For the last three years or so I’ve been working steadily on a collection of songs that can best be described as progressive rock. As touched upon in an earlier post, I grew up listening to bands like Genesis, Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, and others. When I was 16, I recorded an “album” of my own songs on a four-track reel-to-reel, with myself singing and doing all the parts on my trusty Yamaha SY77 (with a bit of acoustic piano thrown in). It was called Satori and included a 30 minute suite dedicated to the poet John Keats.
John Keats
Yeah, I was that kid.
The only people that ever heard that “album” were very close friends, my siblings, and my mom and dad. And that’s probably the way it will always be. I don’t know if I can ever release what I’m sure are some real cringe-worthy moments.
I got into jazz a few years after that and spent the next 14 years or so honing my jazz chops with organissimo and others. I focused entirely on Hammond organ and left my synths in the corner, for the most part. When my father passed away in 2008, I was suddenly inspired to dust off the synths (including that same trusty Yamaha SY77!) and start making ambient / electronica music, which is a genre he loved. He made a lot of that kind of music himself. The result was my album ‘In Memorandom‘, which was dedicated to my late parents and random memories from childhood.
Diving back into synths inspired me to eventually re-visit progressive rock. I still love those classic Genesis and Yes albums. But I was disappointed with a lot of modern prog, which seemed to be almost all guitar driven and metal-based. I have nothing against metal and a lot of that stuff is really cool. But where are the keyboard players who can stand with the gods of yore? Who is the new Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman?
Actually, there are a handful of modern guys that could possibly fill those roles. My favorite prog keyboardist, however, is much more underrated and subtle: Tony Banks. His compositions, melodic sense, lyrics, textures, and orchestrations, are all beyond compare. His approach to keyboards has always been a huge influence on me.
Tony Banks of Genesis
So I decided to start writing some material inspired by such an approach; not so much about technicality and flashiness, but melody, textures, and atmospheres. Sure, I play with some fun time signatures, but I try to avoid making them sound trite and instead feel natural. I also focused heavily on melody, both for my vocals and for the supporting parts.
The album is coming along nicely. I hope to release it by the end of the year. Right now, two other fantastic musicians are involved; drummer Kevin DePree and bassist Gary Davenport. Kevin played with my good friend Greg Nagy for several years and is on Greg’s Fell Towards None record. He’s got chops galore but is tasteful and sensitive as well. Gary is the bassist in Janiva Magness’ band, the group I’ve been touring with for the last four years. Gary is a monster player, educated at Berkeley. His first band out of college was a prog band that covered Genesis extensively. In the clip below, listen to his beautiful fretless bass work.
The following clip is just an excerpt from one of the songs. It is called “These Are The Simple Days“. This is just half the solo section. This is the first through-composed solo I’ve ever written. I usually just improvise and that’s that. But I wanted to approach this like Tony Banks, who admitted repeatedly in interviews that he was not an improvisor, and actually compose a solo part.
The song itself is about childhood, specifically about my young daughters’ childhood. It is a plea to enjoy this innocence, which is gone too fast. The section in the clip is in 5/8, though the main tune itself is essentially in 11/8 (and a completely different key center). I’ll post more of the song later. I hope to make an actual music video for this song, as the lyrics are very narrative.
I’m very excited about this project. It is a wide departure for what I’m known for, but it’s just another natural side of me. It’s really a return to my roots in some sense.
Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll re-release that 30 minute epic ode to Keats. I’ve still got the 1/4″ masters.
Satori – on tape. State of the art, yo!
UPDATE (March 16, 2015): THEO – The Game Of Ouroboros was officially released on January 27, 2015 and I posted the finished mastered version of These Are The Simple Days on YouTube. Enjoy!
NOTE: I originally published this on my Facebook page on May 11, 2013 while in the middle of my second Kickstarter campaign for Jim Alfredson’s Dirty Fingers – A Tribute To Big John Patton. It was looking quite bleak for that campaign but thankfully, with the support of music-lovers and jazz fans, we pulled through. I wrote this piece in response to many private messages and emails I received from musicians, fans, and friends. The theme running through all the messages was some variant of “Why are you resorting to crowd-funding? Isn’t that begging?”
I thought I would post this piece here to hopefully gain more exposure to the thoughts within and begin a dialogue.
As of this writing, my second Kickstarter project is about halfway to the finish line. Unfortunately it is also behind in terms of reaching my funding goals. I realize my last project was only six months ago (the very successful CD “Dedicated” by organissimo) and I also realize that, like last time, I’m asking for quite a tidy sum of money. I’d like to take a moment to explain why I’m asking for that amount but more importantly why crowd-funding is so important to independent, niche musicians like myself, using my last successful project as an example.
The Kickstarter for organissimo’s “Dedicated” reached it’s funding goal of $12,000 on October 15th, a full two days ahead of schedule. It finished slightly above the goal at $12,275. Kickstarter and Amazon (who processed the payments) each took 5% right off the top. So that left us with $11,047. I tracked and mixed the album myself, spending $274.50 on a suite of plug-ins for my DAW. That is the only money that I personally received from the campaign for my role in the production of the CD. Not only did I perform on the disc, write songs for the disc, engineer the disc in my home studio (with gear that I purchased myself), and spend countless hours fixing and mixing the audio, but I also did all the promotion for the crowdfunding campaign, handled the management of the Kickstarter, updated the websites, contacted the photographer, graphic designer, radio promoter, and mastering engineer, scheduled all those folks to do their thing, processed the payment for all those folks, contacted press people, and generally oversaw every little aspect of making the campaign and then the CD a reality. And I did not pay myself one cent for any of this except for buying those plug-ins in order to be able to mix the audio. I literally spent hours and hours and hours putting this CD together and I did not receive any money except to buy those plug-ins.
Drummer Randy Marsh did not receive any money either. Guitarist Ralph Tope was paid a small severance package when he left the band in order to protect the group’s rights to the music (which ate up the “extra” money I had calculated into the budget).
Indeed, I actually spent hundreds of dollars of my own money on postage, after the post office either lost or delivered half-empty packages to over half the people who purchased the “organissimo box set” as part of the Kickstarter. The budget was so tight that by the time the packages were lost, there was no more money to mail new ones and so I picked up the cost myself. The post office also raised prices on international shipments by 200% and I had to eat those costs as well.
Which brings me to my next crux of the biscuit: Why is crowd-funding so important?
Within one week of organissimo’s Dedicated being released it was available on blogs and torrent sites on the internet for free.
organissimo – Dedicated (BIG O 2418)
You can go find it right now with a simple Google search. In fact, you can find every single organissimo album for free with a simple Google search. I hope you don’t, but if you want to, you can.
This is not by choice.
In the digital age, musicians no longer have any control over how their product is distributed. This is why we must receive money up front to record the music. Waiting until after it is released is foolish and financially ruinous for independent artists like us. And that means we need you, the fans, to step up and help us make it happen. You are vitally important to the process. You are essentially our label. Without you, we have no viable way to record and release music.
The last four organissimo CDs cost about the same to produce as the goal of the Kickstarter: between $10,000 and $12,000. I was able to curb a lot of that by tracking and mixing Dedicated myself and so we spent the money not used on studio time for promotion. One thing I’ve learned as an independent musician is the importance of promotion. Most musicians don’t like to talk about themselves and their art, but the truth is if you’re not going to promote yourself, who is? But merely talking about yourself can only take you so far.
The great thing about the modern age of digital technology is that anyone can make an album. The horrible thing about the modern age of digital technology is that anyone can make an album. Radio stations (especially college stations and those that play Americana, jazz, blues, etc.) are absolutely inundated with hundreds upon hundreds of CDs every month. They simply cannot take the time to listen to them all. The same is true of music writers. You must have a gatekeeper, someone they trust, who they know will only send good stuff, in order for them to take the time to check out your project. You need a trusted radio promoter and a trusted publicist.
Without promotion, Dedicated would’ve done nothing. With radio promotion it was able to hit #5 on the national jazz charts, #2 on the college jazz charts, and has lead to more sales and more opportunities for the band. Promotion is immensely important and that’s why over 30% of the Kickstarter budget for Dedicated was for promotion.
But that promotion doesn’t come cheap.
Before crowdfunding, we would personally go into debt every time we recorded an album. It would literally take years to pay that off. As file sharing becomes easier and more prevalent, it takes longer and longer to pay off that debt. Our first disc took 2 years to pay off. The second 3 years. The third 4 years. The pattern is clear.
THEO – The Game Of Ouroboros – Successfully crowdfunded in 2015.
And so, to answer the question “Why is crowd-funding so important?” It is important because it is no longer financially feasible to go into debt to produce an album. And that is because of file-sharing. The only way to guarantee that I’ll be able to make an album is to secure financing up front. And that’s where you, the fans, come into play. If you want the music to be made, you have to support it on the front end. Give me your pledge of support up front and I will produce the music for you to enjoy. That’s my promise to you.
I hope I can count on your support in my musical endeavours. I hope my music and my gear reviews and my advice and expertise when it comes to all things Hammond is valuable to you. Beyond the current crowdfunding campaign (http://bit.ly/2elcnGU) I am currently working on a progressive rock project of all original material (with me singing!) that is reminscent of the 70’s keyboard-centered prog, but not derivative thereof. (UPDATE: This project has been successfully crowdfunded and released as THEO- The Game of Ouroboros.) I also have several project by good friends that I am producing / engineering / consulting on and many many more ideas up in this crazy head of mine. If you know me, you know the music is going to be great regardless. Thank you for reading and thank you for caring about independent artists like myself.
KIOS FM in Omaha NE has named my CD, Jim Alfredson’s Dirty Fingers – A Tribute To Big John Patton as a Top 12 release in 2013. I’m thankful and honored.
As a companion to my Hammond XK1c Quick review, here’s a video demo of the XK1c in action. I took one of the tracks from my Tribute To Big John Patton sessions last August and muted the original organ track. I then overdubbed myself playing the XK1c instead. I think it sounds very good! Such demos are important because they demonstrate how the instrument fits into a mix with a band.
I considered connecting the XPK-200L bass pedals to the XK1c and kickin’ a bit of bass, but I decided to just do left hand bass instead.
The XK1c was recorded directly into Cubase 7 from it’s 1/4″ outputs. The onboard Leslie sim is used. I added a bit of the session reverb from the track to help it sit into the “room” with the other instruments.
I first met Greg Nagy in early 2005. I was doing some freelance video work in Ann Arbor and got a call from Greg that morning asking me about organissimo’s first album Waiting For The Boogaloo Sisters… Greg complimented the record and specifically wanted to know what I had done to promote it.
“Uh… nothing,” I naively said.
That wasn’t going to fly with Mr. Nagy. He had a bunch of ideas that we eventually applied to the following release, This Is The Place, ideas that helped make that CD very successful on jazz radio and in the press. For that release, we co-founded our own label, Big O Records.
organissimo – This Is The Place (BIG O 2404), released in 2005. This is the first project Greg and I worked together on.
Before all that, he invited me over to jam and maybe write some songs. On our first get together, we wrote “Won’t Cry”, which is featured on his first solo release Walk That Fine Thin Line. He joined Root Doctor as well and together we produced three CDs for the band. We also produced his sophomore release Fell Towards None and he’s had a hand in every other organissimo release and even my newest solo release A Tribute To Big John Patton.
Root Doctor – Change Our Ways (BIG O 2407), released in 2008. I’m very proud of our work on this one including production, songwriting, arrangements, and more.
Greg Nagy – Fell Toward None (BIG O 2417), released in 2011. This was a very enjoyable record to make and features one of Greg’s finest performances on my tune “I’ll Know I’m Ready”.
In short, we’ve become really good friends and musical partners.
Greg and I are now working on his third CD. The last 18 months have seen some dramatic changes in his life. The last few years of my life have been dramatically different as well due to my intense touring schedule and being away from my family. All these things are filtering into the songs that Greg and I are writing together. In the spring, we released a single we co-wrote called I Won’t Give Up, which you can hear for free here (Flash required). It is available on iTunes.
So we’re working on a new record together, Greg’s third. We have assembled a stellar cast of musicians to bring it to life. And like my past two projects, we’ve begun a crowd-funding campaign via Kickstarter to finance it. The music industry is in flux. Nobody knows how its all going to shake out. But with crowd-funding, the middlemen are removed from the process and we can connect directly to our fans. You’re not donating to a cause, you’re supporting the creative process. You’re directly participating in the production of new music.
I really believe in this music and I hope you’ll consider being a part of it. My role will be as songwriter, performer (Hammond, Wurlitzer electric piano, piano, Rhodes, etc.), and engineer.
Check out the introduction video above and consider becoming an important part of the process with us. Thank you! Here is the direct link to the Kickstarter campaign.
My new CD, Jim Alfredson’s Dirty Fingers – A Tribute To Big John Patton, is available all over the web for your enjoyment. It’s currently enjoying a lot of excitement and airplay from radio stations across the US.
Jim Alfredson’s Dirty Fingers (BIG O 2419)
You can order a physical copy from Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, or direct from the Big O Store, which is my label’s outlet. Note that the Big O Store is the only place you can also purchase the companion DVD, featuring 90 minutes of music including three tracks not on the CD.
If digital downloads are more your thing, it is also available in mp3 format on Amazon, iTunes, CDBaby, and more.
Here are some examples from the companion DVD, again only available via the Big O Store.
Hammond is shipping their newest model, the XK1c. This replaces the discontinued XK1. The engine is much the same as the SK series but without the other non-organ voices. The form factor is also very similar but lacking the SK’s non-organ voice controls. It also features different end blocks with a more traditional wood grain.
Hammond XK1c
The organ engine has a few differences from the current OS in the SK series (though this may change). First is a MIX parameter for the chorus/vibrato, which controls the balance between the dry signal and the affected signal. Users have been asking for this ability for some time. It allows you to dial in some “age” to the virtual chorus/vibrato line, not unlike the capacitors in a real tonewheel organ aging over time. The range is from -64 (dry) to +64 (100% wet).
Another difference is the COLOR parameter in the Leslie simulation menu. This imparts some tonal characteristics reminiscent of cabinet resonance to the Leslie sim.
Hammond also added some very subtle details to make the sound even more authentic. The drawbars exhibit a very understated ‘click’ in the audio when moved. It is barely noticeable but tonewheel Hammond organs do the same thing, even those with smooth drawbars. A similar understated ‘click’ is audible when holding a note or chord and pressing the chorus/vibrato tabs on or off. Again, a tonewheel console like a B3 does this as well and it isn’t loud or distracting.
Here is a quick improvisation using the very first stock preset on the XK1c and the internal Leslie sim. This was recorded straight into Cubase 7 with no external processing except for a very light limiter added to the final mix for web delivery purposes. The reverb is also from the XK1c.
The sound right out of the box is very good. To my ear, Hammond’s past instruments all needed substantial tweaking before they sounded as good as their potential, but the XK1c comes from the factory sounding really great. The presets are for the most part well programmed and display the range of tones available. One of my favorites is a re-creation of a 1940’s Hammond BV through a Leslie 31H tallboy.
I will be making a custom tonewheel set for it based on my ’54 Hammond C2 and this will be available on my site as well as the Hammond site for free.
I think Hammond has a real winner with this product. A 13lbs Hammond organ with the big sound of the original 400lbs beast for $1495? Sounds good to me!
Back in April I posted a video on Youtube comparing my newly completed tonewheel set for the Hammond SK2 with its inspiration, my beautiful 1954 Hammond C2. I bought the C2 from a pawn shop in Grand Rapids in 1998. They were using the back panel, which is detachable, as a board to post notices with push-pins. The rest of the case was in pretty rough shape. I feel like I rescued it from certain death. And the best part is that it was only $400.
The other best part is that it had smooth drawbars instead of the usual ratchet style drawbars that were standard on the 2 series. I’m fairly confident that the smooth drawbars were installed at the Hammond factory due to the serial number, which dates the organ to the end of 1954. I think this C2 was one of the last off the line before they started making the C3 model, all of which had smooth drawbars. I installed a TrekII percussion unit to bring it up to B3/C3 specs and also a 122 Leslie output. My dad and I refinished the organ, too. Well, pretty much my dad did the work. He’s gone now and so the organ has a lot of sentimental value for me.
1954 HammondC2 – Ain’t she purdy?
It’s also one of my favorite organs in terms of sheer tone, sentimentality aside. Everything is stock with the exception of the chorus/vibrato line. I replaced the capacitors in the line and also replaced the resistor underneath the C/V tabs so the chorus is a bit deeper and more like the 3 series. Everything else is from the factory. You can hear it on the organissimo release Dedicated. You can hear and see it in action on this video from my Kickstarter promotion as well as this video.
When Hammond added the ability to adjust the virtual tonewheels in the SK series of digital organs, I knew instantly the first organ I wanted to try and match. So I spent an afternoon comparing the two organs one tonewheel and one drawbar at a time until I got the SK to sound as close as I could. I posted a video on Youtube of the results with the caveat that you cannot see which organ I’m playing. Astute viewers will notice the orientation of each organ that’s off camera with my previous videos of the C2 and would be able to deduce pretty quickly which is which. I also overlooked a very important setting in the SK2 that controls the percussion. I accidentally had it set to re-trigger on every note. The percussion in a real C3 or B3 is polyphonic but single-trigger, meaning if you’re holding any key down, it won’t re-trigger unless you lift your fingers off the keys. That combined with a bit too much brightness in the keyclick makes figuring out which is which a bit less difficult, although certainly some people were fooled. Here’s the original video:
I’ve been tweaking my custom tonewheel set for the SK series ever since, taking into account how it sounds through various speaker systems, Leslies, stages, gigs, etc. I’ve also been experimenting with running the SK into the C2’s preamp. The following clip is an example of that.
The signal flow is as follows: SK2 into the C2 preamp via the RCA jack on the expression pedal box, C2 preamp direct out via a custom direct box into a mixer, the mixer aux output into a Mini Vent, the Mini Vent stereo output to my DAW.
I posted this clip on the Keyboard Forum and the responses were interesting. Some could not tell the difference. One poster asked if I had put the SK through the C2 preamp. Some correctly identified the SK. One fellow poster claimed that routing the SK into the C2’s preamp was unfair, since you’re not going to have that luxury in a live situation (although I’ve been toying with the idea of finding an AO-10 preamp and wiring it up with 1/4″ jacks to go in between the SK and my Leslie!) Point taken. The AO-10 preamp from the C2 definitely puts a cool vibe on the SK’s signal. So what’s the actual difference? I decided to inject some white noise into the preamp and see what’s up in a spectral analyzer (with the awesome and free Voxengo SPAN).
Here is the raw unaffected white noise signal:
White noise from the Test Tone generator in Cubase 7.
And here is the white noise after it goes through the AO-10 preamp in the 1954 Hammond C2.
White noise after going through the AO-10 preamp.
Look at that beautiful gentle roll-off in the high-end. The whole signal takes on a nice rounded curve rather than the straight linear line of the original signal. This of course is not very scientific and only reveals a fraction of what’s going on in the preamp. There is harmonic distortion, slewing, filtering, and all many of things going on in there. But it did give me a starting point to try and shape the output of the SK to sound more like the C2’s output without resorting to “cheating” and running the SK through the C2.
I started by using the onboard EQ parameters in the SK2. It has per-patch EQ and also global EQ via the knobs on the front panel. The per-patch EQ is quite powerful and includes the “TC” parameter which emulates the tone control adjustment on the original Hammond preamps like the AO-10. I have the tone control turned all the way up on my C2, so I set this parameter to -1 in the SK. According to the manual, -1 represents the knob all the way up. The SK actually allows you to adjust it beyond the real-life maximum, which yields some interesting results. Once that was set, I used the per-patch EQ to shape the signal a bit more, trying to match the timbre of the C2. I found that adjusting the low mids made a very big difference.
So here is the result. The following video features the raw, unprocessed output of the C2 against the raw, unprocessed output of the SK2. The SK2 is NOT routed through the C2’s preamp. Both organs’ outputs are going straight into the DAW. No Leslie, no Leslie sim, no outboard EQ, nothing. Just straight out of the two organs and into the computer.
Watch the video and see if you can detect which organ is which. Listen for the quality of the key-click, the tones behind the main frequency of the notes, and the timbre of the percussion. Later in the video I turn the chorus on both. Listen to the depth of the chorus and the shimmer. Write down which organ you think A is and which you think B is and then watch the video below so see if you’re right.
Don’t cheat! Watch the first video before watching the one below.
How’d you do? The differences are minor but they are there. They are almost to the point where they are not much different than two different console Hammonds. My ’74 B3 certainly sounds different ’54 C2. The key areas of the SK that can be improved are:
Distortion – There’s some fuzz around the edges of the real thing, due to the preamp. That difference gets much smaller when the SK2 is run through the preamp. I can kind of mimic it using a small amount of the onboard overdrive, specifically the SK’s EP model which is much more subtle and better sounding than the TUBE model.
Leakage – In order to try and mitigate the leakage, Hammond moved the location of certain tonewheels in the generator throughout the years. Since the VASE III engine was originally modeled on a 70s B3, the last of the line, it represents Hammond’s final arrangement of tonewheels. And that arrangement is different than my ’54 C2* (see addendum 1 below). So the character of the individual tonewheel leakage on some notes is different between the two, because the ’54s tonewheels are in different positions. I got them as close as I can but I cannot change the actual frequencies involved in the leakage.
Chorus / Vibrato – The ’54 is very different than the mid-60’s A100 that the SK’s c/v is modeled after. They do not sound the same.That said, I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other, just different. Nor do I have a mid-60s organ to compare it to but the SK2 chorus sounds very good to me. I’m excited about having the new Mix Balance control that was introduced in the XK1c on the SK. That might help to get it closer to the ’54.
I’d like to see Hammond offer models of various eras of c/v, including the very cool and unique 2nd tone generator chorus of the BC model. Then again, I’m probably the only one that cares!
To summarize, we’re nitpicking over extreme minutia here. Are these issues important in the midst of a burning solo while competing with a distorted guitar, bashing drums, and thundering bass guitar? Probably not. Will they even be apparent in the average supper club jazz trio setting? Not really. Your choice of amplification has a greater effect on the sound than whether or not the keyclick is 100% authentic or the leakage is 100% historically accurate. We’ve gotten to the point where we can take a 35lbs two manual organ to the gig rather than a 400 pound back-breaker. What a great time to be a musician! We’re 95% there in terms of tone. That extra 5% isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but its still fun to try and get there.
Thanks for reading and please subscribe to my Youtube channel if you like the videos. And leave a comment below or contact me via Facebook if you’d like my SK tonewheel set for your SK.
* Addendum 1 – According to my friend and Hammond guru Todd Phipps (ie B3Nut), I am incorrect in stating that Hammond moved the tonewheels between 1954 and 1974. Todd wrote on my Facebook thread:
…the arrangement of the tonewheels in your ’54 is the same as a late B-3 – the change from a sequentially-wired terminal strip to a chromatically-wired terminal strip with the narrow brass generator cover took place around 1952. A red-cap generator from a ’74 B-3 will drop right in and wire right up. The reduced leakage of the later red-cap instruments is partly due to the more stable/accurate filtering of the later filters as well as the RC networks on several of the frequencies that got rid of low-frequency rumble on those tones.
That makes sense and aligns with what I hear on the C2, especially in the middle range. There is a LOT of low frequency information in those tones that is not there on the SK2 nor is it there on my ’74 B3.
* Addendum 2 – Over on the Keyboard Forum thread and my Facebook thread, I talked about the possibility of Hammond adding a scaling parameter to the SK’s keyclick LPF. I noticed that the keyclick gets duller as you go down into the bass ranges on the C2 but it stays the same on the SK. The SK has a LPF parameter in the keyclick submenu but it is static, ie it affects all notes equally. If it was tied to note values with a scaling parameter, it could more authentically emulate the C2.
However, I incorrectly assumed the cause of the dullness in the bass range of the C2 was due to filtering. Again, Todd Phipps corrected me:
… keyclick is mainly a product of the instant switching of the sine waves at something other than zero cross (and there’s a bit of contact bounce in that mix too.) The higher the frequency being switched, the stronger the HF component of the switching transient.
And again, this makes a lot of sense. Todd helped me modify the chorus/vibrato on my C2 to more closely match the 3 series organs and is a wealth of knowledge on the tonewheel organs. Thank you, Todd!
* Addendum 3– Hammond just released the XK1c which is like an SK series organ but without the extra voices. The XK1c has some features that the SK series does not yet have, although Scott May from Hammond mentioned on FB that the features are coming for the SK series via an OS update soon. One of the coolest features in the new XK1c is the MIX parameter in the chorus/vibrato submenu. This parameter lets you balance the dry, non-affected organ signal with the chorused signal and helps dial in a smoother, more vintage sounding chorus. Check out my quick review of the XK1c to hear it in action.
