New virtual B3 in M-Audio Key-rig

[fisheye]

M-Audio is now shipping Key-rig, which includes a new virtual b3 simulation. As usual, only a couple of demos: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/KeyRig-main.html .

 

What do you think?

 

The key-click in this demo is exaggerated. In my experience, the key-click of a real hammond is barely audible and it should be, since it is conflicting with the soft sound (when percussion-less). But, at least it seems to have a soft sound, which is great for accompanying.

 

The leslie makes too much amplitude differences.

 

Plenty of bass.

 

Can't say much more on these two demo's.

[coyote]

I had a CV whose keyclick was quite noticeable. So I guess it depends on how many Hammonds you've experienced.

Originally posted by fisheye:

The key-click in this demo is exaggerated. In my experience, the key-click of a real hammond is barely audible and it should be, since it is conflicting with the soft sound (when percussion-less).

[JeffLearman]

Real Hammonds vary quite a bit on key click. On some it's barely noticeable, on others it really sticks out. On those where it's very loud, it sounds great when really pushing the Leslie, for rock and heavier blues. But it's probably adjustable anyway.

 

I like the Leslie sound there, and again, I bet it's adjustable. I particularly like the overdrive distortion -- seems a lot better than I get with NIB4.

 

Overall, doesn't sound bad at all. But you can't tell a Hammond clone by listening to a demo, you have to play it. There are just too many variables.

 

For a freebie, be sure to check out "Organized Trio" at http://soundfonts.it . Might not please the Hammond fanatic, but it's quilte playable.

 

I don't care for the Natural Grand, much too bright on the pp notes. Too much reliance on volume attenuation and not enough use of envelope, or not enough velocity layers.

 

The rhodes sound is nice, but I'd rather hear it without FX. FX are like makeup and can hide any number of flaws.

[burningbusch]

This plugin was made by Wizoo fro M-Audio. I was expecting it to be a repackaging of a lot of what's in Hypersonic + the expansion packs. The B3 emulation sounds better than Hypersonic. The ac. piano sounds the same. The synth sounds should be pretty good overall--they are modeled not sampled.

 

They need to post a demo (not just audio demos).

 

My 1957 C3 has a lot of key click which I love. But for whatever reason, the key click on many emulations bugs me after a while if it's too loud.

 

Busch.

[JeffLearman]

Right, Busch. I keep the keyclick on sims to half at most, and only crank it for a heavy overdrive tune.

 

One of the differences between real keyclick and many (all?) sims is that for the sims, it's the exact same sound each time. For a real organ, it's a (possibly tarnished) contact closing with a variable voltage drop, which is a little different each time. I think that just might matter. (Maybe I should mention this to Guido, who programmed Organized Trio -- he loves to program new little bits like this.)

[fisheye]

Well, the limited number of real Hammonds I've played didn't have much keyclick, but I happily believe some have it much stronger. Still, I don't like it on b4, so I put it off; it shouldn't come out the speakers anyway; it should come out of the keys.

 

The release-click in B4 can't be adjusted though and the drawbar-leakage can't too (though the brightness knob helps). But that's just me, liking a pure (but warm) sound.

 

Learjeff, I asbolutely agree with you that you need to feel the sounds under your fingers, before judging it. But I guess we have to judge it on a couple of demos for the time being.