From dwowen@cox.net Mon Mar 05 12:34:29 2007
Subject:Sims VS Rotors - was CX VS XK


Very interesting series of tests from a great Hammond Player.....

The bottom line to me seems to be TUBES AND MOVING AIR.

I've owned a CX-3, XK-3, Nord Electro and VK-8m. The common ground for all
of them is they all sound so much better through my Speakeasy Rack and a
real Rotary speaker. Whether it's the 2101, a real 145, or my real love,
the Road Box III. I mean, it's really night and day and my benchmark is a
1953 C2(+Trek) & a stock 145, OR my ancient stock 45 which sounds even
better if you don't miss the chorale. My Hammond Console undoubtedly sounds
individualistically different from Tom's B3, of course, which is part of the
beauty of these critters.

I know car space can be an issue, so if a Road Box III or vintage Leslie
doesn't work for you, find a 2101 or motion sound something that twirls and
go with it if at all possible.

Failing real moving air, get some tubes and run your sim. Sim-wise, My best
choice is probably the CX-3 followed closely by either the Electro or VK-8M
and I have yet to gig with the XK-3 sim (but if I did it would be in mono.)
Tone, percussion and over-all feel -- drawbars rule for me -- the XK-3 is
still my first choice.

David Owen

From Fossdog:

Whether one sound is better than another is a matter of personal taste, but
when I did my own personal comparison between my XK-3 and my Nord Stage, I
didn't compare them to each other, I compared each of them to my 1959 B3. My
B3 is set up to accept input to the preamp from other instruments via 1/4
jack. This enabled me to run all three through the B3 preamp and 21H Leslie
(using the B3 volume pedal), so that I could isolate and compare the sound
sources of each to the tonewheels of the B3. From there, I compared the
sound of each drawbar individually to the corresponding drawbar on the B3 in
all octaves. I spent over 6 hours comparing various drawbar combinations
etc, and came to the conclusion that while the XK sounds great, the Nord
sounded considerably more like my B3 than the XK. The more comparisons I
made the more impressed I was with it.

--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com ,
tonysounds wrote:
>
> I agree that the organ sound itself was better in the XK1/Xk3. But
if you need a leslie sim, the Electro trumped both of those. (I owned an XK1
and an Xk3, and an Electro before them; I still have my Electro but the XKs
are gone.) T
>
> b3_john wrote: I had a chance yesterday to
do an A/B between my XK-1 and a guy's
> Electro. We decided that the while Electro's Leslie sim. may have a
> slight edge, the actual B-3 sounds on the Electro can be
artificially
> compressed and even phasey, esp. at settings like 888888888. The
> Hammond sounds of the XK-1 and XK-3 can't be beat. You have to
decide
> whether the sim. is more important than perfectly authentic
tonewheel
> sounds.
>
> I agree the drawbuttons can be gotten used to esp. if you aren't
> already enamoured with drawbars, and its nice that switching between
> presets gives you an exact registration. If you need the pianos in the
> Electro, that's obviously another factor, I've found the "Extra
> Voices" on the XK-1 are mostly unusable, but I didn't need them
> anyway. My take is that, if the new XK-3c coming out has the XK-1
> Leslie sim. that would be a winner. IMO. :)
>
> John
>
> --- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com ,
"joan4263" wrote:
> >
> > The best simulator is the Nord Electro or Stage, hands down.
> > You can get used to the electronic drawbars with a little practice.
> > Some people like the Roland simulator RT20 as well, we sell many of
> > them at our store. Otherwise, a Motion Sound small rotating horn or
> > the Pro145 are great and small, so you have lots of options. Nord is
> > the smallest, best, lightest weight, feels and sounds great, plus
> > has great pianos, etc.
> > Joan
>
> "The meek shall inherit nothing." -FZ www.myspace.com/pinkfreudchicago
> www.myspace.com/ynottnaro
>
> ---------------------------------
> Bored stiff? Loosen up...
> Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>