the 2nd and the 3rd, because two buttons need to be pressed for that, which is very unnatural to me.

 

Am I missing something? Otherwise would it be possible to allow them to operate just like the two vibrato/chorus V1/C1 and V2/C2 buttons which are exclusive, unless you press them together, in which case the V3/C3 is what you want: this could work the same way with 2nd-3rd percussion.

 

To me this would be a small though useful fix to this weird design.

 

Any thoughts about this? Any way to suggest this to H/S?

 

[jpgxk3]

Not aware of any "single" button operation for using 2nd & 3rd perc together; just press both tabs at the same time.

[b3halt]

I'm gonna email the engineers at Hammond Suzuki Japan about this percussion button thing. I also felt the same thing. Also, I would love to have at least one of the preset button as live setting. It's because I would love to have one live setting, so I can feel it as the b preset key on the real one.

[HAMEGZ]

I'm gonna email the engineers at Hammond Suzuki Japan about this percussion button thing. I also felt the same thing. Also, I would love to have at least one of the preset button as live setting. It's because I would love to have one live setting, so I can feel it as the b preset key on the real one.

 

 

what controls would you envision with a live button?

On a "real" Hammond, all the c/v and percussion remain the same just the drawbars are not a preset.

 

you can do the same by pressing the upper and lower buttons at the same time , the drawbars then jump to their present setting instead of the preset setting.

[JMcS]

There is a new library available - Synth-M12

 

 

Hammond SK Libraries

 

Here is the ReadMe:

 

Hammond SK Voice Library

VL-SK018 "Synth M12"

 

This voice library provides classic sounds from the famous "M12" synthesizer. This classic instrument from the Eighties used analog sound generators, the sounds from which were then shaped and manipulated by various means. This instrument was unique in that it used digital circuitry to implement voltage control over all the sound-producing components (VCO, VCF and VCA). Groups such as Depeche Mode and Vangelis took advantage of this instrument's unique ability to generate big majestic brass sounds which are represented in this library.

 

This library requires Software Release 3 (MAIN 1.112) or later.

 

 

Box Brass:

This is the famous "Synth Brass" sound renowned among rock and pop keyboardists.

 

Brazz:

This instrument utilized a feature called "matrix modulation" to maximize the ability to apply modulation to a sound. This sound is a "Synth Brass" with pitch and filter envelopes applied simulating this feature.

 

Horn Ensemble:

This is a mellow Synth Brass sound created by four oscillators sounding in unison.

 

Suzuki Musical Inst. Mfg. Co., Ltd.

 

It is a large (in MB) library but the sounds are pretty nice (IMO).

 

 

 

[b3halt]

 

what controls would you envision with a live button?

On a "real" Hammond, all the c/v and percussion remain the same just the drawbars are not a preset.

 

For example, I often start with 888000008 w/ percussion (this is saved as a preset), use 888000008 w/o percussion (take the percussion off), press another preset like 888888888, and then press the original preset which is 888000008 w/ percussion. You see, this last one should be 888000008 w/o percussion. This is why, I would like to have one live preset button. The XK-3 and the XK-3c have this. The Nord C2 and the C2D have this kind of function as well. Even the Mojo has this. But, you cannot do this with the SK1/2. This is why, I think if they have one live preset button, this solves the problem. As you know, on the real one, only the upper B preset key can have percussion, and in order to imitate this, the SK1/2 should have one live preset button.

 

I don't know, but this might not be a big deal with some players, but I have some situations like that, and when it goes back to the original preset setting, it kind of messes with my playing.

[BBblues]

I also have been wondering about ways to achieve the behaviour you describe, Hal! Also if one saves presets with different reverbs or other effects this often got me confused and one must be very careful while programming.

 

There actually is a way to achieve exactly the behaviour you describe with the Sk2. But you might probably already be familiar with it:

 

I use my Sk2 most of the time with all "Patch Load" parameters turned OFF and only "PATCH LOAD - UPPER Registration" turned ON. This way only the upper organ drawbar registration will be changing while switching between favorites. So I have 10 preset keys for the upper manual and no effects, reverb, and organsection parameters like percussion, vibrato, etc. will be changed when I switch between the upper registrations.

 

Sadly these "Patch Load" parameters are all global, so if one uses a lot of Extravoices with elaborated effects, this might be a drawback. But I mainly play organ and I found, for me, this works well for jazz organ playing (since lower manual registration rarely varies).

 

But for other contexts of hammond organ playing (for example gospel organ, where one uses a lot of different upper AND lower registrations and adjustments + pedal) this is not fully satisfying, as I find. I always regretted that this way there is no way to achieve "Preset Keys" for the lower manual...:

 

There is a parameter called "PATCH LOAD - LOWER/PEDAL Registration" but obviously this would always change lower AND pedal registration at the same time which might also lead to confusions if presets are not programmed carefully enough. And besides that - as mentioned above - all "PATCH LOAD" parameters sadly are GLOBAL! This means, that if one wants upper preset keys as favorite buttons, one can not have lower preset keys at the same time...

 

My dream would be a firmware update which includes:

- patchload parameters non-global -> one can save all patchload parameters for every single favorite button

- seperated patchload parameter classes for pedal and for lower manual registration

 

 

Another thing which annoys me a little bit is:

 

When switching between different organ models by pressing the three drawbar selector buttons (upper, pedal & lower) at the same time, the SK2 switches generally to the "pedal"-postition for drawbar selection afterwards. I would find it less confusing for live situations if it just stayed where it was before.

And I also wished that these three drawbar selector buttons were toggle buttons (so that always one of them has to be selected and never all three can be deactivated). I often find myself in live situations changing the drawbars and then realizing that not even the wrong but neither of the drawbar selectors was turned "ON".

 

These are the small things which still make me miss the ease of use of the 4 full sets of drawbars of the real thing...

 

[Elliot Keys]

Which "Upper and Lower Buttons" are you talking about? I got all excited when I saw your post (it solves a performance problem for me) but I can't seem to replicate your results.

[Jamie Finstad]

I'm having troubles trying to set up a split on my SK1. When I go to set the split point as per the manual, the displays shows LtoP (Lower to Pedal) rather than Split. It's like it thinks it's a SK2 not a SK1. I tried rolling back the OS to v8 from v8.4 to no avail.

 

Anybody have a similar experience?

 

Thanks,

Jamie

[b3halt]

There actually is a way to achieve exactly the behaviour you describe with the Sk2. But you might probably already be familiar with it:

 

I use my Sk2 most of the time with all "Patch Load" parameters turned OFF and only "PATCH LOAD - UPPER Registration" turned ON. This way only the upper organ drawbar registration will be changing while switching between favorites. So I have 10 preset keys for the upper manual and no effects, reverb, and organsection parameters like percussion, vibrato, etc. will be changed when I switch between the upper registrations.

 

Unfortunately this one doesn't solve the problem I'm talking about. I do the same thing. I turned off the patch load lower/pedal, drawbar effect, so the patch load upper and drawbar are on. However, there is no way that you can make one of preset buttons like the B preset key on the upper manual. If you turn off the percussion off of the preset with the percussion, use another preset, and go back to the first preset you used, the percussion is on because it's linked to the patch load drawbar.

 

If I turn off the patch load drawbar, it creates another problem. For example, if I use the first preset with the percussion and switch to the second preset without the percussion afterwards, the percussion is still on. Therefore, this creates another problem.

 

The other day I've emailed Hammond Suzuki engineers about this and the percussion button which some other people talked about. They said that they will consider these suggestions, but I really don't know if they make these options available for new updates.

[JMcS]

I'm having troubles trying to set up a split on my SK1. When I go to set the split point as per the manual, the displays shows LtoP (Lower to Pedal) rather than Split. It's like it thinks it's a SK2 not a SK1. I tried rolling back the OS to v8 from v8.4 to no avail.

 

Anybody have a similar experience?

 

Thanks,

Jamie

 

You may have accidentally told it it is an SK-2. Pressing and holding the Pedal and Lower buttons and powering on tells it it is an SK-2, Upper and Pedal tells it it is an SK-1.

[Jamie Finstad]

That's it! I vaguely recall inadvertently pressing Upper/Pedal/Lower buttons when trying to load a new version of the operating system so that's likely when it happened.

 

Thanks so much! This is why this forum is so awesome :)

 

Jamie

[BBblues]

Ok, I think I understand the problem better now. The main problem as I understand it, is that on the B3/A100 the percussion tabs are wired to work with the "b"-preset but they are not wired to work with the "Bb"-preset. I did not think of that before. Let's hope they will implement it in a future update.

 

@Elliot Keys: I am talking about the 3 Buttons which are labled "upper", "pedal" and "lower" on the upper left next to the drawbars on the SK1/SK2, the section is called "Drawbar Select". Let me know in case you should have any further questions.

[Elliot Keys]

@BBblues - when I press those, I get the organ type settings, with no effect on the current drawbars...

[BBblues]

@Elliot Keys: Yes that is right. But I do not know which part of my post you are now reffering to.. Which function do you wish to achieve?

[Phil M.]

@BBblues: the shortcut to the organ type selection page is [uPPER and [LOWER] pressed together (two fingers -- see the manual in page 41). If you also press [PEDAL], your SK-1 gets confused I think.

[Phil M.]

@b3halt: thanks for your time getting in touch with H/S.

[BBblues]

@BBblues: the shortcut to the organ type selection page is [uPPER and [LOWER] pressed together (two fingers). If you also press [PEDAL], your SK-1 gets confused I think.

 

Well, that sounds plausible, maybe that I did get that shortcut wrong... Thanks! I am now off to study while the week but I will try that on the weekend!

[Phil M.]

I've come across those documents by googling for PDF files on Hammond's site, but I don't know how they can be reached otherwise. The numbering suggests there are some missing chapters, which I haven't found. Very newbie-oriented, but I'm sure they can still be useful, for starters at least.

 

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/01-INTRODUCTION.pdf

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/03-DRAWBARS-PERCUSSION-r.pdf

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/05a-KEYBOARD-SPLIT.pdf

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/05b-LOWER-TO-PEDAL.pdf

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/09-EQUALIZER.pdf

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/13-SPECIAL-UTILITY-FEATURES.pdf

 

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/QUICK-START_to_HAMMOND_SK_OPERATING_SYSTEM.pdf

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/QUICK_START_to_HAMMOND_FAVORITES_SETUP.pdf

http://hammondorganco.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/USING-THE-USB-PORT-120613-FINAL-WITH-LINKS-reduced.pdf

[Elliot Keys]

Ham&EGS: Which set of upper and lower buttons are you referring to in this post? I can't seem to duplicate your results:

 

you can do the same by pressing the upper and lower buttons at the same time , the drawbars then jump to their present setting instead of the preset setting.

[HAMEGZ]

Ham&EGS: Which set of upper and lower buttons are you referring to in this post? I can't seem to duplicate your results:

 

you can do the same by pressing the upper and lower buttons at the same time , the drawbars then jump to their present setting instead of the preset setting. [/quote

 

I am sorry my brain wasnt working, that button push selects organ type.

 

what I meant to say is if you press and hold the upper or lower button until it blinks then the drawbars positions become active

where they are, in other words if your patch had all 8s, you set the draw bars to first 3 8s, push the u or l button till it flashes the registration becomes the first three 8s, press the button again and it reverts back to the patches registration.

 

[Elliot Keys]

Ham&EGS: Which set of upper and lower buttons are you referring to in this post? I can't seem to duplicate your results:

 

you can do the same by pressing the upper and lower buttons at the same time , the drawbars then jump to their present setting instead of the preset setting. [/quote

 

I am sorry my brain wasnt working, that button push selects organ type.

 

what I meant to say is if you press and hold the upper or lower button until it blinks then the drawbars positions become active

where they are, in other words if your patch had all 8s, you set the draw bars to first 3 8s, push the u or l button till it flashes the registration becomes the first three 8s, press the button again and it reverts back to the patches registration.

 

EXCELLENT!!! Didn't have a clue you could match the drawbar display match the actual positions. I can't get them to switch back by doing it a second time, but for that I can always hit the patch button again.

Thanks

[KRK]

ciao,

 

sorry if this was already discussed....

 

with SK1, should it be possible to use organ sound on midi channel 1 and piano sound on midi channel 2 (played with an external midi controller)?

 

thanks for any suggestion

Marco

[JMcS]

ciao,

 

sorry if this was already discussed....

 

with SK1, should it be possible to use organ sound on midi channel 1 and piano sound on midi channel 2 (played with an external midi controller)?

 

thanks for any suggestion

Marco

 

 

Yes. You could tell the SK-1 that the attached controller is the lower manual of the organ and then have the lower manual play the Extra Voice piano. You can also set the SK-1 up so that whatever it receives plays the EV (channel info is irrelevant). There are a number of ways the SK-1 can be configured to use an external controller: Lower, lower + pedal, pedal, EXVoice, upper, upper + pedal and Sequence.

[KRK]

ciao,

 

sorry if this was already discussed....

 

with SK1, should it be possible to use organ sound on midi channel 1 and piano sound on midi channel 2 (played with an external midi controller)?

 

thanks for any suggestion

Marco

 

 

Yes. You could tell the SK-1 that the attached controller is the lower manual of the organ and then have the lower manual play the Extra Voice piano. You can also set the SK-1 up so that whatever it receives plays the EV (channel info is irrelevant). There are a number of ways the SK-1 can be configured to use an external controller: Lower, lower + pedal, pedal, EXVoice, upper, upper + pedal and Sequence.

 

thanks a lot!!!!!

[Pa Gherkin]

After reading this entire thread and the whole users' manual I have an unresolved question regarding the SK2. How can I make manual bass on the lower manual sound only pedal tones on the first 2octaves and have the remaining 3octaves on the lower manual sound the normal lower manual registrations? As of now when I have the lower manual drawbars pulled and manual bass engaged the lower manual drawbars sound along with the pedal drawbars on the bottom two octaves when the M Bass button is depressed I'll bet there's a very simple answer that I have managed to miss in my search. On my old Nord C2 when bass pedal tones were routed to the lower manual it automatically muted the lower manual drawbars on the bottom two octaves and left them live on the top three octaves. Anyone?

[Pa Gherkin]

To put it more concisely,how can I make the bottom two octaves of the SK2 lower manual sound only bass pedal drawbars while having the rest of the lower manual operate normally?

[JMcS]

 

I think the only way to do that is to fool the SK-2 into thinking the lower manual is an external controller sending separate pedal and lower manual signals. You should be able to set up two external zones sending the separate ranges on different channels and have the SK-2 respond to them instead of the internally connected LM. A MIDI cable from the out to the in should be all it takes. You probably have to change the internal LM and pedal channels to something other than 2 and 3 and have the EZ's send on those channels. The Master - MIDI In (Pg. 114 #2) may help too.

 

You wouldn't have to use manual bass since the SK-2 would see the lower octaves as pedals.