Hammond Sk1 Piano

Hammond Sk1 Piano Review : Overview, Features and Sound

The Hammond Sk1 Piano

Hammond Sk1 Piano

An overview

It becomes surprisingly easy to create your own Hammond sounds with the Hammond SK1 Piano. The layout of the SK1 makes it simple to understand to start creating your own sounds.

The drawbars impart a genuine feel to imagine the ingredients which are put in the organ mix. Moreover, it’s intuitive to find the entire traditional organ controls on the left side like vibrato/chorus, drawbars and Leslie controls with the right side including all the extras. These consist of extra voices, reverb plus a master mixer.

It is definitely more than a simple organ and has 61 keys.

Picture

Model

Keys

Feature

Hammond SK1 61 Key Stage Portable Keyboard e1494390399306

Hammond SK1


61


12 Hammond Organ Profiles & 16 Leslie Speaker Profiles

Hammond SK1 73 e1494390555271

Hammond SK1-73


73


96 Adjustable, Voiceable Digital Tonewheels

Hammond SK1 88 e1494390708387

Hammond SK1-88


88


12 Hammond Macro Profiles w/17 Tweakable Parameters

Hammond SK2 e1494390889124

Hammond SK2


122


9 Pitches, Assignable for Upper, Pedal, Lower

Hammond XK 1c e1494391072504

Hammond XK-1c


61


64 Factory Patches & 64 User-Programmable Patches Available

The Main Features of Hammond SK1

What do you get with the Hammond Sk1. Here is a list of the main features of the Hammond SK1 Piano:

  • Portable and lightweight keyboard organ containing 61 keys
  • Sounds created by 2 Vase III digital tone wheels, transistor and pipe organ
  • Extra voice segment also backed by Vase III
  • 61 keys from C1 till C6
  • Drawbars with nine pitches allocated for upper, pedal and lower
  • 61 Note polyphony for pedal other than pipe organ
  • 63 Note maximum polyphony on pipe organ
  • Lot of effects like vibrato and chorus, overdrive, multi-effects having 8 programs and digital reverb with 11 programs
  • Master EQ with bass, mid gain and mid frequency, treble
  • Intuitive controls consisting of master, music and extra voice volume with power on and off
  • Onboard music player compliant with WAV (44.1 khz/16-bit, stereo), MP3 (44.1 khz, 128 kbps stereo)
  • 9 MIDI templates and three zones attributable to any keyboard
  • USB Flash drive storage

In Depth Look At The Hammond Sk1

So how does the Hammond Sk1 look and feel while playing?

Keyboard

Hammond Sk1 keyboardThis achievement keyboard package is built around the Hammond SK-1 organ, and consists of a keyboard amp, a stand, a bench, sustain pedal and a pair of headphones.

The keyboard is exceedingly precise organ and piano sounds in an amazing lightweight 88-key build.

The issue in building a keyboard with both dedicated and precise Hammond Organ and Grand Piano voices rests in the keyboard. It seems to be built on a compromise whether it should resemble an organ or weighted.

The Fatar keyboard on the SK1-88, which though just light to relieve an organist, yet possesses the lift to delight a piano player. The Sk1-88 also immediately modifies the feel of key contact, keeping all playing cozy.

The keys are also designed to enable classical Hammond moves such as sweep and glissando. Now the pianist who always desired to play Hammond can perform in comfort, and so can the organist.

True organ sounds for your performances

In the matter of organ sounds, most performers want the actual thing. The Sk1-88 walks and talks like a Hammond. It’s just many hundred pounds lights and accommodates in your Mini.

The Drawbar segment is a total Hammond Organ with the entire functions. The Hammond’s VASE III digital tonewheel sound generators offer audios so appealing that you’ll be searching for a concealed Leslie cabinet.

The Hammond Sk1-88 contains superb Vx and Farf combo organ versions. Besides, it also presents a potpourri of excellent classical pipe organ voices obtained from Hammond’s 935 Church Organ.

The Sk series signifies a latest generation of Hammond stage keyboards. Apart from Thomann, a proven 2-Vase III organ tone generation and the Vox and Farfisa organ and sacral organ presently has a more elastic range of extra sounds.

This fairly vintage based sounds is totally fulfilling in quality and assertiveness. The operating theory is retained plain and simple.

The vital parameters like equalizer, overdrive effect, loudness and reverb are modifiable with separate controls. Moreover, all higher configurations are laid out through the display. Inspite of the rich production quality, the weight of the device was kept low, with the two manual model weighing just 16 kg.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvgiIqhu-08

Organ Section

Organ SectionSimilar to Hammond’s more costly XK-3C, the SK1 provides upper, lower and pedal drawbar parts. A cutdown to compactness is offered by one set of drawbars instead of two. Besides, the portions which drawbars control are chosen by LED-lit button.

The Hammond SK1 Piano also contains the XX-3 series  Manual Bass button which transfers the pedal portion to an adaptable bottom area of the keyboard. You can adjust Manual Bass to polyphonic or lowest-note monophonic mode, and the upper or lower split is present simultaneously. A professional player could employ the mono mode to start bass with a few fingers of the left hand and compose simple chords with various people, allowing the right hand free.

The vibrato or chorus that previous Hammonds built employing an electro-mechanical scanner is an important portion of the sound and the Sk1’s emulation is simply superb. You’ll locate settings to personalize depth and the manner in which the chorus highlights triple frequencies. Moreover, a toggle for placing vibrato or chorus on the lower manual also impacts the pedal portion.

Accordingly, you could possess a chorused left hand and straight pedals for a neat bass foundation. The XK-3C’s real tube output stage is abandoned, but if overdrive matters to your style, the Tube simulation is crispy and compresses genuinely as you switch on the designated knob.

Drawbar and other Features

In terms of drawbar, the SK1 is flashier and more forceful in the mids and highs than different clones to compare like the Studiologic Numa Organ, and the CX-3 mode in the Korg Kronos. The SK1’s throaty scream in the highest octave is really noticeable due to which different superb clones seem slightly more mild.

Bypassing all EQ configurations flat and effects, the various organs had differing degrees of a bit scooped midrange and production pixie dust on the sound. The crude SK1 would be the primary option for operating an actual Leslie as genuine ones appear to produce some ups and set apart the sound. The SK1 is no drag for its personal Leslie simulation, so examine it.

Connection

The Hammond SK1 Piano has connections by way of stereo, headphone and Leslie output like a DIN 8 pin. Then follow the connections for sustain and expression pedal and foot switch. Next is the trio for MIDI and USB connection to plug in a USB stick.

You can play 2 sounds, either on the stereo output, or just the organ sounds on the eight pin Leslie output and different sounds on the stereo output. Further, one great advantage of this keyboard is that you can keep organ sound on the lower half of the keyboard and sound Rhodes at the top of the keyboard.

Pedals suggested by Hammond are the best.

The Verdict of the Hammond SK1

Firstly the Hammond SK1 Piano has an amazing tonewheel Hammond sound. The Hammond sounds are enriching and creamy with superb percussion and C/V effects.

The Hammond SK1 Piano also incorporates the sounds of a Vox Continental and Super Continental plus a Farfisa Combo Compact which are all wonderful combo organs of the 60’s. Further, there are some electric pianos including a Clavinet, an acoustic piano which may not be the best but still extremely handy in a  real band setting.

The Hammond SK1 Piano also has a inbuilt music player for running WAV or MP3 files for backing tracks. Accordingly, it is true Hammond but much greater than simply an organ.

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