hey Fran & I will join you guys also

Warts and all, I really appreciate the chance to gig with my old B-3. I'm lucky...it "lives" at a local country club, with a 145, 147 RV and a Suitcase Rhodes. I use it for a hard core group of jazz nuts twice a month. Even better, one of the waiters is a pastor/M-100 player. He and his son move the instruments out of storage...even turn them on. I simply show up and play. They even break things down and put them back in the storage area while I head to the next gig. I have an old C-3 that I'm restoring and a little 1949 M that I've got entirely too much money into.

Maintenance is horrible, from a frequency and expense standpoint. But, they're GREAT!

Russ (old school) Lay

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 04-21-2010).]

I put on one heckuva convincing performance with the Native Instruments B4 II and two 61 note controllers hooked up to the laptop.

And I leave the Roll-R-Kari at home, and my back in great shape.

Go to the B3 gig in a Ford Taurus, man.

--Mac

Th B4 is a cute little toy to have on your home computer, but it shouldn't even be mentioned among such illustrious instruments and artists

mac sounds great any chance on hearing that combination with teh B4?

The B4 was always the most highly rated amongst B3 aficionados, (As well as the studio standard) with most having it available on their computers for when a B3 is not available, however I personally prefer the VB3, http://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=24 which as the B4 is no longer available (Except for Wersi owners (Although for how much longer is unknown) is really the only one.

Here is the demo of B4II http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/media-center/?content=649 just type B4 into the search box.

Enjoy

Bill


[This message has been edited by abacus (edited 04-22-2010).]

I don't know any Hammond Players (and I know alot) that will use Native instruments B4 professionaly. You either play an original Tonewheel console, New B3, XK3c or a KeyB. There simply are no other good alternatives for someone serious about playing a Hammond.

I don't know many players who are more serious about their hammonds than I.

Still keep the payments up on my storage garage full of B's, C's & A-100s, now that we are in the little apartment and its just me and the missus, the little "baby b" M-101 and a coffee-table Leslie are in the livingroom.

Now, of course, the B4-II is NOT exactly the same as having a true Hammond onstage. It is simply the closest I've been able to come in duplicating the sound without the real McCoy.

There is one certain thing that the MIDI controller keyboards will NOT do, and that is in the multiple contact keyboard buss tricks department.

I use a MIDI Controller Pedal connected as MIDI Expression CC11 to exactly duplicate what the original Hammond Expression Pedal brings to the game.

Modwheel spins the Leslie effect up, down and I use a controller button to turn Leslie effect comnpletely off to duplicate the older non-chorale Leslie sound when playing the Jimmy Smith type stuff. For Rockband covers, I use the chorale, of course.

I also run full stereo keyboard amplification and careful placement of my keyboard speakers on the soundstage in order to recreate the leslie sim more correctly. The keyboard amp is actually a small PA of its own right and the two channesl are always mounted on poles, usually directly behind me, facing outwards and kind of sideways to the stagefront. Close together. That's because of the darned horns. They focus the sound a bit too much and project it a bit too far. At one time I lugged a linear array set of cabs and that wasn't as large of a problem.

There is one thing about simulators of any kind that I try to get across to people, but most don't seem to understand what I'm saying. It is this: One must first have plenty of experience with playing the REAL THING before attempting to use any kind of simulator to imitate it.

The same applies to my digital guitar amp/speaker/effect units.

I spent a lot of time shaking my system down, practicing with the full setup in order to find out what NOT to attempt. If I cannot get the darned thing to duplicate what the real mccoy does, then I don't attempt that onstage.

There are also certain things that a simulator can do in the way of sounds that the real thing does not do. It is important to know and understand that situation.

Since this is an internet forum and they are full of people who read something and take it totally out of context, the last thing I'll say here is that "there is nothing like the real thing, baby". In the studio, I would want the real thing. Because, in the studio, we are faced with a different situation entirely. A permanent record with your name on it. That said, there have been some cases where my B4 setup has been used in studio work. It has fooled many a set of golden ears, too.

At a certain point, it is not what the simulator is, it is what the player knows and can do with it.


--Mac

TWD, you are starting to sound a little TOO purist to be hanging around an arranger forum!

Let's face it... there isn't ONE sound in an arranger, or let's be fair, any other modern keyboard, NOT ONE that is EXACTLY like the real thing. NOT ONE. You can't pick and choose what you consider acceptable. If nothing but the real deal will suffice on organ, neither will playing a sampled piano, using sampled drums or bass will, either. You want to go ahead and tell us that no REAL musician would ever play with an arranger, either..?

Let's face it, were we ever to play to audiences that were as picky as these mythological organ 'purists', we would get booed out of the building the first note we played! Me, I'd be happy to go and see Joey DeFrancesco or any organist worth his salt play on any clone and sim out there. But that's maybe because I'm more interested in what he PLAYS than in what he plays on. But then again, I'm not an organ dealer, so maybe it's not quite as important to me..

say it isn't so!!! Your right..i am turning into an old fart! I blame this place,I was young and virile before I came here!