Cool Hammond-comparism

[Lyngs]

Those who wants to get themselves a good hammondclone, might want to check this out:

http://www.drjohomusic.com/clonecompareindex.html

It's really cool - the excact same stuff played with the same registrations on four different clones:
Hammond XK-3, Nord Electro 2, Korg CX3 and Native B4.

:)

[Enigma™]

I dunno about anyone else, but I personally thought that the NI hammond was by far the closest sounding model I've ever heard. The other ones were good, no doubt, but that was like... Jaw Dropping :)

[ChrisMcCoy]

I thought the Nord seemed a bit noisy. Anyone else find that ?
My top picks were the NI (least noise) and the Hammond.
Cheers.
Chris

[Spacehog]

Shame they didn't comparison the Roland VK-8, I've always been very impressed when I've played those... both with the sound and the feel. I'm personally more than happy for the most part with my E-MU B-3 sounds though, if I'm recording and it doesn't quite cut it I will revert to NI B4. Real drawbars would be cool though, quite fancy the Roland VK88 dual manual :D

Martin

[Hobbes]

I got my new nord electro 2 73 yesterday, and I've got to say it's wonderfull. I've played some on a real b3, and this baby is so close to it as can be!

[Purator]

I got my new nord electro 2 73 yesterday, and I've got to say it's wonderfull. I've played some on a real b3, and this baby is so close to it as can be!

HELL YEAH!!!! 8)

[Phred]

I have a roland vk-7 and since I bought it I have virtually dedicated my life to make it sound real. I have bought/borrowed every book I can think of on the hammond. I have listened to the great hammond players. I thought I would put my ears to the test...

What I did was get my wife to rename the files for me so that I wouldn't know which was which. (I used dirty in both comparisons)

My 2 cents.

Number 1: Electro
Great sounding organ. The distortion bothered me though; there was a bit much on for me in both comparisons. At times it really took away from the music. Good speed up and slow down on the leslie. I could hear the bass and treble motors speed up and slow down seperatly....

Number 2: XK-3
Fairly realistic tonal quality. C3 (Chorus) sounds great. I also loved the lower manual sound. The leslie didn't fly well with me though. More like vibrato then tremolo. I couldn't hear the separation very well.

Number 3: NI B4
I guessed which one this was right away. The settings of the manuals didn't line up with the sound that was coming out of it. (eg. Listen to the lower manual (the bass line), and you distinctly hear a high pitch that shouldn't be there from the displayed drawbar positions). The leslie is passible while slow, but fast it's just awful. (How does it work? Is it a software leslie, or sampled?). I don't know why this is considered a clone at all. It is very much a specialized sample playback. I would consider using it for a certain type of work, but any real hammond player would hate this.

Number 4: CX 3
If I didn't know better I would have been fooled into thinking this was the real thing. This was the one that got me. The leslie kicked my ass. The high end screamed and the chorus added that smokiness to it.

I wish I could get that Midi and try it on my Roland...
(edit to fix bolding)

[augerinn]

They're all good, and all have their stong points and weak points.

BTW, that "shootout" was all over Hammond Zone @ yahoo and Clonewheel Group @ Yahoo.

Personally, I'm using NI B4 at the moment. Gigging with a laptop takes some getting used to. By the way, John Novello of Niacin was instrumental in development of B-4.

Someday, when I get the $$$, I'll prolly go with a VK or NE2. Or *crosses fingers* a real tonewheel....

[Spacehog]

Wow, that was possibly the first slightly negative thing anyone's ever said about B4, I thought it was only me! Not a fan of some very weird sounds on it at all, although agreed it has its uses.

As for John Novello, the E-MU B-3 is sampled directly from his B-3, so I have his sounds pretty much down! What it doesn't allow for is actual drawbar movements, although you can (with a bit of programming) crossfade between patches to get a similar effect. I still want a VK-8 though, at some point in the future. That and an Andromeda would cover *most* of the bases that I don't already have filled :)

Martin

[Phred]

Just to be clear. I think that the B4 sounds good mostly. Not a fan of the leslie, but the samples are clean, and I am sure that you can get some wicked organ sounds out of it.

Wiw I do think though is that it is not a clone-wheel (or B3wannabe). Comparing it to the others, it just sounds wrong. This is because there are no real drawbars. Because of this I believe that real Hammond players would hate this. You wouldn't have the same level of real control over the sounds.

[Over The Edge]

I love the B4. That coupled with those waterfall keys would
be heaven. I'm also a big fan of the CX-3...which is my
favorite of the bunch.



FL
www.franklucas.net