The latest update v.1.1.1 of VB3-II, as well as the latest update v.1.40 for the Crumar Mojo61, have added some more refinements to the organ sound that have not been properly explained, and, since we’re talking about small details that enhance the experience of the whole tonewheel organ simulation, they’re not easy to be perceived especially from those who have never had a genuine Hammond B3 at home or did not dedicate it enough time to appreciate the nuances. Here’s the word… we’re talking about nuances. So… I have been asked what I mean with “complex cross-talk on the upper manual”, I should have explained better… my apology. Right now I’m unable to make a video, but I invite you to try this. Use your VB3-II or your Crumar Mojo61, on the upper manual, use only the first drawbar, play the first F note, then play the F note 3 octaves above, finally, play them both together… you’ll hear an additional tone mixing into the sound only when the two keys are played together. Or you can try the first C and 3rd F, or other combinations with the first 4 drawbars, or just play the triad of C major (C-E-G) on the 3rd octave then play the major scale with your left hand starting from the lowest C, you’ll hear tones appearing along with that bass note that will disappear if you release the chord. This is not “leakage” (that’s been in VB3 since day 1), and not the common cross-talk that most digital clones implement, this is something that is present in a genuine Hammond B3 (or C3, A100 series, especially the models manufactured after 1960, even more with models manufactured after 1970). Will this add something to the sound, to the performance? Well… it’s a detail, the entire life is made of details… if you look someone from a distance you can see only a few colors, but when you look closer, you’ll discover more colors than you can count. Yours, Guido.
I agree, it will be welcomed by us real Hammond pickers. But, the big things, like the Leslie sim, could stand some attention as well. I haven’t downloaded this update yet, but looking forward to it.
This thread is amazing and so helpful. I wish I could have found all of you sooner but am so glad to be able to connect here presently.
Guido is an amazing developer that I have known for about 20 years when he was first developing his SoundFont drum libraries which are really nice. I just finished a fun walkthrough of the VB3-II and would like to share it with you all here. I hope it is helpful?
Welcome to this forum! I’ve used a few of your YouTube videos as I teach myself Hammond playing, thanks for posting them.
Edit - I looked in my bookmarks and remembered that I used your “Philharmonik 2 Scoring Fun_Sunrise.mid” file and YouTube video of that title as a tutorial for Philharmonik 2
Welcome @Simeon to the forum. We have many threads concerning VB3 on site. I have been a huge supporter of Guido for many years. I was very disappointed, as were many others, in VB3 II when it was 1st released. The latest version, 1.1.1, is much more intriguing. I personally use VB3 1.4, Blue3, B5, and VB3 II in my current rig. They all have their pros and cons, just like the real Hammonds, but it has taken several version changes of VB3 II to warm up to it. You may also like this thread as well:
I know you are not used to seeing me around here, I guess I lurk more than I post because there is just much expertise here and I don’t have the depth of experience that y’all do.
Anyway, my conundrum is about summing the VB3-II output to MONO. I am about to do my first gig next month going totally in the box with VSTs. Of course, I know that summing to mono will never sound a glorious as stereo, but in the case of VB3-II (as much as I love this plugin), when I kick in the leslie, the effect is downright HORRIBLE in mono!
Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a setting I can tweak to help? What do y’all do in this situation? I really hate to add separate rotary simulation at this juncture, but if there is one out there that sounds particularly well in mono I will consider it.
I would deeply appreciate any ideas. Would it be better to post this question in a more generic organ or “live” thread, even though VB3-II is usually my go-to organ VST?
IK Multimedia’s Leslie sums well to mono and (imo) sounds far better all around anyway. It also pairs very nicely with VB3 II. Might be worth picking up if it goes on sale. Other than that, I personally would just stick with VB3 v1.4 for live use. It also does much better in mono. (You would have to j-Bridge it though.)
Thanks, Fred, that was excellent advice. I dug out my old copy of the original VB3, j-bridged it, and wow what a difference! I fell in love with the original all over again (at least for the mono scenario).
Two funny things happened to me in my search for the best B3 for me. The first was I had a demo of B5 and yearned for the full version at $99.
SIdebar: With money being tight in these crazy times I invested the $99 to upgrade Kontakt because some libraries weren’t working with 5 anymore. It’s a long story but to get all my libraries working I have three versions of Kontakt! (5.530 - which has the “Add Library” function so I can see all the libraries that I painstakingly created. 5.541 where I can see them and they all load properly but no add library function and 6 which loads all the libraries that are only compatible with 6. Why they did this is unbenown$t to me.
I sorted that out by renaming the versions and dlls so no problems working with each or all at once.
Soooo… I went again to Acoustic Samples to drool at the B5 but this time I logged in and low and behold, I had already bought a license last year. I totally forgot. I activated and there it was!
Next, I tried my luck on IK Multimedia, where I know I have stuff. Logged in and I had just enough points to get the Amplitude Leslie for free! I opted for the 147. Somebody mentioned the Softube Saturator to place in the chain, and I already had that. I pretty much always use the Waves L1 limiter on organs and EPs so they don’t break apart when the volume and/or polyphony goes up. So I added that. This is a great limiter when set just right for the instrument in use. I can slam my arm on the B5 and get that great Hammond growl with the exact amount of distortion without breaking apart.
I use the Leslie in the B5 and the Amplitude and tweak them both to get an amazing Leslie. The B5 122 and Amplitude 127 work really well together.
