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I just finished re-tracking about 30 or so tracks with my XK-1c last weekend, and didn't even try B5, as ALL of my custom presets that I made had chorus or vibrato, and either reverb or Leslie, and I didn't want to spend the time to try to recreate all of those settings over again (some of it is pretty deep; especially the Leslie programming on the Hammond XK-1c).

I figure the time to have a go at the B5 will be when I need it on new tracks or a new project. I can't see it replacing the XK-1c, but being a better quick-and-dirty mockup source than other current choices.

But if it's "that good" as people say, then the real question will be whether it is beat by Hammond's upcoming XK-5 model or not, which has an entirely new technology for the tonewheels (vs. another generation of VASE, not to be confused with VAST from Kurzweil). The keyboard for the XK-5 is said to have the most accurate sensors of any clonewheel yet.

What I like about the B5 interface is that it reminds me of NI's B4, which was really easy to work with and a joy to program (I made my own custom patches for it, which I then laboriously transferred to three successive generations of Hammond hardware clonewheels).

Huge vb3 fan. The distortion on it is spot on. I bought 32 lives just for vb3, works great. There are under the cover settings that dial it in for different leslies, etc. I also own b4II and there is no contest for me, prefer VB3.

If b4II is sampled then it's just the underlying discs that are sampled, which isn't that big of a deal if you think about it. The later Konakt version is not my cup of tea, too pre-canned but if you just need some straight ahead simple organ sounds in a pinch it's quick and easy and sounds good. But I prefer the more specific amp cab and fx provided in b4II which doesn't matter since I like VB3 even more. B4II got the amp distortion wrong, when it first came out a lot of people were trying to run version 1 because of that even though version 2 had more organs and a few other improvements. We never got a release of version 1 on macintel. The distortion knob on b4II sounds like crap to me. VB3 nailed the amps.

I'm definitely curious about the sonic possibilities of that new drawbar synth someone put out recently but I'm doubtful that they nailed the Leslie or Hammond chorus circuits as well as VB3.

For me the difference between the men and the boys is the chorus/tremolo and Leslie simulations. Most of what is out there just didn't quite get it right.

B-5 v2 has been released, and it's a total rewrite (according to the Acoustic Samples guys): new wheels, new Leslie, everything.

And it was a free upgrade to owners of v1, so it's on my Mac as I type. I've only had about five minutes to play with it, but this Hammond has some serious balls. This one is making me stop mourning the loss of B4II. Check it out, ya'll:

https://www.acousticsamples.net/B5

I think I'm still using B4 with 32 Lives when I want that sound. I'm not a keyboard/organ player and probably not one to know much about the nuances of the instrument like many of you on the board, but I find I can usually get what I'm looking for with that. Too bad NI killed it off.

I agree, Mister Steele... if NI had kept the faith with B4II instead of the comparatively-nasty Vintage Organs, I never would have shopped around. But I think I might like this new version of B-5 even better. The low end it produces is real rumble-the-stage stuff.

After playing a recent session with a rented B3 and vintage Leslie, I'm considering purchasing the Leslie Studio 12+ for my studio. That said, I have been ok with Vintage Organ in Kontakt when used in the context of a mix.

The new update to B5, from a few days, is a huge step forward (it is also almost four times as large on-disc from before). As I have a Hammond XK-1c, I don't know if I'll bother doing a shootout, since I'd rather play a nice organ keybed with properly semi-weighted waterfall keys.

The presets are mostly same-same for some reason, in spite of their names and how many of them there are. Maybe I was doing something wrong and not really kicking them in. I tried both manuals just to make sure it didn't default to lower vs. upper or something.

Here's the official announcement of B-5 v2 from Acousticsamples this week:

"There it is, the Version 2 of the B-5 Organ has been released, and it's not a simple update, it's an entirely new product.

This update kept us busy for about a year, and we reworked both the sound generation and the Leslie simulation, here are a few of the new features.

A new Leslie emulation
We have been working with UVI again and provided them with a lot of measurements on our Leslie 122. They came up with a new Leslie Emulation that is world class, and we adjusted it even further to fit the sound of the different Leslie models we recorded. You now get the sound of the legendary Leslie 122, 147 or 3300 and all of them with an incredible variety of microphone placements and many controls over them.

A refined Organ model
Everything has been revised, the click sound, the measurement of the real voicing, the percussion curves and we simulated a few real electrical behaviors like the voltage stealing and the loudness robbing that play a very important part in the sound of the organs.
And as every B-3, C-3 or A-100 is unique, we now offer 4 different organs base tones, each with their own voicing and signature sound.

A completely reworked Tube Saturation
The tube saturation now follows the exact behavior of the real Leslie 122 tube saturation.
There is basically one main control that is similar to the volume knob you can find on a 122 and you can play with the volume pedal to get more or less saturation while playing.

A complete MIDI integration
With the help of some of our customers, we pre-mapped some of the most used Organ controllers like the XK series, the Clavia controllers (Nord stage, C series, electro and C2D), the Mojo, the B4D, the HX3 and a few others.
If your controller is not in that list, just use the new MIDI learn function to assign any element to the controller of your choice.

A much better Pedalboard simulation
We have modeled 4 different pedalboards for which each drawbar controls a certain frequency combination. The voicings really vary a lot from one model to another.

A new preset system
We decided to add the two main presets for A# and B that control two virtual sets of drawbars.
On top of that, we also added a new general preset system with a few built-in presets to help you explore different sounds.

With all of these features, the B-5 Organ V2 does sound like the original Hammond and Leslie 122 combo, but if you still need to be convinced, just watch our B-5 versus real Organ comparison video.

Okay, here's my take on it after playing with v2 for a while. It's a huge improvement, and now sounds very thick and realistic. I can't tell a lot of difference with the organ itself, but the speaker sim is much better...

...that said, I'm still having trouble getting that "balls to the walls" fuzzy distortion that I could with B4-2, and have gotten even better with Melda Vintage Rotary. I've tried all the models, and while they're so much more juicy than with V1, I'm just not liking them as much as my current B5/Melda combo. Having never played with a real Leslie, it's very possible that this setup is actually more accurate though.

Prime Mover wrote:Okay, here's my take on it after playing with v2 for a while. It's a huge improvement, and now sounds very thick and realistic. I can't tell a lot of difference with the organ itself, but the speaker sim is much better...

...that said, I'm still having trouble getting that "balls to the walls" fuzzy distortion that I could with B4-2, and have gotten even better with Melda Vintage Rotary. I've tried all the models, and while they're so much more juicy than with V1, I'm just not liking them as much as my current B5/Melda combo. Having never played with a real Leslie, it's very possible that this setup is actually more accurate though.

'More accurate' doesn't mean a thing if it doesn't give you the sound you want, right?

mikehalloran wrote:'More accurate' doesn't mean a thing if it doesn't give you the sound you want, right?

That's sort of my take. And to be honest, even with it's added complexity, I now kind of appreciate the idea of having separate organ and amp units. After all, in a real setup, one could throw any kind of crazy effects and stomp boxes in between, like a Tube Screamer, or loop out effects between the amp and the cab.

I'm not doing that with the Melda combo, but there is no doubt that the standalone Melda Vintage Rotary has an incredible amount of control. Specifically, the EQ stage is very very musical, I think it's before the gain stage, because it really changes the quality of the distortion. Where-as the EQ on the B5 is obviously post-gain, and just amplifies whatever frequencies are already there. So with the Melda, if I boost the treble (which I do), it doesn't make it piercing, it just makes the distortion rattle and fizz more, which I like.

All said and done, though, no reason for anyone to resurrect B4ii anymore. B5-2 is very passable now, it's just that in the meantime I pieced together something that's better than any one thing. B5 is still easily the best organ, and it's Leslie sure has a lot of control, but depending upon the situation, MVintageRotary still beats it out by a fair bit.

They mention that they worked with UVI on the Leslie rotary effects. I wonder if they implemented the same code that appears in UVI's Leslie sim, "Rotary" and tweaked it up a bit? (I have that, and it is quite a satisfying simulation -- but I have not pushed its distortion effect at all. Best stereo imaging of any I'd tried.)

Terry

No kidding, the stereo emulation and control is absolutely AMAZING. I'll definitely use it on clean stuff. It's just that for my main live rig I just use one B3 instance, and pull the drawbars/nobs live for different songs, so I need to have a full range of distortion and control, and frankly, this doesn't quite reach the level of pulverization that I'm used to. For studio work in DP, it'll be great, though.

As I forgot to apply a time-sensitive coupon at Audio Deluxe when I did my RX6 upgrade the other day, I went ahead and bought the UVI Rotary plug-in this weekend. Pretty awesome!

I haven't yet compared it to what is built into the B-5 update, but my initial impression is that it is better for organ than PSP's; whereas L'otary might be the better one for guitar.

I'd like to hear a comparison with MVintageRotary. After reading various user reviews around the net the past few weeks I am of the opinion that B5 sounds like a worthy contender but if you're happy with what you had before, probably not worth spending the money. I am pretty darn happy with VB3. I wish the developer would support it a little better, but oh well it just sounds right to me and I love the way it growls for distortion and Leslie. I have no idea how authentic it is to the real thing but all B3's are a bit unique in any case. I read a lot of user reviews the times like the new B5 some of them edges towards it as the R new fav and some seem to still prefer VB3. I guess it comes down to preference. I do wish guido would take a few minutes to make it 64bit though. It's possible Crumar has him under contract not to update it, hard to say.