Who invented the leslie speaker

The advent of transistor electronics brought forth smaller, more affordable portable Organs. The Thomas Organ Company in the U. Thomas sold their Combo organs under the Vox name and their premier offering was the "Continental".

Farfisa's organs became Rock icons, and the marque reached its height with its "Professional" model. The sound of the transistor Combo Organ never went out of style, and has even flourished in the "Indy" scene of the 21st Century.

The sounds of both of classic instruments are faithfully reproduced in the Xk-1c, with the ability to register them in the exact way you were able to on the originals. Both models employed a variation of Hammond's Drawbars, and an accompanying legend on the control panel marks the functions for each drawbar, for each model. The Pipe Organ division uses the Drawbars as Drawknobs to select the stops you choose.

Now you can take this majestic sound wherever you desire, whether it is to accompany Worship, Perform Classical Organ Literature, or Practice with Headphones in your Dormitory Room. Progressive Rock groups have relied on the sounds of Classical Pipe Organs, and have had to compromise with the few inflexible samples contained in Synthesizers and Samplers, but now the sky is the limit with a Classical Pipe Organ that can be registered in the traditional manner.

As is customary with Hammond, each rank of pipes may be voiced independently to the user's specification, and stored for instant recall. The main difference between Church Pipe Organs and Theatre Organs was the deep Tremulant that took the edge off the Theatre Organ's pipes and made them emotionally "sob". Making use of an acoustic phenomenon called the "Doppler Effect", Mr. Leslie constructed a speaker cabinet that used a simple system of rotating horns and baffles to give the Hammond tone "motion" and "depth".

This created a different instrument altogether, one that could play "Popular" music. Hammond intended his organ for the Church and Classical Music, looking at "Popular" Music with disdain-he wanted nothing to do with Mr. Leslie's invention when Mr. Leslie demonstrated it. The public however, took the combination of Hammond and Leslie to heart, and so it remains to this very day. It is difficult to think of one without the other, although Mr. Hammond never allowed Hammond Dealers to sell Leslie Speakers.

After Mr. Hammond's death, the two companies became partners, and now Hammond owns and manufactures Leslie Speakers. For both Hammond and Leslie, the golden goal was to produce a Leslie that did not require motor-driven speakers, and the goal has been reached in the Xk-1c, with the finest Digital Leslie we have ever produced. Now the elusive effect can be had where space and mobility have heretofore denied it. As an added benefit to being produced in the Digital realm, many aspects of the effect can be adjusted and tailored to ones own taste and requirement.

In addition, 8 factory Cabinets, comprising the most popular Leslie Models like the , , , Vintage H, and others are available for instant choice. A button on the Control Panel allows the bypass of the Digital Leslie circuit and sends the Organ tones directly to the Stereo Outputs. A Manual button on the control panel renders the entire control panel current. The keypad in the center of the control panel are assignable to any of the presets for instant recall of your favorites.

The same panel may be switched to a numeric input pad for direct selection of presets. The Drawbar and Combo Organ Divisions have a number of effects that may be applied.

You can play these external zones with or without the Xk-1c voice sounding. Although […]. Thomas sold their Combo organs under the Vox name and their premier offerings were the "Continental" and the budget priced "Jaguar".

The sound of the transistor Combo Organ never went out of style, and has even flourished in the "Indy" scene of the 21 st Century. The sounds of all three classic instruments are faithfully reproduced in the Sk series, with the ability to register them in the exact way you were able to on the originals. All three models employed a variation of Hammond's Drawbars, and an accompanying legend on the control panel marks the functions for each drawbar, for each model.

Like all of the Sk's Extravoices, they may be played solo or in combination with any of the Drawbar, Pipe or Combo Organ tones. The Sk's voice capability will continue to grow, at no extra cost to you. Library voices may be downloaded from the Hammond Website free of charge, and easily installed in your Sk.

New voices will regularly be added to the website. The rotation causes sound sources themselves to grow nearer to and farther from the listener, even while these sound sources are housed in a stationary cabinet.

In the late s, Donald Leslie brought an electric Hammond organ home. He wanted that massive, quivering sound he heard on pipe organs in churches and movie halls.

Channeling his experience in mechanics and electrical engineering from his stint at the National Research Laboratories in Washington D. By , he had a prototype of his rotating speaker system and approached the inventor of the Hammond organ, Laurens Hammond. He thought it lacked a desirable sound or obvious application. Little did Laurens realize, organists would adopt the Leslie far and wide, no matter what brand organ they played.

Likewise, the Leslie speaker would go on to become a constant companion to the Hammond organ on studio recordings and live performances. Leslie went ahead and started his own company, Electro—Music, to manufacture the speakers. He started selling them under a variety of brand names in and started marketing them under his own name in The speaker was selling so well that Leslie had no need to advertise.

Word of mouth had left him barely able to cope with the demand. Laurens Hammond grew disdainful of the device and its sound.

He went as far as designing a proprietary connector to make it more difficult to run a Hammond organ through any third party speaker and coerced his dealers into agreeing not to sell Leslie speakers.

But Don Leslie, successful in his own right and maybe a little bitter, refused to sell. This added an obstacle to using the Leslie for something other than an electric organ.

The Leslie also required a line level signal, meaning that passive instruments needed a signal boost in order to sound through the speaker. Modifications with a pre—amp were necessary in order to use the early Leslie models with a guitar or microphone. It was meant to color and affect an audio signal, much like a guitar amplifier or effect pedal. The Leslie were easily and often hot—rodded: drivers could be disabled, crossovers re—installed, the amplifier disengaged or replaced.

All of this modification proves that the Leslie was part of a stream of innovation in amplified sound, not an end point. By the s, with the availability of cheaper circuitry and better mass production techniques, several companies were having a go at making their own smaller, and therefore more portable, Leslie emulations.

These emulations would let musicians take the sound out on the stage without worrying about maintaining and operating the delicate and, sometimes, cumbersome equipment. I run that through a Roland KB amp. I have yet to run the because of connectivity issues. Any hints would be appreciated! The previous Jensen failed during a loud jam session using a solid estate amp. I sometimes use a Danelectro Transparent Overdrive to boost the signal.

No horns. Sounds like a beast! You obviously understand all this technical stuff! We can help ease the interface questions- check out the LBB family. Well there are actually two versions of the Leslie sound: a recorded Leslie, and a live Leslie in a room.

The electronic imitations have become very good at reproducing this recorded sound and these musicians will say that they sound like the real thing. A live Leslie in a room is different and awesome! Hard to do with a stationary speaker… Our ears hear sound frequencies, amplitudes…and direction.

Then decide what you want. I own a Hammond B3 and Leslie That was around the time Mr. Hammond changed the name to Hammond Organ. If anyone knows where I can purchase any autograph related material of Donald Leslie I would greatly be indebted. Hi am Jerry I own a Hammond c3 and have a m3 speaker I had my amp reworked. It gets out there. I done my own work.

Your email address will not be published. For Sales and Support Please send me info. Nothing like working on the old gear.