Update to Acousticsamples B-5

[jerrythek]

From their email message:

 

Hello everyone,

 

We would like to introduce the B-5 Organ V3. Even though the organ has been largely redone, we decided to forgo making this a new product and keep it as a massive FREE update for all our current users out there!

 

Thanks to your valuable comments over the years, as well as some surveys we put out in the community, we were able to get a great feeling for what our users wanted and expected out of the next generation of organ. So in similar fashion, we"d like to ask all of you now go out and represent all of that collective hard work:

 

Getting into some details of Version 3:

- Redesigned interface to have the switches positions match a real B3

- Complete signal chain rewrite which allowed us to include nearly 150 new voicing models that can be changed manually (that includes models A, AV, B, B2, C2, BA, BC , CV, B3, C3, A100, RT3 and a few others)

- Voicings are now separate from 4 tonewheel models = nearly 600 different combinations (and that"s before advanced editing)

- Enable/Disable the manual tapering or use a hybrid manual tapering

- New 'Tone Control' emulating the real potentiometer present in real organs

- Completely redesigned tube distortion

- Improved keyclick to match variation depending on phase start

- New FX panel with Chorus, Phaser, Delay, Was, Auto-Wah, overdrive and fuzz

- Entirely new Leslie simulation featuring multiple models (122, 147, 3300 and more)

- Separation of 'brake' and Leslie speed

- Total independent control over Horn and Drum speakers

- MIDI control overhaul, including new MIDI Learn function

- So many more things that you just need to head over to the B-5 page to discover it all! (we are still updating the page).

 

webpage

 

Jerry

[TWB121234]

I downloaded this. It is very very very good, and free to current owners. Tweakable to an amazing degree. So many really fine Hammond options.

[wd8dky]

Better than B3-X? Or just different?

[analogman1]

I have them both. Different. Glad I own both! And super cool that they gave such a significant upgrade for free!

[ElmerJFudd]

Leslie updated - jump to 3:18 where they cover it.

 

[video:youtube]

[EricBarker]

Now being a clone wheel owner, I don't use soft B3s much anymore, but I did love B5 before getting my Mojo. My one complaint with both V1 and V2 was that the overdrive felt very tame. It was hard to get that really fierce "grinding" sound I like in heavy rock organ material. I initially had the same feeling with VB3 until I found the "feedback" control. So like me axe yous this... has anyone played with the OD and found it to be substantially better than with V2?

[Throbert]

Now being a clone wheel owner, I don't use soft B3s much anymore, but I did love B5 before getting my Mojo. My one complaint with both V1 and V2 was that the overdrive felt very tame. It was hard to get that really fierce "grinding" sound I like in heavy rock organ material. I initially had the same feeling with VB3 until I found the "feedback" control. So like me axe yous this... has anyone played with the OD and found it to be substantially better than with V2?

First thing I noticed, no growl, like where's the beef. Only example I heard was church lady through a thinly veiled drive.

[TWB121234]

I have both as well and agree just different. I don"t think either would embarrass most musicians on most gigs. I wish I had Hammond sounds this good when I was playing in a Blues band many years ago.

[Markyboard]

Is anyone here using B5 on Windows 10 and as a VST in a DAW? If yes can you confirm whether moving a drawbar on the GUI (or by a cc) while holding a note causes an audio glitch/blip? I"ve had this issue with Reaper since 2.2 and even prior.

 

It is not the typical sample buffer size set too small or a slow computer. It only happens when the GUI is open. The stand-alone version through UVI doesn"t exhibit this behavior even at the lowest buffer size of 64.

[moogasm]

I just updated to V3 and have been in heaven the last few days. I must say the new version is fantastic! V3 sounds and feels like I'm playing a real Hammond and Leslie. They absolutely nailed it!

[Control Freak]

I just updated to V3 and have been in heaven the last few days. I must say the new version is fantastic! V3 sounds and feels like I'm playing a real Hammond and Leslie. They absolutely nailed it!

Did you have a chance to compare the B5 V3 with the VB3II or B-3X?

[moogasm]

No, but it's a big improvement from the previous versions. The overall experience is really close to a real Hammond and Leslie (which I have).

[Markyboard]

I just updated to V3 and have been in heaven the last few days. I must say the new version is fantastic! V3 sounds and feels like I'm playing a real Hammond and Leslie. They absolutely nailed it!

 

I'm now ready to gush all over this version. Turns out my audio pop issue was Reaper specific and is no longer thanks to a developer that truly gives a damn about his customers. He (Arno) steered me to a link from a couple of years ago and between he and a well known soft synth/DAW guru who goes by Evil Dragon they figured out the issue. Btw I downloaded Bandlabs Cakewalk last week as an alternate DAW in order to troubleshoot. Incredible that it's completely free and still maintained.

 

Anyway this version of B5 is an absolute pleasure to play. Running through real 147s I usually don't care about the Leslie sim stuff. But in order to take advantage of the tube distortion you have to use one of the many Leslie models provided, not DI which I've been using up til now. Tube overdrive is something I just cant get with my real Leslies because I just don't enjoy playing that loud - go figure. The thing is I can brake the sim Leslie and not have it cause havoc with the real Leslies and take advantage of the many other parameters including bleed for the drum and horn, distortion, brake position and eq. I've now dialed in some really nice crunchy overdrive that's just sounds amazing.

 

I'm excited to start experimenting with mic-ing the Leslies and I'm happy to have the incredible flexibilty that B5 provides. But most of all I really like dealing with a developer who not only continues to be passionate about his products but is the genuine deal when talking with his customers.