Nothing sounds like a Hammond B3. Many companies tried unsuccessfully to compete with Hammond (Yamaha* and Farfisa come to mind) but they never could come close.
And at the heart of the Hammond sound was the Leslie speaker. Again, many tried to reproduce it, but failed miserably. Rather than going into a complex and stupidly written explanation on how it works, here is a video that will actually help you.
Once when I had my studio, a client came in with a sampler keyboard and one of the sampled sound was a somewhat decent Hammond copy. After laying down a track with it, he asked my opinion and rather than shut ,my mouth and nod, I told him that being a sampler rather than the real thing, it missed the Leslie sound to make it like the original.
Oh yes, that was a dumb mistake. The guy then insisted in us duplicating the Leslie sound for his song, probably more for bragging rights than actual musical enterprise. Although we had some rack effects gear that allegedly could make something sound like played through a Leslie, it sucked.ย But there was an old way we knew from reading some ancient secret books (no interwebs back then. You kept an extensive library of audio books and mags or dies) on how to reproduce an accurate Leslie sound: You stood an assistant in front of a speaker while holding a microphone by the cable about a foot or two down and the same from the speaker. And then you had the assistant spin the mike like you were playing with a lasso.
Did it looks stupid? Yes., Did it work? Yesย too, but only after a lot of trial and error and basically the client getting tired and saying “Yes, this is the take.” Hell, what did we care? Studios and engineers charge by the hour anyway. You want to experiment? it is your wallet.
And as an extra Sunday Music, I leave you with two classics using of the Hammond B3.
Hat tip Bill M
- Yamaha never got the organ sound right, but they did come up with an electric piano that eventually won over the Fender. But that was in part the fault of Fender when they no longer produced the Fender-Rhodes line and went on their own design that was never as good as the F-R.
I once stood next to a Leslie at a concert at my high school. I didnโt realize what it was until I noticed the tweeter turning and stopping. ? Thanks for the demo video. I didnโt realize that the woofer had its own thang goinโ on.
For me, the โGreen Onionsโ track suffers without the MGs. These guys tried, but they couldnโt make it. The comments on YT were interesting, though. People couldnโt fathom the dislikes, insulting those who disliked. A couple of people tried to explain the missing groove, but were rebuffed. Sad.
Personally, I donโt dislike a music video unless itโs really poor musicianship. Otherwise, I just donโt comment.
OTOH, I like Tom Pettyโs live cover. Hate me if you must. ?
One of the all time great bass guitar tracks was Led Zep’s “Heartbreaker”. JPJ got that amazing growl by plugging his Jazz bass into a Leslie cab.
Wow that sound yanks you right back through time.
Thanks for the trip back the line and info.