Norfolk Blues News
Henry Gee
Tuesday, 08 January 2008 16:18 UTC
Stuck out here in Cromer on the North Norfolk Coast, musicians can be hard to find. But over the CHristmas Holidays I hit the jackpot. I googled ‘musician’, ‘blues’ and ‘Norfolk’ and within a gnat’s crotchet I found ace blues guitarist Martin McCoy who is looking to forma band, and – amazingly enough – also lives in Cromer. He was even more surprised to hear not only from another Cromer resident, but a keyboard player (we ivory-ticklers are rare beasts). So on Sunday we travel to Norwich to have a jam session with a bassist and a drummer, and see if we like it. I’ll take my Korg TR61 (great for electric piano) and my brand new and extremely cool Hammond XK1.
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Replies
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Up North, Scottish ivory-tickler Steel is equally jealous and pleased that Santa et al b®ought you a XK1 you lucky B.
Looking forward to Gee/McCoy etc. output.
Windy as hell up here at present, so flaps down and whooosh – I’m off.
Graham
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Thanks Graham. Yes, I shall be broke for a month, but the XK1 is worth it. It sounds exactly like a real tonewheel Hammond (and I do mean exactly – far more than did Boris, my vintage Korg BX3 of blessed memory, foo that I was for selling it) and weighs only 0.03 Hernias.
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+++WARNING: Not for non ivory ticklers+++
I must go and check out the XK1. I have some “reasonable” hammond samples on my Ensoniq EPS.
Our ex-bassist is the lucky owner of a Korg MS2000B 1.2 hernias.
Fab machine I have to say. Since I was unable to “borrow” it for gigs (it was not allowed away from its Dad), I stored my own arrangements/modulated sequenced parts onto 8 track instead. We stole the show during a sound check just by hitting the ‘play button’ !!
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I used to have a MS2000B. Amazing. I sold it because it was a better player than I was. As for the Hammond, I think you have to consider whether you want something
(1) that sounds like a tonewheel Hammond, now and then, either in the studio (there are apparently some fabulous Hammond clones in software these days) or live, in which organish sounds are required along with a lot of other stuff deep in a mix (in which case your EPS is probably just fine – as was my Korg M1 long ago).
OR
(2) The Hammond sound is a major and integral part of your very being, in which case you’ll want something that not only sounds like a smokin’ great Hammond B3, but feels like one, too.
My first experience of an XK1 was live, at a jam session, at which I’d normally have played a real tonewheel and Leslie. Apart from not experiencing the moving air of a real Leslie, and not being able to throw the thing around so that the reverb spring crashed, or throw SS daggers at it (I think you know where I’m coming from) the experience was totally authentic. The Leslie. The reverb. The harmonic percussion. The overdrive (oh, boy, especially the overdrive). But most of all the great big fistful of drawbars. Everything. And all in a handy package weighing no more than 0.003 hernias. I had to have one. It took just two things to convince me.
1. The bloke whose Hammond XK1 I played is a Hammond aficionado who has around seven tonewheel organs in various stages of repair, and if he says that the sound of the XK1 is indistinguishable from that of a tonewheel, then it must be true;
2. It says ‘HAMMOND’ on the back in huge letters, so it must be a Hammond, by definition.
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Tanks for the detailed reply Henry,
I happen to know a Tobin Mueller
He’s much more of a keyboard buff than I. Scroll to the very bottom of this page.
Essentially, recording is my forte although I do ivory tickle.
I’ve never played a hammond before and sounds like I’m missing something here.
My EPS crashed quite a lot, especially at gigs. As you may know, the EPS relies on floppy based samples and has no internal voices.
At one gig, my savior was a Fender Rhodes that the club happened to have in a store-room.
I had to improvise quite a lot but in the end, it was a stunning gig. I felt like I was Stevie Wonder for the night =)
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I didn’t realise the EPS relied on floppies…. for a short while I had an Emax that was like that. I had an arco strings sample to die for, but wasn’t really worth the heft or the hassle.
All this reminds me that I once did a recording session with one of the very earliest Ensoniq Mirage keyboards, back in 1985. Super piano (for the time) and simply overpowering strings.
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(BTW, another ‘rare beast’ is Dr David Lipman over at NCBI. I recently awoke his dreamy dreams of ivory tickling. He has a baby grand at home but sold his keys/synths a while ago. I think he ended up buying a Yamaha DGX620 (weighted keys jobby) Since this is public domain, I say this allegedly, in the style of Angus Deaton).
Memories indeed, the ‘big hair’ days…..
Thinking back to your initial posting, how did the jam session go Henry plus your first XK1 road trial??
A mate of mine had a Mirage too but I managed to get a great deal on a store ex-demo EPS (typical Scot !!) Probably in Garage Mirage these days….
1.4Meg flops of course didn’t allow much data storage in modern day terms but was great at the time. Had a wee look there through flops and I have some pretty classic stuff.
These days, since I don’t gig anymore, I simply use a good reasonably motherboard to control sounds on my PC (apparently, I “should” be using a Mac).
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May one introduce you to ‘Thor’.
I only met Thor just there.
I am however familiar with Thor’s parents, The Propellerhead’s over in Sweden. (Well at least ‘Reason v2’ Here’s a track I wrote using this).
In the products section, click on ‘Reason’ and then ‘Thor’.
Probs not your cup of cha at the mo. but do check it out.
Yikes, you can even download Thor for free but no save/export. Standard, “try me out” stuff – great.
Still love me trusty, never let me down, mono SH101 mind.
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