I know 
Dunno who in IK thinks those presets are going to sell it!
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I ought to sell my presets to them, $300, but on sale for a limited time, $199! lol. 
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I listened to Jim Alfreson’s livestream on my way to a job. When I got back I installed the demo and inserted it right into my existing organ rack. Sounds nice (and plays nice!), I’m tempted.
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It did well on last night’s gig. Going to use it in tonight’s gig. I did a little tweaking for tonight tho. Found out a few things I needed to do to get my tones. The compressor and tube screamer were my friends last night. Not going to rule out all the others, because they all have their charm and faults.
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The presets are, as usual, not so great but I spent some time looking at the more interesting ones and because everything is in one VST it was easy to see how they achieved the sound.
Some things I like:
- Single VST for great sounding B3 console and Leslie
- Built in mixer - easy to set mono output
- Nicer Leslie user interface than IK standalone Leslie VST
- The Controls view is great for touch screen control - the little preset buttons are cool
I’ve been thinking about attaching a Surface Go and a small USB power pack to a $90 Nektar GX49 (30" x 6" x 2") so I can walk on stage with a chair and plug in just like the guitar players do at open mics. The Controls view will be perfect for that.
EDIT: If John O’Brien (howifeel) happens to see this - I’m researching something to hold the tablet on to the keyboard - I noticed you left a review on Sweetwater for the StudioLogic magnetic plate. Could that be Macgyvered to work with another keyboard?
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Here is a Prog Rock B3X preset I quickly made for my latest gig. The brake is on for the lower register. If you go to the higher register, simply activate “slow” speed on the Leslie switch. It gives the higher keys a nice, gritty, phaser sound.
To add the preset, unzip the file and add it to:
Documents>My Documents>IK Multimedia>Hammond B-3X>Presets
Corky Prog 1.zip (2.1 KB)
This is a quick mp3 sound test of the preset:
B-3X Prog test.zip (1.0 MB)
Enjoy!
Corky
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Nice one!
If you want to give it some more bite, you can turn the tube screamer (and the spring reverb!) off and use the Marshall amp in the Leslie:
This one’s pretty harsh on its own, so you’ll have to pull down on the High EQ and maybe also on the Leslie EQ:
Then get rid of the limiter - cuts through better without it…
Give it a swirl (with Leslie on slow)!
Cheers,
Torsten
I actually found the amp to be too harsh by itself, which is why I turned the amp down, added the tube screamer (adjusted properly), and the golden sound appeared. I remember the prog organists of the 60s were adding the new distortion pedals to get even more grit to their already dirty sounds. I did leave the limiter on…that was my mistake. 
BTW: somehow this sound reeeeally reminds me of the intro of one of my early childhood favorites:
The composer (Ingfried Hoffmann) was a pretty decent organ player, worked with Klaus Doldinger.
That is new to me. Love the 60s horn parts.
I have the demo now, will be trying it Tuesday…
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I just setup a quick side-by-side test between B3X and B5…extremely similar. B3X has more tweakable settings than B5. I pulled up a random clean preset on IK, and tweaked B5 to emulate it. Very close. I only used what was available within the plugs.
The B5 distortion is good until halfway, then it starts being unpleasant. The B3X distortion is much better, but the original IK Leslie had a secret weapon in it’s mid-range eq. From my digging, it is not the same in the B3X. Thus the Tube Screamer.
I added a lightly set Tube Screamer to B5, VB3 II and Blue3, just as IK has. Then I added IK Leslie. Quite a different world! I am also trying B3X with the original IK Leslie, because I am hearing something strangely different with the resident one. Then again, my opinion.
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Is anyone making a drawbar controller these days?
There are a few. Most people I know are using sliders on keyboard controllers. Prices are cheap to ridiculous. Here are a few stand alone models:
https://www.crumar.it/?a=page&p=D9U
http://wiki.keyboardpartner.de/index.php?title=HX3_Drawbar_Controller
Don’t forget the GSI’s GM Lab products - the D9U (just drawbars) or D9X (adds buttons for Leslie, tablets etc) for sale at www.myrigshop.com (ecommerce website for Crumar’s kits and pre-assembled products.
https://www.crumar.it/?a=page&p=D9U
D9U is a simple 9-drawbar controller. Simple as that. One button on the back lets you switch between two banks of CC numbers that can control either the upper or the lower manual of a clonewheel organ. Compatible with Crumar Mojo / Mojo61, GSi VB3-II and many other products.
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Just read the whole B3X manual. Nicely written with some historical background for explanation of some of the buttons like Advanced > Volume Compensation (prevents reduction in regular sustaining organ tone when percussion is enabled). I learned of few things I didn’t know about the B3.
Two things I didn’t find:
- Reverse drawbars
- How to load a preset from file into a preset slot
I’ve seen nothing about reverse drawbars. Just like the sustain pedal, and a few other things I’ve noticed. From what I know, this is Hammond’s first attempt at a VST. They are going to quickly learn our midi controllers are not SK’s, and other developers have met the demands we need. I expect there will be many updates soon. The squeaky wheel…
I had to figure out how to add a preset from file, but I guess they figured no one would share a file. Check the tonewheel selection…no difference in any of them. Again, many updates coming soon. No doubt, the manual needs more detail about the plug parameters.
Corky
A prediction in post 58 (a year ago) of this thread comes true:
If I had to choose only one Hammond VST B3X is it.
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Last week I did a side-by-side comparison between VB3 1.4, VB3II, B3-X and Vintage B3 from within Mainstage.
Long story short: VB3 1.4 is for me the winner while it still has the best authentic keyclick and overdrive. So I finally bought 32Lives this aftenoon (which already proved me this week that it is very stable and invisable/tranparent while used in Mainstage). It cost me 84 euros. But now I can finally use VB3 1.4 in a 64 bit environment.