Organ Plugins - Opinions?

I found myself having to buy it…sounds great, particularly set up as Blue3 into VB3fx into Headcrusher. Instant Yes Roundabout sound :slight_smile:

Oooh gotta try that!

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It sounds like VB3 has a slight ambience on it compared to Blue3 that might explain some of the difference. I wonder, if the mic distance parameters don’t do enough, what would happen if you ran it through a very mild room effect, either before or after the leslie.

I’m also getting big dropouts with the B5 and have tried everything to solve the problem. I can recreate it by playing two palm-fulls of notes on the upper and lower manual together but in normal playing the spikes happen randomly whether you’re playing many notes or not. Interestingly, if the two ‘palm-fulls’ are done on one manual (i.e. sending on only one midi channel) it doesn’t happen. This is with the buffers in ASIO4ALL set at 320. Any lower and it happens more. Set the buffers much higher and it almost goes away but the latency make it unusable. I tried it in Cubase 9 as well, while watching the performance meter, and it’s no different to Cantabile. I so want to use this plugin - through my Leslie 147 it sounds so authentic and just has the edge on my HX3 (which never has dropouts!).

The next port of call is Acoustic Samples to see if they can solve this in the next upgrade.

Paul

I’m trying to recreate the two palm note thing with B5, but it sounds ok to me. Which version of the organ are you using?
I’m using the “C3 1969.” Maybe try switching organs and see what happens. Do you have any other acoustic samples libraries? Sometimes when I have had trouble with acoustic samples stuff, it has turned out to be an issue with UVI Workstation.

It’s true there’s more reverb on VB3 but it goes beyond that… Blue is really harsh in the midrange and it’s hard to eq out. VB3 otoh sounds kind of dull in comparison but it’s very easy to compensate for that, that’s part of the reason I’m running Head Crusher on it. I just like the Leslie modeling far more on VB3. And the overdrive is smoother and less digital. That said, the basic organ engine in Blue is probably actually better than VB3, so its organ through VB3’s Leslie an amp does make a nice combo. I’m not going to buy Blue3 just to do that though lol

@clp560

Hi Paul

This glitch with B5 just started early this week. I really suspected my audio interface, but tried it on the laptop soundcard with the same results. I am really perplexed. I also had thoughts of HARD DRIVE failure, but VB3 and Blue3 worked just fine. Thought about RAM failure too, but everything else is just fine. I haven’t updated anything except C3, or changed anything. I am intermittently getting key click sound only and no adjustment helps. My load is peaking below 60%. Just don’t know. I am in the middle of a 4 gig week so I have had to insert VB3 and Blue3 (not a bad thing):sunglasses: into many of my songs where B5 resided. It has been very stable since Version 2 was released.
@bartok2112
Hi Paul #2 I have the current UVI Workstation and have tried changing organs. My problem is different, I suppose, than that of @clp560. I have a ticket in the system with Acoustic Samples, so if I don’t receive the stock answers of updating UVI or check your soundcard, I might get to the bottom of this.

Many Thanks

Corky

PS And Oh…did I mention VB3 ? #GushFest

I’ve also tried different interfaces and different organs but no joy. When the dropouts happen there is a sudden increase in the percentage indicator to figures between 130 - 275%. The ‘two palms test’ is really a full hand! If I hold a sideways hand on both manuals I can get it to glitch every time but still, that doesn’t explain the random spikes when not playing loads of notes. I’ve done all the other stuff suggested on here (turn off wifi, cores etc.) but none of it helps. I’m using a Surface Pro 4 i5 with 8gb ram so I don’t think the computer is the problem. My set up has plenty of plugins but if I remove the B5 there are no glitches. It’s the only one using UVI Workstation in this setup, and I did get the same result in Cubase so maybe that is the problem. Hopefully AS can offer a solution.

Paul

@clp560

Out of curiosity…are you using B5 in a rack?

Yes, it’s in a rack which includes the midiKarval drawbar mapper (my XK3 is the controller) and NRPN to CC convertor for the other functions. I’ve tried it running in a new Cantabile song (no rack) with no other plugins apart from the controllers but although the percentage indicator is lower I still get the big spike/dropouts happening.

Have you tried the jBridge trick, of running B5 in a separate process using jBridge? It adds an extra buffer’s worth of latency, but you might find it allows it to run with more stability and no clicks/pops. I do that with Serum, which would otherwise be unusable for me live.

Neil

Wow! Ok. Since racks didn’t work well on version 1, I ran it out of a rack, even after V2, mainly because I didn’t take the time to set everything up, and because it was working well as it was. I tested @dave_dore 's rack, and after a few small changes, he has a rack version working well. It was after testing, B5 out of rack started glitching. I found that I could go back to Dave’s rack, and it worked well in his rack. So…I am going to test a new rack soon with my presets to see if it stays stable. It makes no sense, but many things with computers don’t jive.

Hey Corky,

I’ve been listening in on this discussion about the B5 pops and clicks. So I decided to try a few tests on my Live rig. Everything is fine here with no pops and clicks at 128 samples buffer with an RME Babyface Pro with an intel 2.9 Ghz Base freq cpu with 4 physical cores. The C3 resources settle down to 12~15 % with no keys pressed, 30~45 % playing normal slow chordings on 1 and 2 tiers with rotary swell up and down included and 65~105% when smearing while accelerating the rotor plugin ( this can produce clicks when applied repeatedly). So, as plugins go for Live work this one ranks as ‘Hungry’ but your troubles seem unrelated to everyday use of the plug. I’m sure you hit the check list so I can only hope a solution comes up. After your mention of the rack I made working still it really thickened the stew, I tried to do a single instance load and it was fine with factory default sound for the C3 60 model that comes up first. Same behavior with a new rack, all good.

I’m sure of one thing, the UVI format can create some real scripting hogs and this is one of them. I’m sure both AC and UVI are trying to optimize it but the round robin sample stuff, addition chorus/vibrato samples, perc samples and the rotary speaker is making a world of work for the CPU and over running smaller buffer size time lengths. So in general the faster the base speed of the cpu the more UVI player / B5 like it when it comes to playing latency (disclaimer … many players play at much longer latencies than me and it’s fine) . More cores don’t help, it’s the base frequency speed that is the determining factor, especially when the plugin seeks to crowd a single core with the workload and doesn’t spread the work out among the cores efficiently. If we are running laps VB3 and Blue3 are lapping B5 regularly. But the sound to me is why I’m drawn to using it … just my rusty penny …

Dave

Thanx for testing it Dave. I really have no idea, at this minute, why it started doing this. Since I am gigging this weekend, I am covered thanks to VB3. Once Sunday rolls around I am going to reload B5 in case some of the data was corrupted while unloading. Hopefully I will hear from AC too, although I expect the usual stock answer I always get. I am also going to get on the boards too and see if this is a problem for others. I love the sounds of VB3, Blue3, and B5 equally (maybe an exception for VB3 :heart: ). I am also drawn to B5. As I said in an earlier post, Hammond tones are equal to guitar tones: it is a matter of personal taste, and you will be searching for “that sound” for the rest of your life. Fifty years of playing many different Hammonds made me realize long ago they, like humans, are all different and sound different. I want the particulars of my 1st B3, but I can only hope I find something close. Kinda like my first love…I would love to see her, but she ain’t coming back, and I am not willing to deal with her baggage.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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@dave_dore

I thought about this throughout my gig this evening, and still suspected the Focusrite, even tho it did the same thing on computer sound card. Read some of the boards when I got home, and decided to check for an updated driver for the Focusrite. There WAS one available from this past June which was to correct audio drop outs and disconnects. I have been testing it for about 30 minutes and B5 is working fine so far. My loads have also reduced to about what you are getting. Going to test it further after a little shuteye.

Regards

Corky

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So armed with Neil’s advice about the ‘JBridge Trick’ I downloaded the 32-bit version of UVI Workstation and let JBridge load that along with the B5 v2 and it’s pretty much worked! I can still provoke a complete dropout by hitting both manuals at the same time with two large palm-fulls of notes but interestingly it doesn’t seem to happen if I do it on one manual. So perhaps this is something to do with sending so much info on midi channels 1 and two at the same time?

Anyway, so far in ‘normal’ playing the B5 hasn’t dropped out or clicked even though the percentage meter can sometimes show spikes of well over 100%. Do I trust it? Well, I’ll keep playing and see what happens over a couple of days. As this is not really the ideal solution I’ll also contact AS now and see if they are working on reducing the overhead of the B5.

Paul

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Just saw this on the other B5 post:

I’ve also contacted AS for information.

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@dave_dore

UPDATE:
B5 working great again after Focusrite update AND UVI update. Don’t understand why B5 took a nose dive anyway, but, at least, it is back in my arsenal.

@Corky

Great to hear it Corky, I am still going good on B5 and Cantabile 3 is now up to 30 plus gigs no hassles ( well … except my old man brain farts … :thinking:). Looking forward to Acoustic Samples next update, might even get lighter on CPU, we’ll see.

Dave

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Thought I would post a problem with B5 that I had for several weeks that was finally solved, just in case anyone intends to tweak the plug. Not that any normal person would do this, but one of the bands I play with is tuned to 432. (a Tesla thing, don’t ask why) I needed an organ plug, but found VB3 nor Blue3 were capable of detuning that way. B5 could by doing it in the UVI host:

uvi 1

I began playing B5, but after a few seconds, it would only play key clicks and an occasional sound, usually delayed. Then, after much investigation, I discovered my load was jumping as high as 200%, but attributed it to many other things. It was the UVI host. It affected other instances of B5, including racks, that were tuned to 440 as well. I deleted all instances of the 432 tuned B5. Now B5 is working great. But, I still needed to get to 432 somehow. I then searched the UVI host for other choices.

In the right hand corner of this page was my solution.

uvi 3

The last 3 selections on this page (very hard to see) are oct, semi, and fine. I used the fine tuning to detune to 432. All is well again :tada: :boom: :confetti_ball:

Many regards to @dave_dore for some great input on this issue. I am emailing this to Arno at Acoustic Samples in case there may be a link here that solves some of the pops, clicks, and high loads that some people are experiencing.

Corky

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