The Drawbar Has Been Raised
In the authenticity sweepstakes, the Hammond XK-5 blows away the barrier between vintage and modern, redefining the state of the art in portable digital organs. Hammond's flagship portable, the XK-5, features a ground-up design that draws on original B-3 schematics, capturing that legendary sound, feel - and soul - with unerring accuracy. Onboard, new technologies include a cutting-edge sound engine that combines modeling and sampling to reproduce every nuance of vintage electro-mechanical tonewheel generators. The new custom waterfall keybed provides the inimitable feel of a vintage B-3 and is ideal for palm slides and other classic playing techniques. Other features include four sets of drawbars plus pedal drawbars, an uber-realistic Digital Leslie, and downloadable tonewheel profiles. The foundation of Hammond's new Heritage Series, the XK-5 is modular, letting you configure as large a system as your music requires.
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- Hybrid Multiple-key Contact System for realism and versatility
- Redesigned Keybed gives you incredible playing feel
- All-new Sound Engine delivers a stunning re-creation of classic Hammonds
- Virtual Matching Transformer lets you dial in hysteresis and saturation
- Streamlined operation makes the XK-5 a joy to use
Play a key on a classic Hammond, and you're closing nine mechanical contacts - one for each drawbar. You hear these multiple harmonics as one note, but press a key slowly, and you'll hear the harmonics come in sequentially. In normal playing, this creates a characterful, albeit subtle, slop on the slow attacks; the more drawbars you have pulled out, the more that chewy, soulful personality comes out. Hammond knows this can't be realized with a simple MIDI note-on (which is how most contemporary organ and synth actions work). Instead, they use three mechanical contacts at different locations in the key travel. Each of these, in turn, triggers three virtual contacts, giving you separate note-on connections for every drawbar frequency, after the fashion of the original 9-contact electro-mechanical Hammond organs. The payoff is a fingers-to-sound relationship that duplicates playing a vintage B - without the cost and weight. A bonus is that you can program the time spread between these note-ons, and the order in which the harmonics speak. Moreover, because the contacts receive and transmit MIDI note data, you can capture the harmonic nuances of your performance in your DAW, to which you can connect the XK-5 via USB.
Redesigned Keybed gives you incredible playing feelHammond doesn't outsource the XK-5 keyboard action - they build it in-house. Designed to replicate the bounce, heft, key dip, and multi-contact actuation of a well-maintained new-old-stock B-3, this keybed has absolutely delighted hardcore B connoisseurs here at Sweetwater. Equipped with waterfall key fronts, this keybed facilitates palm slides and other classic Hammond playing techniques. Contrast the XK-5 playing experience with contemporary organs from other brands, and you'll see there's really no comparison. This is the real deal.
All-new Sound Engine delivers a stunning re-creation of classic HammondsHammond's storied tonewheel generator has been digitally re-created with stunning accuracy in the XK-5. Hammond employed both modeling and sampling techniques to capture the frequencies of all 91 tonewheels found in their vintage organs, as well as other signature sonic artifacts like key clicks, harmonic percussion, vibrato/chorus, and more. Tonewheel generators left the factory all sounding the same, but after years of use, no two are exactly alike. And with the XK-5, you can program individual tonewheel behavior and generator characteristics, such as leakage and crosstalk between pickups, as well as replicate particular Hammonds, right down to the year, model, serial number, and condition. What's more, you can call up presets of your favorite Hammond artists' instruments - and Hammond will be providing additional downloadable tonewheel profiles from preeminent Hammond organists.
Virtual Matching Transformer lets you dial in hysteresis and saturationThe tonewheels of vintage Hammonds generated small voltages that required stepping up, and you could draw on some of the same wheels simultaneously by playing similar notes with similar drawbar settings on both manuals. All the signals from the upper, lower, and pedal manuals passed through a matching transformer that evened out the signal before it advanced to the preamp and vibrato/chorus scanner. Transformers have a "memory" based on how hard they have been driven. This is called hysteresis, and it's responsible for the organic, breathing quality you hear in vintage Hammonds - and in the XK-5. Now, as the transformer in question is digitally modeled, you have complete control over the amount of hysteresis and saturation in your sound.
Streamlined operation makes the XK-5 a joy to useHammond incorporated the best new ideas into the design of the XK-5, and naturally kept the features that made the XK-3C and compact SK series a joy to play, such as their streamlined patch naming and copying conventions. In the XK-5, the intuitive display lets you hold any button and the first page of relevant parameters pops up. For example, when you hold the Leslie speed button, you'll see all the Digital Leslie settings. Not having to deal with annoying, time-consuming menu diving when you're customizing your sounds makes for quick sound changes and an enjoyable overall playing experience.
Hammond XK-5 Features:- 4 complete sets of Harmonic Drawbars, plus pedal drawbars:
- Just like a classic B-3
- 12 additional virtual tonewheels dedicated to harmonically complex pedal tones:
- In addition to the 8' and 16' sine waves found on Hammonds starting in 1945
- Custom tonewheel profiles are available for download
- Hammond's premium digital Leslie effect:
- This is no ordinary "rotary simulator"
- Continuously variable Digital Leslie speed
- 12 reverse-color keys for selecting presets
- Dedicated Octave Shift and Transpose buttons
- DSP-based overdrive assisted by a vacuum tube preamp
- Optimized vibrato/chorus
- Dedicated on/off buttons and amount knobs for Reverb, Overdrive, and assignable Multi-FX
- Lower B drawbars may alternatively control 9 MIDI CC messages for external gear
- Left and right 1/4" outputs may be used concurrently with Leslie output:
- Run the XK-5 through a real Leslie in parallel with monitors, sub, or house PA
- Manual Bass function: key-triggering modes for pedal-to-lower coupler
- Updatable firmware via USB flash drive or directly from your computer
- Crisp OLED display is readable under variable lighting conditions
