Buy a Yamaha Motif instead and then you can spend twice that amount to buy an organ and a leslie emulator. I'm probably one of the more hardcore organ players on this forum.

http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthread ... ost2791019

LOL....had a motif.....not impressed. I probably should break down and buy a vent but it's the principle of the thing. Electrons don't fly around inside a vent any different than they do inside a Forte. In then end it's all ones and zeros...so there is no reason Kurz can't develop a better effect. Now that they have the Forte stable maybe they can devote some resources.

I was being comical with my response. The Motif's organs and leslie absolutely suck. Look at the price of the Motif and look at what they provide you for organ and leslie. The Kurz isn't dedicated clone quality, but a tweaking of the double leslie isn't that bad. I own a Vent and use it with the Kurz but I know a dozen people who own VB3, Mojo, SK1/2, XK3/3c (all dedicated clones) and still use a Vent because their leslies aren't believed to be up to snuff either.

Read the above link I attached in my first post.

I knew you were joking & I read your link. I agree, mostly. I own an XK-1c & find the Leslie effect more than adequate and much better than the Kurzweil effect. It's only electrons flying around in a digital computer so there is no reason the Kurzweil effect cannot equal or better the Hammond or the Vent.

PS. I used to chat with you way back in the sonik days....I stopped hanging around the boards because I eventually got my PC3 to the point where I was happy with it. I made the mistake(sic) of stopping by here a few weeks ago to look for a sound for The Cars-Summer & I saw folks talking about this keyboard called the Forte. I had never heard of it (like I said, I was out of the loop). I did some research and came across a thread somewhere on the net with comments from Dave Weiser. I compounded my mistake when I went to his website and asked him about the Forte. He gave me such a great price I ended up buying one.....so now I'm back looking to tweak my new keyboard.

If you were happy with the PC3 that you have/had then import your leslie effect from the PC3 into the Forte, or use the one I created for the PC3.

Ah the old Soniq days. I wish someone would upgrade the TS12 or SD1. Those Ensoniq boards were my favorites. Easiest user interface that I ever encountered.

So I hear a lot that the leslie effects in the PC3/Forte/etc aren't completely up to snuff. What, exactly, is wrong with them? I'm approaching this as someone who is interested in programming a better leslie. I don't have lots of sonic experience with them (yet), but if anyone has pointers on things to listen for that would be appreciated. I agree about electrons flying around, I'm an aspiring professional electron air traffic controller, so maybe I can lend a hand.

PoserP, as I am sure you are aware, the opinions of what a good Leslie sounds like are quite varied. May I suggest (not knowing your experience with Leslie speakers) first playing a real Hammond through a real Leslie in a room with you to hear why players like to have them on stage right behind them as opposed to hearing them through monitors. I had one in the past and there is not, in my opinion, any way to duplicate this live, in the room, sound. However, I am very satisfied with my Kurzweil Double Leslie in a band setting; there are about a dozen variants in my PC3. It is an excellent rendition of a miked Leslie through a sound system.

No complaints on slow/Chorus mode. The obvious fast speed Leslie effect is tremolo from the rotating upper horn and a different tremolo from the rotating lower rotor. Less obvious is the subtle vibrato-like pitch shift caused by the Doppler Effect as each horn/rotor approaches and recedes from the listener in different ways. Too little Doppler and it just sounds like simple tremolo. Too much Doppler and complainants (me included) frequently use the word "warble" to describe the sound. To be clear, when my band plays Soul Sacrifice, the audience loves it and my bandmates smile about the organ sound, as do I.

Another signature attribute of the Leslie sound comes from its amplifier (or maybe it's the preamp). The tubes get overloaded and distort, but the mod wheel distortion is usually not what I am after. There are several tone wheel options that seem to include this distortion but I don't think it is controllable and it does not seem to increase with the volume as a real Leslie would.

Good luck and I am looking forward to any solutions/progress you make. Although I am not much of a PC3 programmer, I would like to know what specific changes make. Thanks.