Corky’s VST Organ Tips and Tweaks Page 🎹

That never worked with ours for some reason :wink: Lovely chap, but he’ll be late to his own funeral…

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The only time mine was actually on time was at his funeral :cry:

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I actually was late to a guitarists funeral once. No disrespect…just did it in his honor. He would have wanted it that way. :smirk:

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:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Hmmmmm…could it be time for a virtual Lowrey VST?

If they did Garth Hudson’s model I’d give it a go, I read where he was a Lowrey man and they made him special rigs as his sponsor … does that sound right?

It is true

To begin at the beginning: When Garth Hudson joined Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks in late 1961, part of the deal was a new Lowrey organ, a model FL. These first Festival models were physically influenced by the already-classic Hammond B2/B3 series, whose popularity among jazz and blues performers had as much to do with portability as it had to do with the legendary tonewheel sound - their “four-poster” style cabinets were gutted out, working musicians alternatives to the churchier-looking Hammond C3’s, A100’s, etc. Portability was still a relative term, though, with a B3 weighing 425 pounds, and the Lowrey FL around 390. A separate external speaker, most commonly a Leslie rotary type, would be substituted for the internal ones.

Very long article here:
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/ghs_keyboards_knz.html

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Very cool … the man is still playing in his 80’s … a gift!

For some reason, I thought he already passed, but that was their other keyboard guy (Richard Manuel). I hope I will still be playing if I make it to 80, but I’ll never be able to play like him.

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Great thread, Corky! Very interesting. Thank you so much. I dare to ask a question slightly off topic: what’s the best tutorial (if there is one) to learn Hammond/organ specific playing skills and licks, especially rock-based? (no pedals, just 1 keyboard/manual).
Best regards from Cologne
Christoph

Thank you Christoph. The thread has given us all a great insight into the Hammond VSTs. Great participation by all.

There are several books and videos available, but I will suggest what I do, and others will chime in as well. I watched many of my heros in concert many years ago. I asked others how to do certain things. But basically, I study everything I can about certain artists, then I watch videos of them playing live. Don’t rely on youtube tutorials, as there are many ridiculous people making videos for likes. Many of them have no clue as to what they are doing. However, there are a few good ones.
I will soon be posting a series of posts on this thread, and you will see how I approach certain styles and artists. It may not be for everyone, but it works for me. I will still be learning till the day I pass on, just because I love it.
Even though this thread is long, there is a lot of good info and videos by the participants. So, if you have the time, check out what has been posted. Also, feel free to PM me (as others do) on any particulars you are stumped on. As I noted on the 1st post, I am not an expert, but I try my hardest to get things right.

Playing a Hammond is all about feel. It, like many instruments, needs caressing mixed with aggression. Kinda like my last marriage. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

When I get a few, I will PM you some literature and videos that may help.

Regards

Corky

BTW I don’t consider anything Hammond or organs off topic.

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My answer would be look up the greats on Youtube and watch and emulate- Gregg Allman, Keith Emerson, Brian Auger, Rod Argent, Jon Lord, Jimmy Smith… I gravitate to the rock players but check out who fits you. That’s how we learned!

Except of course, when I was a kid we didn’t have Youtube! We just had to put on the albums and figure it out! And we liked it that way! You kids now with your intertubes and your plugouts and stuff!
I was lucky if I had a Farfisa organ with 4 keys missing! GET OFF MY LAWN!

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If books are something you can work through:

101 Hammond B3 Tips by Brian Charette
Hammond Organ Complete by David Limina

The examples in both books are audio clips with music staff so if you don’t read music staff much you need to work on that also.

At the point 4 or 5 tips/concepts presented in the book have cleared up things for me I think the investment in the book has paid off - both books had plenty more. I think the most important one from Brian was number 98 - “Plough diligently and expect no harvest” :grinning:

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Ploughing is its own reward.

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I use a great little bookmarking service called Pinboard. I have it set so every bookmark is private by default so to share them I have to export them to an HTML file. I don’t subscribe at the level that will scub out dead links so it’s possible a few might not work.

Here is one with all the links I tagged “Hammond”. I had to zip it up in order to upload it to the forum - extract the file to a folder and then double click on it and it will load in your default browser as a page full of links. I think they are in the order I created them. Some link to forum thread discussions, others are product pages, others are articles like the link below about how to play like Gregg Allman:

Learn Gregg Allman’s Classic Rock Organ Style in 5 Easy Steps - KeyboardMag

Here’s the file:
hammond_links.zip (5.8 KB)

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Hey All,

I have been really enjoying the new Hammond B3-X but when I use in C3 it is often along with MODO bass and layering with Ivory, NeoSoul Keys aor Velvet or layered Acoustic Piano and EP. This creates a load for the system and B3-X started making spikes that got to be too much for the song and caused crackling on smears or drastic register changes on the manuals. I remembered when @humphrey got working with Brad to help with memory loading hassles on hungry plugins by using an Engine reset to reload the plugins in the song and it lowered the resource hit considerably. I decided to try it on some songs where I had the problem and voila it looks to have helped a lot. e.g. I had an idle resource of 64% with spikes to over 100% when the crackles hit and after the engine restart the idle load was 36% with spikes up to 70% or so and no more spikes. It makes me wonder if plugins in a complex song like this should be marked as having performed better after an engine restart. Anyone else have thoughts or thoughts on this issue? It helped a lot on B5 and Ravenscroft Grand piano too …

Dave

Just thought I’d highjack the thread for something serious …:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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How dare you get serious on this thread!!

Are you using the newest version of B-3X? They did a small optimization, which helps a little. Also, do not use resident fx, as they are cpu hogs.

Thanks for the info. Gonna experiment with the engine when I get back home. I am currently traveling into the depths of Hell, known as Mississippi. :cold_sweat:

Yea, latest revision, no native effects. I have to say B5 is like a recording next to this head to head. Way more ambient studio sound on B5, great for the room sound on a recording but not as responsive as B3-X. This IK/Hammond beastie is alive :star_struck: more like a Hammond to me.

Have a good turkey leg for me if there’s a platter near by and have a good one!

Dave

Still loving B5, but yeah, the IK can nail many things. I have some good B5 coming. I had to restart my project, so falling behind in my intentions.
May you also have a good one. I will actually have a toddy with my turkey leg and grits. :wink: