UAD Waterfall B3

[Aperkeys]

So they announced the new Spark subscription plan, and on the heels they included their new VST clonewheel of a B3 with a Leslie 147.

Clonk

Besides the official Trailer, there is no demo on the web yet

 

 

[Delaware Dave]

Didn't hear enough sustained notes to understand how it really sounds but from the little that I heard I liked the leslie and liked the grit. I guess we need to wait to hear more.   

[Al Coda]

I just bought IK MM B3X at discount and cannot imagine why the UAD software should be better.

Before, I was never a fan of software organ emulations, but B3X changed that and I also like it comes w/ guitar amp sims in addition to several Leslie cabs and amps.

 

A.C.

[AnotherScott]

The demo sounds really nice. I was also surprised to see they have a Minimoog emulation, with official Moog licensing. (It's currently half price, though that's still $149.)

[ElmerJFudd]

14 day free trial if you have an iLok.  That’s how I was able to test out their Steinway library, Ravel.  

[AnotherScott]

What's the cost of the subscription after the free trial?

[ElmerJFudd]

49 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

What's the cost of the subscription after the free trial?

They’re saying $20 a month and haven’t been clear if we can come and go, or if it’s a yearly.  

[Steve Nathan]

5 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

14 day free trial if you have an iLok.  That’s how I was able to test out their Steinway library, Ravel.  

So what was your impression of Ravel?  Demos sound nice.

[drawback]

6 minutes ago, Steve Nathan said:

So what was your impression of Ravel?  Demos sound nice.

There's a lack of information, or maybe I just couldn't find it. about tech requirements and whether you can buy it outright or have to be subscribed.

[ElmerJFudd]

26 minutes ago, Steve Nathan said:

So what was your impression of Ravel?  Demos sound nice.

It's actually in the shootout I've got running this weekend.  It's decent, but not my favorite of the ones I've been playing recently.  

[cphollis]

I read through their web site.  It seems they are aiming at music producers who want that sound in their DAW for tracking.  Nothing wrong with that, but my interest would be. more performance-oriented, so I'd care a lot about controller mappings, triggering presets, what sort of things can be changed within a preset dynamically,  and that sort of thing.

[ElmerJFudd]

 

 

[Steve Nathan]

I'm curious and have a suspicion that they had this made for them by someone already in the field. They apparently offer this for $199 outright, but the Free Trial appears to require you to sign up for a subscription.  That's a lot of hoops to jump through. 

 

[davinwv]

12 hours ago, Steve Nathan said:

I'm curious and have a suspicion that they had this made for them by someone already in the field. They apparently offer this for $199 outright, but the Free Trial appears to require you to sign up for a subscription.  That's a lot of hoops to jump through. 

 

I don't think Waterfall sounds as good as B3-X, especially when B3-X is properly tweaked.

[Baldwin Funster]

59 minutes ago, davinwv said:

I don't think Waterfall sounds as good as B3-X, especially when B3-X is properly tweaked.

That was my thought as well,but just based on the clips. Waterfall sounded idealized with some of the warts scraped off and fast leslie sounded a bit behind the current best.

[Jim Alfredson]

There's something weird about it that I can't quite place my finger on. It certainly does not beat B3-X.

[davinwv]

4 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

There's something weird about it that I can't quite place my finger on. It certainly does not beat B3-X.

+1 - This is a great way to articulate the sonic strangeness of Waterfall. I have fooled a few Nashville producers with remote tracks I've sent them using B3-X (they've emailed back saying that the B3 sounds amazing and asking what mics I'm using on my real Leslie). I don't think Waterfall would fool anyone.

 

But to be fair, B3-X's presets don't sound very good. Just like most clonewheels, you have to spend some time tweaking it to your liking. So perhaps the demos of Waterfall aren't doing it justice. On the other hand, Waterfall's Leslie sim doesn't sound as though you could tweak it into sounding great.

[Delaware Dave]

To me, a tale of two examples.  The opening post had a clip that i actually liked, the grit of the organ, the leslie and the the purr of the C/V.  The recent clip, I hear no C/V, the organ grit is gone and the leslie settings sound different (and worse) than the first clip. They sound like two different products.  Based on the first clip I would definitely consider it because the product can sound good...

[Steve Nathan]

8 hours ago, davinwv said:

+1 - This is a great way to articulate the sonic strangeness of Waterfall. I have fooled a few Nashville producers with remote tracks I've sent them using B3-X (they've emailed back saying that the B3 sounds amazing and asking what mics I'm using on my real Leslie). I don't think Waterfall would fool anyone.

 

But to be fair, B3-X's presets don't sound very good. Just like most clonewheels, you have to spend some time tweaking it to your liking. So perhaps the demos of Waterfall aren't doing it justice. On the other hand, Waterfall's Leslie sim doesn't sound as though you could tweak it into sounding great.

I can fool some producers if I have to, but a lot of them can tell, so I keep the Leslie miked 😄   I do a lot of organ ODs for a producer who plays organ himself.  The big give-away with B3-X to me is that absence of wind noise on the Leslie mikes.  I've been asking them to consider it for an update since before it was initially released (that and mike modeling).  Maybe if more of us asked??? I'll bet they'll listen to Jim before they pay any attention to me! 😁

[Baldwin Funster]

I've read one or two people complaining about wind noise in the Ventilator. It's funny that a producer might reject a track because it was missing.

[Steve Nathan]

37 minutes ago, Jr. Deluxe said:

I've read one or two people complaining about wind noise in the Ventilator. It's funny that a producer might reject a track because it was missing.

Not so much reject a track, just that it tips off that it's not a real B, which many folks are touchy about 😄

[davinwv]

5 hours ago, Steve Nathan said:

Not so much reject a track, just that it tips off that it's not a real B, which many folks are touchy about 😄

Haha! Ducain asked me to play all the keys on their album last year. They are the only band I have tracked for that insisted on their record being a VI-free zone, so their producer came down to my house, and we tracked my real B3/147 and Wurly 200a. There is one track that needed piano, so I did use the Ravenscroft on that one.

It was a super fun and refreshing day of tracking, and I think the record turned out great!

 

[davinwv]

8 hours ago, Steve Nathan said:

I can fool some producers if I have to, but a lot of them can tell, so I keep the Leslie miked 😄   I do a lot of organ ODs for a producer who plays organ himself.  The big give-away with B3-X to me is that absence of wind noise on the Leslie mikes.  I've been asking them to consider it for an update since before it was initially released (that and mike modeling).  Maybe if more of us asked??? I'll bet they'll listen to Jim before they pay any attention to me! 😁

IK Multimedia has been updating lots of products lately. Hopefully, B3-X 2.0 (complete with wind noise) is just around the corner.

 

I also hope they make it a bit more efficient on PC. My new machine can run it with zero problems, but it would be great to get those resources back for other things.

[AnotherScott]

Waterfall is on sale for $49 for the month of December (as is their MiniMoog).

 

I have to spend some more time with it. In my limited eval so far, I liked the simulation of the noises as you changed rotary speed, seemed the most authentic I've heard. But the percussion sounded off (maybe using it with OD, I don't remember). "Out of the box" I preferred VB3 II (2023 edition) whose demo I DL'd at the same time.