Hammond XK-5, Owner'S Playing Manual

Page: 96 / 174

HA<O> XK-5 Owner’s Playing Guide
96
CONTACTS OF A TONE-WHEEL ORGAN & VIRTUAL MULTI-CONTACTS
16´
5 1⁄3´
8´
4´
2 2⁄3´
2´
1 3⁄5´
1 1⁄3´
1´
Perc.
Physical
Contacts
Virtual
Bus-Bars
Virtual
contacts
#1
#2
#3
Play a key “on” sequentially
at each depth
at each delay
like the multi contact.
clean
dirty
conditions
u
CONTACTS OF A TONE-WHEEL ORGAN
As explained on page 88, the basis for the “Hammond Sound” is the tone- or phonic-wheel generator.
When a key is pressed on a tone-wheel Hammond Organ, it closes 9 small electrical switch contacts. These 9 contacts represent the 9
pitches provided by the Drawbars - the fundamental tone plus eight harmonics. The contacts are closed and opened by means of 9 hori-
zontal flat springs which touch 9 busbars. When a flat spring touches a busbar, electrical contact is made and the harmonic is permitted
to sound. Since the 9 busbars are physically separated, the harmonics do not all sound simultaneously, but in succession. This can be
heard most clearly by selecting one of the four Manual Drawbar sets of a tone-wheel organ (for example, Upper Manual “B”), pulling all
of the Drawbars in the selected set out to their maximum volume setting and slowly pressing a playing key. Each of the harmonics will
add in a sequence from highest to lowest until all 9 frequencies will be heard when the key is at the bottom of its travel. The “Key-Click”
on tone-wheel Hammond Organs is due to these physical characteristics.
u
VIRTUAL MULTI-CONTACTS
The XK-5 utilizes a new specially-designed “VIRTUAL MULTI-CONTACT” system which reproduces the effect of 9 contacts per note.
The XK-5 manual has three (3) physical contacts of three (3) different depths under each playing key. The effect of 9 physical contacts is
created by software. See the diagram below for a visual representation of how this works. The XK-5 Virtual Multi-Contacts are shown
on the left while the 9-contact system of a tone-wheel organ is shown on the right.
You can set the following conditions of the contact springs and the busbars with each footage of each key:
w
The conditions of the bounce
w The depth of contact
w The length of delay
This is explained more fully on the next page.
u
WHAT IS A “CUSTOM CONTACT?”
On a tone-wheel Hammond Organ, the 9 switches close in the same order. This is due to the physical placement of the busbars for each
harmonic under the playing keys. However, you can customize the Virtual Multi-Contacts so that they close in any order you wish - from
top to bottom, from bottom to top, all at once, etc. - And save your changes as a
Custom Contact
.
The XK-5 has 6 different Custom Contact settings. Three (3) of these are User settings (indicated by a “U”) while the other three (3) are
Factory registrations (indicated by an “F”). The Factory Contact settings are permanently written in memory, but the User settings can be
overwritten with your own settings. You can even re-name them if you wish.
The first two pages of the CONTACT Edit Menu allow you to select the Custom Contact you wish to use or modify, as well as name a
Custom Contact you have created. The remaining pages allow you to select how you want to key contacts to function. After you have
made all of your changes, you can save them as a Custom Contact. Please consult pages 97 through 100 for more information about
creating, saving and naming your own Custom Contacts. Also consult the APPENDIX at the back of this Guide for a list of the preset
Custom Contacts.