BenWaB3

Actually I had picked one (73) up at the end of April because the ads strongly suggested that they would be off sale at the end of that month.

I'm not too sure if playing it from its own keyboard would help much or not. Even pushing Neo-Soul Studio from the SKPro gets some weird touch/feel issues going. Scaling back the velocity curve on the SK helped with that a lot though. I didn't realize until fairly recently, though, that the internal Rhodes only had the 2 layers, as Niacin pointed out, and the crossfade between them does leave much to be desired. Speaking of the Wurli's, I was able to coax a fairly decent Wurli out of it. One thing I was too dumb to think about on my own, but Another Scott suggested, was doing a Rhodes in both extra voice slots and having on be just pure delay effect. Layering two of them together got some strange type of "out of phase' tone and since autopan and delay are in the same effects slot you had to program one with autopan and one with delay. With Scott's suggestion it sounded much better with just the delay and no actual original signal coming out of one of the sections.

Thanks also for posting the clips. In the past I've complained about the Rhodes in the SKPro & wondered if I was being too harsh since some other people didn't mind it as much. Now after listening to these, I can say "The prosecution rests, Your Honor". Vindication has been achieved 🙂

I've expressed general displeasure with the extra voices on the Pro in a couple of other threads. I had ended up using an iPad for electric and acoustic pianos sounds. I also thought the clav in the SK-1 was much better and the Rhodes & Wurli sounds on the Sk-1 more usable. The Pro does have a pretty good amount of programmability for synth sounds though (talking about the polyphonic ones in the other instruments section - I didn't really dive into the separate mono synth section that much.) I have the Gemini module also but found that between it & the Pro the velocity curves can be somewhat wonky, mostly the fault of the Pro, I believe. If the Gemini had the adjustable velocity curves that came out in the piano app from GSi it would probably be a match made in heaven. Of course, this is all just my opinion, and we know what they say about opinions.

Thanks, Reezekeys. Sounds good. I'm off to a Sunday performance right now & won't have the chance to see how well I can integrate VB3m with the Nautilus until at least tomorrow. I had done a quick "run BX-3 from the iPad & see if the Nautilus will play it" test last week but didn't get into the nits & gnats of programming, and it worked well.

Thanks for the replies Baldwin and Reezekeys. My current setup is a Korg Nautilus 73 so it should send out a program change every time I call up a voice, plus I can go directly from the phone or pad through the usb-b on the back of the Nautilus, eliminating the need for a separate audio cord . In theory I should be able to get good Hammond sounds out of the Nautilus but so far that hasn’t been working out as well as it should. Thanks again.

Thanks for the reply, Baldwin. I really like BX-3 also but can't find a way to port it over to the phone. I'll probably still use it for most scenarios but will try to program the VB3m to a useable set of presets & download it onto the phone for a situation that calls for a phone only setup. Thanks again.

I've been looking into adding the VB3m app into my arsenal for iPhone & iPad. However, some of the reviews complain about the inability to store your own presets. Those reviews are 2 years old though and I was wondering if that issue has been fixed. I had emailed an inquiry into GSI a few weeks ago but never got an answer. I have the BX-3 and really like it but it doesn't seem to be available for the phone. Does anyone know if the VB3m can store user's edits and presets? Thanks.

I did this one some time ago in a jazz trio and did the horn lines on organ. Just eliminate the top trumpet part & fill in what's below and you should do alright, and your version would sound better than mine since there's an actual horn player doing a part. Plus with the trio I was also doing LH Bass.

What he said!!!!

Keeping the Soul category included, the great Sam Moore and the great Levi Stubbs. I did see Sam on TV a couple years ago & his voice was starting to crack a little but he kept that high soaring tenor well into his later years.

The SK1 - yes. The SK Pro - no. I've ranted about this a few times on this forum. The SK Pro has the 4 different pickup settings but no "dig", especially on the low notes. The SK1 clav was much stronger all around and, IIRC, a lot of dig. Of course, the SK Pro is a better allrounder than the SK1. The Hammond version of your Yamaha themed rant, so close.....so close.....

I have the GSI Sound Piano Edition and the Rhodes left something to be desired. Hopefully there will be an improvement in the standalone app.

One of the best organists to listen to to pick up LH bass ideas would be Groove Holmes. He definitely earned his sobriquet and a large part of that was due to his bass lines.

I saw him a couple of times with Mountain. And "saw him" is the appropriate descriptor, since he wasn't heard at all over the "mountain" of guitar & bass amps. Could be why he left the group.

That said, I've still been scouring this thread to see if I can pick up any more advice on a good (or better than I have) emulation for iPad. It seems, for me anyway, Neo-Soul is the best of the ones available at this time. I've tried VTines & Module Pro running their version of Scarbee. Others prefer those and that's totally legitimate. Although using it on an iPad, the following observation will probably apply to Mac & PC as well: With the Neo-Soul Rhodes and Wurlys less is definitely more. When you blend 2 different main sounds, e.g., Mark I & Mark V together they have a slightly out of phase sound. Even more so for the Wurlys. My latest iteration of a Rhodes is just one sound (Nu Mark V is the weapon of choice for the moment), no color or mod in the control section, filter all the way open & no resonance, no artifacts (release, attack, tines, etc.) and just the 10 band equalizer. It seems to sound better than throwing a whole lot of additions into the mix. Of course, I'll put the auto-pan or delay on as needed. The video AnotherScott put up it very interesting too. Makes me wish Keyscape & Arturia were available for iOS. It's also interesting on how one brand will sound great on one of the examples & then sound like hammered dog feces on another. Of course, they're using different presets from the individual softwares instead of picking one sound on each & sticking with it.

I wish you weren't speaking the truth but, alas, you are.

Not weighing in on the standing vs. sitting issue here per se, but another reason (or requirement in my case) for sitting most of the time: If playing two keyboards simultaneously I often need one foot on the expression pedal for the organ part and one foot on the sustain pedal for the piano part. I'd love to be enough of a master of space/time that I could stand and simultaneously levitate both feet to accomplish those tasks but, alas, fear I am not that "enlightened." 🙂

I don't know how extensive (or even existent) their jazz, rock, etc. library would be but you can also check out Lorenz at www.lorenz.com for sheet music downloads.

Some of it can have to do with the "novelty" of the change. My usual morning routine is reading the paper (and if that statement doesn't age me I don't know what will 🙂 ) while listening to the stereo. A recent change has brought about the situation where I sometimes need to wear headphones instead of listening through speakers. It opens up a level of detail not achieved by the speakers themselves and I really like that change. I can remember though when I had to use headphones all the time and what a novel (and positive) difference it made when switching to speakers. We can get used to something, in this case speakers vs. phones, but it can apply to many other areas of life and trying something different can be very refreshing.

And, oh yeah: Q: How many Jazz musicians does it take to change a light bulb? A-1: Four - One to change the bulb and the other three to bitch because it's electric. A-2: F*#k the changes - just play!

OK, that reminded me of two more. Q: How many guitarists does it take to change a light bulb? A: Four - One to change the bulb and the other three to stand there and say, "I can do that". Q: How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb? A: Four - One to change the bulb and the other three to stand there and talk about how Dave Weckl would have done it.

Q: What's the difference between a saxophone & a lawnmower? A: You can tune a lawnmower. Q: What's the difference between a trumpet player and a jumbo jet? A: About 2 decibels. Q: What's the difference between a violin and a viola? A: 1. You can throw a violin farther. 2. A viola burns longer. Q: How do you protect a violin? A: Hide it in a viola case. Q: What's the difference in a viola and an onion? A: People cry when you chop up an onion.

A few years ago I was offered a job playing accordion, so I borrowed one and learned the basics and the job went fine. Afterwards I put it in the back seat for the drive home. I stopped at a convenience store for a drink afterwards. It was in a pretty rough part of town & I didn't remember until I was in the store that the accordion was laying in plain sight on the back seat. I rushed out as fast as I could but discovered I was too late. Someone had smashed the rear window & thrown two more accordions in there.

Q: What's the difference between a trombone player and a frog? A: The frog probably has a gig in his future.