Viscount Soul - simply amazing

[WWW]

Just got a Viscount Soul 261.  It is just beautiful.  Through my Leslie 145, virtually indistinguishable from my 1957 C3.  
Any other Viscount players out there?

[MathOfInsects]

Congrats! I think there is already thread for this, but while you're top-of-forum, I'll ask: how do you like the internal sim?

[Dockeys]

I think the Soul demos sound great and I like that they keep updating it. Happy Legend live owner here. Love the Soul too but the price hike is pretty severe compared to the Live. Enjoy the new board though. 
 

 

[b3plyr]

Another Legend Soul user here. Congrats WWW! I am using the sim and am quite happy with it.

[John Tweed]

Congratulations! My order for a Soul 261 is in. This will replace my Live. I’ve been very happy with the Live, although there were a couple of things that let it down.

 

Prior to the Live I had a Mojo, the first dual manual model with the lightly sprung keyboard. For me the Live sounded so much better than the Mojo that I was prepared to sacrifice the nice keyboard. I recently bought a Yammy CK61 and the keyboard on that feels better than the Live, even thought the CK has a pseudo, very light hammer action (I’m not around either board at the moment, otherwise I’d try and come up with a better comparison).

 

Secondly I never really bonded with the blonde colour. Weird as I have had blonde guitars and guitar amps in the past (and still have) which I liked the look of. This is trivial, I know, but I have a Leslie 251 and the colours don’t match.

 

If there was a reliable way to modify the Live keyboard then I would most likely do that, but it’s not something I’d want to be fiddling with - could spend money and then still not be happy with the result.

 

All the other enhancements on the Soul will be a bonus. I continue to be impressed by how Viscount provides so much connectivity and other features in their offerings, whereas many manufacturers only provide what the ‘average’ player wants and leaves out features that would be really useful to the more ambitious.

[Adan]

I wrote a lot about the Soul in the first thread devoted to that topic. It would be better to have one Soul thread instead of two, so people wanting to learn about it can find that info in one place. 
 

 

[John Tweed]

6 hours ago, Adan said:

I wrote a lot about the Soul in the first thread devoted to that topic. It would be better to have one Soul thread instead of two, so people wanting to learn about it can find that info in one place. 
 

 

I generally agree, but multiple parallel threads are not uncommon here (eg M-Solo). Some threads wander too far off topic - for example the recent Yamaha CK thread turned into pages and pages of comparison between it and the Vox Continental. That should have been a separate thread entirely and labelled as such. On the other hand I’ve seen posters dinged for reviving a “zombie” thread when they “should” have started a new one. Then there’s the parody (on parody) threads which just pollute the namespace and the ones that go on forever.
 

It was my intention to post in the main Soul thread, then this one popped up. The original thread is nearly two years old, started when the Soul was first announced. It contains a lot of speculation early on, morphing into actual info and then (mostly) positive opinions. The op in this thread started it from a position of enthusiasm for the product, which is where I am at now while I wait for mine to arrive.

 

 

 

[bachsteady]

Any video with the new set up?

[marino]

We have a Legend Live at school, and that's quite impressive already; the Soul seems a further, definite improvement. The price, though, is a bit scary...

Btw my first electronic keyboard was a Galanti organ. So it's nice to see those last heirs of the historical Italian MI industry still designing innovative instruments.

[Floyd Tatum]

On my budget, I'm going to have to wait for the Berringer Soul  🙂

 

[stoken6]

3 hours ago, Floyd Tatum said:

On my budget, I'm going to have to wait for the Berringer Soul  🙂

 

Boul?

 

Cheers, Mike.

[WWW]

The Soul action is very light and quick.  They might have even overcompensated for the stiffness of the Legend…

The Leslie sim is very good, more subtle than the Vent.  But I use it with my old Leslie 145.
 

Some truly excellent features are: 1. Variable loudness of the percussion ( beyond Normal and Soft), and 2. Computer app can precisely adjust the C/V parameters. (And also, the Leslie sim parameters).   
 

BTW, the soft gig case isn’t great. I’m having Studio Slips make me an excellent padded soft gig bag for only a little more money. 

[Nowarezman]

Are you tempted to leave the 145 at home and use the sim, playing out?

 

nat

 

[b3plyr]

I can't speak for WWW but I definitely would leave the Leslie at home and use the sim.

 

[John Tweed]

1 hour ago, WWW said:

The Soul action is very light and quick. 
 

BTW, the soft gig case isn’t great. I’m having Studio Slips make me an excellent padded soft gig bag for only a little more money. 

I’m glad to hear the action is light.

 

If it fits I’m planning to keep my Live bag which I got 4 years ago. The dimensions are almost identical, only the height is one centimetre (4/10 of an inch) bigger. I figure there is a good chance the old bag will contain it. Has anyone had a chance to try it out?

[WWW]

As for the Leslie simulation, I have played Nord organs on my various Nord Stages and Electros over many years using Vent.  At home in my studio, I play a 1957 C3 through a Leslie 122. For smaller appropriate gigs. I just bring the Nord stage 3 or Electro 5 and play it through a Vent. But I am in a band, which is heavily B3 centric, playing original music, as well as music of Medeski, Martin and Wood, and the Meters etc.  Playing through an actual Leslie, on stage is a dramatically different experience than Leslie’s simulation, no matter how good the stimulation is. And I am certainly a fan of the ventilator. The stimulation on the Soul is very good, and, to some peoples’ ears, as good as a ventilator. I just prefer the ventilator when I’m not using a Leslie.

[John Tweed]

I play my Live thru a Leslie 251/147 at home, and use the sim in mono on gigs.
 

I’ve got an original vent which I used with my Hammond SK1, mainly because the slowest fast speed on the SK1 was too fast. Nowadays on gigs I am using a Yamaha CK61. I use its internal organ and sim at rehearsals, VB3M on my phone at live gigs, and IK B3x on the iPad for recording, where it has the edge in tweakability.

 

Last year a friend came over to check out the Vent and compare it with the Lester to see if the Vent or Lester was worth buying to use with his Kronos. We tried everything out: Leslie 251, Legend sim, Lester and Vent. 
 

My opinion: no surprises, you can’t beat the real thing. After that the Vent by a nose over the sim, then the Lester. The Vent and Lester both sounded good, but different, so I think he went ahead with the Lester as any improvement going to the Vent was not worth the higher cost. For me the Vent integrates better with the SK1 as it can be controlled via midi, and I had the appropriate cable wired up to achieve this. I hate stomp box switches - I often play at home in bare feet and I find it distracting. Instead I use a normal Yamaha momentary switch to flip speeds.

[AnotherScott]

One thing about comparing any sim to the real thing is that you also have the variable of the playback system for the sim. That is, what are you listening to the sim through?

 

A pair of speakers? Which ones? How are they placed?

 

Or maybe one of the Spacestations? (Or a Motion Sound amp with its "3D Expander" function?)

 

In this case, your reference Leslie was a 251, which has a 15" woofer. Comparing it to a playback system with smaller woofer could be another variable.

 

Finally, at the gig, is it the kind of venue where people will be getting much of the sound from the stage gear? Because if you're miking up the Leslie into the mains to get it to cover the room, well, comparing the sim to that sound is again going to be different from comparing the sim to a Leslie in the room.

[MathOfInsects]

I'm purely interested in hearing/knowing how the internal sim compares to other internal or outboard sims.

[John Tweed]

Certainly being in a room next to the Leslie is a totally different experience to listening to it thru any kind of sound reinforcement system. I recall seeing Rocky Petersen with David Sanborn about 25 years ago at a venue in Laguna Beach - kind of an outdoor ampitheatre. The Leslie was set up in the field adjacent to the stage, about 50 yards away, stacked on boxes and festooned with microphones. The only thing Ricky would have heard is what was coming thru the pa. Similarly there are setups where the Leslie is in a box somewhere, or off stage. I believe it has been reported that Chuck Leavell uses a Vent with the Rolling Stones.

 

In our little test we weren’t comparing the Leslie with the sims, rather it was just to remind ourselves what we were trying to achieve. As I recall the difference in the Vent and the Lester was one of them had more “air” around it. Perhaps it is possible to tweak one of them to get closer to the other, but as I remarked before, they both sounded good in their own way.

[dazzjazz]

I get to play on a 1959 C3 each week. Its action is way heavier than any clone I’ve ever owned. 

[AnotherScott]

13 hours ago, John Tweed said:

In our little test we weren’t comparing the Leslie with the sims, rather it was just to remind ourselves what we were trying to achieve. As I recall the difference in the Vent and the Lester was one of them had more “air” around it. Perhaps it is possible to tweak one of them to get closer to the other, but as I remarked before, they both sounded good in their own way.

 

Assuming you're doing this test indoors, a lot of the "depth" of a Leslie is presumably coming from the room reflections (which is a factor in the success of the spacestation as a playback device as well). If I wanted to see how close, say, a Vent simulation through a stereo pair of speakers came to the real thing, I'd try placing both of those speakers directly on top of the Leslie, aimed maybe 60 degrees apart from each other. I think that would let you compare how a Leslie and Vent could compare when played back in something that is as close as possible to the same acoustic space.

[Niall01]

The Legend Soul looks amazing. Can anyone tell me please ,as I have a Hammond XK3c & Crumar Mojo with only 1 set of drawbars for upper & lower manual, do you need 2 sets of drawbars to be able to split  each manual ? 

 

As per this Frank Montis video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nGSzRl1t-o 

He is able to comp chords on the lower manual while also having a setting for Left Hand bassline. Does that mean He has 2 different settings set on the lower manual ? 

If that is the case the CRUMAR MOJO poses same issue cause it has only the one set of drawbars for each manual (?)

 

(just incase video links are not allowed) It's Frank Montis youtube channel &  'Play Like a Pro with this Carefree Hammond Organ Blues Exercise'

 

thanks so for any advice,

 

Niall.

[Delaware Dave]

The one set of drawbars can control the upper manual, lower manual, and pedals. There is a switch that you depress that tells the mojo which manual you want the drawbars to control. Easy peasy .....

[JoJoB3]

2 hours ago, Niall01 said:

The Legend Soul looks amazing. Can anyone tell me please ,as I have a Hammond XK3c & Crumar Mojo with only 1 set of drawbars for upper & lower manual, do you need 2 sets of drawbars to be able to split  each manual ? 

 

btw, with the XK you can set both DB sets for upper manual or set each DB set for each manual. See page 62 in user manual.
I like 4 DB sets as per the vintage but 2 is doable too.

Also, those using a controller with 9 sliders  as a lower manual are afforded a 3rd DB set (DB set to control the lower manual for example).

[mate stubb]

4 hours ago, Niall01 said:

 

As per this Frank Montis video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nGSzRl1t-o 

He is able to comp chords on the lower manual while also having a setting for Left Hand bassline. Does that mean He has 2 different settings set on the lower manual ? 

If that is the case the CRUMAR MOJO poses same issue cause it has only the one set of drawbars for each manual (?)

 

 

No, you cannot split an organ manual. The standard registration for lower manual jazz is 838000000, which allows playing bass lines in the bottom octave and comping with a mellow tone with your right hand. Then you use the upper manual for your lead and shout stuff.