Rick wakeman keyboard setup

Hammond's original design used an electromechanical apparatus that looked much like the distributors you would find in the automobiles of the day, and ran off the same synchronous motor that powered the Tonewheel Generator.

The Sk's Chorus-Vibrato is executed in the Digital Realm, without moving parts, and works under the same model. As with the Tonewheel Generator, Digital control allows a wide range of adjustment that was simply not possible on the original. As the Antique organs aged, the components acquired their own unique qualities.

These adjustments are saved per preset. Your Sk-series instrument has a total of 20 Pipe voices - nine 9 for the Upper Manual, nine 9 for the Lower Manual and two 2 for the Pedals. Below is a list of the voices and the screen abbreviations:. Hammond's exclusive Prochord feature is added to a number of sounds, on the Sk series. With this feature, you can instantly produce a foolproof, professional sounding "horn section", or other unique arrangements. This is not an "auto play" feature you might find on non-pro instruments, but a powerful tool that can add great color to your playing.

The instances of Prochord in conjuction with the Symphonic Strings Library voices add another component, that of leading voices in perfect enharmonic form. Like the Hammond Organ, the Accordion is an instrument found in many genres, with few modern keyboards accurately delivering the voice.

The Sk features the entire range of a Suzuki Accordion, with spot-on accurate and authentic registration capability. The unique symbols for Accordion registration appear in the display window, and a Musette setting is available as well.

The Sk is designed to be a comprehensive foundation keyboard, providing the "meat and potatoes" for any performance, but Hammond adds a selection of Orchestral and Synth Instruments for added versatility. Glockenspiel and Vibraphone voices are also on the menu. The wheels were notched according to pitch, and an electromagnetic pickup much like that on an Eelectric Guitar sensed those notches and rendered a musical note. Hammond's adherence to quality has allowed many vintage instruments to remain vital today, and they are among the most desired and imitated musical instruments ever, but at a high cost.

The Electromechanical Hammonds require expensive maintenance, regular doses of oil, and were of great weight; not easy to move at all.

A variety of Macro Profiles allow the user to quickly select the most popular "kinds" of Hammond, from Showroom-New to Road-Worn Antique and all points between. The Tonewheel Generator wasn't the only great invention of Laurens Hammond, and no Hammond Organ would be complete without the full spectrum of ingredients that comprised Mr.

Hammond's genius design. This concept allowed one or more keyboards to control the pitches of many pipes within one set or "rank" of pipes. Adopting the harmonic standards and nomenclature of the Pipe Organ, Mr. Hammond's design assured that any organist would be able to play his instrument without a steep learning curve.

Unlike the Pipe Organ, Mr Hammond's design allowed variable volumes of each Harmonic represented by each drawbar. This variation gave the musician millions of combinations of harmonics, and assured that every Hammond player would be able to summon a unique voice. An extra level to the expression a Hammond Organist had at their fingertips was added because the Drawbars could be manipulated in real time.

The B-3mk2 features 4 sets of real drawbars in the size, shape and configuration of Vintage Hammonds. Few musicians realize the Chorus effect pedal widely used for Guitars and Electric Pianos had its genesis as a component of the Hammond Organ. This effect added a high "attack" to the Organ tone at either the octave or the twelfth, with a fast note decay. This sound was reminiscent of an xylophone or clave, and became immensely popular, immediately.

Perc gave the Organ a bright highlight, and every generation of music has embraced this sound. Controls for the Perc have the classic nomenclature, familiar to anyone who has ever played a Hammond. On the B-3mk2, Perc is executed in the Digital realm, allowing a wide range of controls the organists back in the day did not possess. The 1' drawbar muting, characteristic of the Vintage Organs can be defeated, as can the drop in Drawbar volume level that accompanied the engaging of the Percussion voice.

You can control the volumes and decay times as well. The inclusion of this obscure feature demonstrates the commitment to authenticity Hammond has brought to the B-3 mkII.

Inside the Vintage Hammond B-3, on one side of the tube preamp, there was a "Screwdriver Pot" with the engraved legend "Tone".

This control was adjusted by the Technician installing the organ in order to tame the treble response in the instance of the organ's installation in a Church or Mortuary, where a more muted organ was desired. The control was a cocktail of upper Mid and High frequencies the proportions of which were, until recently, held secret.

The "Tone" control was basically a "hi cut" control and only went "down". You could not direct the control to go "up" for "boost". The B-3mk2 has 5 banks of 9 presets each, controlled by the Traditional "Reverse color" Preset keys at the lower end of each Manual. The entire B-3mk2 setup may be saved to a common CF Flash card for backup or restoration. You can play these external zones with or without the B-3mk2 voices sounding..

The Xk-1c features real drawbars in the size, shape and configuration of Vintage Hammonds. The Drawbars also serve the Combo and Pipe Organ divisions, but with a slightly different function. On the Xk-1c, Perc is executed in the Digital realm, allowing a wide range of controls the organists back in the day did not possess.

In order that every key and pedal of the Laurens Hammond's Organ could access every Tonewheel as predicated by the Drawbar settings, an electro-mechanical apparatus lurked behind the keyboards, with 9 contacts corresponding to each drawbar for that keyboard and a series of contacts attached to each key. As a key was depressed, the contacts sequentially touched, and the circuits were completed to produce the Organ tone that was registered by the Drawbars.

The very nature of Electric circuitry dictated a click could be heard at the top of each note played when the current-carrying key contacts touched.

Laurens Hammond considered that click to be a nuisance, and worked to no avail in order to rid his organ of that imperfection.

The jazz players who embraced the Hammond Organ, however, found the click to be a percussive highlight, and wanted nothing to do with its eradication. To make matters worse, as the Vintage Hammonds aged, the click became more pronounced, and by the Rock and Roll era, the Key Click assumed a role of importance that Laurens Hammond could never imagine.

The timbre of the click may also be adjusted. Hammond would have greatly approved of the Xk-1c, as you can turn the click all the way off if you desire, creating a Vintage Hammond Organ that could not exist in the physical world.

The inclusion of this obscure feature demonstrates the commitment to authenticity Hammond has brought to the Xk-1c Series. The advent of transistor electronics brought forth smaller, more affordable portable Organs. The Thomas Organ Company in the U. Thomas sold their Combo organs under the Vox name and their premier offering was the "Continental".

Farfisa's organs became Rock icons, and the marque reached its height with its "Professional" model. The sound of the transistor Combo Organ never went out of style, and has even flourished in the "Indy" scene of the 21st Century.

In , Wakeman was lured from the Strawbs to join Yes , by then approaching their musical peak. Being more amenable to a multi-keyboard setup than his predecessor, Tony Kaye, he was bought a MiniMoog and an M to add to his trusty Hammond C3. Now, I know Rick Wakeman is one of prog's sacred cows moo for me, Rick , but after trawling through all his solo albums, I've come to the conclusion that most of his work is fairly dismal.

Sorry, but his compositional talents really aren't up to that of his on and off colleagues in Yes, which is probably why he's got so few writing credits in their catalogue although I have read that publishing issues were involved. Now, this is not to be taken as any sort of criticism of Rick's playing; he's a fantastic player, I just don't think he writes very well, although his first solo album proper The Six Wives of Henry VIII is easily the best of the bunch.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it's a damn' good album, despite its tres pretentious subject matter , OK?

I have to say that with one or two exceptions, the pieces don't really appear to reflect their subjects' characters, apart from the sombre Catherine Howard, one of the two poor women put to death by the monomaniacal king. The Mellotron use throughout is good, if not outstanding; mostly strings, with the odd bit of choir thrown in for good measure and allegedy Mellotron Moogs at one point.

The ensemble playing is excellent; shame Rick's quality control lapsed so badly later on. Blame the booze; he does Gareth Williams from influential experimental rock trio This Heat used to own a record shop in Leicester Square:.

Rick left Yes for the first time of many around this time, giving him the freedom to immerse himself totally in his solo career.

Oh dear. For his next project he decided to go totally over the top and tackle Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth musically. Six Wives worked well enough, so why not? Because Six Wives was fully instrumental and played by a small ensemble, whereas Journey had a full orchestra, choir and narrator and was recorded live. The music's pretty terrible, too; Rick had by this point shifted into 'Broadway show' mode and the themes become cheesier and cheesier as the album progresses.

The narration is pretty ridiculous, only serving to interrupt what little flow there is. Journey actually introduced the world to the precocious vocal talents of 'bellowing' Ashley Holt, one of Rick's old pub band mates and by God, it shows. This man should never have been allowed anywhere near a mic, let alone used on many of Rick's albums; he consistently sings flat and what vocal tone he has is pompous and overblown.

Apart from that, he's fine. The album's original sleeve has a nice eight-page insert featuring photos of various objects presumably meant to convey some sense of plot, including a close-up of somebody's ear with Rick's disembodied head about to disappear into it, a field of mushrooms with the narrator superimposed in the middle, sitting in one of those high-backed cane chairs that were popular at the time and, best of all, two terrapins swimming in what looks suspiciously like beer.

Very appropriate, since this album bears all the hallmarks of something that seemed like a good idea after a night down the boozer, only for Rick to find when his hangover wore off that he'd already signed a contract. Or recorded the album. Now, the picture on the sleeve has Rick plus rig surrounded by orchestra and band and while his custom 'double-Mellotron' is plainly visible, I have to say that it's basically inaudible, especially given that it probably couldn't produce any sound not already covered by the orchestra and choir.

Various people have told me they can hear bits of it, so there may be some vibes somewhere and possibly a descending string run in The Forest. Please tell me if you can spot exactly where, 'cos I can't Incidentally the 'double Tron' now residing in the States has recently been fully restored from an unplayable piece of junk to 'good as new'. Myths and Legends Apparently, Wembley's Empire Pool later the Arena had been iced over for some long-running event, probably the infamous 'Holiday on Ice' yes, this is considered entertainment in the UK and it would've cost too much to thaw and re-freeze it just for Rick's gigs, so he got in a bunch of professional skaters and did it that way.

One of his own stories concerns the performance where one of the 'knights' went off sick, leaving an odd number. Of course, at the end of the carefully choreographed battle scene, one knight was left skating around disconsolately, having not been killed, before finally, in despair, falling on his own lance to tumultuous applause and hysteria from the crowd.

Oh to've been there Anyway, the album: like its predecessor, it sounds more like a b-movie soundtrack, or possibly a superior version of Lloyd-Webber's Broadway shows I couldn't condemn anything to inferior status The composition is, er, somewhat plodding, as is much of the ensemble playing and the singing is actually flat in places. Rick's playing is top-notch, as usual; it's just a shame he didn't have any better material on which to exercise it. To the Mellotron: Guinevere has some reasonable strings and choir, despite there being a full orchestra and choir on the record anyway.

Still in full-on excess mode, later that year Rick accepted a commission from lunatic film director Ken Russell to produce the soundtrack for his latest piece of madness, Lisztomania.

I've never seen the film, although I remember seeing a highly intriguing cinema preview for it at the time and going by the stills on the rear sleeve of the album, it certainly looks worth seeing, especially if you liked Russell's previous effort, The Who's Tommy. The soundtrack is composed almost entirely of music by Liszt and Wagner, played mostly by Rick and is as endearingly bonkers as you might expect.

The vocal tracks, mostly sung by the film's star, Roger Daltrey, are fairly painful, but the instrumental stuff's actually pretty good, although it has the advantage of being written by 'proper' composers.

The opening track, a bizarre hybrid of a 'regular' classical piece and learner's favourite Chopsticks and a couple of pieces towards the end of the album feature real strings, but most of the other tracks have Rick's Mellotrons splattered all over them largely strings , played with his usual panache, particularly on the excellent Hell. Lisztomania doesn't crop up very often, although I believe a different version of the soundtrack was included as part of an eight-CD set released early in His next regular release, No Earthly Connection , was a return to a more 'normal' format, although there is supposed to be some sort of concept to the album.

Now, the first fifteen or twenty seconds are great. I love the first fifteen or twenty seconds. An excellent multi-overdubbed 'MiniMoog section', with notes swooping up and down the scale, resolving into a huge chord at the end.

I think you probably get the picture by now. Of course, with his famed sense of humour, you're never entirely certain just how seriously you're supposed to take all this, but I suspect that there's rather less irony than you'd wish, i. On the plus side, No Earthly Connection has Mellotron on practically every track, although often used sparingly.

Shame, really; a bit more may've covered up some of the album's deficiencies. Oh and Rick's site details an unsavoury story about the running water sounds on the album, which were apparently produced by the entire band urinating into a metal bathtub after a night on the piss, er, so to speak. Rick was back in Yes by this time, for the first of his many re-joinings, recording 's Going for the One and '78's Tormato , plus the posthumous live Yesshows , although he still found time for his solo career.

White Rock is basically instrumental music written for a film of the Winter Olympics and although I've never seen it, it probably works quite well in that context. The material is, while not actually classic, a vast improvement on No Earthly Connection and there's still plenty of Mellotron in evidence, though this would be Rick's last actual Mellotron solo album.

Much string and flute to be heard here, especially on The Shoot and Lax'x. Actually, I feel impelled to give this four stars. If only Rick had learned from it Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record. Well, say no more, really.

I think No Earthly Connection would suffice as incontrovertible evidence that Rick is far, far better as a sideman than a band leader. Guilty as charged, m'lud. I shall now sentence you to endlessly repeat yourself, releasing awful album after awful album, all played on the cheesiest of Korg synths Hang on, you already have Er, sorry - I seem to've got slightly carried away there; my Rick as against Richard Hell fantasy can be a little vivid sometimes Shit, this is really unfair; people I know who've met him say what a lovely bloke he is [n.

I now have myself and he is]. I just wish he'd put out something decent and stop using those appalling synth sounds! Well, at the time of writing he's just rejoined Yes for the fifth , yes, that's the FIFTH time, so at least we'll hear him play some classic material in the not too distant future. Er, I was reviewing the album, wasn't I? Well, it follows on from White Rock in that it's instrumental and largely keyboard-based and not actually bad at all. The album is notable for being one of the few to feature Rick's then-current project, the Birotron.

The idea of a loop Mellotron had merit, but the execution was hopeless and it sounded like nothing so much as, er, a murky, badly adjusted Mellotron with dirt-encrusted heads, but without any attack portion to the sounds.

OK in the mix, but apparently horrible played solo. You can hear it on three tracks here, but it's really no match for its far more illustrious predecessor. At least there's no Ashley Holt Although Rick's Mellotrons were long, long gone by the '90s literally, in the case of two of them , two archive live CDs were released within a year of each other, dating from the mid-'70s.

Despite the presence of the rotund yet strangely flat Ashley Holt again, the band were pretty good and despite too many tracks from his current release, ohnoit's NoEarthlyConnection again particularly the godawful The Prisoner , it's a good album, with some great playing from almost all concerned.

Rick's between-song banter hasn't dated too well, ditto his band's sense of humour, but there's a reasonable amount of Mellotron to be heard, though oddly not on one new song that has it on the studio version. Some tracks, e. Recollection from Journey only have short bursts, but others, including Catherine Parr make up for it with a brass part - Wakeman would have been using two Mellotrons on the night.

It has to be said that the band sound like they're having fun, which is more than you can say for many bands, particularly in the prog field.

The band stretch out on a few tracks, in a rather un-proglike style, including a lengthy acoustic guitar solo spot in Catherine Howard. Possibly slightly more Mellotron than on Live on the Test , with some excellent parts you won't hear on the studio versions.