Hammond XM-1

i'm using the first hardware and software version. I just thought my Yamaha Motif had cool Hammond sounds. I downloaded some extra sounds from Motifator that were even better. My first experiance with the XM-1 was pure sonic joy. The leslie effects are much better than Yamaha.
I didn;t get a manual and would appreciate somebody scanning or e-mailing me a copy. Editing it is a breeze once you figure out how all the 8 arroews work. Use the draw bar to modify the presets. The foorswitch for leslie slow fast is the only other thing I felt needed to be changed.Super easy to use.

It's only module effects on the module are reverb and some limited leslie speed programming. The bass rotor speed seems a little slow going up and down. The horn seems about right. I sped my bass rotor speed to 5/6 seconds from the original 10.It has the essential midi jacks. The 8 pin Din double plug receptical on the back is a direct hookup to the new leslie 21 series stage leslie's. The cable is denied to exist at Hammond and is very difficult to find. No velocity sensitve keys. Overdrive knob is handy on the drawbar unit along with the master volume. I just turn it all the way up and use the controller board's expression pedal. A sequencer will play it abd that;s about it. I'm gigving Hammond a 8 on the short cord between the drawbar unit and the XM-1. A Mesa Bogie road king footswitch cable will work as will a remote car CD played cable with a male plug spliced on female end.

Theres is 100 plus presets. Explore them , ain;t a bad one in the bunch. Switch a oreset , grab drawbars and get busy. It will do anything you have heard a Hammond do on about any record. It os a Hammomd , not a synth. gets a 9 for the crappy distortion and key click's a little week.

To simple to break. It and the drawbar module are quality built.
Whishe I could find the rack ears.

This is the weak spot. Hammond doesn't have the 8 pin cable to connect with the model2 leslie. Nor do thay have a clue where to get one, Both the XM-1 and the Leslie 21 are advertised to connect with this special 8 pin din cord that has become unobtainiom. answers from hammond like "msybe we have one in the shop" pretty much piss me off. The manual has to be ordeered through a Hammond dealer. great if you have one with in a 250 mile range.

They get a 1 on support.

I love it.........can;t wait for my leslie 21 system to arrive next week...........ahhhhhh real Hammond portable sound.! You can get complicated and use another keybord for the upper manual and buy a set of bass depals through separate midi channels.

it's one of those things that does B3 type sounds and is wuite convincing once a real rotary is connected.

It will always grace my tiny studio.

Pretty simple to use. There's a drawbar controller that connects to the rackmountable module. There is a level knob and an overdrive knob on the drawbar controller, and a level knob and a reverb knob on the rackmount unit. It would have been nice for the drawbar controller to include a reverb knob, and for the rackmount unit to include an overdrive knob. Other than that, no complaints here.

Plenty of features here. 2nd and 3rd harm. percussion, slow and fast leslie simulation, 2 vibrato settings, chorus, overdrive, reverb. Best of all, these features are all very customizable. Also has variable split and key-click settings, and an impressive bank of presets.

The organ sounds themselves are the best I've heard from a synth; very expressive, and pretty true to the original. But, the overdrive is a bit on the conservative side, and nothing can compete with using a real rotating speaker horn rig. So I'm letting the Motion Sound Pro-3t and Low-Pro handle the leslie effects and overdrive. The combination of the XM-1 and the Motion Sound gear is a dream.

I've had no problems with it so far. Seems built to last.

Stunning sound, great vaule in such a small package. Highly recommended for both live and studio settings, in almost any style of music.

There is a very very wide range of presets available - I hadn't known that there was such variety of possibilities. Using the XM1c means that you can take almost any patch and turn it quickly into any other. This really playing the XM1 completely different to using "Hammond" patches on a synth. Much more organic and involving.

The sound you build from the tonebars and percussion etc. can then be modified by the Leslie settings, vibrato, distortion and reverb. There are lots and lots of options to fine tune these and settings that will copy (or not) the limitations of the original B3.
The XM1 allows for two manuals and a pedal section if you are feeling dextrous. I split my master keyboard in two and use the two manuals which does allow soloing.

The basic tonebar sounds are stunning. The reverb and distortion are useable. The Leslie on the other hand is lacking something. I suspect that a "good" leslie is quite a subjective thing, but to my ears it is great when in slow mode and good when in fast mode, but the transition does not work like "the real thing". There are a million and one settings to tweak but I could not quite get the effect I wanted. In the end (after much consideration) I got a Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere and I am now a happy man. The Leslie and the distortion are now exactly what I was looking for. I understand that version 2.0 of the XM1 has an improved Leslie sim but I haven't heard it yet.

No problems so far, but it hasn't really been gigged

Emailed Hammond Suzuki UK to get some prices for Leslie. They replied quite promptly and were helpful. Followed this up with a phone call to discuss other options and again was impressed. It can be unusual to get a sales rep who actually know what he is talking about, and even more unusual to get one who understands a musicians viewpoint.

I did quite like the Roland VK7 but did not need another keyboard. I have always liked Roland gear and used the "Hammond" patches on the U220 a lot before I got the XM1. The onboard Leslie on the VK7 is (to my ears) better than the XM1 (but the Tube Rotosphere is much better than both). I have without exception hated any of the other "Hammond" emulators around... Korg, Voce etc. and most synths can do one or two sounds in a useable fashion but without the flexibility of the "real thing" you have lost half of the instrument.

I bought the Xm-1 sound module because i wanted the real organs without carrying two hundred pounds. My experiences with real organs are about zero. That is peobably why I think the editing proces is ok. There is a system of pages very similar to a korg setup. The editing makes a huge difference. If you also buy a control unit you get drawbars and swiches for tremolo, percussiv effects, leslie speaker and vibrato. From the control unit you can also change sounds. The manual is very quick. Read it once and then just try out the thing yourself.

There are all the features you could want except velocity. Hammond has been so caught by the thought of making a copy of a real organ that they forgot me (and many others) who are used to velocity when palying with an organ sound. The built in effects are fine. A small nice sounding reverb plus a great distortion.

The sounds are extremely realistic. They seem a bit to nice in the headphones and in the studio but it really does its job live. It also features church organs and perfect sticky sounds for "we skipped the light fandango" and "je teme". For the first time I was able to use an organ sound as a pad. Especially the "groove" and "jimmy" are great for that. There are adjustments to microphone distance and angle - a bit to much really. Even the manual says that maybe no actual change of the sound will occur. It works well in pop, rock, SANTANA, reggae - probably not that great for dance.

I've had it a year now witn no troubles at all.

I would buy it again for the insurance money - its even cheaper now. It fits great in with the rest of my gear (PC88, JD-800, U-220, Juno 106). After i bought it i have compared it with a similar product from Roland (a keyboard can't remember its name). And i liked the sounds and the effects of the Hammond better. The user interface of the Roland is better though. The best thing would be to combine the XM-1 with a real leslie speaker. It even has a jack for external leslie- control.