I think the Hamichord is going to be an interesting entry into the fray of Hammond clones. A dual manual with a reasonable weight and something that also looks pretty cool and that sounds good gets my vote. We know that B4 II software sounds great but it would be interesting to know which M-Audio sound card they are going to use in it. It's also interesting that they're going with Windows XP as oppossed to Windows Vista. Although with Vista's still mediocre driver support in the area of various audio applications and the other numerous bugs it still is infested with I can certainly understand their choice and reasoning for using Windows XP.

I wondered if they were actually going to sell the Hamichord in the States so I fired off an email to them and here was their reply:

Hi Mike

Surely during 2008, maybe in march or April, you will be able to buy Hamichord in the States, for now I can only tell you that 2 of our instruments will be at Namm together with another Italian Brand.
Bye

Dr Agnoletto Andrea www.hamichord.com

I'm ecstatic that the Hamichord will indeed be sold here in the U.S. Depending on the street price and how it actually sounds in person and whether or not the OS will work seamlessly with all the various features and functions are my most important considerations. But it will definitely be worth a serious looking into by me if all the criteria I listed are met and/or exceeded. I hope it has a USB 2.0 interface too but you would think if it did they would list it as such on their web site.

Best,
Mike