Nord User Forum

Poll above: Which rotary setting works best for you?

Waiting for someone to post a Youtube of the difference, because I sure can't hear one. Neither can anyone in my band.

Gambold wrote:Waiting for someone to post a Youtube of the difference, because I sure can't hear one. Neither can anyone in my band.

Try this: Hold a chord, and hit the rotor speed button to go from slow to fast, and then when fully up to speed (i.e. the acceleration for the lower rotor has completed), slow it back down again. It's during the transitions between speeds that I most hear the difference.

I too find it difficult to tell the difference. Perhaps this poll should be about the feelings of the growl sound of the 4D versus the 5D??

Lee Batchelor wrote:I too find it difficult to tell the difference. Perhaps this poll should be about the feelings of the growl sound of the 4D versus the 5D??

You can start one of those if you'd like. Different purpose. But that would also have a smaller pool of potential participants. For this poll, the only keyboard you need to have played is an Electro 5. For your poll, someone would have to have played both the 5 and the 4!

For those trying to hear the difference, it may help to know what you're listening for.

First of all, there is no change in the actual tone, so if that's what you're listening for, that's why you're not hearing it.

The difference is in the "depth" of the pulsating effect. As I mentioned, I heard the difference more more when accelerating/decelerating. And actually, I was playing through a mono system. But also, I found that, if you're listening with headphones, it's noticeable in how "stereo" the effect is. I turn the overdrive up to about half way. And at least with that setting, I can hear the horn more clearly going back and forth between the left and right sides on the close compared to the non-close version.

It may also help to think about what "close" means. It is the effect of putting the microphones closer to either side of the rotating speaker, which is why you would get a more pronounced stereo effect. If you pull the (theoretical) microphones back, there is a greater amount of leakage between the the mics... IOW, the left mic is still getting a good amount of right side sound, and vice versa. This would make the stereo effect less pronounced.

This is not clearly a scenario where one is "better" or "more authentic" than the other, it's personal taste. In a room with a real Leslie, you don't stand so close to it that you get a hard-left hard-right effect as the speaker spins. In a studio for a recording, though, the engineer could choose to put the mics close to a Leslie for a more dramatic stereo effect. So it's nice that the E5 gives you the choice.

You could also conceivably prefer one of these settings when you play in stereo, and the other when you play in mono!

I appreciate the explanations, but if you have to go through all of this to hear the fabled difference, it's a very safe bet no one else is hearing it - or expecting to.

Gambold wrote: if you have to go through all of this to hear the fabled difference, it's a very safe bet no one else is hearing it

Plenty of people hear the difference right away. I was just providing tips for those who say they can't hear the difference.

And "going through all this" involves putting on a pair of headphones, and seeing if you do or don't hear the sound moving more from side to side.

Or, play through even just a mono speaker, and listen to the "pulse" as you speed up and slow down, to see if it seems more or less pronounced.

These are not difficult things to try. But if you still don't hear a difference (or don't care), that's fine, too.

anotherscott wrote:

Gambold wrote: if you have to go through all of this to hear the fabled difference, it's a very safe bet no one else is hearing it

Plenty of people hear the difference right away. I was just providing tips for those who say they can't hear the difference.

And "going through all this" involves putting on a pair of headphones, and seeing if you do or don't hear the sound moving more from side to side.

Or, play through even just a mono speaker, and listen to the "pulse" as you speed up and slow down, to see if it seems more or less pronounced.

These are not difficult things to try. But if you still don't hear a difference (or don't care), that's fine, too.

Believe me the pros listen for everything when comparing a clone to a real B3/Leslie. Weekend warriors do as well.

It's a very noticeable difference. The 122 Close is significantly more realistic to my ears. It sounds very close to the Ventilator sim, which is one of the current gold standards of Leslie simulation.