01 Hammond SK Pro - General Overview 

But it will never compete with Nord, as it is the most popular among professional keybaord musicians, especially in Nashville.

It looks and sounds much better than those red pianos

@@ernieelizondo3777 But it still cannot compete with Nord, as it is the number one keyboard for all musicians and in Nashville, Nord is the only keyboard that I see on stage. Even Luke Combs plays on a Nord.

I totally agree, I laughed so hard when they showed the price of $99 dollars for replacing it and a loud screem, was so funny.

That thing just killed me.

Actually no one can compete against Nord, it is the most popular drawbar keyboard and in Nashville, I have never seen anyone play a Hammond or any other name brand than Nord.

I hope to get a K2700!

It's so much of a frankenstein that Yamaha, Nord, Korg and Kurzweil all thave their own version of the same thing.

Ha! The SK50d is cool but those aren't drawbars! :) I have a Yamaha YC45d combo organ. That thing is a lot of fun.

@@JimAlfredson Drawbars shnawbars! They are sliders on the SK50D but the function is the same! :-)

I agree, Brian Ellis!

There seems to be a lot of confusion on how to save patches in general, so I should probably make a video detailing that.

It has Vox, Farfisa, AceTone, and pipe organ sounds.

@@JimAlfredson Thanks, Jim! 👍🏻

I would say you are spot on! The compression of RU-vid didn't seem to affect the audio all that much. The organ engine is especially great!

@@JimAlfredson I'm thinkin' about buying the Hammond S-K5 model...or the one you have...or the Hammond B3 Organ that Joey plays. Price-wise, how much would it cost (if you know)

It's the standard Fatar that Nord / Crumar / etc use. I think Hammond requested slightly different springs, though as it isn't as stiff as other uses of this keybed I've felt.

Same please

Thanks, Philip! It's an original tune that's on my upcoming project 'Dirty Fingers' called 'Pocket Sauce'. I hope to have that record out by March!

BTW, that's the XK5 in that song.

@@JimAlfredson Thanks Jim , really look forwarding to the new record. love your skills on the hammond. let me know when is it aviable. all the best. regards.

Yep, very true. An iPad with an good organ app and a controller will get you pretty far these days.

@@bsdguy in Brazil it is totally unfeasible, taxes are absurd! here only in dreams

@@bsdguy Not when an iPad costs around 5-6 grand.

My understanding is that the acoustic pianos are new samples but the electric pianos are the same samples as the original SK series. However, the sample engine they are using to play the samples back is much higher resolution, so they sound A LOT better. That said, I am hoping Hammond-Suzuki will offer some new EP samples in the future. I'm pushing them hard to do so. The EPs sound pretty good thanks to a much better sample playback engine, better effects, and better velocity switching / voicing to the keybed. The Wurli has always been pretty good.

Hi Sean! If you're going to use the Nord for piano and other sounds, I would go for the XK4. It sounds amazing. To be honest, the pianos in the SK Pro are not that great. Definitely not better than the Nord.

@@JimAlfredson pThe ie W

Thanks. Yes, it does have an FM electric piano as well as an electric grand sound (think CP70).

Yes, especially the acoustic pianos. And Hammond has opened up the editing so you can really dig in a tweak. I'll detail that in an upcoming video.

@@JimAlfredson Great, good to know thanks!

This is in the CONTROL section of the COMBINATION edit menu. Pg 76 in the manual.

There isn't one, unfortunately. I'm also disappointed that they removed the master EQ knobs from the previous generation of SK. Everything is a compromise, I guess.

@@JimAlfredson Is not possible to assign the function to the modulation wheel neither ? So you can only set the amount of the overdrive through the menu? Can't believe it!

It has tape strings, choirs, and flutes in there.

I haven't compared the XK5 and the SK Pro side by side but on the XK5, there are three physical contacts under each key. Each physical contact controls three 'virtual' contacts in order to provide all 9 busbars of a vintage Hammond. The SK Pro has two contacts, which is pretty much what every other digital keyboard on the market for the last 30 years has. So my understanding is that the 9 busbar emulation in the SK Pro is all in software, using velocity values from the two physical contacts to determine the key-click and when each drawbar is triggered.

@@JimAlfredson does it have the same feel as the XK5 or just something in that direction??

The concept of the keyboard is to provide basic 'bread and butter' sounds to the working keyboardist, with an emphasis on Hammond organ sounds. So you have great organs (obviously), pianos, electric pianos, clavinets, strings, pads, some poly synth sounds, some woodwinds / brass, bass, tuned percussion (vibes, marimba, etc) and the monosynth. There are four allocations. The first allocation is for the organs only. You can choose between several models of Hammond, several transistor organs (Farfisa, Acetone, Vox), or pipe organ sounds. You can only have one organ sound per COMBO (Hammond's term for a Multi (in Kurzweil or Korg speak) or Performance (in Yamaha speak). The second and third allocations are for non-organ sounds like piano, electric piano, polysynth, etc. Yes, you can have strings on both allocations if you want, even though one is labeled "PIANO" and the other "ENSEMBLE". They share the same library of sounds. So if you wanted a piano sound on the ENSEMBLE allocation and a string sound on the PIANO allocation, you could do that. If you wanted two piano sounds, you can do that. Any non-organ, non-monosynth sound can be assigned to either allocation. The fourth allocation is for the monosynth only. Yes, other keyboards are more flexible but for most gigs this should fit the bill. If you need more power or more flexibility, then something like the Kurzweil PC4 would provide that (16 independent zones per MULTI.... ie 16 sounds at once, split across the keyboard or layered or whatever). The SK series is more like the Nord Electro series. The Electro 6 has three zones (or allocations in Hammond speak); organ, piano, and sample.

Exactly the same functionally.

@@JimAlfredson Thank you.

Yes.

No, they are the same size as vintage drawbars in terms of width.

No. The SKX uses the older VASE III engine. The SK Pro series used the bee MTW engine from the flagship XK5.

The organ engine in the Pro is better than the SK1. So are the non-organ voices. The multi-timbrality is nice, too. But I don’t think it would replace a dedicated analog poly. That’s a tough one.

@@JimAlfredsonthanks for the quick response! How does it compare to the engine in the skx? I would like to have the option to practice with two manuals though i like the portability of the sk pro and don't know of a cheap 61 key midi controller that would have the same feel.

@@creightonmoench6894 the SKX engine is the same as the SK1/2. It's the old VASE III engine and small samples for the non-organ voices.

The keys are off-white, like a vintage Hammond.

Those strings did sound awful. very whiny, thin and false. I wonder if it was just that preset? Or the settings used? They were certainly very bad

@@hydorah My opinion is that Ensmble/Piano section is very weak and can't even compete with Nord, Yamaha CP/YC, Korg SV, Crumar, Viscount Legend 70, Prophet XL and more... I wonder why they were able to made these sounds good and Hammond can't? Maybe a couple of registers or some pads of that section are good, but in general like I mentioned above. If Hammond would have focused only on the strong sides - Organ and Synth sections, the instrument would have been more solid and reliable, but it looks like they tried to implement a lot, mix shit with something good and get something weird. Imagine there will be somebody who will buy this instrument just for the Organ and Synth, and you will ask: what bothers you about the Ensemble/Piano section? Because you end up overpaying a lot for it, and the sounds in fact are scarce. From what I've heard, Rhodes is just awful...Wurlitzer is 2000's level, violins not violins at all...and now pay attention!!!! Waldorf Zarenbourg, wich is from 2006, listen how it sounds like, it's just beautiful. And Hammond with his Piano/Ensemble section = chicken shit...I'm not saying all this for nothing, if I'm wrong about something - correct me please!

@@VadimShinnik Your dead right. I immediately heard that terribly thin, rinky dink, cheesy, no balls organ tonality it didn’t matter what any of the other patches sounded like. But they are tiny sounding also! Certainly not an instrument capable of coaxing much inspiration from players familiar with the real items.

@@superfuzzymomma this is that we have, that Hammond can offer, unfortunately :(

@@VadimShinnik Vadim, you are a gentleman to respond. My comments were not meant as a critique of yourself, or of your playing. I've gigged and lugged loved many chopped Hammonds over the years. The sound of actual electromechanical tone wheels and tube amplifiers. I can't forget what that sounds like. Peace to you, friend in the new year.

There is a 61 note version and a 73 note version.

That's a great question. In looking at the manual, it appears this might be possible. The SK Pro features three programmable external MIDI zones which are independent from the local zones (ie, allocations) and those go out over MIDI or USB. However, the local zones also send MIDI data. So it would appear that you could program one of the allocations to output no sound (just turn the volume of the allocation all the way down) and use it to control an external source instead on that corresponding MIDI channel. I'll have to experiment with this.

@@JimAlfredson Yes, please experiment. I hope you’re able to find out about this... thanks.

This is a good idea! For example I have a Behringer Model D that I could use instead of the built in monosynth and control it though the SK pro.

@@brianellis5164 yes

I figured out the vibrato was caused by the mod wheel being slightly on. The only other issue I am having is that with the sustain pedal I am using, it works well with the piano sounds but it also sustains the bass pedal sounds. I tried to check for some adjustment in the menu, but was not able to fix this.

@@JC-td4gg I was going to mention the mod wheel. Regarding the sustain pedal, you can choose which ALLOCATIONS are affected by the sustain pedal per COMBINATION. In other words, these parameters are saved within a COMBINATION. So if you want to make the changes permanent, you need to save a new COMBINATION with your settings applied. To access the damper / sustain pedal parameters in question, press the MENU button, choose COMBINATION (should already be highlighted in blue) by pressing ENTER, then use the right PAGE button to scroll over to the CONTROL page. You'll see four columns of parameters. The second column is labeled DAMP. which is short for DAMPER (ie the sustain pedal). You can see that each allocation, listed along the left side, can be set to either respond to the sustain pedal or not (OFF / ON). And indeed each of the three organ sections, UPPER, LOWER, and PEDAL, can be set independently.

@@JimAlfredson Yeah, it was the mod wheel slightly on. I was able to access what you mentioned and noticed the the lower keyboard was sustining also and was able to turn off that function. Perfect. By the way my organ has the 1.0 release and I downloded the 1.1 Release but cannot get it to load even after following the instructions. Also noted the Hammond website was down. Any info on this. Good to hear from you. Thanks,Jerry

@@JimAlfredson Thought I would mention that when I was trying to get the update to load, I finally noticed that there was one action needed in the instructions on loading the updates, in order for the update to be loaded on the USB and that is you need to click on the Hammond file on the USB file, it will go the SK_Pro file and then drag the update to the USB file and then when you insert it in the organ it will start the update. That one action is not in the instructions.

I was referring to the XK1. It's sometimes hard to hear the difference between "S" and "X", especially when you talk fast like I do. I try to talk more slowly in these videos but it's hard for me. :)

They are in there!