How to address unwanted distortions (english)

Some users may experience clipping and noise artefacts after updating. While some distortions are inherent to the simulation (and also to be found on a real Hammond organ, like AO28 triode distortions and power amp overdrive), sometimes an old parameter settings or a too aggressive tapering may lead to unwanted distortions. Here is a short manual to locate and defeat these, valid for HX3.5 as well as HX3.6 boards.

Distinguish Distortion and Modulation Artefacts

While clipping will sound like a very hard overdive, modulation artefacts are "swirling" noises and non-harmonic "alias" frequencies. Modulation artefacts may occur when modulation depth of vibrato, phasing rotor or rotor/horn delay is set too high. In the past, we had some FPGA sound engines that had a too high "spread" modulation. See Update Changelog and update to newest FPGA sound engine.

Locate Distortion/Noise Source

Locating the distortion source is crucial. There are several places where clipping may occur in the simulation, as internal audio processing is limited to 16 bit due to FPGA constraints:

• Busbar accumulators
• Matching transformer
• AO28 preamp
• Tube power amp
• Speaker crossover
• Speaker simulation

Finding the distortion source is handled from top to bottom. Play a handfull of notes known to be critical at full swell. Repeat your tests always with the same notes played. Set Rotary and Tube Amp (Tabs #1136/#1137) to Bypass and Volume Pots AO28 Tube Age #1089 to 0, so they won't affect your sound. If reducing a parameter mentioned does not reduce clipping, leave it where it was. Do not change parameters randomly, as this will limit the organ's dynamic range as well as (intended) tube amp overdrive.

Clipping still occurs when Rotary and Tube Amp set to Bypass

This means that clipping occurs in the organ itself (first three points).

• Reduce AO28 Trim Cap Swell #1088.
• Reduce manual/pedal/percussion levels, parameters #1082 to #1085.

If reducing these does not help, a too aggressive tapering may lead to busbar accumulator overflow. Update the taperings to latest version or create new taperings with a lower scaling value (Defaults tab in HX3 Tapering Designer).

Clipping only occurs when Rotary and Tube Amp are active

The purpose of a tube amp overdrive is to produce distortions, so we will miss out this point here. However, unwanted clipping may occur in the speaker crossover and rotary simulation. In this case, try the following:

• Reduce Rotary Inits, Input Level #2104.
• Reduce Rotary Inits, Horn Level #2105 and Rotor Level #2106, especially when clipping depends on speaker's horn/rotor position.

Please note: These settings are saved to the particular speaker model.