Hammond X-66, Manual

Page: 7 / 16

X66 Vibrato Driver Preamp Dec.2010
dan.vigin
Page 7
The purpose of having sufficient headroom above normal operating signal is to avoid
clipping and hence audible distortion.
It is evident that when Percussion signals carrying very sharp transients are in use,
sufficient headroom is needed in order to avoid clipping.
For Tabs Voice signals, it is less needed since levels are quite constant while 'spikes'
with Kinura tab depressed f.i. may justify some adequate headroom.
For Drawbars signals issued from the flute filters, then such amount of headroom is not
at all required because signals driving this VDP are almost pure sine waves or
harmonics components of them.
The X-66 designers of this VDP do have certainly other good technical reasons which
remain unclear to me up to now.