1. IMPORTANT:
    We launched a new online community and this space is now closed. This community will be available as a read-only resources until further notice.
    JOIN US HERE

Advice sought: Emulating a Hammond Concorde 2300 organ

Discussion in 'Building With Reaktor' started by Flikster, Jun 23, 2017.

  1. Flikster

    Flikster NI Product Owner

    Messages:
    1
    I'm looking for advice as to whether this is practical to do in Reaktor and for pointers as to the approach I should take. The Hammond 2300 is a two-channel (stationary/Leslie) solid-state organ built in the 70s. It has a top-octave synthesizer that produces square waves of the 12 notes of the scale which are sent through frequency dividers and filters to produce all the notes of the keyboards. Like the Hammond B3, it has two sets of drawbars for each manual, a set for the pedals and reverse-color presets. In addition, it has harmonic percussion (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 8th harmonics) and more complex percussion like pizzicato, banjo, harpsichord, and piano. A tab called Second Voice converts all percussion to sustained organ stops. Sustain (release in ADSR synth parlance) can be added to individual keyboards and the pedals. Percussion and the auto rhythm unit (Auto-Vari 64) only go through the stationary channel. Each keyboard's drawbars can be sent individually through the stationary or Leslie channels.

    I built a one-keyboard drawbar organ using a Reaktor sine bank, but I ran into phase cancellation issues when playing octaves — very annoying. Chet Singer ran across the same issue while trying to emulate a Hammond B3, so he decided to physically model the B3's 91 tone wheels in his Hammy 91 ensemble. Unfortunately it doesn't appear he's been on the forum for a year.

    I'm new to Reaktor (and computer-based synthesis), so any suggestions or guidance is greatly appreciated. Is this doable in Reaktor (or in combination with Kontakt or other Komplete products)? How would you approach this — emulate the signal flow in the organ's schematics, use physical modeling, sampling, or a combination? Or should I look at implementing this on an FPGA instead?

    My Hammond 2300 is getting old, so I'm looking to emulate all it's functionality so that I can continue to enjoy it at home (by MIDIfying the keyboards, pedals, and drawbars, and tabs) and perhaps take its gutsy theater sound on the road in a much lighter rig if desired. Others have asked why I'm bothering with this when there are plenty of B3 clones out there. The B3 is a great organ and has its unique sound for jazz, rock, and gospel. But the 2300 has, in my opinion, the best theater/pop organ sound that Hammond produced especially when paired with an external Leslie.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. mosaic_

    mosaic_ Guest

    Yeah, that sounds doable. I think the most direct way would be by analyzing the schematics. The main things seem to be a) capturing all the control features and implementing them, and b) generating divide-down square waves, which can both be done.