Jdub2k1 Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 Has anyone had a chance to play this virtual organ? I came across this searching on the internet and found a review. The guy reviewing it said that it easily beats out the Native Instruments B4. I find that hard to believe, but has anyone had a chance to use this in realtime? The website offers about 30 mp3s as well as a downloadable demo, which I will be downloading as soon as I finish this topic post. Check it out here: http://www.ultimatesoundbank.com/usb/exec/charlie?action=ad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Fortner Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Charlie is an entirely different philosophy than B4. It's sample-based, has no realtime drawbar control, and Leslie slow-fast is accomplished with a crossfade. Their idea is that you're better off with large, thorough multisamples of the real thing through a Leslie than you are with a modelng approach. I see it as the non-organists' organ plug-in,,, you can get those sounds, more authentically than from any other sample library or ROM-based workstation, without having to wrap your head around how a B3 really works. No question that it sounds great... lotsa grease, grime, and personality, but if you want to tweak sounds a lot, you'll be disappointed. I reviewed Charlie in the Nov. 2004 issue, where we did our last big roundup of Hammond emulations...."Clonewheel Heaven" Stephen Fortner Principal, Fortner Media Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Irok Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Sounds like a software version of the E-Mu B3. (Which I have and like very much, I might add!) Check out my band's site at: The Key Components! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mte Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 as mentioned, great pure sound but from a player's point of view - it doesn't even have an expression pedal control, only volume - something very different.... if they add this and maybe some better leslie slow/fast switch emulation, i think i'll get it but until that i'm sticking with b4... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanker. Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Charlie is cool, very good for what it is, but nothing on the soft market touches EVB3. A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bg Posted October 5, 2005 Share Posted October 5, 2005 Not trying to be contrary, but B4's swell pedal is also only a volume control. It doesn't mimic the B3's variable capacitor expression pedal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdub2k1 Posted October 7, 2005 Author Share Posted October 7, 2005 I downloaded the demo and was quite disappointed. Although the demo offered a fairly convincing sound, I was somewhat lost as an organist. I am not very heavy into analog synthesizers (I will go as far as to say that I hate them, mainly because I never learned how to use one) and this is what I was staring at. Stephen hit the nail on the head as far as the description goes. I couldn't find a real time leslie control, which I feel is essential for any organ simulation's success, and there are no drawbar controls to really tweak the sounds as needed. All that was available was a bunch of knobs that severely distorted the sound when modified...Maybe someone may find this useful... As for me, I will stick with the B4 for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b3kys Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 There's a organ synth available at www.soundfonts.it for free that i would get before i got charlie. NI B4 is one of the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burningbusch Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 NI just announced B4 II. Could be the second coming. Busch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanker. Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 Yeah, I'll definitely be interested to see how B4 II stacks up against EVB3. B4 has been showing it's age for a while, IMO, while EVB3 has continued to improve and mature. A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mte Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 bg: I'm not a hammond player so I don't know the exact nuances of swell pedals and I can't comment on how realistic it is, but I can definitely hear that b4 swell is not only volume (however if you just plug the expression pedal into the controller without assigning proper control it will control volume, not swell), I can definitely hear big difference in sound at lower levels of swell.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bg Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 Hi mte. Well, I don't know the exact nuances either, and sorry if I came off sounding like an authority. Actually, I was looking forward to testing this and hoping I'd learn something new about B4. I just tried comparing B4 Swell pedal (CC11) with the B4 Volume knob (CC7). The difference I hear is that the Swell pedal won't let the sound go down to zero, but Volume knob will. As far as tone, I can't hear a difference between the two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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