John Lee

This has now been launched: https://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=53 Installed it on an iPad mini 2. It sounds great, I particularly like the Wurli 206 sound. And it seems very sturdy and stable which I’ve found is not always the case with iOS music apps on older devices.

On the Electro 6 you can still play one sound on its keyboard and then another on another keyboard. It’s called ‘External KBD To Lo’ and means, for example, that you could play an organ sound across the whole range of Electro 6 keyboard and then play a piano sound via midi from a weighted board.

Latest picture on Instagram shows them sampling a grand piano: https://instagram.com/stories/crumar_instruments/2589467646536309236?utm_medium=copy_link

Well it looks like from their Facebook post that Crumar are going to go ahead with this spinet anyway. They say they are aiming at portability and quality with it but I guess those are moveable feasts for each different musician. For me 14kg is portable in terms of moving in and out of a vehicle but not something I could carry on public transport like my Electro. As it"s using VB3-II the sound will be quality but I"m not sure going back to diving board keys would provide me with a quality organ playing experience. I used to use a Novation Launchkey controller with VB3 on a VMachine and then used a Hammond M100 chop for a while but I"m much happier now that I"m using waterfall keys. As for build quality, if it"s anything like the Mojo 61 I had which crapped out on me on my first gig with it and I had to send back to the retailer twice for repair before I got them to replace it with a Nord Electro 6D, then that"s the kind of quality I can do without. Cheers John

The update is now on the Apple store. Just rebought it and with the new midi map page I can now change all the CCs to suit my Electro 6. Hats off to Guido for getting this update sorted so soon. B-3X now has some serious competition and VB3m is much much cheaper. Cheers John

I don"t see it as whining. Actually Guido is getting free market research from some early adopters here Obviously it"s up to him how he acts on that. But if he"s curious why there have been a few refund requests for his app then at least he"s got some information on why that is from this forum.

I bought this and while it sounds good, the fixed CCs makes it difficult to use with either my Electro or Hammond SK2 as I can"t control the swell or Leslie speed. Changing the Leslie speed via the touchscreen seems a bit hit and miss. I think they could at least have offered option to alternate the CCs for Leslie speed between 1 or 64 and the swell between either 7 or 11 as the Korg Module does. I"ve been a long time fan and user of VB3 on the Mac and a mainstay of my live rig consisted of VB3 running it on a VMachine, if anyone remembers that, but the iOS version seems a bit rushed and half baked to me. For the first time ever I"ve gone through Apple"s process to get a refund on an app.

Glad to hear Valente are taking good care of you because I"d say you"re one of their best assets so far for showing what the piano can do. Your videos are great. Cheers John

So it"s sounding good on the mono synth and organ front (assuming that we are hearing the sound of the internal Leslie sim in these teaser videos rather than the 'through a Leslie' thing the early XK5 videos all seemed to do). If the piano and other voices are equally impressive, my SK2 and Electro 6 might be looking for new homes. Anybody taking a guess on price? My guess is somewhere between £2,000 and £2,500 for the 61 key. Like with Apple, I think there"s going to be a premium for the 'Pro' tag. Cheers John

I only run Kontakt Player (for Scarbee A200 and Mark 1) but this has been working fine for me under Big Sur on my MacBook Air (2015 Intel not M1). Cheers John

Anyone else think that it"s quite cute the way that the vibrato/chorus options are arranged in a circle so that if you squint it looks like the knob on a B3? Just me? I"ll get me coat.

And a bit more from this video: There"s organ too so it"s looking like a Nord Stage competitor. Cheers John

Yeah looks like Grafton Street in Dublin to me. There"s Bewley"s coffee house that he"s in front of and there are two Irish flags in the distance. Cheers John

Page 79 of the SKX manual talks about 'Priority on Drawbars" which 'Temporarily substitutes the Upper registration with Upper or Lower Drawbar settings instead of the Patch content.'. Looks like this would also allow you mimic the B flat and B preset keys on a B-3, C-3 or A100, which was talked about earlier in the thread. Cheers John

That was a great trip down memory lane as I was a big fan of Rockschool too. I loved Gavin"s rig but the only keyboard in my price range as a teenager was the Yamaha DX21 - still a great first keyboard though. The sections that stick in my mind were: Vince Clarke running through how he records with his sequencer on a computer; and Herbie Hancock talking about the differences between a piano and a synthesiser. I think I probably wore out my VHS recordings of Rockschool watching them over and over again. Cheers John

I might be in the market for a dual manual organ soon (once I"ve sold some stuff) so the Classic could be a key contender for me. I don"t see the lack of extra voices as a great loss though. I had a Mojo 61 for a while and whilst the Rhodes was nice, I prefer a Wurli, as it tends to cut better with loud guitars and drums. I wasn"t convinced by the Crumar Wurli sound though, it felt a bit plasticky to me and I just think samples capture the attack of a Wurli much better.

They both look good. It"ll be interesting to see the pricing on these, particularly the desktop because it"s got some stiff competition in the shape of the IK Multimedia/Hammond B-3X. I was comparing the B-3X to VB3ii on my Mac over the weekend and I really think that B-3X has the edge. I particularly love that the B-3X sounds so great in mono which to my ears VB3ii (and the Mojo 61 when I had it) never really has, particularly with the Leslie on Fast. Cheers John

Everything sounds pretty good when Katsu Ujiie plays it but the organ on the YC61 is sounding tidy here:

Andertons are listing the YC61 at £1,679 and the Electro 6D 61 at £1,289 . There"s a soft case for the YC61 for £234 which compares with £71 for the Nord case. So it seems that, initially at least, the YC61 is being pitched above the Electro. Cheers John

The voice list in the manual has 'Clavi B" and 'Clavi S" in there. Cheers John

In the settings menu if you do a long press on the cc number 'learn" appears as the bottom option and then when you tap on that you can then just move the control on your keyboard and it will be learnt by the app.

Yes Dan that is correct. I only use VB3 on the Mojo 61 so any of the other organ sounds can be used as a silent patch and the only patch of the 8 I would need to sound on the module is the vibraphone.

Dan, my plan was to basically have 7 blank presets on the module and just one that was the vibraphone sound that also triggers a blank sound on the Mojo 61 (one of the combo organs with all the drawbars pushed in). Hope that makes sense. Cheers John

Thanks Redkey, I wasnt aware of the Beatstep, looks like an interesting option, ill check it out. Cheers John

Thanks Dan. Yup Im looking to trigger the vibraphone sound from the Mojo. Youre right, the Reface DX does have a keyboard but the keyboard for the D05 is optional so if I went that route I would use the module only. I have thought about the iPad route but would really prefer hardware - its just a personal preference really. Cheers John