The Unusual Hammond Sounds Thread

[HammondRye]

Hey gang, I just stumbled on a band called Vanilla Fudge (yea, I'm late to the party) and was absolutely blown away at some of the unusual sounds their keyboardist got out of his Hammond B3, I'm assuming. In particular, check out the "piano" sound at the beginning of "Season of the Witch" (@ 32:20). I had to come running over here to ask if anyone knows how to recreate that sound. But while we're at it, I'd love to hear examples of any other unusual Hammond sounds from the classic tonewheels. Drawbar/percussion settings if possible!

[guylavoie]

Lenny Dee was known for his unusual sounds (drawbar settings and a tape echo) on his already much modified Hammond model A.

[Dik van der Noot]

Omitting the root note of a drawbarsetting is fun to start with. The unusual thing would be that, if the drawsetting's starts with two bottom notes that are a fifth interval apart , although you did not pull out a drawbar for a root note , it will sound as "undertone" . Make a sound from there.
(not so weird ..800000008 with overdrive , 000808088 standard setting but nice and high , 006888600 roaring bass)
With percussion and just 2 drawbars the weirdness can rally take off.
Moving drawbars while playing, almost like a wah-pedal , but especially with ratched drawbars!
Whammy pedal (pitchshifting) would maybe be fun on percussion alone.
The theater , film music guys sound most unusual to me, the contrasts between quickly alternating sounds , also electric non-tonewheel. It is usually associated with cheapness or kitsch and thin sounds , but often hits me as tonal humor par excellence. Seems impossible to score hits with that, but on the other hand ...those sounds are almost forgotten , not heard anymore , so maybe the time is ripe for a reintroduction.
I mostly listen to ballsy fat jazz , which is often prettty standard , but if a Hammond is really precisely adjusted and noisefree, the recording can get so detailed and zoom in that that in itself is a bit weird , and a good player can use all the subtleties of the organ.

Nice track: Jungle Wisdom by Lonnie Smith. Almost like from India (like his turban). (youtube)
or the albums : Lenny Dee: Most Requested ; Organ Transplants #1 by Stock, Hausen, & Walkman, (youtube)

you can always play your hammond track backwards, the unusuality is also how you use it in combination with other imstruments in the end.

[Dik van der Noot]

006888600[/URL]"]006888600[/URL]" roaring bass)

Well that would be roaring low mid

[Dik van der Noot]

And I just want to add drawbarsetting 083864000 for its underestimated meditative , yet confusionistic qualities

[guylavoie]

A trick I sometimes played a few times on someone who I'd invite to "try my organ" was to set the upper manual to 080080080 (just the "5ths") and the lower to 8808008 (this was a L100). Then I'd play a very simple 3 chord tune that would allow my mind to play a melody in C, and carefully play the equivalent chords in G. Then I'd get up and have them try the organ, which would obviously sound horrible with the the manuals a fifth apart, and they'd wonder what they were doing wrong...

[Dik van der Noot]

I judge this as off topic weirdness , just way too confusionistic , I want the magic drawbarsettings!

But lets face it, a Hammond is less flexible in tonesculpting than synthesizers. The additive synthesis is quickly recognized by most brains in most music mixes.
You can not make a minimoog bass with a hammond , no pitchbend of a few octaves with a pulsemodulated stringsound, no drumsounds with a noise-oscillator, no fondling with adsr for volume or filtering. But it has got tons of soul.
I admire a guy like Lonnie Smith who worked all his life to get his limbs communicate uncut funkiness , he wasnt that good in the 60s/70s , but ultimately , he reached his goal. If Jimi Hendrix had been a keyboardplayer , he would have been playing Hammond.