Wow, best Hammond emulation out there. I gave the demo a try expecting to be disappointed and ended up buying it the next day. I gig with it for the first time yesterday. Yep, I trusted my life on v1.0 of a new plugin and wasn't let down.
This is beautiful sounding, very detailed emulation of a Hammond organ. It learned to play keys on a B3 and the attention to detail in this plugin is spot-on. I've tried other sample-based organ plugins they sounded flat, cheesy and couldn't cut through in a band situation. Blue3 nailed it. I played by first gig using Blue3 running in Gig Performer. What a gas to play and my band mates noticed the sound difference especially when I jacked up the drive and put it on hi-gain. Yeah baby, sounded so good you could almost smell the hot tubes.
Being able to select different tone-wheel setups is the coolest. It makes a huge difference in the sound. Leakage, cross-talk, flutter oh my!! I can have the cleanest, purest sound for jazz and then make it sound like it's bounced down the stairs a few time.
I've been playing Nord C2's and C2D's the past few years because of the sound quality and the weight. I've been comparing it to the C2D and Electro emulations and the Blue sound more real to me. I've also been comparing the Blue3 Leslie to the Nord model and two versions of a Ventilator. The Blue3 leslie was better than the Nord and on par with the Ventilator. I prefer a little heavier "whomp" sound on the close settings as I am used to always close micing in shows....as in, I stuff sm-81's as close as I can go to the cabinet. I plan to compare it to a Suzuki SK-2 this week.
Highly recommend that you give this a plugin a try. I hope it makes you smile as much as it does for me. Seriously, go download the demo now.
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Also very impressed with this Hammond emulation VSTi. Many many preset to choose from and infinite tweaks if you want to spend your time doing that. Very easy to integrate into my VST host (Cantabile 3). I used several different presets in last week's worship set list and was very impressed with how the keys mixed in with other instruments. Definitely not lost in the mix. Some of the brighter presets sound a little harsh to my ears but that can easily be adjusted by choosing a "waxed" tone wheel organ set versus a new one, or nudging in the top draw bars to reduce the high frequencies. I've used VB3 for years and more recently Acoustic Samples B5, but this will be my go to Hammond VSTi for the foreseeable future.
Hi Leeskeys, this is Leee1102. It seems like you have a pretty good idea of how to get the Blue3 to sound how you want it to.
I'm just getting started with it and as with many other users, I've been using GSi - VB3 and that has been my go-to Hammond B3 emulator for quite awhile.
I've been doing side-by-side comparisons, and it's been really a tough call to say definitely which sounds better. Some of the presets on Blue3 sound a little too harsh and synthy, but overall Blue3 sounds punchier than the VB3, especially when playing it in a song. One of the things I like better about the VB3 though is that it has a better "slide up" beefy sound. (That's when you run your hand over the keys starting at the bottom and going all the way up into a chord.) It's hard for me to get a lot of that deep bass sound with Blue3 when doing that "slide up", it doesn't seem to punch through, even after adjusting the tonewheel volumes and the EQ's.
Anyway, you gave a great tip when saying that choosing a "waxed" tone wheel organ set sounds warmer than the default set.
So I'd like to ask you what are some of your favorite presets in Blue3 and which is your favorite waxed tone wheel set?
My style of music and Hammond organ playing comes closest to the Santana/Woodstock sound. I've been experimenting with various presets but thought I'd ask if you have any suggestions for getting the best "Santana" sound (or similar bands). Thanks for any suggestions!
Lee.
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Now includes a separate Leslie plug-in.
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