Hammond Meanderings
 

The Korg G4 Leslie simulator arrived today, and I've been messing about to
get a feel for the sounds it can produce. Here's a very meandering
mess-about with a two-chord backing and improvised 'melody' (ie, somewhat
random series of notes)...

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/HammondTest-02.mp3

Same deal with recording - straight into the minidisc unit, then dumped into
the PC using the minidisc portable. Converted to 256 mp3 to keep the size
down.

At times, I feel the Leslie sound is a bit strong. The G4 has settings for
balance between the rotor and horn, and simulated mic distance and spacing,
which all seem to affect this, so I'll play around with those a bit more.
Given that I'm not a real Hammond player (not a real player, and don't have
a real Hammond), the simulation sounds pretty convincing to me. I like the
passage where I dialled in a little overdrive.

I'll need to do a session of going through all the Hammond sounds that my
MIDI module has (about 25 to choose from) to see how they work with the G4.
There are also possibilities in layering the sounds - the voices on the
module can be set to respond to any MIDI channel, so sending on one channel
can trigger a mix of sounds. For this recording, I used the standard sounds
and split the keyboard - left hand plays the percussive sound, and the right
is playing both percussive and normal sounds layered together (probably not
authentic).

Hammond Meanderings
 

"Wally" wrote in message
...
The Korg G4 Leslie simulator arrived today, and I've been messing about to
get a feel for the sounds it can produce. Here's a very meandering
mess-about with a two-chord backing and improvised 'melody' (ie, somewhat
random series of notes)...

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/HammondTest-02.mp3

Same deal with recording - straight into the minidisc unit, then dumped
into
the PC using the minidisc portable. Converted to 256 mp3 to keep the size
down.

At times, I feel the Leslie sound is a bit strong. The G4 has settings for
balance between the rotor and horn, and simulated mic distance and
spacing,
which all seem to affect this, so I'll play around with those a bit more.
Given that I'm not a real Hammond player (not a real player, and don't
have
a real Hammond), the simulation sounds pretty convincing to me. I like the
passage where I dialled in a little overdrive.

I'll need to do a session of going through all the Hammond sounds that my
MIDI module has (about 25 to choose from) to see how they work with the
G4.
There are also possibilities in layering the sounds - the voices on the
module can be set to respond to any MIDI channel, so sending on one
channel
can trigger a mix of sounds. For this recording, I used the standard
sounds
and split the keyboard - left hand plays the percussive sound, and the
right
is playing both percussive and normal sounds layered together (probably
not
authentic).


Most interesting, and better than expected:-)
The Leslie is IMHO a bit too strong. It pans
side to side, but I don't get the impression
of a rotor.

But, its a pretty amazing emulator. The lack of the
Hammond signature, key click, gives it away. Maybe
it's there somewhere on the MIDI module?

The Leslie varispeed effect is very much to my liking.

Please post some more clips when you have had
a chace to go through the MIDI options.

Everyone knows Jimmy Smith, but Jack McDuff,
a great favourite of mine, is not so well known:

Here's a taster:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/iain.churches/Music/JMcD.mp3

Iain

Hammond Meanderings
 

Iain Churches wrote:

Most interesting, and better than expected:-)
The Leslie is IMHO a bit too strong. It pans
side to side, but I don't get the impression
of a rotor.

I'll play with the balance thing and see how it sounds. Here's another
clip...

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/HammondTest-03a.mp3


But, its a pretty amazing emulator. The lack of the
Hammond signature, key click, gives it away. Maybe
it's there somewhere on the MIDI module?

I don't think any of the Hammond sounds have a click, but I tried layering
with a woodblock sound and thought it was okay. Then I found another sound
called "FlKyClk", which is a flute key click, according to the manual. They
both change pitch with the note played, but the pitch change of the flute
click is less obvious. I'll record a snippet with each when I get a moment.
(Could try with both as well, but I need to watch that I don't exceed the 32
note polyphany)


The Leslie varispeed effect is very much to my liking.

Yes. I think the transition points between slow and fast are important.


Please post some more clips when you have had
a chace to go through the MIDI options.

Will do. In the meantime, here's the list of drawbar presets that the module
has...

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/GM-10...bar_Organs.jpg

Suggestions for a suitable drawbar setup would be appreciated. I should
mention that this stuff is too fiddly to change while playing - it's a case
of picking a drawbar setup (or two setups and splitting the keyboard into
two manuals) and using the Leslie sound to vary things. Another limitation
is the lack of an expression pedal, although I'm not above seeking out a
stereo one that could go between the GM-1000 and the G4. That said, I think
I have enough to concentrate on for now.


Everyone knows Jimmy Smith, but Jack McDuff,
a great favourite of mine, is not so well known:

Here's a taster:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/iain.churches/Music/JMcD.mp3

Aye, nice and fluid.

Hammond Meanderings
 

Here are a couple of examples with the flute key click added...

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/HammondTest-04a.mp3

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/HammondTest-05a.mp3

The first is a pretty clean sound with very little Leslie, while the second
is another meandering 'pallete discovery' thing.

Hammond Meanderings
 

A couple more clips...

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/HammondTest-07a.mp3

http://www.melodolic.com/Music/HammondTest-07b.mp3