Recommendation for a B3 vsti

[jude77]

Hey Guys:

I'm looking for a B3 vst.  I've heard great things about Blue3 and Arturia B3.  What do you guys think?  Are there other serious contenders to consider?

Thanks!

[Max Arwood]

My favorite Native Instruments B4 II

[Toddskins]

I was evaluating Blue3 and GSI VB3 a few months ago, and they both sound fantastic.  I think I was leaning toward the GSI V3's,  but what's nice is they both have a spin rotary effect that can be used independently (if I recall correctly) with other instruments in your setup.

I currently have Arturia's latest B3 which will suffice for the time being.  If I need the killer organ sound when I have a project that needs the real thing, then I will lay out the money for one of the better (Blue3 or GSI VB3).

Here's the link to the one you're not familiar with:  

https://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=44

Edited September 30, 2019 by Toddskins

[Sidney Earl Goodroe]

VB3 has been my goto for years!!!! I had a problem once when Windows 10 had an update that trashed vb3. I contacted Guido who is the guy who developed it and he worked meticulously with me thru emails to fix the problem!! Great one on one support directly to the man who wrote the code. Can't beat that. 

Btw, Microsoft had to issue a patch fix after about 3 days that fixed VB3. I used NI B4 while VB3 was down. As soon as VB3 was fixed, I immediately replaced B4 with VB3!!! Nothing personal, NI!!?

[Lee Shapiro]

Originally my "go to" Hammond was Native instruments B4. and then the B4II.  But for some reason NI stopped making that plugin and replaced it with Vintage Organs, which doesn't sound nearly as good as B4.
Then the GSi VB3 was my go to Hammond for a long time.  Unfortunately something went wrong with VB3 v2.  It doesn't sound as good as the original.
I have several others, but for me my current go-to Hammond is GG Audio's Blue3.    IMHO, it is the best sounding Hammond emulator.
I also tried the brand new IK Multimedia Hammond B-3X.  A lot of people really like it.  But after doing extensive A/B comparisons with the Blue3, I find that the Blue3 has a superior sounding Leslie speaker sound, including a better sounding tube overdrive.

Blue3 is about a $100 cheaper than the new B-3X, and it uses much less system resources than the B-3X, which I'm reading is a common complaint among users.
Go for GG Audio's Blue3.  For $100, you can't go wrong!

 

[TheMaartian]

If you have Dimension Pro installed, there's a usable B3 in Expansion Pack 1 (of the 3 free expansion packs). You can download them here:

Free Dimension Pro Expansion Packs 1-3

From the page linked above:

 

Dimension Pro Expansion Pack 1 Highlights:

350 new programs and over 120 MB of new samples and wavetables

new programs expand the factory sound set with new Digital and FM sounds, Dimensions, Electric Pianos, Guitars, Leads and Keys, Orchestral sounds, Organs, Real and Synth Basses, Clusters and Harmonies, Splits and Layers, Sweeps, Analog sounds, Pads, Twisted Waveguide patches and World sounds

Includes a new emulation of the legendary Hammond B3™ organ(see below for more info)

The set includes new wavetables, multisamples and cabinet/speaker simulations

Programs designed by Ruben Nievas, Chad Beckwith and René Ceballos

The Virtual B3
--------------
Expansion Pack 1 features a new virtual emulation of the legendary Hammond B3(TM) organ. Each component of the original organ, including all drawbar levels, percussion level, keyclick, the rotary speaker, drive and cabinet simulator were precisely crafted to recreate all characteristics of this monster legend.

The Virtual B3 is packed in a sfz definition file, in the 'Virtual B3' folder.

Note that the three EQ on/off buttons of the element where the Virtual B3 is inserted must remain off, otherwise the EQ controls will adjust the drawbars level and the EQ parameters simultaneously. To EQ the organ sound, just chain the element and apply EQ in the client element.

Most VB3 factory patches are composed of three chained elements:

VB3 -> Distortion 1 -> Cabinet simulator

 

Dimension Pro Expansion Pack 2 Highlights:

350 new professional sound programs by Frank Genus and René Ceballos

120 MB of new multisamples

New programs expand the factory sound set with new Digital and FM sounds, Dimensions, Drums, Electric Pianos, Drum n’ Bass Breaks, Hip Hop Breaks, Guitars, Leads and Keys, Orchestral Sounds, Organs, Real and Synth Basses, Reeds and Brass, Sweeps, Analog, Pads, and more

Loopmasters sample content includes Hip-Hop and Drum n’ Bass grooves in REX2 format

 

Dimension Pro Expansion Pack 3 Highlights:

30 new bass programs by Digital Sound Factory

New programs expand the factory sound set with new Acoustic, Fingered, Fretless, Hybrid, Multi, Pop, Slap, and Upright Bass sounds

[Terry Kelley]

Been using Organized Trio and Arturia.

[Starship Krupa]

My favorite is AIR Technology's DB-33, which Pluginboutique currently has on sale for $14.

Among its  charms is that it lets you use the Leslie emulation as a standalone VST effect.

[Marshall]

23 hours ago, Sidney Earl Goodroe said:

VB3 has been my goto for years!!!! I had a problem once when Windows 10 had an update that trashed vb3. I contacted Guido who is the guy who developed it and he worked meticulously with me thru emails to fix the problem!! Great one on one support directly to the man who wrote the code. Can't beat that. 

Btw, Microsoft had to issue a patch fix after about 3 days that fixed VB3. I used NI B4 while VB3 was down. As soon as VB3 was fixed, I immediately replaced B4 with VB3!!! Nothing personal, NI!!?

Sid, you were the one that put me onto VB3 years ago on the old Sonar forum, and I’ve used it in many, many projects since. I see there is now a Version 2 - have you upgraded and is it worth it? 

[Sidney Earl Goodroe]

I have not upgraded to ver. 2. The original VB3 fills my needs. I use a hammond organ mostly in a rock or blues band format where the mix is rather dense. If I did more jazz organ trio type songs I would probably upgrade. I'm happy as is!!!

[Marshall]

Ditto! Not needed for my rock orientated music either. 

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

B-3X isn't taking up a huge amount of resources here and people reporting things like 30-40% CPU are definitely experiencing an issue that can be resolved as most are running far better than that by a good bit.

Anyway, Hammond B-3X is definitely a contender.  Since it is subjective, OP can always try the demo at https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/hammondb3x/index.php?p=demo and try the official Hammond B3 plugin to see if they, too, agree it is the one that deserves to have the actual Hammond name on it.

[sven450]

this is my go to now.  Love it!

 

https://gg-audio.com/blue3.html

 

[chris.r]

As a Blue3 organ user I can only say that it's awesome! Whether you're looking for an ultimate experience of a real hammond organ in a virtual world or just wanting something nicely growling at the back of your production, y'all get it all in one plugin, and then even more. It's got some innovative ways of controlling from your live MIDI set (like the Roland type lever-bender for slow/fast rotary switching) and the infamous Custom leslie cabinet, that I don't believe you'll be able to recreate it's sound in any other vsti! Plus on my old laptop I can throw in easily 30 instances in a project  before the first dropout occurs, then I could relax a bit the tight, live-oriented buffer settings and load another 10 instances, then I had to stop the live video streaming on my second monitor and load another 10 instances etc .

The only thing Blue3 is seriously lacking, in my opinion, are some quality pro-level videos, maybe good endorsement videos idk - something that could show off how good it sounds - unless I'm missing something but I don't remember seeing anything of that, a few casual youtube vids only.

There are some other nice sounding organs now, the IK approach from above and of course the trustworthy VB3II (VB3 the first version is *NOT* a contender for me, though I understand it works for many... but don't know how ?) but I didn't play any of them myself yet so can't comment much on them except that I like their sound for the most part, maybe except that I'm not always a fan of VB3II leslie sound, based on the demo videos in some situations it's not "there" yet in terms of realm, oh it's great for jazz that's for sure. IKM has done a good leslie too, I think it's at the Blue3 level, both sound great and I can only hear different qualities from them.

[Adam Monroe]

Hey guys I'm resurrecting this thread for a few reasons:

1.) We have some new plugins:  My Organ Adam Monroe's Rotary Organ and a pretty good free organ that was just released, Collab3.

2.) I've made a shootout video comparing 11 B3 organ plugins, including the ones previously mentioned in this thread:
8Dio Vintage Studio Organ
Acousticsamples B5 v2
Adam Monroe's Rotary Organ
Air Music Technology DB-33
Arturia B3-V
Collab 3
GG Audio Blue3
GSi VB3-II
Native Instruments Vintage Organs
IK Multimedia Hammond B3-X
Logic Pro Vintage B3

3)This thread ranks pretty high in search results.

I did my best to try and do a fair comparison - no added EQ, just presets, drawbar settings, and built-in effects. There is a solo section as well as a bunch of "in the mix" sections where I feel you can really hear how the different Leslie simulations fit into a mix.

Coincidentally, the shootout was done in Cakewalk, because I love me some Cakewalk. 
 

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by Adam Monroe

[Cakewalk User]

AIR's sound bad. The free one was easily the worse. Native Instrument's (probably part of factory Library) was only slightly better than AIR's. The AIR one has a decent tone, but there's a ton of static in the sound. Maybe this can be fixed in the plug in settings... dunno. 

Arturias was the best. Acousticsamples was also really good. IK'S was decent. 

Not sure why anyone would get DB-33. Its terrible and AIR's stuff is only useful for the Synths (mostly for the presets), Xpand!2 (ditto), or Creative FX Plus if you use a DAW like REAPER or Cakewalk which doesn't ship much for base creative plugins/effects. 

The keyboards are literally worthless, considering what can be had for free, these days. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by Cakewalk User

[Starship Krupa]

On 6/29/2020 at 5:18 PM, Cakewalk User said:

AIR's sound bad. The free one was easily the worse. Native Instrument's (probably part of factory Library) was only slightly better than AIR's. The AIR one has a decent tone, but there's a ton of static in the sound.

Did you watch past the first 5 minutes of the video? The first part of the video was solely a comparison of Leslie spin-up and slowdown. The drawbar settings were all different on the various instruments. I found the video in general to play pretty loose in regard to settings, which are so critical with Hammond emulations.

As much as I like AIR's DB-33, their distortion modeling is pretty poor, and is what likely accounts for your perception of "static" in the sound. When I want a distortion sound with it I just use an external effect, problem solved.

Tonewheel organs seem to be a tough thing to model, and IMO, AIR do a decent job. Just be careful with the distortion. The ability to use the Leslie as a separate FX module is a nice bonus.

After that, I like the CollaB3, although it's not as fancy as some of the others. You can compensate by using external FX.

[Cakewalk User]

On 7/3/2020 at 8:45 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Did you watch past the first 5 minutes of the video? The first part of the video was solely a comparison of Leslie spin-up and slowdown. The drawbar settings were all different on the various instruments. I found the video in general to play pretty loose in regard to settings, which are so critical with Hammond emulations.

As much as I like AIR's DB-33, their distortion modeling is pretty poor, and is what likely accounts for your perception of "static" in the sound. When I want a distortion sound with it I just use an external effect, problem solved.

Tonewheel organs seem to be a tough thing to model, and IMO, AIR do a decent job. Just be careful with the distortion. The ability to use the Leslie as a separate FX module is a nice bonus.

After that, I like the CollaB3, although it's not as fancy as some of the others. You can compensate by using external FX.

I watched the entire thing. 

[Starship Krupa]

Hmm. I didn't hear the "static" you describe with the DB-33 in the sections where they weren't using the crappy distortion modeling.

I have wondered if there is anything left to the AIR company any more. No new product development in years, their website hasn't been updated in over a year. It seems like they're just squeezing whatever licensing fees they can out of the existing products.

As long as DB-33 doesn't crash, who cares if the distortion modeling sounds like a bad phone connection? ?

[devonaire45]

I've gotten by with the KeyRig Hammond sounds for years.  Just plugged it into my new puter (HP Pavilion Laptop i7/10th gen) and new audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) and it sounds like I'm popping corn.  Ditto the Blue 3.

Tried the  GSI VB3-II demo and had NO problems.  Except one:  they don't seem to have a way to pay for it outside the EU.  Never had to work so hard to spend $$$ in my life.