Hammond B-3X for IPad

[Kawai James]

Thanks for the heads up on the price reduction!

 

My 1st gen iPad Air will probably struggle to run this, but I'll give it a try regardless...and it's a good excuse to pick-up a newer iPad if it doesn't.

 

Cheers,

James

x

[Kawai James]

I gave the app a quick try yesterday, just "playing" the onscreen keyboard with my fingers. As others have said, the sound is really great "out of the box". The Leslie sim is decent, as is the character of the gain control - I look forward to playing this from a real keyboard at the weekend.

 

In terms of performance, it's difficult to judge from playing the onscreen keyboard, however switching between screens was a little laggy, presumably as the graphics loaded in. I noticed that the Leslie animation didn't play either, presumably to save CPU cycles on my slow iPad.

 

All in all, this looks like a killer app, and is a no-brainer at the reduced price.

 

Cheers,

James

x

[Coker]

I apologize if this has been asked already, but...

I bought the app my iPad and am trying to save MIDI settings I must change to recognized my expression pedal and foot switch for expression and Leslie speed change. The changes I"ve made in B3X don"t seem to be saved from day to day. Does anyone know how to save these settings?

[drawback]

I apologize if this has been asked already, but...

I bought the app my iPad and am trying to save MIDI settings I must change to recognized my expression pedal and foot switch for expression and Leslie speed change. The changes I"ve made in B3X don"t seem to be saved from day to day. Does anyone know how to save these settings?

 

The MIDI settings are saved once you've made up a sound you like, and save it as the default. Then every time you open B-3X your default sound and settings are there.

[Coker]

Great! Thanks much,

[Stokely]

Good to know.

 

I finally got around to working with Zones on my MOdx, with B-3X the primary reason (it sounds so much better than the organs on the Modx.) I too noticed that midi settings were not saved.

 

I really am impressed at how well the whole thing works. My test Modx program had four splits: an internal sound, a B-3x range of a couple octaves, and one range each for Zeeon and Model D (two ios synths). I set each Zone to transmit on a different midi channel and simply left all those apps running and set each to their own matching midi receive channel. Worked like a champ, there's no difference in feel between the internal split and any of the ipad ones.

 

In reality most of the time I'll probably leave the modx as either piano (internal sounds) or as an organ (b-3x) with no splits, but it's good to know I can get more complex if need be.

 

re: B-3X in particular, I'm finding the overdrive (gain) a bit "more" than I'm used to from other keyboards and software It really ramps up volume for one thing, whereas in most of my others it just adds grit. There's also a lot more emphasis on the whub whub of the drum when the gain goes up and that is different too. I expect that B-3x is simply more authentic than I'm used to!

[ChazKeys]

 

re: B-3X in particular, I'm finding the overdrive (gain) a bit "more" than I'm used to from other keyboards and software It really ramps up volume for one thing, whereas in most of my others it just adds grit. There's also a lot more emphasis on the whub whub of the drum when the gain goes up and that is different too. I expect that B-3x is simply more authentic than I'm used to!

 

Have you explored the Mixer settings in the Cabs tab? I found that turning down the Guitar amp and the DI and just having the Leslie in the mix produced a nicer overdrive. And I don't run the Leslie Gain or Leslie Volume much above halfway. There is a lot of gain in this little app!

[Stokely]

No, haven't really looked at that yet. As I say, I think my reaction to the Leslie gain is simply because it's different from what I'm used to I haven't used the guitar amp all that much yet; I did find it a bit odd that you still get a fast leslie effect when you have the guitar amp selected--I'm wondering if I was doing something odd there, like adjusting the lower manual and hearing the upper or something....

 

I did also find that I preferred the gain not much above half. Above that point it gets a bit grungy and not in the way that is pleasing.... If I need more crunch (and not volume) that tubescreamer can make some insane sounds combined with the leslie gain!

Bottom line I know from Jim's demo that it can do the rock organ sound I want, period. I just need to tweak.

 

It sounds really nice and I'm just so pleasantly surprised that I got it (and two other IOS synths) all working on splits so easily. The Modx may become a really expensive controller albeit with some nice backup sounds ...

[ChazKeys]

Hello,

 

I recently purchased the Hammond B-3X organ app for iPad (V1.2) and am having difficulty getting it to integrate with iMidiPatchBay. iMidiPatchBay does not seem to recognize the Hammond B-3X app when it is launched and running on the same iPad as iMidiPatchBay. The Hammond B-3X is not listed as an available device in the iMidiPatchBay Extern Output Device list. Also, the Hammond B-3X app does not list iMidiPatchBay as an available MIDI input device in its MIDI Input Device list. What do I need to do to get these two apps to recognize each other? Does iMidiPatchBay provide a virtual MIDI port that can be recognized by the Hammond B-3X? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Paul

I was just scrolling through this thread and spotted your question. If you are still interested StreamByter which is free provides a 'midi bridge' between iMidiPatchbay and B3-X. One simple line of code in StreamByter to filter just channels 1/2/3 and you are good to go.

[benj2017]

Few quick questions for the B-3X crowd out there:

 

1. Is there anyway to get around the authentic drawbar robbing on the upper manual when using percussion? It's cool that the app does this, but I do like using all the drawbars and percussion at the same time and I am only using one keyboard to control the B3-X.

 

2. Anybody else get a noticeable hum when changing buffer sizes? Nothing when I am at 256, but 128 and 64 both cause a high pitched hum .

 

3. Any thoughts on what the best sample rate for IOS is? The options are 48K and 44.1K. Seems like it should be 44.1, but the default is 48.

[ChazKeys]

Few quick questions for the B-3X crowd out there:

 

1. Is there anyway to get around the authentic drawbar robbing on the upper manual when using percussion? It's cool that the app does this, but I do like using all the drawbars and percussion at the same time and I am only using one keyboard to control the B3-X.

In the Advanced section under Percussion there is a tab for Volume Compensation. Does that not bring the drawbar level back up? Or are talking about losing the 9th drawbar?

3. Any thoughts on what the best sample rate for IOS is? The options are 48K and 44.1K. Seems like it should be 44.1, but the default is 48.

If there's a choice I always go for 48K - in theory it's better audio quality. On slow machines I always thought the calculations were easier to compute at 48000 rather than 44100 - but that's probably not applicable to todays processors.

[AnotherScott]

If there's a choice I always go for 48K - in theory it's better audio quality. On slow machines I always thought the calculations were easier to compute at 48000 rather than 44100 - but that's probably not applicable to todays processors.

On slow machines (or any machines), less processing power is required for 44100 than 48000. So if you're having any performance issues (i.e. latency), choose the lower rate. Essentially, it's the difference between asking it to do 44100 calculations per second vs. 48000 calculations per second (times the bit rate).

[benj2017]

Few quick questions for the B-3X crowd out there:

 

1. Is there anyway to get around the authentic drawbar robbing on the upper manual when using percussion? It's cool that the app does this, but I do like using all the drawbars and percussion at the same time and I am only using one keyboard to control the B3-X.

In the Advanced section under Percussion there is a tab for Volume Compensation. Does that not bring the drawbar level back up? Or are talking about losing the 9th drawbar?

 

Yeah, I was talking about the 9th drawbar, I did engage the volume compensation already.

 

3. Any thoughts on what the best sample rate for IOS is? The options are 48K and 44.1K. Seems like it should be 44.1, but the default is 48.

If there's a choice I always go for 48K - in theory it's better audio quality. On slow machines I always thought the calculations were easier to compute at 48000 rather than 44100 - but that's probably not applicable to todays processors.

 

Cool, Google says IOS audio typically runs at 44.1K, but 48K seems to be working fine so I am going to leave it.

 

If there's a choice I always go for 48K - in theory it's better audio quality. On slow machines I always thought the calculations were easier to compute at 48000 rather than 44100 - but that's probably not applicable to todays processors.

On slow machines (or any machines), less processing power is required for 44100 than 48000. So if you're having any performance issues (i.e. latency), choose the lower rate. Essentially, it's the difference between asking it to do 44100 calculations per second vs. 48000 calculations per second (times the bit rate).

 

Yeah, doesn't seem to be issue at 48K. The only weird thing I am getting is a pronounced hum when I change buffer rates (F5 at 128 and F#6 at 64) so I am leaving it at 256 for now.

[Fliplip]

Good to know.

 

re: B-3X in particular, I'm finding the overdrive (gain) a bit "more" than I'm used to from other keyboards and software It really ramps up volume for one thing, whereas in most of my others it just adds grit. There's also a lot more emphasis on the whub whub of the drum when the gain goes up and that is different too. I expect that B-3x is simply more authentic than I'm used to!

 

This is quite an interesting post, as ive found the overdrive thing as well, and not keen on it. Ive been using VB3m and have the Superknob assigned to the Drive knob in VB3m. As you say, B-3X seems to increase the volume when increasing the drive, but VB3m just makes its dirtier without a volume increase. I though maybe i could control the drive on the pedal over midi, but thats not an option. In itself thats not a big deal, but it does mean I"m more likely to stick with VB3m, especially as that runs fine on my iPad Air 1, unlike B-3X which will need me to use my iPad Pro.

[Stokely]

Ironically, I've kind of warmed up to it--using it as more of a volume control than anything. Have a solo, I turn up the superknob (I also have it mapped to leslie gain). End of a song that fades out, turn down the knob.

 

Thinking of my VR-700, that had several overdrive types--one was similar to b-3x, it turned up both crunch and volume; there was another one (that I used) that kept volume pretty much the same.

 

You might be able to set up the same controller to be both leslie gain (up) and leslie volume down (inversion) Turn up the gain, turn down the volume (I'm not really serious with this suggestion, I suspect you'd need some kind of scaling to make it work at all).

 

I've had 8 or so gigs with it, very solid except for one mishap--my camera connection kit doesn't have a power connection (the one that did started failing) so between sets I was unplugging the ipad from the MODX and into a power charger. Set 3, it refused to see the MODX (either midi or audio). This went on for a couple tunes--not organ heavy thankfully--and I tried connecting and reconnecting, closing the app and re-opening a few times. Finally it just worked again and I'm not sure what did it. That's the kind of thing I feared from the start with ipads. However--I found that when I put my ipad (a 5th gen) into airplane mode, B-3x doesn't drain more than 30% or so of power for a whole gig. That's not bad at all. Last gig I just left it connected the whole time. I also ran the Behringer x-air app to control my mix. I turned down the brightness quite a bit too to try to save even more power.

 

I need to work out how to get the sliders on the modx to control individual drawbars. The Midiflow app should come in handy as it can monitor midi coming to the ipad so there won't be any question of controller numbers.

 

Another thing I need to look into is whether and how you can change the drawbar presets. Most of them aren't really useful to me. I have the B key on a typical 88800002 or so...and a lower key has a nice flutey tone...I'd like to get a balls out one for solos and maybe a few other variations other than the ones that come up. (Or do those auto-save if you change drawbars with one active? That seemed to happen to my default one, I'll try it out.)

[drawback]

Bump to say I"ve just noticed a price drop for iOS to $79.99,

[Fliplip]

Ironically, I've kind of warmed up to it--using it as more of a volume control than anything. Have a solo, I turn up the superknob (I also have it mapped to leslie gain). End of a song that fades out, turn down the knob.

 

Thinking of my VR-700, that had several overdrive types--one was similar to b-3x, it turned up both crunch and volume; there was another one (that I used) that kept volume pretty much the same.

 

You might be able to set up the same controller to be both leslie gain (up) and leslie volume down (inversion) Turn up the gain, turn down the volume (I'm not really serious with this suggestion, I suspect you'd need some kind of scaling to make it work at all).

 

I've had 8 or so gigs with it, very solid except for one mishap--my camera connection kit doesn't have a power connection (the one that did started failing) so between sets I was unplugging the ipad from the MODX and into a power charger. Set 3, it refused to see the MODX (either midi or audio). This went on for a couple tunes--not organ heavy thankfully--and I tried connecting and reconnecting, closing the app and re-opening a few times. Finally it just worked again and I'm not sure what did it. That's the kind of thing I feared from the start with ipads. However--I found that when I put my ipad (a 5th gen) into airplane mode, B-3x doesn't drain more than 30% or so of power for a whole gig. That's not bad at all. Last gig I just left it connected the whole time. I also ran the Behringer x-air app to control my mix. I turned down the brightness quite a bit too to try to save even more power.

 

I need to work out how to get the sliders on the modx to control individual drawbars. The Midiflow app should come in handy as it can monitor midi coming to the ipad so there won't be any question of controller numbers.

 

Another thing I need to look into is whether and how you can change the drawbar presets. Most of them aren't really useful to me. I have the B key on a typical 88800002 or so...and a lower key has a nice flutey tone...I'd like to get a balls out one for solos and maybe a few other variations other than the ones that come up. (Or do those auto-save if you change drawbars with one active? That seemed to happen to my default one, I'll try it out.)

 

Actually so have i. Ive been going back and forth between this and VB3, but VB3 just doesn"t scream like B-3X does. Got a rehearsal on Sat and I"m going to give it a go. Ill take my Ipd pro. If it fits in a with the rig ill keep usin git until i see if the new iPad mini is released, if not i might just get the current gen ipad.

Ive got the Superknob mapped to the Leslie gain as well. There doesn"t seem to be a huge change in volume so that will work ok.

Ive found that although you can map the drawbars to the MODX, you have to actually have the part selected for them to work. You cant just have a performance and they will work without any intervention.

[Stokely]

Hmm, while I've gotten used to it, I certainly do notice a really big difference in volume when using the Leslie gain. It's not uniform though so...I can go from 0 (won't hear anything) up to about the mid point on the superknob, which is my default...then going from there all the way up isn't nearly as drastic but it most certainly is louder, and definitely more distorted!

 

I'm finding the drawbar presets are fine for me, not being a real organ player, but as I mentioned I'd like to maybe replace some of them with more useful drawbar values if that's possible. It's both handy and annoying to have them on the lowest octave--I find if I get a little excited and start swiping too much I hit one of them and change the tone accidentally.

 

I might not have picked this up if VB3 was at least "fine" and available when I had some itunes cards burning a hole in my wallet! But I'm glad I have it. It really does sound stellar.

 

I can easily see an ipad-only rig in my future, maybe two of them for safety, and two controllers.

[miden]

Bump to say I"ve just noticed a price drop for iOS to $79.99,

 

Considering the alternatives, still WAY over-priced imo.

[Fliplip]

Hmm, while I've gotten used to it, I certainly do notice a really big difference in volume when using the Leslie gain. It's not uniform though so...I can go from 0 (won't hear anything) up to about the mid point on the superknob, which is my default...then going from there all the way up isn't nearly as drastic but it most certainly is louder, and definitely more distorted!

 

I'm finding the drawbar presets are fine for me, not being a real organ player, but as I mentioned I'd like to maybe replace some of them with more useful drawbar values if that's possible. It's both handy and annoying to have them on the lowest octave--I find if I get a little excited and start swiping too much I hit one of them and change the tone accidentally.

 

I might not have picked this up if VB3 was at least "fine" and available when I had some itunes cards burning a hole in my wallet! But I'm glad I have it. It really does sound stellar.

 

I can easily see an ipad-only rig in my future, maybe two of them for safety, and two controllers.

Ive gone totally back to VB3m lol.

I got a refund from Apple, but can still use it on my ipad pro. I had a rehearsal at the weekend and i found it a bit over powering. Now i know its me and not the app, but it seemed to have a lot of life to it. Compared to VB3m it was jumping out of the mix. The VB3m seems to fit better with the band, as im not doing any solos etc. Im not an organ player but it just seemed a bit over kill and with too many controls for my liking. I alos like that i can bring the distortion in with worrying about levels.

This does fix the issue of me not wanting to use my ipad pro so its all worked out well.

 

As for the Drawbar settings. You just hold on the one you want to over write and chose copy drawbar settings. That updates the slot. I do like that feature and wish VB3m had it.

[ImproKeys]

Bump to say I"ve just noticed a price drop for iOS to $79.99,

 

Thanks! So I gave it a try.

It"s really nice to control it with my Mojo Classic Dual Manual.

And it sounds great.

Not really better than the Mojo, but great. (obviously a matter of personal taste)

So I can carry B-3X as a backup to gigs.

[Stokely]

Bump to say I"ve just noticed a price drop for iOS to $79.99,

 

Considering the alternatives, still WAY over-priced imo.

 

 

It's definitely steep when you are used to 10 bucks for apps!

 

If VB3 had been out when I got this I might have just gone with that. The fact that I had four itunes gift cards and nothing much I wanted to spend it on was a big factor too! (just give me cash if you want to give me "stuff"!)

 

It's out of it's probation period with about 10 gigs now using it. I'm about to ramp up the complexity in a big way using Midiflow, which (should) let me have either keyboard play B-3X and/or each other, while also sending the right patch changes per song. So far it is proving more difficult that I'd like and I'll also have an extra usb hub "octopus" hanging around that I don't like

 

My logistical plan now that I have the Behringer p16m monitor mixer is to set that, my Key Largo mixer and the ipad on a big sturdy music stand set almost horizontal. I've gaffer taped some foam bumpers to the lip and am going to have velcro for each of the three items for extra holding power in case it gets bumped. If this fits well under my bottom keyboard then I won't have so many cables hanging around right behind the keyboard.

[miden]

Oh, I don't mind up to about $40 for apps tbh...VB3m at $20 (aud) is fine and imo, it sounds just as good...ditto the PC version, of which B-3X is near $500 AUD (299 Euros)

[bill bosco]

will it still be running 60 years from now ? just kidding

[Baldwin Funster]

For some organ gigs I run into my fender deluxe for that old gritty sound. Vb3m is far superior to b3x in the circumstance. It just fits. B3x into a guitar amp has some notes and some overtones that jump out very loud. But going direct to the PA b3x is better. But vb3m sounds good here too.

[AnotherScott]

For some organ gigs I run into my fender deluxe for that old gritty sound. Vb3m is far superior to b3x in the circumstance. It just fits. B3x into a guitar amp has some notes and some overtones that jump out very loud. But going direct to the PA b3x is better.

B-3X has a lot of settings for its amp sim. Possibly some of its built-in amp emulation is kind of being "doubled up" by what's happening in the real amp. Changing the amp emulation settings in the B-3X should allow you to find something that will work better when you're playing it through that amp.

[Fliplip]

Ive been struggling to like this app. When i play it on my ipad pro it sounds good, but seems a lot harder to get a sound i want to use, at least compared to VB3m. With the same drawbar settings VB3m just seems to be there, where as B-3x seems to be too full of life and jumps out of the mix. The higher register drawbars seem to be over powering sometimes and quite annoying.

Obviously its me and not the app, but i keep going back to VB3m with a smile on my face.

 

Im not giving up on it, and strangely it sounds a bit more usable on my new ipad 9 for some reason, buts its a hard choice to make. I originally got a refund from Apple as it wouldn"t run on my first gen Air, but brought it again now i have the ipad 9. In the meantime it still worked fine on my ipad pro, but i dont want to use that live.

 

I agree also about adjusting the dials. What a PITA getting them in the right position. Im hoping i dont need to touch most of them, most of the time. Ive never played the real deal, and not bothered about all the features, i just want the sounds im more or less getting from V3m, but with more authority. I find VB3m to be a bit flat, although ii love the tome. It just gets a bit lost in the mix.

[Stokely]

I'm now about 10 gigs in, so I consider this app (and the ipad) as having "passed the audition". I'm not doing anything too crazy, mostly one patch on the MODX that has nothing else but the b-3x.

 

I might have just gone with vbm3 if it had been out at the time, but I'm pretty happy with this.

 

Had a weird thing happen at practice where the ipad volume was very low, but the leslie gain and volume were normal....closed and re-opened the app and it was fine. I don't think I had sent any volume cc changes but probably that's what happened (via a part slider I bumped maybe). I don't use a volume pedal so that wasn't it...

 

IK has a giant group buy going on, it's a great deal if you need something...I am holding off because so far there isn't a real need with anything they have. If there was, then I'd get 22 (currently) free plugins of equal or lesser value which is pretty bananas.

[DrDrawbars]

Hi everybody.

 

I'm a Crumar Mojo 61 user. When I discovered B-3X on Mac Os, I saw the light, it's the colour, the tone, AND the Leslie saturation behaviour I've dreamed. The closest to a mic-ed Leslie I've ever listen.

I've bought an iPad Mini 5 and the app (B-3X for iPad) just for this app, that is the sound I NEED on live stage.

 

But the app is unusable. Lots of hangin notes. I'm desperate. Several mails to IK Multimedia support and no response.

 

I've IOS 15, maybe that's the problem. I'm MIDI USB controlling the app with my Crumar Mojo 61 (wich works flawlessly on the Mac Os B-3X) via Apple Lighting to Camera USB 3 adapter. Audio comes from minijack output.

The issue happens whwn the app is MIDI controlled. Without controller (playin right on the screen), issues does not happen.

 

Tried buffering opts between 256, 128, 512, 64. Sample rate 48KHz, 44,1KHz. Nothing works.

 

It is my setup? It is the IOS version? I've no official responseâ¦.shame...

 

â¦desperate!â¦

[ImproKeys]

DrDrawbars,

I occasionally control B-3X with my Crumar Mojo Classic and have no problems using the latest "standard" iPad; on iPad Pro it did well, too. I am "still" running ipadOS 14. My experience in the past was, that major OS updates often affect music apps. That's why I am always hesitant updating. But if you bought the ipad new, you had no choice, I know. So I think you should contact IK Multimedia, report the error and wait for an update.

Until then you could try to be happy with the Mojo sound (which still is really good, isn't it?).

 

Cheers!