Original article: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan04/articles/synthsecrets.htm
So, you can synthesize a Hammond's tonewheel generator --- but what about its all-important effects? This month, we look at recreating the Hammond's percussion, vibrato, overdrive, and reverb --- and find that it's harder than you might think... This is the 57th article in a 63-part series. Read all parts.
Gordon Reid
Original photo: Richard Ecclestone
I find that my relationships with my synths can be much like any other romantic entanglements... fun and frustration in turns. When you're lucky, everything comes naturally, and you attain what you crave both easily and quickly. On other occasions, you have to work hard at things, and sometimes you just have to give up, pretending that you weren't that interested in the first place.
For the past two months, I think that it's fair to say that this series has been dishing up a good deal of the former, with the basis for some fine tonewheel organ patches being produced on some unlikely synths. But, as I wrote when I left you last time, what these have all lacked is the excitement introduced by the Hammond's effects and side-effects; percussion, chorus/vibrato, leakage, and overdrive. So now, we're going to attempt to spice things up still further. Unfortunately, as in real life, some relationships start out as fun, but lead to frustration, although you usually learn some important lessons on the way. In this case, even though we don't necessarily achieve everything we set out to do, there's plenty to be learned about how a tonewheel organ creates its distinctive sound along the way.
Matching Registrations
Just across the room from where I'm writing, there sits one of greatest organs ever crafted by human hands: a Hammond A100, an instrument every bit the equal of the B3 and C3. If you're unacquainted with Hammond genealogy, let me explain...
For many decades, the company had a policy that its 'spinet' organs (those with four-octave keyboards) had built-in speaker systems, while the larger 'console' organs (those with five-octave keyboards) required external speakers, or 'tone cabinets'. Sometime after the launch of the B3 and C3 in 1955, Hammond's customers made it clear that they wanted a self-contained organ with the wonderful sound of the new flagships, but also the reverb and internal speakers of the less expensive spinets. Thus was the A100 born: a B3/C3 tonewheel generator and controls mounted inside a smaller case that nonetheless includes a spring reverb, dual valve amplifiers and three chunky speakers.
Figure 1: Returning to the Juno 6 Hammond patch.
Figure 1: Returning to the Juno 6 Hammond patch.