Hammond XK-5

Each of these in turn triggers three virtual contacts, giving you separate “note on” connections for every drawbar frequency in the same manner as the original nine-contact electro-mechanical Hammond® organs. The result is a fingers-to-music connection that perfectly duplicates sitting at a vintage B while saving on weight and cost. Plus, the time-spread between these “note ons” is programmable, as is the order in which you hear the harmonics speak. And since the contacts all receive and transmit MIDI note data, you can capture every harmonic nuance of your performance in your DAW program of choice—to which you can directly connect the XK-5 via USB. The XK-5’s keyboard action is built in-house, not sourced from a third-party manufacturer. Hammond designed it to duplicate the heft, bounce, and key dip of a “new old stock” and well-maintained B-3™: No springy synth keys allowed! Master Hammond players who tested early prototypes confirmed that nothing comes closer to the feel and response they expect. Of course it has the “waterfall” key fronts critical to Hammond playing techniques such as palm slides. Play the XK-5 alongside any other modern organ and we’re convinced you’ll find the difference stunning. The XK-5 employs new proprietary technology to recreate 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 and its rotational speed 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, not to mention other important sonic details such as key click, harmonic percussion, vibrato-chorus, and more.

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.
• Our best-ever Digital Leslie effect. 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 ¼” 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.