The Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation that was released in 1978. Although primitive by later standards, the CR-78 represented an important advance in drum machine technology at the time, in particular by allowing users to program and store their own drum patterns.
123-592: The wood effect cabinet and preset rhythms of the CR-78 such as Waltz , Bossa Nova and Rhumba suggest that it was seen by its designers as primarily an accompaniment for an electric organ , but the CR-78 became a popular instrument with new wave musicians in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The CR-78 uses analog drum voices that sound very little like real percussion instruments. The unit also incorporates an NEC microprocessor to provide digital control of its functions. Previous Roland drum machines had offered only
246-422: A balanced mono signal and AC power directly from the organ via a six-pin cable. Spinet organs contained their own built-in amplifier and speakers. The tone cabinet was originally the only method of adding reverberation to a Hammond organ. The first models to be produced were the 20-watt A-20 and 40-watt A-40. The A-20 was designed for churches and small-capacity halls, and featured a set of doors in front of
369-401: A loudspeaker . The organ is electrically powered, replacing the reed organ's twin bellows pedals with a single swell (or "expression") pedal more like that of a pipe organ. Instead of having to pump at a constant rate, as had been the case with the reed organ, the organist simply varies the position of this pedal to change the volume as desired. Unlike reed organs, this gives great control over
492-525: A speaker cabinet . The organ is commonly used with the Leslie speaker . Around two million Hammond organs have been manufactured. The organ was originally marketed by the Hammond Organ Company to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ , or instead of a piano . It quickly became popular with professional jazz musicians in organ trios —small groups centered on
615-466: A $ 75,000 Skinner pipe organ in the University of Chicago 's Rockefeller Chapel . During the auditory tests, sustained tones and excerpts from musical works were played on the electric and pipe organs while a group of musicians and laymen attempted to distinguish between the instruments. While attorneys for Hammond argued that the test listeners were wrong or guessed nearly half the time, witnesses for
738-557: A 12-note pedalboard. The M model was produced from 1948 to 1951, the M-2 from 1951 to 1955, and the M-3 from 1955 to 1964. The M series was replaced by the M-100 series in 1961, which used a numbering system to identify the body style and finish as used on earlier console series. It included the same manuals as the M, but increased the pedalboard size to 13 notes, stretching a full octave, and included
861-416: A Hammond organ comes from a tonewheel. Each one rotates in front of an electromagnetic pickup. The variation in the magnetic field induces a small alternating current at a particular frequency, which represents a signal similar to a sine wave . When a key is pressed on the organ, it completes a circuit of nine electrical switches, which are linked to the drawbars. The position of the drawbars, combined with
984-430: A Hammond's tuning is concert A at 440 Hz . Crosstalk or "leakage" occurs when the instrument's magnetic pickups receive the signal from rotating metal tonewheels other than those selected by the organist. Hammond considered crosstalk a defect that required correcting, and in 1963 introduced a new level of resistor–capacitor filtering to greatly reduce this crosstalk, along with 50–60 Hz mains hum . However,
1107-605: A Leslie speaker. Hammond designed it as the company's flagship product, in response to market competition and to replace the B-3. However, it was considered expensive at $ 9,795 and it sold poorly. It did not sound like a B-3. Hammond introduced their first integrated circuit (IC) model, the Concorde, in 1971. The company had stopped manufacturing tonewheel organs entirely by 1975, due to increased financial inefficiency, and switched to making IC models full-time. Console models included
1230-463: A cheaper design, was not as sophisticated as on the other organs. The L-100 sold particularly well in the UK, with several notable British musicians using it instead of a B-3 or C-3. The T series, produced from 1968 to 1975, was the last of the tonewheel spinet organs. Unlike all the earlier Hammond organs, which used vacuum tubes for preamplification, amplification, percussion and chorus-vibrato control,
1353-407: A church organ. Modern Hammond-Suzuki models use waterfall keys. Hammond console organs come with a wooden pedalboard played with the feet, for bass notes. Most console Hammond pedalboards have 25 notes, with the bottom note a low C and the top note a middle C two octaves higher. Hammond used a 25-note pedalboard because he found that on traditional 32-note pedalboards used in church pipe organs,
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#17327719999121476-455: A console half-moon or pedal switch, with the most distinctive effect occurring as the speaker rotation speed changes. The most popular Leslies were the 122, which accepted a balanced signal suitable for console organs, and the 147, which accepted an unbalanced signal and could be used for spinet organs with a suitable adapter. The Pro-Line series of Leslies which were made to be portable for gigging bands using solid-state amps were popular during
1599-423: A console model often found that he or she could later make the transition to a pipe organ in a church setting with relative ease. College music departments made console organs available as practice instruments for students, and church musicians would not uncommonly have them at home. During the period from the 1940s through approximately the 1970s, a variety of more modest self-contained electronic home organs from
1722-492: A digital tonewheel simulator. The New B-3 is constructed to appear like the original B-3, and the designers attempted to retain the subtle nuances of the familiar B-3 sound. Hammond-Suzuki promotional material states that it would be difficult for even an experienced B-3 player to distinguish between the old and new B-3 organs. A review of the New B-3 by Hugh Robjohns called it "a true replica of an original B-3 ... in terms of
1845-415: A further development of those available on the earlier Roland Rhythm 33, 55 and 77 machines. The analog percussion voices consist of bass drum , snare drum , rim shot , hi-hat , cymbal , maracas , claves , cowbell , high bongo , low bongo, low conga , tambourine , guiro , and "metallic beat" (an accent that could be overlaid on the hi-hat voice). The CR-78 also has an accent control that increases
1968-469: A good response from bass pedals. Many players prefer to play the Hammond through a cabinet with a rotating speaker known, after several name changes, as a Leslie speaker , after its inventor Donald J. Leslie . The typical Leslie system is an integrated speaker/amplifier combination in which sound is emitted by a rotating horn over a stationary treble compression driver , and a rotating baffle beneath
2091-420: A high-quality electrical connection when pressing a key. This design was discontinued with the introduction of the transistor organ. This means tonewheel organs have between 3.2 and 8.4 grams of palladium, depending on make and model. The sound on a tonewheel Hammond organ is varied through the manipulation of drawbars. A drawbar is a metal slider that controls the volume of a particular sound component, in
2214-485: A home organ manufacturer, Gulbransen , introduced the world's first transistor organ, Model B (Model 1100). Although it uses transistors for tone generation, vacuum tubes are still used for amplification. And in 1958, Rodgers built the first fully solid-state transistorized organ for church, called Opus 1 (Model 38). Other manufacturers followed. By the 1960s, electronic organs were ubiquitous in all genres of popular music, from Lawrence Welk to acid rock (e.g.
2337-414: A leaver or crank on the side by an assistant, or in some late models an electric pump.) The reed organ is thus able to bring an organ sound to venues that are incapable of housing or affording pipe organs. This concept played an important role in the development of the electric organ. In the 1930s, several manufacturers developed electronic organs designed to imitate the function and sound of pipe organs. At
2460-631: A microphone in the soundproof box, and installed at Nishi-Chiba Church in Chiba Prefecture. On the other hand, the Hammond Novachord (1939) and other competitors selected the subtractive synthesis design using various combinations of oscillators , filters , and possibly frequency dividers , to reduce the huge number of oscillators, which was the bottleneck of the additive synthesis design. The heat generated by early models with vacuum tube tone generators and amplifiers led to
2583-419: A note is being played, and a chorus effect where a note's sound is combined with another sound at a slightly different and varying pitch. The best known vibrato and chorus system consists of six settings, V1, V2, V3, C1, C2 and C3 (i.e., three each of vibrato and chorus), which can be selected via a rotary switch. Vibrato / chorus can be selected for each manual independently. The B-3 and C-3 models introduced
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#17327719999122706-553: A number of capacitive pickups , then the resulting electric signals are processed and amplified to create musical tones. Orgatron was manufactured by Everett Piano Company from 1935 to 1941. Following World War II and a business transfer, production resumed in 1945 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company and continued into the early 1960s, including some models retaining the Everett name from 1945 to 1947. In 1955,
2829-400: A number of presets. The L-100 series entered production at the same time as the M-100. It was an economy version, with various cost-cutting changes so the organ could retail for under $ 1,000. The vibrato was a simpler circuit than on other consoles and spinets. Two variations of the vibrato were provided, plus a chorus that mixed various vibrato signals together. The expression pedal, based on
2952-468: A pedalboard with only 25 notes, instead of the standard 32 on church organs, and it quickly became a de facto standard. On April 24, 1934, Hammond filed a patent for an "electrical musical instrument", which was personally delivered to the patent office by Hanert, explaining that they could start production immediately and it would be good for local employment in Chicago. The invention was unveiled to
3075-504: A selection of preset rhythms. The CR-78's key new feature at the time of its introduction was that in addition to offering 34 preset rhythms, it provided four programmable memory locations for storing patterns created by the user. These can be created by using step programming with the WS-1 box, which was available as an optional extra. The four user patterns are stored in RAM memory; when the CR-78
3198-434: A set of pickups, it changes the pitch of the overall sound slightly. From here, the sound is sent to the main amplifier, and on to the audio speakers. The Hammond organ makes technical compromises in the notes it generates. Rather than produce harmonics that are exact multiples of the fundamental as in equal temperament , it uses the nearest-available frequencies generated by the tonewheels. The only guaranteed frequency for
3321-477: A set of reeds by means of a bellows, usually operated by constantly pumping a set of pedals. The Harmonium used pressure, and the American reed organ or pump organ used suction. While reed organs have limited tonal quality, they are small, inexpensive, self-powered, transportable and self-contained. (Large models were made with multiple manuals, or even pedal boards; in the latter case, the bellows were operated by
3444-431: A similar way to a fader on an audio mixing console . As a drawbar is incrementally pulled out, it increases the volume of its sound. When pushed all the way in, the volume is decreased to zero. The labeling of the drawbar derives from the stop system in pipe organs, in which the physical length of the pipe corresponds to the pitch produced. Most Hammonds contain nine drawbars per manual. The drawbar marked "8′" generates
3567-687: A simpler drum machine, the CompuRhythm CR-68. This was essentially the same as the CR-78, but without programmable patterns or the ability to fade drum sounds in and out. A large cabinet version, the CompuRhythm CR-800, with capabilities between the CR-68 and CR-78, was also produced. At the same time Roland also sold the TR-66, a smaller unit that offered fewer preset rhythms and no programmability. The CR-78's built-in rhythm sounds were
3690-426: A skirt, often a consideration when a church organ was placed in front of the congregation. The model C did not contain the chorus generator, but had space in the cabinet for it to be fitted. The concurrent model D was a model C with a prefitted chorus. Development of the vibrato system took place during the early 1940s, and was put into production shortly after the end of World War II . The various models available were
3813-571: A slightly different tone generator. This was followed by the H-100 series, with a redesigned tonewheel generator and various other additional features. An extended model, the H-300, also featured an integrated drum machine . The organ was not particularly well made, and suffered a reputation for being unreliable. Hammond service engineer Harvey Olsen said, "When they [H-100s] work, they sound pretty decent. But die-hard enthusiasts won't touch it." Though
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3936-471: A slower pace and generate a lower pitch for a short time. Hammond's New B3 contains similar switches to emulate this effect, though it is a digital instrument. The Hammond organ's technology derives from the Telharmonium , an instrument created in 1897 by Thaddeus Cahill . The telharmonium used revolving electric alternators which generated tones that could be transmitted over wires. The instrument
4059-526: A stationary bass woofer . This creates a characteristic sound because of the constantly changing pitch shifts that result from the Doppler effect created by the moving sound sources. The Leslie was originally designed to mimic the complex tones and constantly shifting sources of sound emanating from a large group of ranks in a pipe organ. The effect varies depending on the speed of the rotors, which can be toggled between fast (tremolo) and slow (chorale) using
4182-572: A sufficient return. In 1936, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint claiming that the Hammond Company made "false and misleading" claims in advertisements for its organ, including that the Hammond could produce "the entire range of tone coloring of a pipe organ". The complaint resulted in lengthy hearing proceedings, which featured a series of auditory tests that pitted a Hammond costing about $ 2600 against
4305-511: A technical bottleneck, as vacuum tube circuits of those days are bulky and unstable. Benjamin Miessner realized that a hybrid approach, using acoustic tone generators along with electronic circuits, could be a reasonable design for commercial products. The Orgatron was developed in 1934 by Frederick Albert Hoschke, after a Miessner patent. A fan blows air over a set of free reeds , causing them to vibrate. These vibrations are detected by
4428-479: A time, and also mute drum sounds from a pattern using the balance knob and dedicated cancel buttons. The CR-78 has been used in songs including " In the Air Tonight " by Phil Collins , " I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) " by Daryl Hall & John Oates , " Mad World " by Tears For Fears ,, " Heart Of Glass " by " Blondie ", and in live performances by Radiohead . Hammond organ The Hammond organ
4551-446: A time, and is effectively playable only with the left foot (and on some models only with the left toes). These limitations, combined with the shortened manuals, make the spinet organ all but useless for performing or practicing classical organ music; but at the same time, it allows the novice home organist to explore the challenge and flexibility of simultaneously playing three keyboards (two hands and one foot). User guides suggest playing
4674-585: A two-octave (or occasionally even a full 32-note) pedalboard easily playable by both feet in standard toe-and-heel fashion. (Console organs having 32-note pedalboards are sometimes known as "concert organs".) Console models, like spinet and chord organs, have internal speakers mounted above the pedals. With their more traditional configuration, greater capabilities, and better performance compared to spinets, console organs are especially suitable for use in small churches, public performance, and even organ instruction. The home musician or student who first learned to play on
4797-555: A variety of manufacturers were popular forms of home entertainment. These instruments were much influenced by theatre organs ' sounds and playing style, and often the stops contained imitative voicings such as "trumpet" and "marimba". In the 1950s–1970s, as technology progressed, they increasingly included automated features such as: and even built-in tape recorders . These features made it easier to play complete, layered " one-man band " arrangements, especially for people who had not trained as organists. The Lowrey line of home organs
4920-400: Is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated sound by creating an electric current from rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup , and then strengthening the signal with an amplifier to drive
5043-712: Is controlled by a pedal (also known as a "swell" or "expression" pedal). The keys on each manual have a lightweight action , which allows players to perform rapid passages more easily than on a piano. In contrast to piano and pipe organ keys, Hammond keys have a flat-front profile, commonly referred to as "waterfall" style. Early Hammond console models had sharp edges, but starting with the B-2, these were rounded, as they were cheaper to manufacture. The M series of spinets also had waterfall keys (which has subsequently made them ideal for spares on B-3s and C-3s ), but later spinet models had "diving board" style keys which resembled those found on
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5166-465: Is switched off, the contents of the RAM are maintained by a NiCd rechargeable battery. The CR-78's front panel allows the user to customize the preset rhythms by altering the volume balance between bass and treble sounds, canceling some sounds altogether, and adding "metallic beat" (three filtered square waves that create a distinctive chime timbre). Many of the preset rhythms have a memorable character, and
5289-451: Is the epitome of this type of instrument. While a few such instruments are still sold today, their popularity has waned greatly , and many of their functions have been incorporated into more modern and inexpensive portable keyboards . Following World War II, most electronic home organs were built in a configuration usually called a spinet organ, which first appeared in 1949. These compact and relatively inexpensive instruments became
5412-437: Is turned on for about four seconds. The "Start" switch is then released, whereupon the organ is ready to generate sound. The H-100 and E-series consoles and L-100 and T-100 spinet organs, however, had a self-starting motor that required only a single "On" switch. A pitch bend effect can be created on the Hammond organ by turning the "Run" switch off and on again. This briefly cuts power to the generators, causing them to run at
5535-545: The Hammond Clock Company , in 1928. As well as clocks, his early inventions included three-dimensional glasses and an automatic bridge table shuffler. However, as the Great Depression continued into the 1930s, sales of the bridge table declined and he decided to look elsewhere for a commercially successful product. Hammond was inspired to create the tonewheel or "phonic wheel" by listening to
5658-527: The Lowrey played by Garth Hudson . The design of the Lowrey's electronics made it easy to include a pitch-bend feature that is unavailable for the Hammond, and Hudson built a musical style around its use. Console organs, large and expensive electronic organ models, resemble pipe organ consoles. These instruments have a more traditional configuration, including full-range manuals, a wider variety of stops, and
5781-426: The fundamental of the note being played, the drawbar marked "16′" is an octave below, and the drawbars marked "4′", "2′" and "1′" are one, two and three octaves above, respectively. The other drawbars generate various other harmonics and subharmonics of the note. While each individual drawbar generates a relatively pure sound similar to a flute or electronic oscillator, more complex sounds can be created by mixing
5904-433: The gospel and jazz scenes continued to make heavy use of Hammonds, while various styles of rock began to take advantage of increasingly complex electronic keyboard instruments, as large-scale integration and then digital technology began to enter the mainstream. An Eminent 310 organ was prominently featured on Jean Michel Jarre 's albums Oxygène (1977) and Équinoxe (1978). The Solina String Ensemble
6027-465: The harmonium , pipe organ and theatre organ . Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed into several types of instruments: The immediate predecessor of the electronic organ was the harmonium , or reed organ , an instrument that was common in homes and small churches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In a fashion not totally unlike that of pipe organs, reed organs generate sound by forcing air over
6150-400: The "classic" Jimmy Smith sound. In addition to drawbars, many Hammond tonewheel organ models also include presets, which make predefined drawbar combinations available at the press of a button. Console organs have one octave of reverse colored keys (naturals are black, sharps and flats are white) to the left of each manual, with each key activating a preset; the far left key (C), also known as
6273-579: The 1960s, Hammond began to manufacture transistor organs in response to competitors such as Lowrey and Wurlitzer who were offering them, with a greater feature set compared to tonewheel Hammonds. The first organ that bridged the gap between tonewheel and transistor was the X-66, introduced in May 1967. The X-66 contained just 12 tonewheels, and used electronics for frequency division . It contained separate "vibrato bass" and "vibrato treble" in an attempt to simulate
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#17327719999126396-428: The 1970s. Leslie initially tried to sell his invention to Hammond, but Laurens Hammond was unimpressed and declined to purchase it. Hammond modified their interface connectors to be "Leslie-proof", but Leslie quickly engineered a workaround. Some Hammond staff thought Laurens Hammond was being irrational and autocratic towards Leslie, but Don Leslie later said it helped give his speakers publicity. The Leslie company
6519-512: The 8000 Aurora (1976) and 8000M Aurora (1977), which contained drawbars and a built-in rotating speaker. Spinet organs included the K-100 and J-400 series, and the "Cadette" V series. Some models included a headphone jack . The B-3 and C-3 were replaced by the B-3000, designed to be a model for professional use that had the same look and feel of the earlier organs. It contained the same controls, but
6642-578: The A-143 was "warm cherry finish, Early American styling". This model numbering scheme was used for several other series of console and spinet organs that subsequently appeared. The D-100 series, which provided a self-contained version of the RT-3, followed in 1963. The E-100 series was a cost-reduced version of the A-100 introduced in 1965, with only one set of drawbars per manual, a reduced number of presets, and
6765-541: The B-2/C-2 and B-3/C-3, respectively. In 1959, Hammond introduced the A-100 series. It was effectively a self-contained version of the B-3/C-3, with an internal power amplifier and speakers. The organ was manufactured in a variety of different chassis, with the last two digits of the specific model number determining the style and finish of the instrument. For example, A-105 was "Tudor styling in light oak or walnut", while
6888-674: The BV and CV (vibrato only) and BCV and DV (vibrato and chorus). The B-2 and C-2, introduced in 1949, allowed vibrato to be enabled or disabled on each manual separately. In 1954, the B-3 and C-3 models were introduced with the additional harmonic percussion feature, advertised as "touch response percussion control". Despite several attempts by Hammond to replace them, these two models remained popular and stayed in continuous production through early 1975. The last B-3 and C-3 organs manufactured were built from leftover parts, and are not considered as good as earlier models. To cater more specifically to
7011-548: The Doors , Iron Butterfly ) to the Bob Dylan album Blonde on Blonde . In some cases, Hammonds were used, while others featured very small all-electronic instruments, only slightly larger than a modern digital keyboard , called combo organs . (Various portable organs made by Farfisa and Vox were especially popular, and remain so among retro-minded rock combos.) The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s saw increasing specialization: both
7134-571: The FTC claimed that Hammond employees had unfairly manipulated the Skinner organ to sound more like the Hammond. In 1938, the FTC ordered Hammond to "cease and desist" a number of advertising claims, including that its instrument was equivalent to a $ 10,000 pipe organ. After the FTC's decision, Hammond claimed that the hearings had vindicated his company's assertions that the organ produced "real", "fine", and "beautiful" music, phrases which were each cited in
7257-401: The FTC's original complaint, but not included in the "cease and desist" order. Hammond also claimed that although the hearing was expensive for his company, the proceedings generated so much publicity that "as a result we sold enough extra organs to cover the expense." The Hammond Organ Company produced an estimated two million instruments in its lifetime; these have been described as "probably
7380-658: The German company Hohner also released two electrostatic reed organs: the Hohnerola and the Minetta , invented by Ernst Zacharias . In the same decades, similar electro-acoustic instruments — i.e. electric-fan driven free reed organs with additional electronic circuits — were developed also in Japan. Magna Organ invented in 1934 by a Yamaha engineer, Sei-ichi Yamashita, was a multi-timbral keyboard instrument similar to
7503-578: The Hammond organ. Jazz club owners found that organ trios were cheaper than hiring a big band . Jimmy Smith 's use of the Hammond B-3, with its additional harmonic percussion feature, inspired a generation of organ players , and its use became more widespread in the 1960s and 1970s in genres such as rhythm and blues , rock (especially progressive rock ), and reggae . In the 1970s, the Hammond Organ Company abandoned tonewheels and switched to integrated circuits . These organs were less popular, and
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#17327719999127626-463: The Hammond vast registration. In all, the Hammond is capable of producing more than 250 million tones. This feature, combined with the three-keyboard layout (i.e., manuals and pedalboard), the freedom of electrical power, and a wide, easily controllable range of volume, made the first electronic organs more flexible than any reed organ, or indeed any previous musical instrument except, perhaps, the pipe organ itself. The classic Hammond sound benefits from
7749-516: The Hoschke's instrument developed in the same year, although it utilized the microphones in the soundproof box instead of the electrostatic pickups. Initially the Magna Organ was designed as a kind of the additive-synthesizer that summing-up the partials generated by the frequency-multipliers . However, it seems difficult to achieve polyphony without intermodulation distortions with
7872-534: The New B-3. The XK-3 is part of a modular system that allows an integrated lower manual and pedals to be added. In response to some clones, including a variety of vintage keyboards in a single package, Hammond released the SK series of organs, which include grand piano , Rhodes piano , Wurlitzer electronic piano , Hohner clavinet , and samples of wind and brass instruments alongside the standard drawbar and tonewheel emulation. Keyboard magazine's Stephen Fortner praised
7995-568: The T series used all- solid-state , transistor circuitry, though, unlike the L-100, it did include the scanner-vibrato as seen on the B-3. Other than the T-100 series models, all other T-Series models included a built-in rotating Leslie speaker and some included an analog drum machine , while the T-500 also included a built-in cassette recorder. It was one of the last tonewheel Hammonds produced. In
8118-731: The US, Hammond manufactures a number of dedicated console organs, including the B-3mk2 and the C-3mk2, and the A-405, a Chapel Console Organ. The company has a dedicated Church Advisory Team that provides a consultancy, so churches can choose the most appropriate instrument. The authorized loudspeaker enclosure to use with a console organ was the Hammond Tone Cabinet, which contained an external amplifier and speaker . The cabinet carried
8241-546: The United States. The new company produced their own brand of portable organs, including the XB-2, XB-3 and XB-5. Sound on Sound 's Rod Spark, a longtime Hammond enthusiast, said these models were "a matter of taste, of course, but I don't think they're a patch on the old ones". In 2002, Hammond-Suzuki launched the New B-3, a recreation of the original electromechanical instrument using contemporary electronics and
8364-493: The ability to manipulate them further made the CR-78 a versatile instrument. No digital control of tempo is provided on the front panel, with only an analog knob for tempo control. However, the CR-78 accepts an external V-trig clock, allowing a control voltage to be fed in from another device such as a music sequencer . A selection of preset fills and rhythm variations are also available, either to trigger manually, or automatically every 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars. Roland also produced
8487-408: The adaptation of solid-state electronics to organs in the late 1950s, the market for electronic organs began a fundamental change. Portable electronic keyboards became a regular feature of rock-and-roll music during the 1960s. They are also more convenient to move and store than are the large one-piece organs that had previously defined the market. By the late 1960s, the home organ market was dying while
8610-417: The bass, and the lower manual (typically F2–C6) omitting the treble. The manuals are usually offset, inviting but not requiring the new organist to dedicate the right hand to the upper manual and the left to the lower, rather than using both hands on a single manual. The stops on the upper manual were often 'voiced' somewhat louder or brighter, and user guides encouraged playing the melody on the upper manual and
8733-414: The cancel key, de-activates all presets, and results in no sound coming from that manual. The two right-most preset keys (B and B ♭ ) activate the corresponding set of drawbars for that manual, while the other preset keys produce preselected drawbar settings that are internally wired into the preset panel. Hammond organs have a built-in vibrato effect that provides a small variation in pitch while
8856-538: The church market, Hammond introduced the Concert Model E in July 1937, which included a full 32-note pedalboard and four electric switches known as toe pistons, allowing various sounds to be selected by the feet. The model E was replaced by the model RT in 1949, which retained the full-sized pedalboard, but otherwise was internally identical to the B and C models. RT-2 and RT-3 models subsequently appeared in line with
8979-501: The company struggled to survive, proposing the acquisition of a majority stake in Roland in 1972, which the latter turned down. Roland's Ikutaro Kakehashi did not believe it was practical at that point to move the entire manufacturing operation from the US to Japan, and also viewed Hammond's declining sales figures as a problem. In 1985, Hammond went out of business, though servicing and spares continued to be available after this under
9102-662: The company went out of business in 1985. The Hammond name was purchased by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation , which proceeded to manufacture digital simulations of the most popular tonewheel organs. This culminated in the production of the "New B-3" in 2002, a recreation of the original B-3 organ using digital technology. Hammond-Suzuki continues to manufacture a variety of organs for both professional players and churches. Companies such as Korg , Roland , and Clavia have achieved success in providing more lightweight and portable emulations of
9225-524: The concept of "Harmonic Percussion", which was designed to emulate the percussive sounds of the harp , xylophone , and marimba . When selected, this feature plays a decaying second- or third-harmonic overtone when a key is pressed. The selected percussion harmonic fades out, leaving the sustained tones the player selected with the drawbars. The volume of this percussive effect is selectable as either normal or soft. Harmonic Percussion retriggers only after all notes have been released, so legato passages sound
9348-454: The drawbars in varying amounts. Because of this, the Hammond organ can be considered a type of additive synthesis . Hammond manufactured from 1969 onwards have the footage of each drawbar engraved on its end. Some drawbar settings have become well-known and associated with certain musicians. A very popular setting is 888000000 (i.e., with the drawbars labeled "16′", " 5 + 1 ⁄ 3 ′" and "8′" fully pulled out), and has been identified as
9471-413: The effect only on the first note or chord, making Harmonic Percussion uniquely a "single-trigger", but still a polyphonic effect. Before a Hammond organ can produce sound, the motor that drives the tonewheels must come up to speed. On most models, starting a Hammond organ involves two switches. The "Start" switch turns a dedicated starter motor , which must run for about 12 seconds. Then, the "Run" switch
9594-482: The expression pedal while playing, especially if already accustomed to using a piano's sustain pedal to shape the music. Expressive pumping added a strong dynamic element to home organ music that much classical literature and hymnody lacked, and would help influence a new generation of popular keyboard artists. Shortly after the debut of the spinet, the chord organ appeared. This is an even simpler instrument designed for those who wanted to produce an organ sound in
9717-447: The first of which uses twelve oscillators to produce one octave of chromatic scale, and frequency dividers to produce other notes. These were even cheaper and more portable than the Hammond. Later developments made it possible to run an organ from a single radio frequency oscillator. Frequency divider organs were built by many companies, and were offered in kit form to be built by hobbyists. A few of these have seen notable use, such as
9840-425: The harmony on the lower. This seemed designed in part to encourage the pianist, who was accustomed to a single keyboard, to make use of both manuals. Stops on such instruments, relatively limited in number, are frequently named after orchestral instruments that they can, at best, only roughly approximate, and are often brightly colored (even more so than those of theatre organs ). The spinet organ's loudspeakers, unlike
9963-627: The home without having to learn much organ (or even piano) playing technique. The typical chord organ has only a single manual that is usually an octave shorter than its already-abbreviated spinet counterpart. It also possesses scaled-down registration and no pedalboard. The left hand operates not a keyboard but an array of chord buttons adapted from those of an accordion . The original Hammond Chord Organs in 1950 are electronic instruments using vacuum-tube technology. In 1958 Magnus Organ Corporation introduced chord organs similar to an electrically blown reed organ or harmonium. Electronic organs before
10086-484: The instrument had been originally designed for use in a church, Hammond realized that the amateur home market was a far more lucrative business, and started manufacturing spinet organs in the late 1940s. Outside of the United States, they were manufactured in greater numbers than the consoles, and hence were more widely used. Several different types of M series instruments were produced between 1948 and 1964; they contained two 44-note manuals with one set of drawbars each, and
10209-597: The legs would be cut off these instruments to make them easier to transport from show to show. The most popular and emulated organ in the Hammond line is the B3. Although portable " clonewheel organs " started to synthesize and displace the original Hammond tonewheel design in the 1970s, it is still very much in demand by professional organists. The industry continues to see a lively trade in refurbished Hammond instruments, even as technological advances allow new organs to perform at levels unimaginable only two or three decades ago. In
10332-466: The look and layout, and the actual sound". The instrument project nearly stalled after a breakdown in negotiations between Japanese and United States staff, the latter of whom insisted on manufacturing the case in the United States and designing the organ to identical specifications to the original. The company has since released the XK-3, a single-manual organ using the same digital tonewheel technology as
10455-417: The loudness of certain steps in a pattern. There are four patterns named "Rock" and two named "Disco". Other patterns are named " Waltz ", " Shuffle ", "Slow Rock", " Swing ", " Foxtrot ", " Tango ", " Boogie ", " Enka ", " Bossa Nova ", " Samba ", " Mambo ", " Chacha ", " Beguine " and " Rhumba ". Each pattern is available in two variations, labeled "A" and "B". It is possible to select more than one rhythm at
10578-410: The mid-1950s had used vacuum tubes which tended to be bulky and unstable. This restricted attempts to extend features and spread their use into homes. Transistors , invented at Bell Labs in 1947, went into practical production in the 1950s, and their small size and stability led to major changes in the production of electronics equipment, in what has been termed the "transistor revolution". In 1957,
10701-433: The most successful electronic organs ever made". A key ingredient to the Hammond organ's success was the use of dealerships and a sense of community. Several dedicated organ dealers set up business in the United States and there was a bi-monthly newsletter, The Hammond Times , mailed out to subscribers. Advertisements tended to show families gathered around the instrument, often with a child playing it, as an attempt to show
10824-425: The moving gears of his electric clocks and the tones produced by them. He gathered pieces from a second-hand piano he had purchased for $ 15 and combined it with a tonewheel generator in a similar form to the telharmonium, albeit much shorter and more compact. Since Hammond was not a musician, he asked the company's assistant treasurer, W. L. Lahey, to help him achieve the desired organ sound. To cut costs, Hammond made
10947-400: The music's dynamic range, while at the same time freeing one or both of the player's feet to play on a pedalboard , which, unlike most reed organs, electronic organs incorporate. From the beginning, the electronic organ has had a second manual , also rare among reed organs. While these features mean that the electric organ requires greater musical skills of the organist than the reed organ has,
11070-675: The name of the Organ Service Company. In early 1986, the Hammond brand and rights were acquired by Hammond Organ Australia, run by Noel Crabbe. Then in 1989, the name was purchased by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation, which rebranded the company as Hammond-Suzuki. Although nominally a Japanese company, founder Manji Suzuki was a fan of the instrument and retained several former Hammond Organ Company staff for research and development, and ensured that production would partially remain in
11193-462: The natural successors to reed organs . They were marketed as competitors of home pianos and often aimed at would-be home organists who were already pianists (hence the name " spinet ", in the sense of a small upright piano). The instrument's design reflected this concept: the spinet organ physically resembled a piano, and it presented simplified controls and functions that were both less expensive to produce and less intimidating to learn. One feature of
11316-640: The older model continued to be available as the AB until October 1938. A model BA of 1938 may be seen and heard at the Musical Museum , Brentford England. Criticism that the Hammond organ was more aesthetically suitable to the home instead of the church led to the introduction of the model C in September 1939. It contained the same internals as the AB or BC, but covered on the front and sides by "modesty panels" to cover female organists' legs while playing in
11439-544: The organ as a center-point of home life and to encourage children to learn music. Hammond organs, as manufactured by the original company, can be divided into two main groups: The first model in production, in June 1935, was the Model A. It contained most of the features that came to be standard on all console Hammonds, including two 61-key manuals, a 25-key pedalboard, an expression pedal, 12 reverse-color preset keys, and one for
11562-451: The original 122 speaker, the company announced in 2013 that they would start manufacturing a standalone Leslie simulator in a stomp box . Although they are sometimes included in the category of electronic organs, the majority of Hammond organs are, strictly speaking, electric or electromechanical rather than electronic organs, because the sound is produced by moving parts rather than electronic oscillators. The basic component sound of
11685-407: The original Hammond models of the 1930s and 1940s, are housed within the main instrument (behind the kickboard), which saved even more space, although they produce a sound inferior to that of free-standing speakers; some models had jacks for installing external speakers, if desired. The spinet organ's pedalboard normally spans only a single octave, is often incapable of playing more than one note at
11808-432: The original tonewheel organs. The sound of a tonewheel Hammond can be emulated using modern software audio plug-ins . A number of features of the Hammond organ are not usually found on other keyboards like the piano or synthesizer . Some are similar to a pipe organ , but others are unique to the instrument. Most Hammond organs have two 61-note (five- octave ) keyboards called manuals . As with pipe organ keyboards,
11931-456: The pedals. To address concerns that the sound of the Hammond was not rich enough to accurately mimic a pipe organ, the model BC was introduced in December 1936. It included a chorus generator, in which a second tonewheel system added slightly sharp or flat tones to the overall sound of each note. The cabinet was made deeper to accommodate this. Production of the old Model A cases stopped, but
12054-415: The percussive effect, and it has been accepted as part of the classic sound. Hammond research and development engineer Alan Young said, "the professionals who were playing popular music [liked] that the attack was so prominent. And they objected when it was eliminated." Electric organ An electric organ , also known as electronic organ , is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from
12177-400: The portable keyboard market was thriving. Early electronic organ products released in the 1930s and 1940s were already implemented on frequency divider technology using vacuum tubes or transformer-dividers. With the development of the transistor , electronic organs that use no mechanical parts to generate the waveforms became practical. The first of these was the frequency divider organ,
12300-631: The public imagination through the recordings of musicians such as Milt Herth (the first performer to record the Hammond Electric Organ) as well as recordings and film performances of Ethel Smith . Nevertheless, they were promoted primarily as church / institutional instruments during the Great Depression and through World War II. After the war, they became more widespread; for example, the Baldwin Piano Company introduced its first in 1946 (with 37 vacuum tubes). Following
12423-564: The public in April 1935, and the first model, the Model A, was made available in June of that year. Over 1,750 churches purchased a Hammond organ in the first three years of production, and by the end of the 1930s, over 200 instruments were being made each month. By 1966, an estimated 50,000 churches had installed a Hammond. For all its subsequent success with professional musicians, the original company did not target its products at that market, principally because Hammond did not think there would be
12546-466: The root note of the chord on the pedal. The expression pedal is located to the right and either partly or fully recessed within the kickboard, thus conveniently reachable only with the right foot. This arrangement spawned a style of casual organist who would naturally rest the right foot on the expression pedal the entire time, unlike classically trained organists or performers on the earlier Hammonds. This position, in turn, instinctively encouraged pumping of
12669-460: The second manual and the pedalboard along with the expression pedal greatly enhanced playing, far-surpassing the capabilities of the typical reed organ. The most revolutionary difference in the Hammond, however, is its huge number of tonewheel settings, achieved by manipulating a system of drawbars located near the manuals. By using the drawbars, the organist can combine a variety of electrical tones and harmonics in varying proportions, thus giving
12792-634: The single manual SK1, indicated that it gave an accurate sound throughout the range of drawbar settings, and said the organ sound was "fat, warm, utterly authentic". The XK-1c model was introduced in early 2014, which is simply an organ-only version of the SK1. An updated flagship organ, the XK-5, was launched in 2016, and a stage keyboard, the SK-X followed in 2019, which allows a player to select an individual instrument (organ, piano or synthesizer) for each manual. In
12915-399: The somewhat derogatory nickname "toaster". Today's solid-state instruments do not suffer from the problem, nor do they require the several minutes that vacuum tube organs need to bring the filament heaters up to temperature. Electronic organs were once popular home instruments, comparable in price to pianos and frequently sold in department stores. After their début in the 1930s, they captured
13038-399: The sound of tonewheel crosstalk is now considered part of the signature of the Hammond organ, to the extent that modern digital clones explicitly emulate it. Some Hammond organs have an audible pop or click when a key is pressed. Originally, key click was considered a design defect and Hammond worked to eliminate or at least reduce it with equalization filters. However, many performers liked
13161-461: The speaker, that could be closed when the organ was not in use. The D-20 was introduced in 1937 and only allowed sound from the speakers to escape by a louvered opening on one side and a gap in the top. The most commercially successful set of Tone Cabinets were probably the PR series cabinets introduced in 1959. The 40-watt PR40 weighed 126 pounds (57 kg) and was 37.5 inches (950 mm) high. It has
13284-406: The spinet is automatic chord generation; with many models, the organist can produce an entire chord to accompany the melody merely by playing the tonic note, i.e., a single key, on a special section of the manual. On spinet organs, the keyboards are typically at least an octave shorter than is normal for organs, with the upper manual (typically 44 notes, F3–C7 in scientific pitch notation ) omitting
13407-411: The switches selected by the key pressed, determines which tonewheels are allowed to sound. Every tonewheel is connected to a synchronous motor via a system of gears, which ensures that each note remains at a constant relative pitch to every other. The combined signal from all depressed keys and pedals is fed through to the vibrato system, which is driven by a metal scanner. As the scanner rotates around
13530-443: The technology of the 1930s. According to the additional patents and the reviews at that time, its later implemented design, seems to had shifted to a sound-colorization system using the (various) combinations of reed sets, microphones and loudspeakers. This type of instrument was later re-commercialized: In 1959, Japanese organ builder, Ichirō Kuroda, built his first Croda Organ with each pair of constantly oscillating free reed and
13653-419: The time, some manufacturers thought that emulation of the pipe organ was the most promising route to take in the development of an electronic organ. Not all agreed, however. Various types of electronic organs have been brought to market over the years, with some establishing solid reputations in their own niche markets. The use of electricity in organs emerged in the first decades of the 20th century, but it
13776-506: The top seven notes were seldom used. The Hammond Concert models E, RT, RT-2, RT-3 and D-100 had 32-note American Guild of Organists (AGO) pedalboards going up to the G above middle C as the top note. The RT-2, RT-3 and D-100 also contained a separate solo pedal system that had its own volume control and various other features. Spinet models have 12- or 13-note miniature pedalboards. Hammond organ manuals and pedalboards were originally manufactured with solid palladium alloy wire to ensure
13899-403: The two manuals are positioned on two levels close to each other. Each is laid out in a similar manner to a piano keyboard, except that pressing a key on a Hammond results in the sound continuously playing until it is released, whereas with a piano, the note's volume decays. No difference in volume occurs regardless of how heavily or lightly the key is pressed (unlike with a piano), so overall volume
14022-409: The use of free-standing loudspeakers called tone cabinets. The sound is often further enhanced by rotating speaker units, usually manufactured by Leslie . The Hammond Organ was widely adopted in popular genres such as jazz , gospel , pop music , and rock music . It was utilized by bands such as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer , Booker T. & the M.G.'s , and Deep Purple , among others. Occasionally
14145-436: The wake of Hammond's 1934 invention of the tonewheel organ, competitors explored other possibilities of electric/electronic organ design. Other than the variations of tonewheel organ design, for example, a purely electronic interpretation of the pipe organ (based on " additive synthesis " design) seemed a promising approach. However, it requires a huge number of oscillators, and these circuit scales and complexities were considered
14268-535: Was 200 pounds (91 kg) lighter than a B-3. Although promoted by Hammond as a suitable replacement, musicians did not think it had a comparable sound. In 1979, a Japanese offshoot, Nihon Hammond, introduced the X-5, a portable solid-state clone of the B-3. Though transistor Hammonds were criticised for their sound, the company remained commercially successful. Many such models were sold to churches, funeral homes and private residences. Laurens Hammond died in 1973, and
14391-584: Was a product of the Hammond Clock Company in 1934. The Hammond organ quickly became the successor of the reed organ, displacing it almost completely. From the start, tonewheel organs operated on a radically different principle from all previous organs. In place of reeds and pipes, Robb and Hammond introduced a set of rapidly spinning magnetic wheels, called tonewheels , which excite transducers that generate electrical signals of various frequencies that are mixed and fed through an amplifier to
14514-467: Was bulky enough to require several railway cars for its transportation, because the alternators had to be large enough to generate high voltage for a loud enough signal. The Hammond organ solved this problem by using an amplifier . Laurens Hammond graduated from Cornell University with a mechanical engineering degree in 1916. By the start of the 1920s, he had designed a spring-driven clock, which provided enough sales for him to start his own business,
14637-415: Was slow to have a major impact. Electrically powered reed organs appeared during the first decades of electricity, but their tonal qualities remained much the same as the older, foot-pumped models. Thaddeus Cahill 's gargantuan and controversial instrument, the Telharmonium , which began piping music to New York City establishments over the telephone system in 1897, predated the advent of electronics , yet
14760-467: Was sold to CBS in 1965, and the following year, Hammond finally decided to officially support the Leslie speaker. The T-200 spinet, introduced in 1968, was the first Hammond to have an integrated Leslie speaker. Hammond finally purchased Leslie in 1980. Hammond-Suzuki acquired the rights to Leslie in 1992; the company currently markets a variety of speakers under this name. As well as faithful reissues of
14883-858: Was taking place, especially in France. After the failure of the Telharmonium business, similar designs called tonewheel organs were continuously developed; For example: One of the earlier electric tonewheel organs was conceived and manufactured by Morse Robb, of the Robb Wave Organ Company. Built in Belleville, Ontario, the Robb Wave Organ predates its much more successful competitor Hammond by patent and manufacture, but shut down its operations in 1938 due to lack of funding. The first widespread success in this field
15006-438: Was the first instrument to demonstrate the use of the combination of many different pure electrical waveforms to synthesize real-world instrument sounds. Cahill's techniques were later used by Laurens Hammond in his organ design, and the 200-ton Telharmonium served as the world's first demonstration of electrically produced music on a grand scale. Meanwhile, some further experimentation with producing sound by electric impulses
15129-537: Was used extensively by pop, rock, jazz, and disco artists, including Herbie Hancock , Elton John , Pink Floyd , Stevie Wonder , The Carpenters , George Clinton , Eumir Deodato , The Rolling Stones , The Buggles , Rick James , George Harrison , and The Bee Gees . Allen introduced the world's first digital organ (and first digital musical instrument commercial product) in 1971: the Allen Digital Computer Organ. This new technology
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