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GSi VB3m for Android!


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It's true that B-3x is generally a lot more customizable... but if VB3m happens to give you the sound you want out of the box, that's valuable, even if you could get the same out of B-3x with some effort. But as for me, I'm looking forward to trying it with my Nord C1 double manual, which would be a bit of a headache with B-3x because it would need another app to do drawbar translation. B-3x insists that all your drawbars (upper and lower) be on the same MIDI channel, while the Nord sends upper and lower drawbars on different MIDI channels (the same channels as its upper and lower manuals). VB3m directly supports that, B-3x doesn't. So that's something, too...

Ah yes... not a problem I"m having, fortunately.

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Rod

Here for the gear.

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So I used vb3m tonight and had fun. It worked well and sounded good. BUT..there needs to adjustability on the leslie fast, it ramps up too quickly. And the latency is still bugging me. I am hopeful for future builds.

It needs a Vent.

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit93band

 

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So I used vb3m tonight and had fun. It worked well and sounded good. BUT..there needs to adjustability on the leslie fast, it ramps up too quickly. And the latency is still bugging me. I am hopeful for future builds.

It needs a Vent.

 

It needs a Vent APP. Neo and GSI need to team up and form Guido & Guido and get us the vb3m/vent organ app. I'd bet people around here may pay up to $20 for it.

FunMachine.

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Update just announced:

 

What's new:

- Added free Cloud service for rapidly exchanging Programs and Midi maps

- Added new parameter: String Bass Decay

- Program Change events now respond only on basic channel

- Rotary speed selector added to Organ page

- Minor bug fixes and optimizations

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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So I used vb3m tonight and had fun. It worked well and sounded good. BUT..there needs to adjustability on the leslie fast, it ramps up too quickly. And the latency is still bugging me. I am hopeful for future builds.

It needs a Vent.

 

It needs a Vent APP. Neo and GSI need to team up and form Guido & Guido and get us the vb3m/vent organ app. I'd bet people around here may pay up to $20 for it.

 

What about a Burn App? Especially since the hardware is discontinued ð

My drawbars go to eleven.

Gear: Roland VR-09, Nord Electro 2 61, Korg CX-3. Hear my music: facebook.com/smokestoneband

 

 

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V1.2 is up on Google Play but no sign on the App Store yet. I think it can take time (24 hours?) for Apple to validate app updates. Maybe the Cloud services for MidiMaps and Patches is more difficult to setup in iOS. Custom MidiMaps is a great feature. Works really well with the Moog Model D.

 

[Edit] 1.2 up on the AppStore in the UK now @ 7pm

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Buffer/latency issues (e.g. crackles) are indeed only an issue when triggering from an external device. The solution is to increase the buffer/latency to the point that the crackles go away.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Vb3m andriod user here. I get audio crackles only when using an external keyboard. It's fine when playing from the app's touchscreen keyboard.

Has anyone encountered / solved this?

 

I think your problem is either the version of android or model of phone or maybe your controller. I can set my buffers to the smallest size 64 and get no crackles . I'm not sure the latency is less than 128, it sometimes seems 128 is faster.?.

If you have a battery option to set for maximum performance, try that. Try another controller. If you dont have one, go to guitar center with a type B usb cable and passive hub with a micro usb on the end and plug into any Yamaha PSR they have out on the floor. Even that should work as a controller.

FunMachine.

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Thanks for the suggestions...Tried another controller, tried playing with buffer settings - same problem exists. That leaves the phone (samsung galaxy S5 android 6.0).

Interestingly my samsung galaxy tab A (2016 model running same android 6.0) doesnt exhibit crackling...

Does anyone know which android phones work well with vb3m?

One last thought - would that inexpensive bringer usb audio box help?

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I can set my buffers to the smallest size 64 and get no crackles . I'm not sure the latency is less than 128, it sometimes seems 128 is faster.?
An illusion, or some other variable came into play when you compared. The relationship of buffer to latency is purely mathematical, it can't work backwards. Assuming a 44.1 kHz sample rate, a buffer size of 128 samples will yield latency of 128/44100, or 2.9 ms (which you may see rounded to 3 ms). When you change the buffer size, you alter that equation accordingly, but the latency figure is still the result of that calculation. Lowering the buffer size will always lower the latency... e.g. if you lower it to 64, you've got 64/44100, or 1.45 ms (half of 2.9). Note that this is *minimum* latency, assuming that nothing else in the chain is adding latency... which is basically never the case. SO you can have more than these amounts of latency in total, but not less.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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And it turns out that my Reface CS makes a pretty darn good controller for VB3m. MIDI-over-USB thru the Camera Connector, and it has 13 sliders that send CCs, oriented conveniently in three groups: 2 â 9 â 2. Assigned 'Drive' and 'Rotary Lever' to the first two (again conveniently silk-screened as 'Depth' and 'Speed' on the CS), then Upper Drawbars 1-9 (inverted) in the middle, and Amp Select on the far right with one slider to spare. Plus, the CS has an expression pedal jack for the FC7, so plug that in â bada boom - bada bing â we"re rockin" Gimme Some Lovin" on the top of my new Legend '70s Compact. Hands down, this is the most fun I"ve ever had with a software instrument â hat"s off to you, Guido!

 

Figured I'd pop in to say I found Brad's tip here while searching around for a good mobile organ rig. I picked up an iPad and a Reface CS recently, and this sliders trick works flawlessly and sounds great (read: good enough!) on VB3. Biking over to a jam tonight and will be tossing the CS in my bag along with an iPad Air 4 and a Komplete Audio 6 interface. Just thought I'd endorse this suggestion for anyone who already has a Reface and is looking for the smallest-possible organ rig.

Numa X Piano 73 | Yamaha CP4 | Mojo 61 | Motion Sound KP-612s | Hammond M3

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Just updated to ios version 1.2.0. I'd like to remind you to save or record your midi mapping before you update, as you will have to recreate/reset it in the app after you update.

 

EDIT: Maybe strike that comment. I updated my older iPad first and had to reset the midi mapping, but that was not the case with the newer iPad. Hmm...

 

 

 

 

I think that a number of users will really appreciate the addition of the Leslie speed control to the main (drawbars) page.

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Does anyone know which android phones work well with vb3m?

Check this post for some of them:

 

https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3094171/re-gsi-vb3m-for-android#Post3094171

 

another user reported success with an S6; you have the S5? Looks like you're one phone version behind for success.

 

One good thing about this scenario is that Android phones, unlike Iphones, don't hold their value therefore you can pickup a used S6 very cheaply strip it down and dedicate it to VB3m.

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit93band

 

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I think that a number of users will really appreciate the addition of the Leslie speed control to the main (drawbars) page.

Yes that's useful. Oh and the Program Name now updates when it receives a program change - no more guessing!

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Thanks for the suggestions...Tried another controller, tried playing with buffer settings - same problem exists. That leaves the phone (samsung galaxy S5 android 6.0).

Interestingly my samsung galaxy tab A (2016 model running same android 6.0) doesnt exhibit crackling...

Does anyone know which android phones work well with vb3m?

One last thought - would that inexpensive bringer usb audio box help?

 

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit93band

 

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Thanks for the heads-up D-Dave. That's good news about VB3m running on a Samsung Galaxy S6.

 

I already have VB3m running great on my Iphone 6s and Ipad Pro 9.7". I also have a Samsung Galaxy S7 with Android 8.0 OS so I may pick up VB3m for it and give it a whirl.

 

FWIW... At $14 a pop, VB3m is a no-brainer even if I have to buy seperate IOS and Android versions of it for a total of $28. Having said this, I wish there was a way I could get a discount because I'm a shameless cheapskate. ;)

 

Kudos to Guido for cranking this puppy out at an incredible price and then fast-as-a-speeding-bullet updating in response to user recommendations.

Gigs: Nord 5D 73, Kurz PC4-7 & SP4-7, Hammond SK1, Yamaha MX88 & P121, Numa Compact 2x, Casio CGP700, QSC K12, Yamaha DBR10, JBL515xt(2). Alto TS310(2)

 

 

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For those who haven"t used it yet the Cloud feature is very good. Once you create a user name that"s it. Save your patches or your Mdi Maps. It just works. It may get difficult to find your patches as the user base grows though!

FYI I am running it on 256 latency on a 2014 iPad MIni. No clicks - perfect. Very little latency that I can detect. Surely given the price of a 2nd hand iPad this is the way to go rather than fessing with an Android phone?

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Yes, as I stated earlier in the thread Android smart phones don't hold much value so picking up a 2nd hand older device is pretty cheap an can be dedicated to VB3m; and as a backup you could always put one on your current phone in case the older device were to go tits up at a gig or in the studio.

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit93band

 

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Yes, as I stated earlier in the thread Android smart phones don't hold much value so picking up a 2nd hand older device is pretty cheap an can be dedicated to VB3m; and as a backup you could always put one on your current phone in case the older device were to go tits up at a gig or in the studio.

Yes that"s true. But what are the audio converters like? The iPads seem to provide really good audio quality. And you have the option of a huge range of other apps. I"m just not sure that paying a little more isn"t going to pay off in the long run. Of course I have no idea of the cost of used iPads in the US but they are quite cheap in the UK.

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Plans on putting vb3m on multiple devices may have snags. I put it on my smartphone, no problem. I put it on an old chewi android tablet. Then I tried to put it on another almost identical chewi tab I have and google play wouldnt allow it. It seemed like maybe I could put it on a 3rd device if it was a different kind but I dont have a different 3rd thing so I dont know.

 

Incidentally vb3m loaded and worked on my old chewi, but it wouldnt get midi from the usb port so I couldn't use a controller. Those tabs need a data directional cable which I didn't extensively try to troubleshoot.

FunMachine.

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So... Galileo also makes an Android app. Don't know if this has been done in this thread yet, TL;DR, but being it's at the same price ($1 more), it's a good question: how do these 2 compare?

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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So... Galileo also makes an Android app. Don't know if this has been done in this thread yet, TL;DR, but being it's at the same price ($1 more), it's a good question: how do these 2 compare?

 

I have both and VB3m is a lot better in my opinion.

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For me, Galileo can be more versatile and take your sound far out to interstellar space with all of the effects and such. However, it takes quite a bit of tweaking to get basic Hammond tones to my liking. I also prefer Galileo"s UI. The dang thing is actually playable, right from the iPad; two manuals and the option to put pedals on there too. Very good use of the available space.

 

VB3m sounds like a great Hammond with Leslie, right out of the box.

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Already installed the update and uploaded some of my presets to the cloud. They are under my screen name there, Thiago B3. I sugest specially the Hard Soul Organ, the go-to patch that I will use with my band, Hard Soul Combo (facebook.com/hardsoulcombo if you want to check it out).

 

The string bass decay feature is great for those left hand bass gigs!

My drawbars go to eleven.

Gear: Roland VR-09, Nord Electro 2 61, Korg CX-3. Hear my music: facebook.com/smokestoneband

 

 

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Well here's my personal Android experience with VB3m, YMMV...

 

Every once in a while during big shopping events, Amazon drops their Kindle Fire HD 8's down to $50 brand new. I've acquired two of them, for that price I think they are pretty decent little tablets. It's relatively painless to "hack" them to add the Google Play store on them. I did this to add the Eventide H9 Control app for my H9 Max. It connects to the H9 via Bluetooth and the Kindle Fire uses it's micro USB connector for mains power. Win.

 

Took a flyer on VB3m for Android yesterday. Installed and seems to work on the Kindle Fire just fine. Unfortunately, I don't yet have an OTG cable, so I can't test connectivity to a decent USB MIDI keyboard. The only Bluetooth capable keyboard I have is a little Roland 2-octave boutique mini key version. I managed to get it paired with the Kindle Fire, but I cannot figure out how to tell VB3m to recognize/use it. I don't see anything in the VB3m settings like you would on an iOS device.

 

In addition, I found out yesterday that the Kindle Fire cannot recognize/use plugged-in USB devices and charge via mains power at the same time. Big time lose for me. Apple iOS devices have been able to do this for several years now. Also, as someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, there is no way to disable the Kindle Fire from the display going to sleep. Another lose.

 

I'm going to get a refund on the Android version and stick to iOS, at least for now. Android still just isn't there yet as a platform - too fragmented on capabilities depending on manufacturer. Again, YMMV.

The Players:  OB-X8, Numa Compact 2X, Kawai K5000S, cheap Korean guitars/basses, Roland TD-1KV e-drums.  Eurorack/Banana modular, Synth/FX DIY.

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For me, Galileo can be more versatile and take your sound far out to interstellar space with all of the effects and such. However, it takes quite a bit of tweaking to get basic Hammond tones to my liking. I also prefer Galileo"s UI. The dang thing is actually playable, right from the iPad; two manuals and the option to put pedals on there too. Very good use of the available space.

 

VB3m sounds like a great Hammond with Leslie, right out of the box.

 

Yeah, esp Galileo 2, it's fantastically done and versatile for a mobile app. However, I don't have a lot of experience with decent keyboard organs, so I don't know exactly what sounds to reach for. Makes sense to put time into the VB3m first. Guess I've got to find organ styles I like and try to achieve those sounds.

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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I'm stuck here. This might be specific to my keyboard but trying to get my reface YC to operate vb3m slow, stop, and fast Leslie. I can midi map the rotary to the reface Yc's rotary lever but in midi local control off mode the lever only has sends two positions. Currently 0 and 127.

 

What can I do to switch between three positions slow, stop and fast?

 

Thanks anyone...

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I'm stuck here. This might be specific to my keyboard but trying to get my reface YC to operate vb3m slow, stop, and fast Leslie. I can midi map the rotary to the reface Yc's rotary lever but in midi local control off mode the lever only has sends two positions. Currently 0 and 127.

 

What can I do to switch between three positions slow, stop and fast?

 

Thanks anyone...

 

Not sure of reface capability as I don't own one. You mentioned that when midi local control off mode is used the lever reverts to slow and fast and you can't get stop. What happens if you turn local on, do all three positions then work? If so four thoughts:

 

1) set local to "on", turn the volume down on the reface to zero

2) have two presets, one sends 0 and 127 and the second preset sends 64 and 127 (if in fact you can set the lever to something other than zero). If this can't be done, revert to #1

3) purchase a slow/stop/fast foot pedal and use that

4) repurpose a drawbar (let's say you don't use the 7th drawbar), make the 7th drawbar the 8th, make the 8th drawbar the 9th and make the 9th drawbar control the leslie, all the way down is slow, halfway is stop, all the way up is fast.

 

Sometimes you have to work with what you got; for simplicity purpose option 1 would make the most sense. it's a quick flick of the volume control.

57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn

Delaware Dave

Exit93band

 

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