About the Hohner D6
Introduced in 1971. by the German company, Hohner, mostly known for their melodicas and harmonicas came the Hohner D6 model. Hohner had released some models before this, and was to release some after the D6 but this without questioning "THE" model to have! It has appeared on thousands of recording and has become the funky trademark of several artists, remember Stevie Wonders “Superstition”? Ever wondered how that song would have sounded without the Hohner D6…???
By using the disk streaming technique it has been possible to, for the first time, reproduce the tone and feel of the original Hohner D6.
This sampled instruments consists of all the possible tonal presets sampled in three different velocities and with three different damper settings. The Hohner D6 has been sampled in thirds, that is, C, D#, F# and A has been sampled for the entire range of the keyboard giving a total more then 1000 samples! The sampled instruments contain NO LOOPS!!! All samples are left with its natural decay.
This is truly the mother of all sampled D6’s! Have fun & enjoy! Boris & Worra
About the sampled instrument
The Hohner D6 Clavinet is really a acoustic instrument. It consists of strings that are being hammered on using a piano-like action. This means that different strings for different tones produce the tone of the Hohner D6. The tone of the D6 changes depending on how hard you hit the string. When releasing the key, the tone is being silenced with a damping mechanic giving a distinctive release sound. “Boris Hohner D6” has been assembled to reproduce the original instrument as closely as possible.
The notes have been sampled using three different velocities and the release has been sampled separately. Since the D6 uses separate strings for each note, the tone might differ between different notes. On “Boris Hohner D6” these differences has been included to preserve the unique tone of the Hohner D6
Layout
“Boris Hohner D6” has been sampled in thirds, C, D#, F# and A all across the keyboard. The original D6 has a tonal range going from F1 to E5, but the lowest and highest region has been stretched to cover the normal range of a keyboard, that is C0-C7.
“Boris Hohner D6” contains several different instruments. The different instruments are sampled to cover all the different tonal settings on the D6. The D6 is a stringed instrument that uses electro magnetic pick-ups, much like a electric guitar. The D6 has 2 pick-ups that are controlled with two switches, “AB” and “CD”, with these switches you can produce four different pickup combinations. On “Boris Hohner D6” all those combinations has been sampled.
There is a mechanical slide on D6 that can be used to mute the strings on the instruments, thus alter the tonal quality. The purist usually recommends using the damper either off of full on. These settings has been included in Boris D6 + a setting where the damper is put halfway up. This is notated as “half mute” for notes sampled with the slider halfway, “full mute” for notes sampled with the slider full up.
The Hohner D6, being a mechanical instrument, produces a sound when the key is being released. “Boris Hohner D6” has a release sample that captures this. There are however, versions of all instruments that are without release samples, since some people might think that this sounds better, but for the purist, we have included all, faults too!
The gig
The gig consists of several different instruments. “A*, “B”, “C” and “D” reflects the different pickup combinations. There are three different instruments/pickup setting with different muting. For example, “Clav A” is the clavinet sampled without any muting; “Clav B Half Mute” is sampled with a different pickup combination and with the muting slider half way up.
There are also versions of all “normal” instruments without the release sample. The release sample captures the “thunk” or “click” that happens when the string is muted. This could by some people be thought of as annoying, and I’m certain that if the Hohner company had the option of removing it on the original, they would have done so. But it’s there, and it’s a part of the original sound.
There’s also a some “Special” instruments. In these instruments, the samples have been processed, (compressed, eq, and limited). They can be used as a complement to the original, un-processed instruments.
VOICE
DESCRIPTION
Clav Pickup A
Pickup combination A, no muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup A Half Mute
Pickup combination A, half muting, release triggers<
Clav Pickup A Full Mute
Pickup combination A, full muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup B
Pickup combination B, no muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup B Half Mute
Pickup combination B, half muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup B Full Mute
Pickup combination B, full muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup C
Pickup combination C, no muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup C Full Mute
Pickup combination C, half muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup C Half Mute
Pickup combination C, full muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup D
Pickup combination D, no muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup D Full Mute
Pickup combination D, half muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup D Full Mute
Pickup combination D, full muting, release triggers
Clav Pickup A No Rel
Pickup combination A, no muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup A Half Mute No Rel
Pickup combination A, half muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup A Full Mute No Rel
Pickup combination A, full muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup B No Rel
Pickup combination B, no muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup B Half Mute No Rel
Pickup combination B, half muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup B Full Mute No Rel
Pickup combination B, full muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup C No Rel
Pickup combination C, no muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup C Half Mute No Rel
Pickup combination C, half muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup C Full Mute No Rel
Pickup combination C, full muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup D No Rel
Pickup combination D, no muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup D Half Mute No Rel
Pickup combination D, half muting, no release triggers
Clav Pickup D Full Mute No Rel
Pickup combination D, full muting, no release triggers
SpecClav A
Pickup combination A, no release triggers, Processed
SpecClav B
Pickup combination B, no release triggers, Processed
SpecClav C
Pickup combination C, no release triggers, Processed
SpecClav D
Pickup combination D, no release triggers, Processed