Bigger console models, many of which were designed to suit the needs of American churches or theaters H, X66, X77, E, R, G , were also manufactured. The production of electromechanical organs ceased in Thereafter, Hammond built fully electronic organs. The Hammond name lives on in the Hammond-Suzuki range of electronic draw bar organs, starting with the release of a digital B3 model that mimics the design and functions of the classic B3 without the weight.
And Bingo! The spinning horn gave the Hammond Organ what is called in the pipe organ world a tremulant. It made the Hammond Organ sound completely different. Don Leslie thought he had hit on a miracle, and rightly so, He promptly took his hot invention right to Laurens Hammond but as fate would have it…Laurens Hammond hated the idea!
He meant for his organ to play church and classical music. The Dean of Theatre Organists Jesse Crawford was among the first to popularize the sound of the Hammond and Vibratone combination, and did he ever!
Musicians are resourceful, and organists from every corner embraced the combination. In , Don again tried to sell his company to Hammond, but the old man was stubborn, and rejected it again. Who wanted a Hammond without a Leslie? Don Leslie eventually sold Electro-Music and moved on with his life, happily, but never again made such an earth-shattering invention.
He died in at the ripe old age of 93, and was as sharp as a tack to his last day. In , Hammond introduced the organ that secured the legend, the Model B Gospel churches embraced the Hammond B-3 like no one else. The Ministers of Music elevated Hammond playing to a level that leaves even the most proficient artists shaking their heads in disbelief. Many believe that the Hammond Organ reaches it greatest heights in the hands of Gospel artists.
The B3 also swept the nation in pop during the late fifties. Lonnie Smith to name a few swung with a ferocious fervor. The rock revolution was also in full bloom, and the Hammond Organ played a large role. Who knows how many youngsters caught the Hammond bug from hearing these and other stars? Keyboard pioneers like Billy Preston and Sly Stone all came of age as Hammond Organists in their Churches, and injected that flavor into all of the music they influenced.
In , the last classic B-3 left the assembly line. About , were built. Hammond's exclusive Prochord feature is added to a number of sounds, on the Sk series. With this feature, you can instantly produce a foolproof, professional sounding "horn section", or other unique arrangements.
This is not an "auto play" feature you might find on non-pro instruments, but a powerful tool that can add great color to your playing. The instances of Prochord in conjuction with the Symphonic Strings Library voices add another component, that of leading voices in perfect enharmonic form. Like the Hammond Organ, the Accordion is an instrument found in many genres, with few modern keyboards accurately delivering the voice.
The Sk features the entire range of a Suzuki Accordion, with spot-on accurate and authentic registration capability. The unique symbols for Accordion registration appear in the display window, and a Musette setting is available as well.
The Sk is designed to be a comprehensive foundation keyboard, providing the "meat and potatoes" for any performance, but Hammond adds a selection of Orchestral and Synth Instruments for added versatility.
Glockenspiel and Vibraphone voices are also on the menu. The wheels were notched according to pitch, and an electromagnetic pickup much like that on an Eelectric Guitar sensed those notches and rendered a musical note. Hammond's adherence to quality has allowed many vintage instruments to remain vital today, and they are among the most desired and imitated musical instruments ever, but at a high cost.
The Electromechanical Hammonds require expensive maintenance, regular doses of oil, and were of great weight; not easy to move at all. A variety of Macro Profiles allow the user to quickly select the most popular "kinds" of Hammond, from Showroom-New to Road-Worn Antique and all points between. The Tonewheel Generator wasn't the only great invention of Laurens Hammond, and no Hammond Organ would be complete without the full spectrum of ingredients that comprised Mr.
Hammond's genius design. This concept allowed one or more keyboards to control the pitches of many pipes within one set or "rank" of pipes. Adopting the harmonic standards and nomenclature of the Pipe Organ, Mr. Hammond's design assured that any organist would be able to play his instrument without a steep learning curve.
Unlike the Pipe Organ, Mr Hammond's design allowed variable volumes of each Harmonic represented by each drawbar. This variation gave the musician millions of combinations of harmonics, and assured that every Hammond player would be able to summon a unique voice.
An extra level to the expression a Hammond Organist had at their fingertips was added because the Drawbars could be manipulated in real time. The B-3mk2 features 4 sets of real drawbars in the size, shape and configuration of Vintage Hammonds. Few musicians realize the Chorus effect pedal widely used for Guitars and Electric Pianos had its genesis as a component of the Hammond Organ.
This effect added a high "attack" to the Organ tone at either the octave or the twelfth, with a fast note decay. This sound was reminiscent of an xylophone or clave, and became immensely popular, immediately. Perc gave the Organ a bright highlight, and every generation of music has embraced this sound. Controls for the Perc have the classic nomenclature, familiar to anyone who has ever played a Hammond.
On the B-3mk2, Perc is executed in the Digital realm, allowing a wide range of controls the organists back in the day did not possess. The 1' drawbar muting, characteristic of the Vintage Organs can be defeated, as can the drop in Drawbar volume level that accompanied the engaging of the Percussion voice. You can control the volumes and decay times as well. The inclusion of this obscure feature demonstrates the commitment to authenticity Hammond has brought to the B-3 mkII. Inside the Vintage Hammond B-3, on one side of the tube preamp, there was a "Screwdriver Pot" with the engraved legend "Tone".
This control was adjusted by the Technician installing the organ in order to tame the treble response in the instance of the organ's installation in a Church or Mortuary, where a more muted organ was desired. The control was a cocktail of upper Mid and High frequencies the proportions of which were, until recently, held secret.
The "Tone" control was basically a "hi cut" control and only went "down". You could not direct the control to go "up" for "boost". The B-3mk2 has 5 banks of 9 presets each, controlled by the Traditional "Reverse color" Preset keys at the lower end of each Manual.
The entire B-3mk2 setup may be saved to a common CF Flash card for backup or restoration. You can play these external zones with or without the B-3mk2 voices sounding.. The Xk-1c features real drawbars in the size, shape and configuration of Vintage Hammonds. The Drawbars also serve the Combo and Pipe Organ divisions, but with a slightly different function. On the Xk-1c, Perc is executed in the Digital realm, allowing a wide range of controls the organists back in the day did not possess.
In order that every key and pedal of the Laurens Hammond's Organ could access every Tonewheel as predicated by the Drawbar settings, an electro-mechanical apparatus lurked behind the keyboards, with 9 contacts corresponding to each drawbar for that keyboard and a series of contacts attached to each key. As a key was depressed, the contacts sequentially touched, and the circuits were completed to produce the Organ tone that was registered by the Drawbars.
The very nature of Electric circuitry dictated a click could be heard at the top of each note played when the current-carrying key contacts touched. Laurens Hammond considered that click to be a nuisance, and worked to no avail in order to rid his organ of that imperfection. The jazz players who embraced the Hammond Organ, however, found the click to be a percussive highlight, and wanted nothing to do with its eradication.
To make matters worse, as the Vintage Hammonds aged, the click became more pronounced, and by the Rock and Roll era, the Key Click assumed a role of importance that Laurens Hammond could never imagine. The timbre of the click may also be adjusted. Hammond would have greatly approved of the Xk-1c, as you can turn the click all the way off if you desire, creating a Vintage Hammond Organ that could not exist in the physical world. The inclusion of this obscure feature demonstrates the commitment to authenticity Hammond has brought to the Xk-1c Series.
The advent of transistor electronics brought forth smaller, more affordable portable Organs. Since its introduction in s, the Hammond B3 organ has been one of the most popular keyboard instruments in popular music. Although the Hammond is one of the most popular electronic instruments, its beginnings sprang from a clock. In the s, Laurens Hammond invented a new type of electric clock and was part owner of a company that made them. When the Great Depression created a serious downturn in the clock business, Hammond began looking for new products to invent and, hopefully, sell.
Looking to make use of the precision electric motors like the ones that had powered his clock, Hammond turned to creating an electrical musical instrument.
To make his first instruments, Hammond used a piano keyboard to switch signals generated by a number of separate circuits on and off. Each circuit was capable of generating electromagnetic waves at a certain frequency. The shape of the wheel induced a signal in the electromagnet, giving the signal a specific frequency and wave-form.
Combinations of these signals, switched on and off by pressing keys and setting switches, could be given a wide range of different sounds.
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