Sounds like Hammond B3 in a CASIO CTK-6250

[Thiago da Mata]

Hello keyboarders.

 

I recently bought a keyboard CASIO CTK-6250. I'm fascinated with keyboard on rock and blues music, and one of my great inspirations is Billy Preston. I would love to sound like him and like other organ players, specifically the Hammond B3 ones. How can I do this in my CTK-6250? Is there some place when I can download a tone that simulates this type of organ? I searched for this and didn't find anything... If it's not possible, how can I create this effect?

 

Thanks in advance,

Thiago.

[Jokeyman123]

There are limited and not so inexpensive options, since a Hammond B-3 is such a rich-sounding instrument whose tones have everything to do with the variety of wood cabinet leslies and dual speakers-creating that great acoustic resonant tone live, why it is so hard to duplicate-especially since Billy Preston was working with George Martin and the Beatles in Abbey Road studios! 

 

Many Casio players opted for add-on equipment (including me) to try to duplicate the huge variety of Hammond sounds possible with almost infinite variations with drawbars, speed changes, chorus and vibrato possible on some Hammonds. Many use the "Neo-ventilator" add-on pedal connected to the Casio outputs. I tried the Line-6 Rotomachine which is pretty good and a less expensive alternative-has alot of settings and gets fairly close-but I missed the drawbars so finally purchased the Ferrofish B4000+. Again, an add-on device-this is not a pedal, it is a small drawbar organ module producing its own sounds internally, unlike the Line-6 which is a DSP device-modifies the sounds coming into it. both can be pedal-activated, the Line 6 is a pedal, the Ferrofish has to have a momentary switch or pedal to activaste the leslie chaging speeds. There are other add-on devices, Roland has one.

 

The only other option-is to buy one of the Casios (or another dedicated digital organ with drawbars-the Casio XW-P1, MZ-X500, WK7500/7600 or CTK7000/7200. The 7500 and 7000 are not as good at the drawbar sounds as there are fewer "steps" with the drawbars-breaks up the sound a bit when moving the drawbars. The newer 7600/7200  series have better "resolution", smoother tranasitions as you change the drawbar settings. I believe the MZ-X and XW are the same, I hear no drawbar stepping with my XW. There are also "virtual" Hammond clones in software-that simulate a Hammond. I haven't tried these so can't say how good/bad these are but you could trigger these virtual organs using the Casio 6250 and a USB cable-a whole different category if you are not familiar with virtual computer sound engines.