The amazing and expressive sound of the
Hammond console organ. From jazz, church, blues, to rock and anything in between. The B3 can now be replaced including it's
cabinet presence: stage, recording studio or Church. One of the most recognizable sounds in recordings today. Though many
believe the tonewheel organ is never to be equaled - it has - in recent years, for all practicle purposes. New clones have
faithfully reproduced the instrument. including the premium dual manual clones like the new B3 itself, the Diversi organs
like the KeyB series, and the common brands available such as Voce V5+ Korg, Clavia C1, XK3 series based on the new-B3 sound
engine. Roland, and now the Hamichord that has a B3-like player interface that can run your favorite organ software like
the VB3 or the standard B4II that comes with it having the VB3 as an upgrade option.
Used with good sound processing like a tube preamp if necessary, the modern Hammond clone can please all, except the
die-hard vintage owner/enthusiast. In today's playing venues something smaller is needed because bands that used the B3
previously, generally only play today, many times, one night at a time
instead of weeks or months at a time at the same venue of yesteryear. Moving it once for a long venue was more acceptable.
In Church digitals are also replacing the component-aging Hammond tonewheel organ. My personal favorite is the new VB3-2 from
Italy that has set new ground that has a warm, nice tone and astonishing vibrato scanner with expressiveness, soul and cut.
This program runs in a common VST host. Does not take a lot of bandwidth. Next in line, the EVB3 (one letter difference) runs
perfectly as a standalone patch in Mainstage along with anything you want to add to it for live performance. Today's EVB3
does not need unnecessary software installed to make it run. I have Macbook Pro 2.2 at the time of this writing that acts
like an immense and versatile sound module (powerful) enabling the EVB3 running into a Speakeasy classic tube preamp with
a Leslie out plug to a vintage 122 Leslie that has a phenominal console Hammond sound. With the new EVB3 you do not need
a Leslie on the new version of Logic Studio since the developer at my suggestion tweaked the Rotor simulation so you can set
dry to spin settings eliminating artificial colorizations of cabinet ambience. The EVB3 can run at 192Khz for high-bandwidth
audio. My Macbook Pro currently runs into a Firewire 800 1U sound module with high-end D/A converters. As in all clones it
is a matter of opinion of the buyer.
Some quality you cannot hear but feel. After playing the B4II in my organ
controller for some time I finally got the MAC for the newer EVB3. The first thing I noticed was the emotional attachment
to the soulful sound that was not there with the B4II. (Update: since writing this I am most impressed with the VB3-2) The
EVB3 had that extra warmth and feel that defies the ear but can be felt while playing. The only thing I did not like was the
Macbook Pro getting so hot with the higher bandwidth program. The solution was my discovery of the new VB3 (runs on Windows).
This had the sound, the soul and the feel I wanted at lower bandwidth with colorizations of peaks and notches to mimic the
ambiance of the rotor sim not a problem as the B4II is not a problem. In my view, the EVB3 has to run dry or finely tweaked
for the colorizations not to diminish the tone - why the morph to dry-to-spin is one nice feature. Naturally, colorizations
for rotor cabinet simulation is not a problem with a physical rotor cabinet instead of a rotor simulation.