Hammond setting translation

[Organiste]

In so much organ music there are Hammond organ settings that look very precise, but I have no way to decipher them. Is there a way to translate them into "real" registrations -- e.g. names of stops like "Diapason 8'"?

[Mat]

This article might help you sort it out.

[wljmrbill]

there are also books on the hammond registratiions. Basically you are dealing with 16',8',4',2' (+ mutation ability- so to speak ) to create sounds by pulling the bars to create the level ( depth) of the sound that you desire. here are a few that may help you:

Oboe 8' = 20 3675 210 20 8071 432 00 8533 330
Flute 8' = 00 7714 000 00 2650 232
String 8' = 00 1233 330 00 1110 000 (light string ) 00 5433 320
Gamba 8" = 00 4400 110 00 8876 643
Voix Celeste 8'/ Salicional 8' 00 3333 330
Full 8',4' = 20 8876 543 22 8876 654

If you notice as you pull thses stops that there is a shape pattern when all drawbars are pulled......... this gives you the basic config. for various sounds as you note above....... Experiment is many times a good way to develope registrations with the drawbar system..WRITE THEM DOWN WHEN YOU FIND ONES YOU LIKE....

[dll927]

All the explanation of Hammond drawbars ever written will never make a Hammond sound like a pipe organ. Was it ever intended to?

Although Hammonds are no longer made, their debut back in the 1930's was the first attempt to substitute something electronic for the real thing - reed organs excepted, of course, and they were hardly electronic. There were later tries -- Wurlitzer, Baldwin, Conn, etc., but by now most of those are probably memories.

In more recent times, Allen and Rodgers come about the closest to pipe organ sound -- the result of technology and research. Their main advantage is that they are cheaper than the real thing.