[VB3II & Blue 3II & Amplitube Leslie]

Yeah, I don't really think iLok is a deal breaker, for me anyway. And actually I listened to some of @JoJoB3's demos of B5 and it really does sound fantastic. But ultimately its all about how it actually feels to sit down and and play it. And unfortunately no demo for B5... and I keep hearing from many people who have played it that it's really perfectly suited for jazz and gospel/blues, but doesn't quite wail like VB3 and Blue3 for rock. But I am still intrigued.

[VB3II & Blue 3II & Amplitube Leslie]

Yeah, I sure get the subjective nature of all of this.. but really appreciate the input. I guess my biggest question was regarding the fast Leslie setting in VB3II... I haven't really heard other complaints about it so doubting myself, but I don't think it's at all usable for me as it is.

 

It was the same with B4II way back in the day as @EricBarker brought up. B4 was great for its day and II was maybe a nice update, however the distortion in II was absolutely unusable for me, as others also noted at the time...but of course for others not a deal breaker.

 

I also agree it is the player! I have no doubt @JoJoB3 will sound way way better on the worst of sims than me on the best. I'm mainly a piano player at heart and have only occasionally played a real B3/Leslie when the venue has one in their back line. So just tying to find any edge I can with a B3 sim.

 

So anyway this is where it seems to stand for me...

 

B5 No demo...Seems to be the most realistic, but a bit tougher to get to scream than others. a bit heavier on cpu.. and ILOK

 

Arturia B-3 Really??? I have this. Sound might be ok or realistic or whatever..but I get no joy playing it whatsoever.

 

Blue 3 Seems to get a lot of support on various forums. As an overall package, seems to have it most together...from gui to preset mgr to playability, to protection scheme (although again I haven't demoed B5). I think maybe it is ever so subtly just a bit synthy/modeled sounding. Saw someone mention that the 147 models give a bit more raw sound so gonna work on that today.

 

VB3 I may be a bit too loyal...or too invested, as I have been waiting on this update for years! But I seem to like playing this best...But again, the fast Leslie makes it unusable for me...I will see what I can do about tweaking it today.

 

I guess I would really rather not have to buy and have a separate Leslie, but if it is going to make a big difference I will go that route. I wasn't so aware of Melda Rotary but will check it out. I just seemed to hear most people raving about Amplitube. But whatever it is, it seems most are using some separate Leslie, regardless of sim as well?

[VB3II & Blue 3II & Amplitube Leslie]

At $79 some odd bucks for B5...I can easily say you're missing out on the better sim. Every bit of it smokes VB3 orig and latest (and Blue). The leslie sim in it alone is worth the price.

OK, I appreciate that. I have read various forum threads on all three, particularly Blue 3 vs B5 and didn't get a sense that people were raving disproportionally about B5. And I thought there seemed to be a feeling maybe B5 was a bit more suited to jazz/gospel? But I definitely respect your opinion. I know $79 is not a huge amount, but I sure wish there was a demo.

 

[VB3II & Blue 3II & Amplitube Leslie]

I've been waiting a long time time to upgrade my original VB3 and finally had some time to demo VB3II and Blue 3II. There's no demo that I am aware of for B5 and I guess I would rather stay with modeled vst (although I have no rational reason for that).

 

Anyway it was quite a roller coaster. I started with Blue 3, just scrolling through presets and it sounded great but didn't knock me out (although I thought the Jimmy Smith preset was particularly sweet!). But then switching to VB3, I was even less knocked out... all the same presets from VB3I and definitely wasn't sure it was an improvement.

 

So I jammed for a while with both and went back and forth, opinion wise. And I came to really like both a lot. Finally I set up identical sounds/settings for both and did some serious A-Bing. I think actually they are both great, but maybe VB3II has a little more edge and aggressiveness, which works for me. However I MUCH prefer the Leslie on Blue 3. The fast setting on VB3II just doesn't work for me at all... it seems more vibrato-y than doppler-y and too intense.

 

I will look more into possibly tweaking that... and am open to suggestions. However I know many have posted about really liking Amplitube Leslie. As there is no demo for Amplitube Leslie and it's obviously an additional expense, I'd love to hear about others experience with it and VB3II and or Blue 3II.

 

I guess barring what I find with trying to tweak the VB3II leslie, if I just had to choose VB3II or Blue 3II as is, I'd have to go with Blue 3II as I much prefer the leslie. But there is just something subtle about the sound of VB3II that I THINK I prefer, so that if the Amplitube Leslie solves that problem and is worth the extra expense, I would probably go with that.

 

Let me also just say that I don't have a tremendous amount of experience playing a real B3 and Leslie, so I could be way off the mark in terms of being true to the original...I can just say what sounds good to me in my set up. But I appreciate any and all help and advice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Arturia Pigments Soft Synth]

Like Mark, based on my experience the last two years, Arturia has been a good company.

That's good to hear. My problems with my Keylab continued into v2 but glad to hear it worked out for you. Just curious and sorry for the hijack, but do you use aftertouch? All three of the Keylabs I had, had a 1/2 second delay when applying pressure before the aftertouch message would actually send and whatever effect assigned would begin, which made it largely unusable for me.

[Arturia Pigments Soft Synth]

I'm surprised to hear Mark Schmeider feels Arturia is good about customer support. I've never heard that before. My own experience just two years ago was terrible, with two separate problems with a brand new Keylab. After an initial automated email response each time, I never got another response despite multiple subsequent emails to them. There is no company or technical support phone number whatsoever to call... no on line chat or anything other than the email. I was lucky after a few months to be in Sam Ash speaking with a salesman who gave me the number for his rep in the company and she did get a new Keylab sent to me, which also had problems and I went through the exact same frustrating sequence, except this time I had some trouble getting though to the rep after after giving tech support a couple of months. At the time, I was googling quite a bit, trying to see if I could get a phone number or trouble shoot some of the problems myself and came across a massive amount of complaints about Arturia support as well as the same problems I was having with the Keylab. Maybe things have changed.