Jim Alfredson

That's pretty much what the XK1c is. I think they decided to call it the XK1c rather than the SK-something-or-other because SK stands for Stage Keyboard, indicating it has other sounds than organ. I don't think it looks silly but I agree that they should've put at least another set of drawbars in there. Maybe they are saving such a creation, with two manuals, for NAMM 2014. I have an SK2 but I'm really not interested in the pianos and other sounds. I just received an XK1c today from Hammond. They want me to make a tonewheel set for it. Away I go!

No, I have not heard the Studio 12 but I don't think it is made for live use but rather studio use, hence the name. I can't imagine the bass response will be any better than the Leslie 3300 and I find you need a subwoofer cabinet with the 3300 to get good pedal bass from it.

I just bought this off eBay for a really good price. I'm looking forward to it. The impetus was finding the Korsakov Scheherazade CD in my wife's car. I asked her where she got it and she had no idea. I loved the sound and performance so I figured I'd try to get some of the series.

Hi thanks for getting in touch. To answer your questions: 1a) No, I don't think the sound is all that degraded. On the contrary, the XLR output of the DXR10 is line level, usually requiring a pad be engaged on the FOH mixer. It's a very healthy signal, albeit one that is mono. This is not a problem since all my patches on the Privia PX5s are mono and the Ventilator sums to mono perfectly. 1b) Yes, I'm certainly in my cocoon of sound but like I mentioned above, only the Ventilator is in stereo. We do not travel with our own FOH rig or even our own FOH engineer and I am at the mercy of whatever the club / stage has in place and whomever is there to run it. And those systems are usually mono anyway. I have found over the years that the more simple I keep things, the better it is for all concerned. Providing the soundperson a single XLR with both keys in it is about as simple as you can get. You are correct that most stereo digital piano samples sound bad when summed to mono. That's why I have my Privia programmed to just be in mono. It features a true mono piano sample, not a stereo sample that's been summed to mono, so it sounds great. The reason most stereo sampled pianos sound bad in mono is due to phasing between whatever microphones they used to sample the original acoustic piano. In other words, it is due to carelessness on behalf of the original sampling engineers. Almost every manufacturer (Yamaha, Roland, Korg, etc.) suffers from this. The only solution is if they also have a true mono piano sample. I know that Yamaha does and the Casio Privia does. I don't know about Roland. If you want to upgrade your monitoring, I highly recommend the DXR series. I've never cared for the Roland keyboard amps. I played through one just a few weeks ago as backline and I did not like how my Hammond SK1 and Vent sounded through it. The Privia sounded pretty good through it but the Hammond was wimpy. Hope that helps!

I vehemently disagree with the notion that the copy writer for the Onion piece should be prosecuted. Such a wanton embrace of authoritative censorship is antithetical to basic human rights. Who gets to decide what is offensive or not and thus worthy of punishment? It's a very thin line between arresting people for using pejorative words in satirical pieces to this: http://www.policymic.com/articles/42299/sanal-edamaruku-backlash-against-indian-skeptic-shows-the-tyranny-of-religion

What if the guy/gal who wrote that Onion satire piece is Jewish?

Yes, but it's not as compact as other designs. However, it's much more compact than the Omega. To be honest, the set-up and tear-down of the stand takes a bit longer than other stands (especially X-stands) due to the design, but unlike X-stands, it is rock solid. It doesn't move. And depending on how much room you have in your vehicle, you can do a full tear-down or just a partial tear-down to save time.

Yes, they should sound similar, although I had a tough time clipping the input on the Mini Vent. It seems much easier to clip the input on the original Vent. I don't want to clip the input, mind you, but sometimes when trying to get more overdrive out of the Vent, I'd push the output of my SK2 or XK3 really hard and then the original Vent would clip. I couldn't get the Mini Vent to do that. The designer told me he removed an op-amp from the input circuitry and is instead doing it's job in software, so perhaps that is why. The other benefit to that is less noise. No, it doesn't work that way on the original Vent. To get the STOP mode you need to use the REMOTE input. You can do so either with a separate remote unit from Neo Instruments, a much less expensive remote unit from Ashby Music, or a custom cable from your clone's Leslie output (11 pin or 8 pin) to the Ventilator. The latter is how I do it on the original Vent. Concerning Hammond's Leslie pedal, I have not tried it but I hear it's very good. It is not the same algorithms as the SK.

Really? You think it's correct to prosecute a satirical publication for racism?

I have the Omega. It's actually almost EXACTLY the width of the SK2. I would suggest the On-Stage Z-stand with the second tier. It's much more adjustable, extremely stable, and you can get the two keyboards close together. I put my stage piano (Privia PX5s) on the lower tier and the SK2 on the upper tier. It works really well. Here's my road rig for Janiva Magness.

Terje, Are you playing bass? What style of music? I really like the Yamaha DXR10 powered speakers. If you're playing bass and doing the jazz organ thing, you might look at the DXR12 or DXR15, which have bigger woofers. For headphones, I use the Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones in the studio and on the road.

Dennis, Where did you source the cable? I'm guessing it's not wired correctly. If I remember right, it needs to be a straight-thru connection. In other words pin 1 on one end goes to pin 1 on the other. A lot of DIN cables are wired in mirror; pin 1 goes to pin 8, pin 2 to pin 7, etc. ----Jim

The new CDs are here! I'm in NY right now for the weekend. I'll start mailing when I get back. I still have to duplicate the DVDs (which I'm doing locally and will only take a day). We're almost there!

A friend linked that Iverson article on my FB page and I wrote the following: I wish I could leave a comment. I played a jazz festival years ago that bassist Victor Bailey was on. He is Donald's nephew. He said the Jimmy Smith Trio used to rehearse at his house (his father being Donald's brother) and that Coltrane used to stop by. Can you imagine? Iverson should get in touch with Victor. That would probably confirm the Coltrane/Bailey connection.