Ferrofish 4000 -anyone know much about them?

[miden]

https://www.ferrofish.com/product/b4000-virtual-organ/?cn-reloaded=1

[Stephen Fortner]

This is essentially a repackaging of the Creamware B4000 ASB (Authentic Sound Box). Creamware PULSAR and SCOPE were DSP cards that went in your computer and ran excellent (for the late 1990s) emulations of analog synths, classic keys, and effects. It was, in fact, an entire DSP-based audio environment. Craig Anderton was really into them. Then in the early and mid 2000s they trickled that tech out into stand-alone desktop virtual analog boxes, including the Prophet-5 and Minimoog. I still have a desktop synth wedge called the USE Audio Plugiator that brings several of these under one roof, including the B4000, which was their Hammond emulation. As I recall it's pretty decent, with the exception of the Leslie simulation, which sounded thin and electronic to my ears. But it's been a while, and I can't speak to what improvements Ferrofish has made, if any. Here's an original review of the Creamware B4000 in Sound On Sound magazine: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/creamware-b4000-asb

 

Hope this is of some help.

[Markyboard]

I definitely didn"t know everything about them. From their description....

 

 

The B4000+ packs the legendary Hammond B3 organ into an ultra compact box. Nobody would build a guitar without a neck, without it, it just will not work. That"s why we"ve developed the B4000+, with nine drawbars: to touch, to screw, but most important: to play!

 

 

These cloned organs have sure come a long way.

[Baldwin Funster]

I've heard YouTube demos. To me it sounds thin, bright and organ like but not hammond organ like. The speaker spin is way below par. I passed.

[Morizzle]

I had one for a very short amount of time - not my favorite clone sound, a little cumbersome in handling, and suprisingly heavy for such a little unit! Soundwise, there's better alternatives nowadays.

[AnotherScott]

Yeah, it's heavier than you'd expect... but considering how you may want to manipulate the drawbars during performance, that may not be such a bad thing, for it to have some heft/resistance.

 

I believe the drawbars send MIDI CC so it should be easy to use as controller for an iPad or PC/Mac based organ emulation.

[miden]

thanks guys. And to Stephen for the link I'll have a read. I'd never heard of them and thought others here would have used them and they have so your thoughts are appreciated. The one I found down here, was $400 (accepting offers) but if the view is there are better alternatives I will follow through on that. Price might be an issue though...I seem to recall organ modules being rather expensive here hahaha!

[Delaware Dave]

Didnt read any of the above posts; dont waste your money. For the same $'s you can get a used Voce that will sound at least 2x better. Only con is that the voce doesnt have leslie, use a vent with it.

[AnotherScott]

Didnt read any of the above posts; dont waste your money. For the same $'s you can get a used Voce that will sound at least 2x better. Only con is that the voce doesnt have leslie, use a vent with it.

But a Voce and a Vent is no longer the same $'s as the Ferrofish. ;-)

[CowboyNQ]

Rich Forman uses one.

 

I was considering one a couple of years back and PM"d him about it. He was very honest in his assessment. I can"t remember exactly what he told me but from memory - essentially that the sound is OK but the build quality is poor.

 

I pursued it no further.

[MAJUSCULE]

I could've sworn someone here owned one. Maybe I'm misremembering.

[Moonglow]

I could've sworn someone here owned one. Maybe I'm misremembering.

I believe brother Allan Evett had one for a spell.

[miden]

Lovely - great info fellas...I'll leave it where it is haha!

[Delaware Dave]

Didnt read any of the above posts; dont waste your money. For the same $'s you can get a used Voce that will sound at least 2x better. Only con is that the voce doesnt have leslie, use a vent with it.

But a Voce and a Vent is no longer the same $'s as the Ferrofish. ;-)

If you use a Ferrofish you'll also need a Vent as the leslie is awful so the potential expensive is a wash. ;-)

[ElmerJFudd]

I knew we"d hear from Dave eventually. You do the same with your Voce? Or is it just a controller for your Gemini at this point?

[miden]

Didnt read any of the above posts; dont waste your money. For the same $'s you can get a used Voce that will sound at least 2x better. Only con is that the voce doesnt have leslie, use a vent with it.

But a Voce and a Vent is no longer the same $'s as the Ferrofish. ;-)

If you use a Ferrofish you'll also need a Vent as the leslie is awful so the potential expensive is a wash. ;-)

 

Would a vent by itself be okay using it with "standard" synth organs Dave?

[Doerfler]

I could've sworn someone here owned one. Maybe I'm misremembering.

I believe brother Allan Evett had one for a spell.

 

indeed he did

[ElmerJFudd]

I"m sure Dave has an opinion but generally speaking. Yes. The Leslie amplifier, the cabinet and it"s rotary speaker are such a big part of the sound - a good simulation over a lousy one makes a big difference.

[Delaware Dave]

Would a vent by itself be okay using it with "standard" synth organs Dave?

The leslie is 50% of the sound so a Vent will be an overall sound improvement. Given that you have a Vent (or something similar) a Voce V5+ (not the V5 model) for the same price still sounds way better. The Voce has a very 'ballsy" tone and overall sounds better than the Ferrofish. It has also stood the test of time and still competes even in today's market; I still use mine frequently on gigs. Its weak links are the C/V is not splitable by manual (neither is the Ferrofish) and the C/V itself is not the greatest (but better than the Ferrofish). The raw Hammond tone on the Voce is very good. My two cents (2.78 AUD). I don't think AUD has cents as the lowest denominator, I think your lowest equivalent to the USD coins is 5 cents, so the above is my 3.6 USD cents worth.

[miden]

haha, thanks Dave - yep we lost the small coppers years ago...shame, they were great for playing cards with (for the cheapskates, like me )

[CowboyNQ]

Oh man I don"t miss them at all. In fact I"d be happy if they flicked the 5c pieces too.

 

DD, I hope Tim doesn"t bring legal action against you.

[AUSSIEKEYS]

Yeah when the 5 cent coin goes it wont be long before we will only have the gold coins.

 

Re the ferrofish. I was looking at a used one a year ago or more. It was in Sydney and i am now in Melbourne and ironically i only recently moved from Sydney (my home town). Why is it when youre looking for gear its always "elsewhere" but when you relocate to "elsewhere" gear you find is always back where you originally lived. Everytime.

 

Anyway it was was about $450 plus postage. I think new ones were about 900bux but probaly get them for about 750bux. I didnt think $450 used cheap enough to risk it without trying it. The review were just so so. At around the 400 mark its probably about right if they still sell them new here if not it should be less.

 

Had the one I found been local to me at 450bux i would definately checked it out. But it may be a piece of gear that is hit or miss to the ear of a new owner.

[ABECK]

I had a Plugiator years ago. Quirky little guy. Great sound engines, but suffered from buggy software (esp when connecting to a computer).

The B4000 wasn't horrible. It was better than a Rompler, but not on par with today's dedicated clones.

[allan_evett]

I could've sworn someone here owned one. Maybe I'm misremembering.

I believe brother Allan Evett had one for a spell.

 

I did have a B4000, approx. 2014 to 2016; drove it from a Jupiter-50. I though it above average for rock and country live gigging, though an outboard rotary sim unit helped a lot; in my case an original Vent. I sold it to get an SK1. I wanted to get away from playing organ on diving board synth keys; actually sliced the side of LH finger 5 pretty well on a smear one night, and left 'turkey tracks' all over the JP-50 for better part of a set. For the money it was fine. The only other drawbar module options were pretty pricey and hard to get (KeyB Expander, IIRC; maybe one other...). Yes, the Voce boxes had a better core sound, but the front panel functionality is much better on the B4000; and to me having a Vent, et. al. evens the playing field a lot. And I'd still take it - with a good outboard rotary unit - over an older Roland VK-8m.

 

Here's a very brief phone video of sound check, circa 2015. Keys are somewhat buried, but you'll hear the B4000 in a couple spots. It's mounted on the LH side of the JP-50, upper RH corner of the video. I liked the heft of the module; easy to control the drawbars.

 

[video:youtube]

[miden]

Thanks Allan