Our Church had a combined joint service with a neighboring black congregation last Sunday at their Church. The instruments were organ and drums. The organist played a console Hammond (it had internal speakers and percussion, I think it was an A-100) through a small Leslie. It might have been a 145.

I've heard most all the Hammond and Leslie imitations and simulations and after hearing the real thing again everything else is plastic and instant coffee. You hear the fake stuff for so long one tends to forget. The real thing sounded soooo good.

However, that being said, I will never haul a Hammond and a Leslie again. Given all the drawbacks for transporting the real thing, instant coffee is good enough for this old body.

Tom

Very right Tom !!

Take a good simulator and feed it into a REAL Leslie, or motion sound and you'll get that home brewed falavah too ! The rotating horn is more than 50% of the sound, by far. The technique of fast/slow changes is worth at least another 25%, so in the end .... the organ tone itself, is the smallest part of the equation.
I
ve heard DX7s and Casios sound AWESOME through a Leslie 147. It's all about moving the air. Simple physics.

U.D. is right again.
The makers of Leslie's use to call their speaker system, "Sound in Motion". They got that right.
I use to own a Leslie 122. What an awesome sound. When I pressed the low C foot pedal on my Hammond L100 there wasn't any distortion whatsoever. Oh man it was nice.
Starkeeper


[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 02-24-2004).]

Leslie sound is great: I even prefer the sound of a 145 or 147 (tubes) over a transistor powered unit. One of my jobs is a guitar job, where I use a 147 (same as 145, but with reverb), a pre-amp and a 335 Gibson. The 147 stays at this club.

On keyboard jobs, I sometimes use a Hammond XP-2 (portable), a Fender Bassman and a Motion Sound (Old unit, tube, horn only) in addition to my arranger-an antique MS 60, soon to be replaced by an SD-1 Plus.
That's close to what I want, but not quite!

Luckily, I have one country Club job where I keep a B-3, A Suitcase Rhodes and a 145.
Great where it is, but it'll NEVER MOVE!

I agree...it's all in the doppler effect...those horns have to move!

Russ

Of course if you feed a fake Hammond sound into a real Leslie it will sound more authentic. That is because the cup now contains at least a 50 50 mix of real and instant coffee. The Leslie may even make it 75 25. The combination of amplitude modulation and doppler cannot be completely simulated from a stationary speaker not to mention the fact that the rotating speaker sprays the sound off everything in a 360 degree radius around the room.

I actually have a RotoPhaser. I think that is what it is called. It is the rotating horn speaker. Even that is too heavy to lug around. I should sell it. Maybe I should hook it up to the X1.

Tom

A major ingredient to the 'formula' is how the instrument is played. Just knowing how to play keyboard doesn't necessarily make for the right sound, even if it's played thru the right speakers. I've heard really good gospel or jazz organists who were almost weaned on the music and just have the right groove that makes all the difference.

While we're on the subject - I just picked up Brian Auger's newest CD. It's one of the coolest, funkyiest Rhodes/organ/piano showcases there is! This is a collection of his work over the years including work with the Oblivion Express ... one of my favorite 70s sounds. Check it out if you see it on the stands ! It's a double CD and worth every cent. He does an up tempo "Misty" ala Groove Holmes and he really smokes on an arrangement of "Poincianna" too....... reall, cool jazz. Real good recording too !