Clonewheel organ

rdf:langString Clonewheel organ

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Drawbars

rdf:langString Tonewheel rotates beneath electro-magnetic pickup

rdf:langString horizontal

rdf:langString Hammond-drawbars-plain.svg

rdf:langString Tonewheel-p.svg

rdf:langString A clonewheel organ is an electronic musical instrument that emulates (or "clones") the sound of the electromechanical tonewheel-based organs formerly manufactured by Hammond from the 1930s to the 1970s. Clonewheel organs generate sounds using solid-state circuitry or computer chips, rather than with heavy mechanical tonewheels, making clonewheel organs much lighter-weight and smaller than vintage Hammonds, and easier to transport to live performances and recording sessions. The phrase "clonewheel" is a play on words in reference to how the original Hammond produces sound through "tonewheels". The first generation of clonewheel organs used synthesizer voices, which were not able to accurately reproduce the Hammond sound. In the 1990s and 2000s, clonewheel organs began using digitally-sampled real Hammond sounds or digital signal processing emulation techniques, which were much better able to capture the nuances of the vintage Hammond sound. Clonewheel organs can be either electronic keyboard-based instruments such as the Korg CX-3 or the Roland VK-7; or keyboardless emulation devices, which include MIDI-compatible tone modules, such as the E-MU B-3 module and software-based "virtual synths" (such as the B4 by Native Instruments [discontinued]). To use keyboardless emulation devices, they need to be connected to a MIDI keyboard controller.