Re: Hammond XM1

[Theo Fokkema <theo.fokkema@tip.nl>]

At 13:39 31-10-96 +0200, you wrote:
>Greetings:

Hello Sam,

I took the liberty to forward this mail to the Hammond list in case any of
the other members has any comments on this.... Hope you don't mind.

>I saw from the Hammond list that you are an XM 1 owner and
>I  hope you will not mind sharing some of your experience with me.

No I won't... i'll be glad to, in fact!

>  I ordered
>one this week based on the fact that the Voce V3 was an AC device
>and I was not sure it would work correctly using a transformer
>here in Israel.  I was dismayed, however, to see on the Net that in
>a small trial, the VOCE beat out the XM-1.

I have never tried a Voce myself. I still want to. What i did see in the
trial reports that you mention, is that each of the clones has its own
specific weaknesses and strengths, and that it will depend on your personal
taste and wishes to decide what's best for you.

There were some negative things to say about the Voce too, especially the
"hiss" coming from the Leslie simulation circuitry seems to be annoying.
Positive about the Voce is that Dave Amels, who is a list member and
president (?) of Voce, supports it very well and is very patient to explain
you any questions you might have or to make modifications. He has a thorough
knowledge about his product. You will not find this for the XM-1...

What would be the problem when using Israelic power? The Voce has a power
transformer internal, the XM-1 has it external. What is the difference for you?
(I personally hate these "wall warts"...)

>In any case, I am writing to ask if you are happy with your XM-1.

YES!
I am very happy with my XM-1 in spite of a few inconveniences. I like its
sound, its programmability and midi implementation and the "remote control"
feature of the XMc-1 drawbar controller.

There are a few inconveniences about the XM-1 though:

- It uses an external power supply (might not be negative for you, is for me...)
- The cable between the XM-1 and the XMc-1 is too short
- It is not the standard width for "rackmounting" devices
- The percussion sound is not going through the leslie simulator
- There is a "pop" sound when you go to Leslie edit mode
- I don't like (may be my personal taste) the sound of the distortion. I
miss the "growl", though it can "scream"...
- Some people find the buttons too small. I don't...

But still it is a great unit. I can live with most of these. Please let me
know what your experiences are, especially with the points mentioned above!

>I play a Roland E86 keyboard and have wanted for a long time to
>have more reatlistic organ sounds with Leslie effect.  I have never played
a drawbar
>organ (but have been playing keyboard for many years)
> so I do not have experience putting together drawbar sounds; are the
>included patches in the XM-1 usable or does the manual have advice
>on registration?  Does the module have a built in demo song(s)?

There are no built-in demo songs... I miss them too! The included patches
are, in my opinion, very usable, but I could not miss the XMc-1 frawbar
controller.
In the display of the XM-1 you can see how the drawbar setting are for the
preset sounds. You can also see which buttons are pressed on the XMc-1 by
the LED's next to them, so you can always see if percussion, vibrato, chorus
etc. is on. By listening and looking at the display and LED's you can learn
a lot about registration. Another good way is just trying the drawbars one
by one and in combinations to hear what they do. Or try to imitate sounds
that you hear on records. There are no registration advices in the manual.

>Finally, do you have any advice on amplification (for home use).  I
>do not have a stereo system to speak of. 

For home use, that would have been my advice. I connect my rig to my home
stereo too when playing at home. It sounds very good, better than through my
keyboard amplifier. And it is stereo, which makes the Leslie simulation more
wide, more real and sometimes "flying through the room". Consider buying a
cheap Hifi amplifier and a set of *good* speakers for home use.

> My E86 has a total of 30Watts
>(15 x 2) stero amplification and speakers built in and I was thinking of
buying 
>small computer type speakers (10 Watts x2) for the module. Do you think
>that would be a waste and that the E86 would do a good job
>(right now I only use the E86 at volume level 5 -7, never all
>the way up to 10.

I don't know if your E86 has inputs for external sound devices, but if it
has and if you have no other choice: connect the XM-1 to the E86. It's
speakers will almost certain be of a better quality than the cheap-o
computer type speakers.
The XM-1 has its own volume control, so you can keep the e-86's level at
where you like it and set the Hammond volume independently. I don't know if
you can switch off the E86's internal sound. If you can't, the Hammond and
the E86 sound will be layered. So maybe you should better use a simple hifi
amp with separate inputs or with a simple mixer (my setup for home use too).
I strongly recommend -against- PC type speakers. Often those "10 watts" on
the box turn out to be 1 watt, maybe 2. Most computer speakers I heard have
bad frequency response, especially in the lower frequencies. The sound is
very coloured, and not in a beautiful way.

The whole story for any sound system is, a chain is as strong as it's
weakest part. So you may have a quality Hammond clone, but never get to hear
its qualities while you have bad speakers. Same thing can be reversed. It's
the same story as with HiFi or PA systems.

>Finally, any other tips you might have or hidden features of the module
>would be helpful.

We programmers use to call bugs "hidden features"... I mentioned some of those.
Most things are in the manual, but there are some shortcuts that i didn't
find in the Dutch manual: percussion length and level can be set by holding
down the percussion buttons on the XMc-1 and turning the volume and
overdrive controls.
Most other tips are in the manual, like using a footswitch or aftertouch to
change leslie speed, or using the modulation wheel as a distortion control.
I personally like to use the distortion control to boost the volume a bit
for a solo or something like that, rather than the volume control. The
distortion control boosts the signal a bit and the volume and the distortion
increase when you turn it up higher. It's just like the real thing when the
expression pedal is put from "somewhere in the the middle" to "floored" that
way.

I wish you lots of fun and luck with your XM-1. I hope you'll be just as
glad with it as I was when I bought it (and, still am!). Ask the list :-)
Judge by your own ears, don't let the thought come into your mind that you
bought an inferior unit just because some list members who did a test liked
the V3 better. Maybe you can do a side-by-side comparison someday. I still
want to do that. Use good amplifiers and speakers. Will also be good for you
E86's sound!
 
And, keep in touch! Stay on the list, lurk or post!

Regards,
Theo Fokkema