How the simple 1930s Hammond pulled the wool . . .

[organforumadmin]

Hi!

There's a pop group working at the moment who sampled a small chamber organ. The organ was in Meantone temperament and the sliders cause tuning problems between the ranks so some notes were beating offensively. They sampled every note with all four stops drawn, ensuring that there was out of tune-ness on each note! Two members of the group processed the samples in different ways - one kept the whole sample of every note and the result when played sounded like a recording of an organ. The other split off the pipe starting transients - wind and transient note, and without these transients, an pitch processed into equal temperament, the result sounded like a slightly skewed Hammond with Chorus generator.

Very effective imitation of a Hammond . . . so if a recording of a pipe organ can imitate a Hammond it shows how the Hammond can have been considered so very effective 70 years ago.

That's not to say that I like Hammonds that so very much . . .

Best wishes

Forum Admin

[dragonser]

Hi,
I think that the Hammonds don't try to reproduce the attack transient of a pipe organ correctly. they mostly just use contacts to switch the signals from the tone wheel generators.
as far as I know some of the electrostatic Comptons did use a circuit on each key to provide a slow attack which meant in some ways they sounded closer to a pipe organ.
at one Point Hammond did produce an instrument that was meant to simulate a pipe organ a bit closer, I think it was called a G100.
I've never heard one but it did have more tone wheels to produce more upper harmonics.
as has been discussed elsewhere I think the ear is quite sensitive to the changes in the attack transient.

regards Peter B

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

No - the Hammonds did not try to emulate a transient - the contact "click" either being suppressed by viscious treble cutoff or being a "feature". However, later Hammonds with "Percussion" had a quint on percussion which might have been intended as a first step towards simulation.

Best wishes

David P

[dragonser]

Hi!
. However, later Hammonds with "Percussion" had a quint on percussion which might have been intended as a first step towards simulation.

Best wishes

David P

Hi,
well the percussion feature on the later Hammonds was not the quint but was I think the second or Third Harmonic of  the 8ft tone. this sort of relates to the fact that some organ pipes have a chiff that is partly Second or Third Harmonic.
another point is that as far as I know the later Vibrato scanner doesn't affect the percussion sound.
( from what I can remember some Flute pipes tend to Chiff near the third harmonic and some Diapason pipes chiff near the second Harmonic ).
but it does say something good about the build quality of the Hammonds and Comptons that there are some still working today !

regards Peter B

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Hammond percussion was indeed 2nd or 3rd harmonic (switchable IIRC)

Their longevity I suspect is down to the basically mechanical generators - and the quality of engineering that went into them.  The only electronics are the pre & power amps and related circuits.

Every Blessing

Tony

[KB7DQH]

However... the United States government (Federal Trade Commission) wasn't so easily fooled...

http://www.1377731.com/hammond/index.html

BIG snip...

The statement of the Federal Trade Commission explained:

    "Among representations allegedly made by the respondent company in its advertising matter are that use of 'The Hammond Organ' means 'that real organ music of unbelievably beautiful quality is now possible in any home at an expense no greater than that of a good piano'; that the instrument 'produces the entire range of tone coloring necessary for the rendition, without sacrifice, of the great works of classical organ literature,' and that many organists agree the instrument is comparable to pipe organs costing $10,000.

    "[The complaint was that these and similar representations were false; that] with the exception of the flute notes the respondent's instrument is not capable of producing faithfully the musical tones of a pipe organ necessary for the accurate, adequate rendition of the great compositions of organ music; that its tone is not an improvement over that of any modern organ of recognized merit, and that it is not comparable to a $10,000 pipe organ or to any pipe organ."

The full article linked above is a fascinating read...

Eric
KB7DQH