Hammond

The Hammond XK-5 offers the sound and feel of a B-3 in a digital organ, with a proprietary hybrid sound engine, redesigned keybed, and multiple key contact system. The XK-5 also includes four full sets of Harmonic Drawbars plus pedal drawbars, Hammond's Digital Leslie effect with continuously variable speed, and DSP-based overdrive complemented by a vacuum tube preamp. Along with the standard selection of vibrato, chorus, and percussion effects, the XK-5 also features reverb and assignable multi-FX.

Completely Redesigned Key-bed
The XK-5's keyboard action was designed to duplicate the heft, bounce, and key dip of a "new old stock" and well-maintained B-3: No springy synth keys allowed! The XK-5 has the "waterfall" key fronts critical to Hammond playing techniques such as palm slides and glissandos. Play the XK-5 alongside any other modern organ and we're convinced you'll find the difference stunning.

All-New Sound Engine
The XK-5 employs new proprietary technology digitally recreating Hammond's storied tone wheel generator with unprecedented accuracy and flexibility. Tone wheels were spinning discs on shafts, each with its own pickup pointing at the edge. The pattern of "teeth" cut into the edge of the wheel determined the pitch. Modeling and sampling are combined in an exclusive process to capture the frequencies of all 91 tone wheels found in the original organs, along with other important sonic details such as key click, Touch-Response Percussion, vibrato-chorus, and more.

Virtual Matching Transformer
The influence of the MATCHING TRANSFORMER provides a link to one of the Vintage Hammond's most elusive qualities. All signals from the upper, lower, and pedal manuals passed through the matching transformer designed to even things out before the signal continued to the preamp. The transformer - a piece of iron with a coil wrapped around it - could remember some of its saturation based on how hard it had been working previously, thus affecting new notes played. Physicists call this hysteresis. Musically speaking, it affects how much "volume robbing" you hear and adds to what Hammond aficionados think of as the "breathing" quality of the organ. (The phenomenon is similar to why some recording engineers like transformer-equipped microphones and/or preamps for certain sounds.) In the XK-5, the matching transformer and its place in the signal chain is modeled precisely, and the saturation and hysteresis amounts are adjustable from barely-there to over-the-top.

Features:

• Four full sets of Harmonic Drawbars plus pedal drawbars, just like on original Hammond console organs including the B-3
• 12 additional virtual tone wheels are devoted to harmonically complex pedal tones (i.e. more than just 16' and 8' sine waves), as found on Hammonds beginning in 1945.
• Custom tone wheel profiles available via download.
• Hammond's best-ever Digital Leslie. Anything else is just a "rotary simulator."
• Continuously variable Digital Leslie speed if desired.
• Dedicated octave shift / transpose buttons.
• Improved DSP-based overdrive complemented by vacuum tube preamp.
• Improved vibrato-chorus.
• Dedicated on/off buttons and amount knobs for reverb, overdrive, and assignable multi-FX.
• Lower B drawbars can alternately control 9 MIDI CC messages for external gear.
• Left and right 1/4" outs can be used at the same time as Leslie output, for running the XK-5 through a real Leslie in parallel to stationary speakers, a subwoofer, or house P.A.
• More key-triggering modes for pedal-to-lower coupler (Manual Bass function).
• Firmware updatable via USB flash drive or directly from computer.
• Crisp new OLED display is more readable under different lighting conditions.
• Includes Single Manual only, pedal sold separately

Specs:

Manual
- 61 playing keys plus 12 Preset Keys
- Square-front ("waterfall"-style)
- New mechanical key-bed design

Tone-Generator
- MTW (Modeled Tone Wheels)
- 61-note polyphony for Manuals

Virtual Multi-Contacts
- Custom Contacts (3 Factory, 3 User)
- 3 Physical Contacts, 9 Assignable Virtual Contacts
- Adjustable Attack, Release, Decay

Harmonic Drawbars: 5 sets (4 Manuals, 1 Pedal)

Drawbar Voicing: Choice of A-100, B-3, C-3, and Mellow

Custom Tone-Wheel
- 3 Factory, 3 User for A-100, B-3, C-3 & Mellow Drawbar Voicings
- CTW's identified by model and serial number
- Adjustable parameters for each tone wheel

Touch-Response Percussion
- Percussion On, Normal/Soft Volume,
- Slow/Fast Decay, 2nd & 3rd Harmonic
- Adjustable Normal/Soft Volume settings,
- Slow/Fast Decay rates, Velocity, Key Tracking,
- 1' Drawbar Cancel ON/OFF

Vibrato & Chorus
- Virtual Scanner (3 settings)
- Adjustable rate, Vibrato/Chorus Mix
- Vibrato on Pedal ON/OFF

Overdrive: Tube/Solid State, Adjustable drive level

Preset Keys
- 9 Presets plus Cancel each Manual
- 2 Adjust Presets each Manual
- 9 programmable Preset Banks

Patches: 100 User, 100 Factory Patches

Tube Preamp: 12AU7/12AX7 Tubes, Adjustable Routing & Drive Level

Multi-Effects: Tremolo, Auto Pan, Wah-Wah, Ring Modulator, Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, Delay. Adjustable parameters for each effect.

Leslie
- STOP, FAST, BYPASS panel controls.
- Custom Cabinets (8 Preset, 8 User)
- Adjustable Slow & Fast Speeds, Rise & Fall Times, Horn/Drum/Subwoofer Volume Balance, Microphone Settings.

Reverb
- ON/OFF panel control
- 11 programs
- Leslie On Reverb ON/OFF

MIDI
- 5 MIDI Templates
- 3 Keyboard Channels (Upper, Lower, Pedals)
- 6 External Zones (3 Upper, 2 Lower, 1 Pedals)
- Assignable MIDI channels, key range, Program Change, Pan, Velocity Curve, Min/Max Volume
- IN 1, IN 2, OUT Connections

Display
- OLED, 20 character, 2 line
- 7 Control Buttons & VALUE Rotary Knob

Audio Connections
- LINE OUT L/MONO / R
- Headphone Jack

Dimensions
- 46.8" (W) 15.8" (D) 4.7" (H)
- Weight 34.6 lbs.