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Korg CX3
Accurate Hammond emulation? Gordon Reid pulls his stool up to the drawbar.

heres no mistaking the CX3s genealogy. Ignoring its

display, patch selectors, and editing controls, it has
two sets of drawbars, controls for percussion,
overdrive, chorus/vibrato, reverb and Leslie effects, and
its wooden case and vintage styling reek of Hammond.
Thats not surprising. The CX3 emulates the Hammond
B3, but with many additional tweaks, courtesy of its DSP.
If you want to keep things simple, you can play the CX3
simply by manhandling the physical controls. But that
would be a waste. With an operating system divided into

16 chunks eight patch edit groups, and eight global edit

groups detailed operation of the CX3 is disarmingly
straightforward, with simple sections dedicated to voicing,
effects, controllers, and so on. You select these by entering
Edit Mode, and then pressing the shortcuts the patch
buttons one to eight which take you to the start of each
Group. Alternatively, you can also step left or right through
the whole single-tier edit table if you prefer.

Voicing and Effects

The first Group defines the character of the organ itself.
You can select whether the tonewheels have leakage (the
vintage setting) or not, adjust the overtone level, adjust the
amount of leakage, and the levels of the clicks that occur
when you press or release a key on a vintage Hammond.
The second determines the drawbar settings stored in the
patch. There are two sets of drawbars and, in Normal
mode, these determine the sounds of the Upper and
Lower generators either side of a key-split. However, the
second set of drawbars is also annotated EX Drawbar and
EX Percussion. Its time to take a detour...
The CX3 has two playing modes: Normal and EX.
Simply stated, EX allows you to add four further drawbars
and, therefore, four further pitches to the standard

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nine provided by most Hammonds. The range of these

extend in semitones from G4 to C7, where the reference
pitch of the 1' drawbar is C5. (You program the pitches in
Global mode, which offers four memories that you can
access wherever you program an EX patch.) There are
precedents for extended Hammond registrations (a
handful of Spinets offered a drawbar that controlled the
tenth and twelfth harmonics) but its rare and unusual, and
it makes the CX3 capable of rare and unusual sounds.
The remaining five drawbars then provide five percussion
settings lying at 4' or 22/3 (depending upon the
status of the second/third harmonic button in the
Percussion controls) 16', 51/3, and at the pitches
determined for the first two EX drawbars. Theres
just one shortcoming to EX mode. Because it
demands so much more of the CX3, it limits you to
just the Upper registration, with the Lower being
disabled.
Since the sound of a vintage B3 is as much a
consequence of the chorus/vibrato, reverb,
amplifier and Leslie speaker system as it is of the
organ itself, the CX3 has sections that emulate each
of these.
As on the original, the chorus/vibrato is not
editable. You choose which of the seven options V1,
C1, V2, C2, V3, C3, or off you want, and leave it at
that. In contrast, the amplifier selection offers three
options. Type 1 is clean, Type 2 is more driven with
greater high frequency content, and Pre-Amp is the
equivalent of a direct line out of the sound generator,
bypassing the rotating speaker effect. I describe these as
broad outlines because theres a three-band
treble/mid/bass EQ, and you can adjust the gain of
Types 1 and 2. This is where youll generate the characteristic purr or distortion of your favourite Hammond
sounds.
Turning to the rotating speaker effect, there are 17
speaker parameters that cover all the aspects of miking
up a twin rotor Leslie such as a 122RV. Korg has been
producing excellent Leslie effects since the G4 stompbox, and this is no exception. Bravo!
Finally, there are three reverb types (room, hall and plate)
with adjustable reverb time and mix level. You decide
whether the reverb occurs before the Leslie speaker
algorithm (as it would on Hammonds equipped with spring
reverbs) or afterwards, to recreate the ambience of a room
or hall. If you decide on the former, you set the routing to
Rev -> Rot. If the latter, set it to Rot -> Rev. But wheres

the spring reverb setting? Hammond reverbs were springs,

not plates. Whats going on?

Global Warming
Global mode affects the operation of the whole instrument, irrespective of the patch chosen. In addition to all
the normal stuff, this hides three unexpected bonuses...
The first is velocity sensitivity. Group 2 offers not one,
but two output Midi channel selectors for each sound
generator. By default, the second of these is set to Off but,
if you select a channel, youll find that it transmits Note On,
Note Off... and Midi velocity! I have no idea why Korg
hasnt made more of a song and dance about this.
The second occurs as a consequence of the CX3s
ability to assign Midi controller numbers (CCs) to each of
its drawbars, knobs and buttons. This means that you can
use the drawbars in the same ways as a dedicated Midi
controller. Sure, the CX3 doesnt offer controller
memories, but its an interesting bonus nonetheless.
The third is a parameter buried deep in Group 7.
Called Wheel Brake, this simulates the slowing down
(and eventual grinding to a halt) of the tonewheel generators that occurs when you switch off a Hammond. I love
it! The only problem is the parameters location. Because
its in a menu, you cant change patch while its active.

Hammond It Up
Playing the CX3 as an out-of-the-box preset organ couldnt
be simpler. Plug in the power, plug in to a stereo monitoring system (mono works, but you lose the spaciousness of
the Leslie effect), select a patch (there are 64 Normal
patches and 64 EX patches) and plug in some talent.
The controls are well arranged, and youre never more
that a single button away from important functions such
as percussion, mode selection, and patch selection. Then
there is the traditionally styled chorus/vibrato selector,
the knobs for overdrive, EQ and reverb level, plus of
course the two sets of drawbars. In live performance,
perhaps the only time that youll need to press two or
more buttons is when you want to change both bank and
patch. Nevertheless, since the CX3 has a handy swap
option in the menus, you can place the required patches
next to each other. Problem solved!
The CX3 also boasts three inputs that take a selection
of on/off and continuous controller pedals. Destinations
for continuous controllers include the Reverb Mix and
Amp Gain. Destinations for on/off pedals include sustain
for both the Upper and Lower sound generators; keyboard
split; braking and releasing the Leslie effect; and switching

Right of Reply
One aspect which Gordon didnt mention was the CX3s
keyboard, which we believe to be a critical part of the
overall B3 experience. Unlike a synth keyboard, the CX3s
speaks after youve depressed the key by just a tiny
amount just like the real thing. The CX3 keyboard allows
you to play it Hammond-style, (making those fast organ
licks possible) and really adds another performance
dimension.
Music Link.

between the fast and slow speeds of the Leslie.

Dont take it for granted but... the CX3s sound is first
class, imitating the spit and cough of a vintage Hammond
better than any other digital organ Ive tried. Likewise, the
range and accuracy of the pitched percussion sounds
impress me. This is especially true in EX Mode, which
allows you to experiment far beyond the bounds of the
original Hammond and its emulators. Ah yes... EX Mode.
Capable of delicate glassy tones that no real Hammond
can produce, this makes the Korg special.
I should also praise the chorus/vibrato section and,
again, the Leslie effect, because each sounds authentic to
my ears. All in all, its a very impressive package of
features and capabilities.

Criticisms
Excellent though the CX3 may be, its not perfect. For
example, theres no provision for a pedal board. This
places it well to the rear of the Hammond XM-series and
the Oberheim OB32, both of which offer three independent Midi-controlled sound generators.
The CX3 also lacks a Leslie output. I would love to play
it through my 122RV, but the only way to do so would be to
use a dedicated Leslie preamp/converter. Shame! Likewise,
the CX should have a send/return loop lying between the
sound generators and the preamp/effects because this
would allow you to insert a true valve preamp between the
chorus/vibrato and the Leslie effect.
As far as the sound generators go, I have only one,
probably pedantic, complaint. If you sit at an old, leaky
Hammond, youll notice a certain amount of noise at all
times, giving the Leslie a characteristic, throaty whirr,
even when youre not playing. By gating the noise and
leakage totally, Korg has made it rather unnatural.
Finally, theres the manual. Sure, it explains all the
obvious stuff, but when it comes to discovering whether
the CX3 generates velocity, or to finding out precisely
what EX Mode does, its not so useful.

Korg Blimey?
As you can tell, I liked the CX3 very much. Sure, other
modules provide excellent Hammond emulations, but
these tend to be either (a) very realistic, or (b) very
flexible, but never both. To my ears, the Korg is the first to
combine superb realism with great flexibility. Furthermore, the effects algorithms are, for me, at least the
equals of those in any other digital organ or module.
Then theres EX Mode, perhaps the first improvement to
the Hammond algorithm in over 65 years! The bottom
line is... move over Roland, Voce, and even Hammond
for me, the CX3 is the pick of the digital bunch.
AT

Distributed by
Music Link
Phone: (03) 9765 6530
WWW: www.korg.com

Price
$4,999
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