cg1155 Posted January 11, 2002 Share Posted January 11, 2002 I'm wondering what people think of this keyboard amp/leslie sim. Is the 3D mode any good? Do you really need stereo monitoring playing live or would the mono KBR-M be as good? Is there some other piece of gear that does this better? ANy and all opinions welcome. -Casey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyoctave Posted January 11, 2002 Share Posted January 11, 2002 I have owned a KBR-3D for the past 3 years. My experience with motion sound started with a phone call to the company about the pro-3t. I was talking with the national sales manager(Camron Wagan)and to make a long story short, ended up getting a pre-production unit(sn# 0100) to evaluate and send feedback on before they were released for production. In my talks with Camron, I found that this was a company that not only produced high quality systems but was serious about the needs of musicians. The first thing I did was take it to a local church where my old B3/147 was sitting. The B3 also had a 1/4" output, so I could hook both units up at the same time. Boy, was I blown away!! The motion sound sounded so much like the 147 that only a trained ear(meaning previous leslie owners) would be able to tell any difference when hearing it. So as a leslie, with a tube pre-amp, being less than 1/2 the size and 1/3 the weight,it's great! As a keyboard amp(the KBR is two systems in one) it has great points and a few not so great. First, the flexability of the unit is second to none. Having internal mics on the top rotating horn along with low impd. outputs makes it a great monitor that easily hooks into a PA system. If you need mechanical leslie along with keyboard amplification, then there is none to compare it to. The stereo is subjective. I feel keyboards sound better on stage in stereo but with the speakers apart. The KBR has 120 degree front cabinet to enhance this but won't give you the seperation that two seperate speakers can(this becomes moot if your PA is mono and is the main sound source for the crowd). The 3-D mode does add a sense of more seperation but it also alters the frequency response of the system(keyboard input only). When I first hooked up my keyboards, I was very impressed with the sound quality of the keyboard system(I was using two peavey KB-60's) The KBR has 10" speakers with co-ax mounted compression drivers. I finally heard what my keyboards really sound like, that is until I started using an expensive set of headphones. I now find that there is a bump in the 300-400 hz range that colors the keyboard sound somewhat. I now use a equalizer between my keyboards(not organ,that still sounds great)and adjust it with a spectrum analyzer and by ear. This has made an improvement in what I here(They my sound fine to you). As for stereo vs. mono monitoring, I feel that having stereo can enhance the playing experence, making one perform better. An example would be that some rhodes patches need stereo(like the stereo sweeping sounds or phaser ones). On a fimal note,I have never had any problems with the unit. Hope this helps in your evaluation of the KBR. Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK-1 + Ventilator, Korg Triton. 2 JBL Eon 510's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cg1155 Posted January 12, 2002 Author Share Posted January 12, 2002 Yeah, on stage I usually monitor in mono since we run in mono but, man, it would be nice to monitor in stereo. The only problem for me here is that what sounds good in stereo usually sounds worse in the mono PA, and vice versa. -Casey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.