# Acousticsamples releases the B-5 Organ



## AcousticsampleS (May 9, 2016)

The Hammond organs are very complex beasts, full of wires. Until now, the best renditions were synthesis, mainly because of how the organ works which is a set of 91 frequencies that are connected via contactors under each key and which volume is controlled by the drawbars.
Sample based libraries consist of stacking drawbar samples at the same time which works, but causes big problems.
We have found a way to use the 91 frequencies synthesis approach, but using real samples, so you get the best of both worlds, the real recorded organ tone plus the real behavior and we keep access to the versatility of the drawbar controls and the tweakability of synthesis.

*Here are the main features of the B-5 Organ.*
Sample based synthesis: each of the 91 tones have been sampled, measured and meticulously reproduced, the key contacts, the resistance wires, the foldback, the drawbars, the swell pedal, the percussion, and every button available on the original machine.
*Rotary Speaker Simulation*: An organ without its rotary speaker isn't an organ. Acousticsamples provided UVI with very detailed measurements and they created an incredible physical model.
*Advanced percussion system*: the whole percussion system has been recreated and you can customize every aspect of it.
*Real key contact modeling*: 9 contacts are made one after another under each key and each of them produces a small click, making this the only influence of the velocity and resulting in a different click sound each time you press a key.
*All three keyboards*: On a real organ, there are 3 keyboards, two of which are almost identical except for the percussion system, and the bass pedals. You can choose to use 3 different MIDI channels, one for each keyboard or you can use the split to have all three on one keyboard.
*Presets*: There are around 200 drawbar presets that you can load, save, delete or assign to the preset keys (upper and lower), and these include the most used Jazz, Gospel and classical presets.
*Organ modifications*: Every organ player likes to tweak his instrument, so every modification that organists can do is available here.

Here are the audio demos for the B-5 Organ:
https://SoundCloud.com/acousticsamples/sets/b5-organ

As well as the presentation video:
https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=DieOAxHSmsw

You can get the B-5 Organ for 99€ / 109$ from the Acousticsamples website.


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## Baron Greuner (May 9, 2016)

Nice. Definitely sounds like a Hammond. 

For the UVI.


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## owenave (May 17, 2016)

I was raised on B3's and from what I have heard on the demos and read this B-5 organ 
sounds great. Has anyone tried this on a MacBookPro to use with a good quality Audio Interface to use live. This is what I would love to have if and when I tour again. While we had back-line provide Hammond's for us in past, some were pretty beat up or die during the show. @AcousticsampleS do you know of anyone has done this on a Dual core Mac Book Pro?


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## Raindog (May 17, 2016)

owenave said:


> I was raised on B3's and from what I have heard on the demos and read this B-5 organ
> sounds great. Has anyone tried this on a MacBookPro to use with a good quality Audio Interface to use live. This is what I would love to have if and when I tour again. While we had back-line provide Hammond's for us in past, some were pretty beat up or die during the show. @AcousticsampleS do you know of anyone has done this on a Dual core Mac Book Pro?



I have a quad core Macbook (17 " 2011 MacBook Pro) and use the B5 without any problems (firewire Interface from TC Electronic). It´s pretty easy on cpu and doesn´t need a lot of RAM as only the tone generators are sample based, all the rest ist modelled.
Best regards
Raindog


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## owenave (May 17, 2016)

Raindog said:


> I have a quad core Macbook (17 " 2011 MacBook Pro) and use the B5 without any problems (firewire Interface from TC Electronic). It´s pretty easy on cpu and doesn´t need a lot of RAM as only the tone generators are sample based, all the rest ist modelled.
> Best regards
> Raindog


Thanks @Raindog I am going to try it on my 2010 Mac Book Pro 2.4 ghz. 8 gb of ram. I use firewires Motu 896 MkIII H... But I have a cheaper firewire Stereo Interface. I think an early ProSonus.


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## Baron Greuner (May 17, 2016)

owenave said:


> I was raised on B3's and from what I have heard on the demos and read this B-5 organ
> sounds great.



I think we're old Hammond dogs of war Larry.

It does sound very good. The demos are interesting and a bit different. Some jazzy and some show off key click etc pretty well. It's good a one. Definitely think that anyone playing live could use this. Lot lighter than a B3.
Particularly like Larry Goldings demos.


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## DJorge (May 17, 2016)

I bought it on Sunday and it sounds great! It's worthy of your money. That iLok though...sheesh!


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## owenave (May 18, 2016)

DJorge said:


> I bought it on Sunday and it sounds great! It's worthy of your money. That iLok though...sheesh!


Do you need to use a Dongle or just Computer version of iLok?


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## re-peat (May 18, 2016)

I'm having a tiny problem with it in that, no matter how I tweak the parameters, I can't get a good Jimmy Smith sound out of the B5. That warm, bluesy, (s)creamy organ sound as can be heard on Smith's Verve and Blue Note recordings. It's the sort of timbre — at least, a fairly decent approximation of it — which the GS VB3 does quite well (and easily), but which I haven't been able to simulate with the B5. Not even close, in fact.

Here *a little comparison* which illustrates those differences. Six short bits, first played with the B5, followed by the VB3. Very similar drawbar-settings, and yet an entirely different sound. I might be wrong, but to my ears, there's some body and weight missing in the lower drawbars of the B5 and it also doesn't seem to have that brooding, focused energy in its timbre which the VB3 suggests so convincingly.

Still, I posted the same remark on Gearslutz and just about everyone who replied in that thread, felt that the B5 sounded the better of two (something with which I completely disagree — at least, for this specific type of Jimmy Smith timbre), so there you are.

It's, to my ears, the only shortcoming in an otherwise sensational Hammond emulation though. Terrific instrument this.

_


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## DJorge (May 18, 2016)

owenave said:


> Do you need to use a Dongle or just Computer version of iLok?


You can choose either option at the time of purchase. I chose the computer version and downloaded that ilok license. It was my first time dealing with iLok, so from initial registration to jamming on my DAW took me 30 minutes when it probably should've took 10


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## Raindog (May 18, 2016)

so far which


re-peat said:


> I'm having a tiny problem with it in that, no matter how I tweak the parameters, I can't get a good Jimmy Smith sound out of the B5. That warm, bluesy, (s)creamy organ sound as can be heard on Smith's Verve and Blue Note recordings. It's the sort of timbre — at least, a fairly decent approximation of it — which the GS VB3 does quite well (and easily), but which I haven't been able to simulate with the B5. Not even close, in fact.
> 
> Here *a little comparison* which illustrates those differences. Six short bits, first played with the B5, followed by the VB3. Very similar drawbar-settings, and yet an entirely different sound. I might be wrong, but to my ears, there's some body and weight missing in the lower drawbars of the B5 and it also doesn't seem to have that brooding, focused energy in its timbre which the VB3 suggests so convincingly.
> 
> ...



Maybe I´m completely wrong but have you activated the scanner vibrato when playing the B5? Other than the VB3 many parameters (i.e. the scanner vibrato) are not stored in the presets with the B5. If I didn´t get the examples wrong it sounded like the VB3 examples have the chorus (c3?) activated while the B5 examples haven´t. I would wonder if a musician of your class would do this by mistake but you never know.

I´m a big fan of the VB3 but I definitely prefer the B5 soundwise. It sounds and plays (almost) like the real thing. The overdrive is really good. I was even thinking to buy a waterfall equipped Keyboard to make full use of this emulation. I simply haven´t bought anything which I regretted so far from Acousticsamples. Arno does most things right imo.

Best regards
Raindog


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## re-peat (May 18, 2016)

Thanks for the suggestion, Raindog, but it’s not the scanner vibrato. In fact, on or off, the scanner vibrato hardly seems to make any difference, at least not for the timbre which I’m looking for.

The difference between the B5 and the VB3 is happening in (a) the attacks (b) the overall tonal balance, and (c) the impact and energy (which the VB3 has a lot of, and the B5 very little) of each note.

Made *http://users.telenet.be/deridderpiet.be/SB_Examples/B5-VB3_ex2.mp3 (another example) *(very quick, very rough, very sorry): five petite bits given to both instruments (again the B5 first, answered by the VB3) and then each of them in one 12-bar chorus of pseudo sixties-like soul blues.

Much as I like the B5 (and I *really* do), to my ears, the VB3 comes out glaringly superior again in this comparison. Somehow, the 12 bars with the B5 sound tame, clumsy and ersatz, but a soon as the VB3 enters (1’05”), the sound is right, the rhythm clicks and the temperature rises.

Having said that, I don’t want to discard the possibility that the B5 can be configured to sound more “Jimmy Smith”-like than what I’ve been able to draw from it thus far. (Though I doubt it, cause I’ve tried just about everything there is to try.) So if anyone has any suggestion (preferably with an audio example), that’d be very welcome. And gratefully appreciated.

_


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## EvilDragon (May 18, 2016)

I'm thinking that B5 is better suited to jazz, pop and gospel, light and roomy Hammond sounds, whereas VB3 excels at blues and rock and balls-to-the-wall Hammond sounds. Overdrive to me sounds much better in VB3.


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## Raindog (May 18, 2016)

re-peat said:


> Thanks for the suggestion, Raindog, but it’s not the scanner vibrato. In fact, on or off, the scanner vibrato hardly seems to make any difference, at least not for the timbre which I’m looking for.
> 
> The difference between the B5 and the VB3 is happening in (a) the attacks (b) the overall tonal balance, and (c) the impact and energy (which the VB3 has a lot of, and the B5 very little) of each note.
> 
> ...



I´ll check once I´m home. I´m just wondering because Jimmy Smith style is not a big deal for most Hammond clones. It´s the first three drawbars, sometimes the fourth and the scanner vibrato to c3. The B5 should perform pretty well. Strange but i trust your ears.
Regards
Raindog


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## Ashermusic (May 18, 2016)

re-peat said:


> Thanks for the suggestion, Raindog, but it’s not the scanner vibrato. In fact, on or off, the scanner vibrato hardly seems to make any difference, at least not for the timbre which I’m looking for.
> 
> The difference between the B5 and the VB3 is happening in (a) the attacks (b) the overall tonal balance, and (c) the impact and energy (which the VB3 has a lot of, and the B5 very little) of each note.
> 
> ...



I agree that the VB3 sounds more like classic Jimmy Smith in your example, but as someone who in the early '70's went to Jimmy's club here in the San Fernando Valley, and heard him play live, as great as he was, his actual B3/Leslie setup was inferior sounding to what some other B3 players, notably the great Webster Lewis in Boston (still the best jazz B3 player I have ever heard live) had.

So while I may want to sound "Jimmy Smith-ish" personally I am not looking to totally nail that sound, and in your example, overall, I prefer the B5.


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## Baron Greuner (May 18, 2016)

Piet on the examples you put up, _and based on the examples you played, _the VB3 sounds more suited to those style of licks.
B5 sounds harder, but still a great sound for a virtual instrument.


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## re-peat (May 18, 2016)

Raindog said:


> (...) because Jimmy Smith style is not a big deal for most Hammond clones.


You’d think that, wouldn’t you, but there’s obviously a lot more to that sound than simply pulling out the first three drawbars, engaging the scanner vibrato and adding some (over)drive.

Could it be, for example, that the ‘percussion’ ingredient of the B5 doesn’t have the same impact as the one on the VB3? And, like Mario says (and I agree), that the overal sound and overdrive of the VB3 simply has more balls?
(By the way, comparing those first three drawbars of each instrument, you’ll find that the B5 generates MUCH less body and “oomph” than the VB3. It’s also revealing to check both with a spectrum analyzer.)

If AcousticSamples are still following this thread, I’d love to hear their thoughts on this matter as well.

As a further reference, here is *http://users.telenet.be/deridderpiet.be/SB_Examples/JSmith_WalkOnTheWildSide_excerpt.mp3 (the Jimmy Smith sound in all its glory)*: an excerpt from “Walk On The Wild Side” (with the Oliver Nelson Big Band), one of Smith’s best recordings in my view, and certainly one that is simply exploding with *that sound*.

_


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## Ashermusic (May 18, 2016)

I still have the Hobo Flats album of Jimmy with all the Oliver Nelson arrangements.


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## NYC Composer (May 18, 2016)

God, I love living in the glorious past.


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## Raindog (May 18, 2016)

re-peat said:


> You’d think that, wouldn’t you, but there’s obviously a lot more to that sound than simply pulling out the first three drawbars, engaging the scanner vibrato and adding some (over)drive._



Basically that´s what Jimmy Smith did most of the time (and playing like Jimmy Smith helped as well). But you´re obviously right that just copying these settings seems to lead to a completely different sound using different organ models



re-peat said:


> Could it be, for example, that the ‘percussion’ ingredient of the B5 doesn’t have the same impact as the one on the VB3? And, like Mario says (and I agree), that the overal sound and overdrive of the VB3 simply has more balls?
> (By the way, comparing those first three drawbars of each instrument, you’ll find that the B5 generates MUCH less body and “oomph” than the VB3. It’s also revealing to check both with a spectrum analyzer.)
> _



You´re right, the sound difference is so obvious that you don´t need a spectrum analyser for confirmation. I did some extensive testing yesterday evening. First of all the percussion sound is different. It is more pronounced with the VB3 and even the fast setting is pretty long. You can adjust this in the B5´s settings so I came much closer to the sound of the VB3 (not saying that this is better). The main difference imo is the amp model. You can change the amp model within the B5´s settings and you get a warmer sound than with the default model. When you totally bypass the B5´s Leslie simulation (which can be done within the speaker preferences) and run the sound through the MVintageRotary plugin by Melda Production ( I downloaded a trial version), you come very close to the VB3 sound (again not saying that this is better).
I disagree a bit concerning the overdrive. I personally prefer the overdrive of the B5 when using subtle settings (never been a fan of Jon Lord type settings). The VB3 overdrive (imo) is better for really distorted sounds where the B5 overdrive sounds like a razor.

Overall I´m not quite sure which sound I like better. I tend to the B5 which sounds more "real" (at least to my memory of the real thing which I played years ago). The VB3 has definitely more "warmth" and "oomph" which is nice but in direct comparison slightly too much. All a matter of taste. I just feel more comfortable with the B5. At the end it´s nice to have both plugins (together they are 150 $ which is a steal) so you can decide which model to use for which occassion ( I only wish, Guido would finally provide the 64 bit version for Mac as I don´t like the VST Bridge included in Cubase too much).

I have about 9 (or more) different piano models why not 2 different models of a B3..........

Regards
Raindog


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## Raindog (May 18, 2016)

NYC Composer said:


> God, I love living in the glorious past.


Not me. I love to live nowadays


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## NYC Composer (May 19, 2016)

Raindog said:


> Not me. I love to live nowadays


That's probably because you're not well over 100 years old, and therefore think the present is musically glorious.


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## SPOTS (May 19, 2016)

I read on another forum that a 64-bit VB3 for Mac was in the pipeline but seems to be frozen for now (for reasons unknown to the public). Confirmed by the GUI graphics designer guy… advising he was not breaking any secret.

Has anyone had a chance to test the HX3 module? What's your feedback?


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## Raindog (May 19, 2016)

NYC Composer said:


> That's probably because you're not well over 100 years old, and therefore think the present is musically glorious.



Not 100, it´s more about halftime for me .
To be honest: Music today is much better than it was BUT it is way more difficult to find the gems. It´s like movies. The number of productions compared to the time when I was a teenager has raised with a factor of 50 (estimated) and 80-90 % is pure crap and is produced with this intention anyway. But the rest is very good and you can find wonderful movies originating from countries where we never had access to in the 70-ties or 80-ties.
Same with music. A lot of it is crap but there is wonderful music around, some of it produced at home by very talented people who had never access to a proper production some 30 years ago (I can tell you how hard it was to find a producer who gave your band a chance).

Not to talk about crime (murder is much less today than it was in the 70-ties here in central Europe). Women´s rights. Believe it or not, in Germany women were not allowed to take a profession when their husband didn´t agree (this law was abandoned in 1974!!)

Memory is a strange and often misleading human ability.

It´s way off topic but currently people talk about the "good old times" very often here where I live. The best thing of the good old times was the lack of backache and the feeling of having most of your life coming and not being a matter of the past.

Sorry for being off-topic and being very subjective


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## re-peat (May 19, 2016)

Raindog said:


> Overall I´m not quite sure ...


I agree with most of that, Raindog. (I'm not a fan of the Jon Lord sound either, though I quite like Steve Winwood's roaring B3 during his Spencer Davis days.)

The only reason I wished to register a complaint here — well, more of a friendly inquiring remark, really — is because I find it a bit strange that the B5, touted as a _very _accurate virtual Hammond, seems unable to generate one of the most iconic sounds associated with the instrument. That's like a Fender Rhodes that can't do Richard Tee.

I'm still convinced there's something missing — body- or foundation-wise — in the first three drawbars. (And I've also noticed that, if you test individual drawbars higher up the keyboard, some of them disappear almost completely under certain notes, but maybe that was done deliberately, for accuracy's sake.)

_


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## AcousticsampleS (May 19, 2016)

Hi guys, as one of you suggested it, i will just post a few "developper" observations.
First, your quick comparison sounds great on both  But i really think that the difference you are hearing is mostly due to the "miking" and the percussion level.
On the VB3, the percussion is way louder and sticks out, and this is something that you can adjust in the B-5 (in the advanced preferences), you can even use the "paradise button" to have it sound like jimmy smith when he played on a broken B3 on a few albums.
The second big difference is the EQ, which is included in the way we recorded our impulse responses, this greatly depends on the room, the Leslie and the mics. I don't know how VB3 recorded theirs (or even if they use IRs) but it sounds like the mics were placed extremely close (to the point that there is no room ambience at all) when we prefer to still put them where a sound engineer would have put them to still get a little bit of ambience. But this is a matter of choice, and some will like a more "in your face" sound that you get with VB3 and some will prefer a "i'm in the room with the B3" sound for which the B-5 sounds (of course to my ears) best.

You also point out that the first three drawbars disappear, this is completely normal and was accurately (as you pointed out) reproduced from the B3 we had in our hands and is due to the foldback.
And regarding the fact that they lack "body", why don't you just increase their volume a bit? Sometimes it's just the relative volume that gives that impression.


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## Baron Greuner (May 19, 2016)

Heh! I wanted to take Jon Lord's place.

It's a sound that relies on many different external factors, such as amplification. It doesnt just happen in the Hammond. C3 was Lord's weapon of choice.


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## AcousticsampleS (May 19, 2016)

Btw, when listening a second time, i really think that an EQ with a boost in the bass and lowered in the MID should help a lot matching the two here.


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## Raindog (May 19, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> Btw, when listening a second time, i really think that an EQ with a boost in the bass and lowered in the MID should help a lot matching the two here.



Hi Arno,
thanks for your comments. Claryfies a few things here. I just wanted to point out that one thing I realised is that the output of the B5 is not specifically "hot". Even if I turn the volume knob within the GUI fully ClockWise it´s not loud enough. Meaning that I could make use of some more "headroom" when using the organ. Is this made by intention? Would it be possible to give a little bit more "power"?
Best regards
Raindog


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## AcousticsampleS (May 19, 2016)

I agree, but, it's important to notice that if you enable all drawbars, the scanner vibrato (this adds some volume as well) and then play a big chord, it gets very close to 0db and to saturation 
So we preferred to leave it like this


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## Raindog (May 19, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> I agree, but, it's important to notice that if you enable all drawbars, the scanner vibrato (this adds some volume as well) and then play a big chord, it gets very close to 0db and to saturation
> So we preferred to leave it like this



Point taken. I´m just not the "full drawbar type" so I will have to push up the volume within the DAW.


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## EvilDragon (May 19, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> I don't know how VB3 recorded theirs (or even if they use IRs) but it sounds like the mics were placed extremely close (to the point that there is no room ambience at all)



VB3 doesn't use IRs as far as I know - it's all fully modelled. There are "Ambience" and "Distance" parameters for microphones right there on the GUI...


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## Raindog (May 19, 2016)

One suggestion for a future B5 update: Would it be possible (by using different IRs) to model the microphone distance so that you can have a more ambient sound (which I personally like) and a more "in the face" sound (which might be helpful for some mixing situations?
best regards
Raindog


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## Raindog (May 19, 2016)

EvilDragon said:


> VB3 doesn't use IRs as far as I know - it's all fully modelled. There are "Ambience" and "Distance" parameters for microphones right there on the GUI...



You´re right


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## AcousticsampleS (May 19, 2016)

Well, given the response, yes, this is in our plans  We actually have made a series of IRs at first to control that distance, but there was too much room in all of them.


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## Baron Greuner (May 19, 2016)

NYC Composer said:


> God, I love living in the glorious past.



I tried this just now with a basic 4/4. The trouble with Hammonds is that on a weight actioned keyboard your fingers just stick to the keys. Almost impossible I find. Couldn't keep in time or anything. Can't do the whooshes either on a weight actioned. You really need a Waterfall. This is distorted all to hell and all over the place. Fun though.


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## Ashermusic (May 19, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> Well, given the response, yes, this is in our plans  We actually have made a series of IRs at first to control that distance, but there was too much room in all of them.




I think I could accomplish that with the UAD Ocean Way plug-in.


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## Ashermusic (May 19, 2016)

NYC Composer said:


> That's probably because you're not well over 100 years old, and therefore think the present is musically glorious.




+1 but well, I am only 99 personally.


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## AcousticsampleS (May 19, 2016)

This thread got me thinking a bit, and i believe there is a pretty good solution to the "too much ambient" of the B-5, there should be a new version out by the end of the day with control over that room effect


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## Ashermusic (May 19, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> This thread got me thinking a bit, and i believe there is a pretty good solution to the "too much ambient" of the B-5, there should be a new version out by the end of the day with control over that room effect



Fantastic!


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## Raindog (May 19, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> This thread got me thinking a bit, and i believe there is a pretty good solution to the "too much ambient" of the B-5, there should be a new version out by the end of the day with control over that room effect



Great news. Í must admit, that Piet´s thoughts and comments (although they sometimes can be a bit poisonous if you´re the target ) do often make people think. Well done Piet. Thank you.


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## Ashermusic (May 19, 2016)

Piet and I have heatedly squabbled over the years but he has ears like a bat. He hears flaws that sometimes I simply do not so his input is always worth reading.


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## Raindog (May 19, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> I tried this just now with a basic 4/4. The trouble with Hammonds is that on a weight actioned keyboard your fingers just stick to the keys. Almost impossible I find. Couldn't keep in time or anything. Can't do the whooshes either on a weight actioned. You really need a Waterfall. This is distorted all to hell and all over the place. Fun though.




The waterfall Keyboard is basically to make these palm glides possible without being caught by one of the keys. A good synth keyboard (I still have my Ensoniq ASR 10) does the Job repetitionwise pretty well (besides the palm thing I mentioned). Same thing when triggering drumsamples btw. My hammer action keyboard makes my mediocre timing when playing drums unbearable.......


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## DJorge (May 19, 2016)

ok


Ashermusic said:


> Piet and I have heatedly squabbled over the years but he has ears like a bat. He hears flaws that sometimes I simply do not so his input is always worth reading.


ok! because this is my first experience with him and i was getting nervous. Much respect! I'm putting my gun back into the holster... lol
"Hey Peat! Pleasure to meet you, Sir!"


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## AcousticsampleS (May 19, 2016)

And the update is online  Just download the same file from your account (same link), i did not increase the version number.
The sound by default is the same (for compatibility issues), but if you go in the speaker prefs panel, you will see a "distance" knob at the bottom right that will take care of that ambient sound


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## DJorge (May 19, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> And the update is online  Just download the same file from your account (same link), i did not increase the version number.
> The sound by default is the same (for compatibility issues), but if you go in the speaker prefs panel, you will see a "distance" knob at the bottom right that will take care of that ambient sound


i see the distance knob! Thank you very much!


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## owenave (May 21, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> Heh! I wanted to take Jon Lord's place.
> 
> It's a sound that relies on many different external factors, such as amplification. It doesnt just happen in the Hammond. C3 was Lord's weapon of choice.



What is the VB3 btw... who makes it, haven't tried it.

Yeah I like that Deep Purple overdriven C3 sound. I think Jon used a Marshal Amp head to drive his leslie which probably had non stock Horn driver and 15" speaker. It gives drive during Rock songs. I used to use it when I played with Iron Butterfly 99-2005 to make the songs
Drive and rock harder. Which required really cranking the B3... first thing I would do 
is walk over to the Leslie that was provided by back line and Crank the volume. 
Nice thing about newer B3 emulations is you can do it at a decent volume level without
having to fry yours and everyone else ears ... lol.
Is there any trials that you can download of the B5 for a time limited trial so one could check
it out before buying. I Really love the sound I got out of The Native Instruments B4II but they discontinued it and is just 32 bit.I have to use VEP5 to be able to use it. I even emailed the Native Instruments and they told me to buy the Vintage Organs collection which sucked compared, no where near the amount of parameters of the B4II. I like that on B4II you can adjust the volume of the percussion not just soft or normal. The harmonics of the Percussion are not stuck with just the 2 & 3 harmonic. it goes from 1/2 all the way to 8. Also there is a depth control knob for the Vibrato. There is a selection where you can choose which Hammond you are using from Pure ... to Dirty ... to Trashy to create the sound of B3's that are older and noisy contacts on the keys. 
I would not take it personal comments that people make about the B5 and take it as a learning curve. B3 players are very passionate about their sound. Those who used the real thing for year. 
Just like a guitar player might be passionate about a Strat or a Les Paul.


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## owenave (May 21, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> Heh! I wanted to take Jon Lord's place.
> 
> It's a sound that relies on many different external factors, such as amplification. It doesnt just happen in the Hammond. C3 was Lord's weapon of choice.


Carmine Appice tried to get me in Deep Purple when I was leaving Iron Butterfly, he called them but I missed getting the gig by a couple days. That would have been a great band to play with. Their new album a couple years ago "Now What?" for me really gets back to the original sound and feel of Deep Purple.


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## EvilDragon (May 21, 2016)

owenave said:


> What is the VB3 btw... who makes it, haven't tried it.



Enter VB3 in Google and click on the first link...


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## owenave (May 21, 2016)

Here is some Hammond Organ trivia for you. Do you know why they designed
the full back on the C3 after the B3 was already being used?
Well they said that churches was complaining that people could see up the
lady Organist at the church with the B3. So the designed the C3 with the full back.


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## Baron Greuner (May 21, 2016)

owenave said:


> What is the VB3 btw... who makes it, haven't tried it.
> 
> Yeah I like that Deep Purple overdriven C3 sound. I think Jon used a Marshal Amp head to drive his leslie which probably had non stock Horn driver and 15" speaker. It gives drive during Rock songs. I used to use it when I played with Iron Butterfly 99-2005 to make the songs
> Drive and rock harder. Which required really cranking the B3... first thing I would do



Yes that's right Larry. I used a variety of on stage amplification in my day, ranging from two Leslie's and Marshall stacks/JBL. Later the Marshalls would take on a Moog. Deep Purple already had their current player lined up way back to the 90s I believe but nothing was concrete I guess, until later on.
VB3 is a plugin.
Emerson I think used to have things changed in his Hammonds. Like the contacts if I remember correctly. I was around Brian Davisons (Blinky) place one evening and was talkng about that to him but I can't remember what was said, long time ago.
Not a bad instrument when you think its target audience was the church and it was designed by a clock maker who just happened to be a genius with the creation of the tone wheel generator.


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## owenave (May 21, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> Yes that's right Larry. I used a variety of on stage amplification in my day, ranging from two Leslie's and Marshall stacks/JBL. Later the Marshalls would take on a Moog. Deep Purple already had their current player lined up way back to the 90s I believe.
> VB3 is a plugin.
> Emerson I think used to have things changed in his Hammonds. Like the contacts if I remember correctly. I was around Brian Davisons (Blinky) place one evening and was talkng about that to him but I can't remember what was said, long time ago.
> Not a bad instrument when you think its target audience was the church and it was designed by a clock maker who just happened to be a genius with the creation of the tone wheel generator.


Kerry Livegren of Kansas past... has a B3 that was custom made for the band "Blood Rock" from the late 60's 70's. It had one set of drawbars that you could use for tuning the percussion. His is the only one I have seen that was like that.


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## chimuelo (May 21, 2016)

Best sampled Hammond I ever heard.
VB3 was OK too.
But they both miss the electro mechanical aspects, and Leslie sound.
But run this through some DSP plug ins and a Neo Vent and it might take care of that.
Usually samples lose the additive synthesis aspects when ganging drawbars together, but not so here.

Owenave. You want to give Carmine a message pm me.
Be hanging with him in Vegas after Memorial weekend. Then off to Sweden.

BTW I loved the Bloodrock Hammond.
I do Midwest tributes with nothing but ARP Moog Oberheim and Hammond sounds.
Nothing but Purple, Uriah, Kansas, Bloodrock, Argent, Boston, ELP and Yes.
Wine, Women and song, all summer long.

But I use the HX-3...
This is the ultimate programmable FPGA Hammond.
UVI Whoops HX-3 in price though.


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## NYC Composer (May 22, 2016)

I had the poor man's solution-an M-1. However, I also had a locally built custom Leslie cabinet with two rotating horns and a 2 4x15 bottoms, powere by a crappy Peavey 800 watt amp. It was screaming loud (we played clubs!), but not exactly pristine. The guy who made the Leslie thingie used dual McIntosh heads (made in my hometown of Binghamton, NY).


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## JT3_Jon (May 22, 2016)

Do you think the B5 would be a first choice for heavy, cut through a dense mix, bitey, Prog Rock organ? I'm currently using a combination of NI B4 (32-bit makes it a pain) Logics organ (Mainstage routing for Cubase makes it a pain) & Omnisphere with lots of extra processing. Would love to ditch all three, but judging from the demos the B5 does sound great in jazz, funk, gospel, and "A whiter shade of pale" style organ, but I haven't heard it do rock yet, and without a playable demo to test it would be too much of a risk to buy it and find out it doesn't suit my needs. Someone in gearslutz recommended VB3 over the B5 for more aggressive rock sounds, but I dont want to deal with another 32bit plugin.

Off the top of my head some quick examples of organ sounds I'm looking for:


(you would think this styx sound would be an easy thing to get, but I've tried and I can get close but never quite as good and I dont know why)

Here is an example of a current organ sound. Could the B5 improve it? http://www.aeonsatori.com/ep1.html (jump to 2:20ish for it exposed)

Will try to find more examples once I get some sleep. Should probably stop reading VI-control before bed as it keeps me up listening to organs, haha!


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## EvilDragon (May 22, 2016)

Yes, VB3 IMHO does have more "ballz" in its tube amp emulation, B5 distortion sounds more shrill than powerful (hopefully a matter of tweaking, but out of the box, VB3 just has THAT sound). And it's 64-bit on Windows.


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## JT3_Jon (May 22, 2016)

I'm a mac guy. Is there any hope that the VB3 will ever go 64bit mac? Also has anyone tried running the B5 through something like Melda's Vintage Rotary and use the drive there? Or add their own 3rd party distortion?


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## SPOTS (May 22, 2016)

I read on another forum from the graphics designer guy that he delivered all final graphics for the VB3 v.2 (64-bit) a little while ago. But the project seems to be frozen since.


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## chimuelo (May 22, 2016)

B5 has a developer in this thread listening.
Guido is making hardware now.
Waste of time feeding a dead horse with VB3.
Stay with this guy.
But if you want ALL of those of Hammond sounds just break down and buy the HX-3.

But the B5 has a great start.
Developer has big ears and immediate support.
I would watch this product for a while since he seems happy to help.

Extended release samples would really help out for glissandos.
VB3 is awful on glissandos.
I often had velocity fixed at 127 just to avoid audible dropouts.

I'm playing a new Hammond B3 with a 122 Leslie.
I think it sounds Japanese.
You just can't get that big ASS and Balls sound.
Hence I refer to them as 2 cycle Hammonds.
Plus you can't get pitch bend power downs, it weighs half of the original.
I told the guys at Meyers to save their money.


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## EvilDragon (May 22, 2016)

chimuelo said:


> B5 has a developer in this thread listening.
> Guido is making hardware now.
> Waste of time feeding a dead horse with VB3.



Guido also said that VB3 v2 WILL come out in software form. Albeit very likely Windows-only.


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## Ashermusic (May 22, 2016)

Check this out about 1 minute in. 



Saw Rod with The Zombies a few years back and he was great, played his newer Hammond Xk-3c through a Leslie and some kind of amp, could not see what it was.


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## chimuelo (May 22, 2016)

I wouldn't hold my breath.
He's a fantastic developer, but once guys start maintaining their hardware products the thought of upgrading Apple or Micro$oft synths is so unrewarding.


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## Baron Greuner (May 22, 2016)

Even Hammonds get disconnected. Haha!

The trouble with a lot of emulations is you can't turn them on an off while holding down notes, or shake the reverb and flick it on and off on an L100. Couldn't ever do it on a B3 or a C3.


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## catsass (May 22, 2016)

Ashermusic said:


> Piet and I have heatedly squabbled over the years but he has ears like a bat.


I'd love to see that! How is his hearing?


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## bill45 (May 22, 2016)

Does the B5 do that a voice robbing thing?


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## Raindog (May 22, 2016)

bill45 said:


> Does the B5 do that a voice robbing thing?


If you mean "foldback" (that´s what the original B3 did) the answer is yes
Regards Raindog


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## AcousticsampleS (May 23, 2016)

Ok then, since everyone seems to complain about rock stuff, we'll give you rock stuff 
You might be aware that we have released the Super II a while ago (a dual manual vox continental), it has a complete amp section, so we'll add that to the B-5, it should be released soon (in the next few days).


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## Saxer (May 23, 2016)

Coooool


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## AcousticsampleS (May 26, 2016)

Alright guys, since you (and people from other forums) have been asking for a few features including the possibility to make it more Rock oriented, we just added a few features (there will be a newsletter about it given how many new things have been added since the release).

First, we added the Amp section present in our other libraries, so there is a list of about 10 amps in mono or stereo versions including Fender amps, Rhodes and even Bass amps (and others). The last two demos in our demo list are using amps and not the Leslie.

Second, there is the possibility to use the sustain pedal to actually sustain notes.

And then there are a few other things that some of you might already have in their versions like the toggle rotation speed for the pedal, the possibility to assign on/off buttons from hardware keyboards to percussions buttons, the possibility to de-activate the presets keys, a distance knob to control the amount of "room" present in the Leslie simulation (this one is subtle and you can hear it when playing staccato notes without the reverb engaged), and we made the texts bigger for the non-retina screen users (this has been there for a while, but wasn't in the first release).


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## chimuelo (May 26, 2016)

Gotta check this out.

HX-3 update a while back added a sustain and I eventually found a need so tried it and thought it kind of worked but was hit and miss.
On further inspection found it was a sostenuto which actually is extremely useful.

Some other useful tones that we're really popular were Marshall JCM 800s and the Ring Modulator as it can take a lighter distortion and mangle it nicely as digital distortion becomes too uncontrollable without soft clipping like a real Tube Pre Amp.

And nice post of Argent Jay.
A very progressive player if one were to examine his solo in Time Of The Season and again in Hold Your Head Up.

As corny as this sounds my all time favorite Hammond Player was Earl Grant.
Google his version of Ebb Tide where he uses the B3 to emulate Seagulls. But his corny old playing was totally unique and Damn near impossible to woodshed.


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## Silence-is-Golden (May 26, 2016)

chimuelo said:


> As corny as this sounds my all time favorite Hammond Player was Earl Grant.
> Google his version of Ebb Tide where he uses the B3 to emulate Seagulls. But his corny old playing was totally unique and Damn near impossible to woodshed.


Sounds interesting........
Do you also know Walter Wonderly( or Wanderly, can't remember) with the bossa novas? ....... its also in the corny corner.

Old school and impressive playing rhythmicly / musically to me is on Eomir Deodato's 'los Cathedraticos' if my spelling is correct.
There are a number of pieces with a percussive Hammond that are very nice.


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## re-peat (May 26, 2016)

chimuelo said:


> (...) my all time favorite Hammond Player (...)



Three of my favourite Hammond moments in pop:
*Traffic "Who Knows What Tomorrow Will Bring* (Steve Winwood, organ)
*The Peddlers "On A Clear Day"* (Roy Phillips, organ)
*Steve Miller "Fly Like An Eagle"* (Joachim Young, organ)

_


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## NYC Composer (May 26, 2016)

....at around 32 seconds. Such a classic riff. Then there's Green Onions...


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## Soundhound (May 27, 2016)

and at 2:13, just 8 bars of Billy Preston bliss.


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## Raindog (May 27, 2016)

AcousticsampleS said:


> Alright guys, since you (and people from other forums) have been asking for a few features including the possibility to make it more Rock oriented, we just added a few features (there will be a newsletter about it given how many new things have been added since the release).
> 
> First, we added the Amp section present in our other libraries, so there is a list of about 10 amps in mono or stereo versions including Fender amps, Rhodes and even Bass amps (and others). The last two demos in our demo list are using amps and not the Leslie.
> 
> ...



Is the update online already? Will the amplifiers integrate with the rotary Speaker (organ -> amp/reverb -> rotary Speaker) or will it be either amp or rotary speaker?
Best regards and thank you for your brilliant support
Raindog


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## AcousticsampleS (May 27, 2016)

Raindog said:


> Is the update online already? Will the amplifiers integrate with the rotary Speaker (organ -> amp/reverb -> rotary Speaker) or will it be either amp or rotary speaker?
> Best regards and thank you for your brilliant support
> Raindog


Yes, it's online, we'll send a quick newsletter about it today.
And no, it's wether the amp simulation or the rotary speaker simulation, both are amps, so it's one or the other


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## EvilDragon (May 27, 2016)

Should be easy to go into back-end instrument editing and enable both the amp and the Leslie at the same time, if you run B5 in Falcon...


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## AcousticsampleS (May 27, 2016)

No, i'm afraid you can't do that, we now protect our presets to avoid users to mess with the effects and break the script, you have no idea how much support we get from that...


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## EvilDragon (May 27, 2016)

Well that's a bummer then. :/ I can certainly see the feasibility of organ->amp (no cab)->leslie chain, though. Get some filth out there that way.


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## AcousticsampleS (May 27, 2016)

It does not really make any sense though... the Leslie sim comes with an IR... if you use an IR and then go in the Leslie Sim, it just sounds horribly bad (i've tested this by mistake)... i know you meant "no cab", but amp sim in UVI is usually IRs, and the Irs contain both the amp and the cab...
But we had to make a decision here, it's not possible to give that much flexibility in a sample library even if i would love to (in UVI, or Kontakt) without making it too CPU hungry or very hard to maintain.


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## Ashermusic (May 27, 2016)

With all the amp sims out there, and Logic Pro btw comes with decent ones, not really concerned about that personally.


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## evilantal (May 27, 2016)

Ashermusic said:


> With all the amp sims out there, and Logic Pro btw comes with decent ones, not really concerned about that personally.



The problem, though, is getting the amp in the chain _before_ the leslie...


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## Ashermusic (May 27, 2016)

evilantal said:


> The problem, though, is getting the amp in the chain _before_ the leslie...



Ah, did not consider that.


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## evilantal (May 30, 2016)

How does the leslie simulation compare to Melda's?
Or would this plugin also benefit from a B5 > MVintageRotary chain like VB3...

"King of the hammond hill" would be won by VB3, VB3+Melda, B5 or B5+Melda at the moment it seems.


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## Raindog (May 30, 2016)

evilantal said:


> How does the leslie simulation compare to Melda's?
> Or would this plugin also benefit from a B5 > MVintageRotary chain like VB3...
> 
> "King of the hammond hill" would be won by VB3, VB3+Melda, B5 or B5+Melda at the moment it seems.



Would have the advantage of combining an amp simulation of the B5 and a rotary speaker. Personally I found the Melda simulation a bit too much but you can adjust many parameters which I haven´t done so far (just using the trial version). I can live pretty well with the B5´s rotary speaker. I now use the Vb3 and the B5 case dependand with the B5 being used slightly more at the moment. But I must admit that the VB3 is still a top notch emulation (if the 32bit bridge within Cubase doesn´t have one of it´s occassional hickups)


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## whinecellar (May 30, 2016)

evilantal said:


> The problem, though, is getting the amp in the chain _before_ the leslie...



I actually created a Logic channel strip that does exactly that so I can track my (real) B3 when I don't have my Leslie at the studio, and I have to say, it sounds insanely good. The chain is B3 (Trek 1/4" out) > Apollo DI > Neve 1073 > Logic amp sim of your choice > Logic Rotary plugin > Apple Matrix Reverb for just a bit of "air" around the Leslie. Here's a video from my recent Kickstarter campaign where you can hear it featured (B3 starts at 1:40 if you want to jump right to it):



It's a great solution for Leslie-less setups!


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## evilantal (May 30, 2016)

whinecellar said:


> Here's a video from my recent Kickstarter campaign where you can hear it featured (B3 starts at 1:40 if you want to jump right to it):



Thanks for that!
Great blend of hammond and epic/orchestral flair


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## whinecellar (May 30, 2016)

evilantal said:


> Thanks for that!
> Great blend of hammond and epic/orchestral flair


Thanks much! That track has a long way to go but it's fun to try and blend all my orchestral influences with the 80's pop/rock I grew up on


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## AcousticsampleS (Aug 1, 2016)

Just a quick message to tell you that the B-5 (along with all of our other instruments) is on sale 
... Just in case some of you were interested but were still hesitating


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## Joh (Dec 8, 2016)

I am trying to control the B-5 organ with this compact "WORLDE Easycontrol 9 MIDI Controller". It's the first time that I try to add a virtual organ to play with my Tyros3 and so, I'm in for something new totally to me...
After hours of trial & error, I figured out that the controller's communication only works, when the B-3 organ App is off or cancelled in B-3 organ App's "MIDI Devices". I also encounter problems with assigning CC# : For instance, when I change the button of CC# 3 to CC#12 , save it and then in "Communication" click "Read Scene Data", then the chosen CC#12 automatically returns to CC#3 and I got nowhere! - How to make it stay in the CC# I have chosen? - How to best assign the controller? ... is the big question. Has any of you figured it out?
I guess the CC# can only be assigned to certain buttons, knobs or sliders?
Maybe the best will be to just control some main functions, such as Leslie speed etc. and Presets to avoid PC mouse adjustments? Since it's affordable, it might turn into the B-5 organ's dedicated controller.
Saludos cordiales, Joh from St'go de Chile


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## AcousticsampleS (May 11, 2017)

We just released the B-5 Version 2, it is an entirely new product with many new features and a completely different sound.
As a teaser, here is a quick video of a comparison between the B-5 and a real A-100 and Leslie 122 combo



You can get the update from your account or if you don't have it yet, get it from this page: B-5 Organ V2


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