Get a Real Hammond B3 on your song with a professional session player

Been playing the Hammond Organ for 50 years and it's true today as is was back then. There is nothing that sounds like the real thing. Why settle for an imitation? Love to work on your song to give it that big Hammond sound.

In 1967, I traded mom's piano for a used Hammond B3. More than 50 years later, there is still nothing that can fake the sound of a real Hammond and a Leslie.

Now you can have that sound professionally recorded on your rock, blues, or country song. I use three microphones on the Leslie to capture the sound of this vintage instrument, the real deal B3/122 set up...not an electronic reproduction or a clone or a plug in.

Nothing can match the sound.  There's a lot of "stuff" that comes close but for the real sound you gotta have the real thing.  If you're serious about your sound, you can hire me as your session player with the set up that's gets you there.

My Music

I've been playing music since I was a kid.  Started on guitar but too many guitar players.  My first organ was an Acetone running through a Silvertone Twin Twelve amp.  I got into recording about 8 years ago with my old friend from the neighborhood and have over 40 songs.  Most of them are published here www.inception67.com .  I love rock n' roll and blues, and country rock. 

This is one of my most recent songs.  Hammond solo at 1:56 and lot's of comp and fills. 

 

Put my tracks on your song

A short video about adding my tracks to your song.....

The story of Hammond and Me

My first real exposure to this magnificent instruments came at a concert where the Young Rascals played at the Memorial Field House. I watched in amazement as Felix Cavaliere used the mighty B3 to shape and transform their music.  I said to myself, "I gotta get me one of those."

When mom and dad came back from vacation and found this beast in the living room, well let's just say it was not a happy time. The used B3 was really used and didn't go with the early American decor of the living room.  And, it took four guys to get it in the house.  How am I gonna get it our of the house?  But as things usually do,  the situation got resolved and soon I was trying to figure out how to sound like Felix instead of how to get out of the house while I was grounded.

The organ was the brainchild of Laurens Hammond, an inventor, around 1935.  The concept came from a clock he'd invented...he wasn't a musician.  Hammond organs generated sound by creating an electric current from a rotating metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup, and then running the sound through an amplifier to drive a speaker cabinet.

The organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the pipe organ. Once professional jazz musicians started using it, the rest is, as they say, history...EXCEPT....

A guy named Don Leslie who decided to build a speaker for the Hammond that sounded more like a pipe or theatre organ, and figured out that baffles rotating inside a big wooden box worked best. Mr. Hammond, however, was not interested in a partnership, so Leslie sold them himself as an add-on. He built the first speaker in 1941. The sound of the organ was an instant success.  It soon became a "must have" even though Hammond prohibited his dealers from selling it and making the connections very difficult to execute.

How this works

The simple answer is: You send me your song, I'll send you back a Hammond organ track you can download into your DAW.  It usually costs $81.00.

The more detailed answer is, I work with a session service called Airgigs. You should upload the song and any info about it for me to evaluate. Can I play what you want, does the Hammond fit with the song?  If no, no harm no foul. If yes, I may ask you for more information, maybe the backing track in a different configuration.  I'll play the song. 

Once I've finished, or maybe when I have part of it done. I'll send you an MP3 mixed with your backing track for approval. After I've finished and you approve, you'll get three dry wav stems, upper rotor horn track using a Shure SM 57, lower rotor track using a Shure Beta 52, and a room track using a Lewitt LCT 441 so you can blend the individual tracks to suit your taste and recording style.

Price is for a song five minutes or less. I don't cut and paste so if you're more than five minutes, let's talk about it first. I include two revisions, not full replays. If I have to play the whole song over, I don't deserve your business and you can walk away with a full refund and we'll still be friends..