The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Does anyone have experience using the rotary effect to approximate a B3 organ ?

I have an M-Audio 88sx, which has a reasonable B3 organ. I have tried using the rotary effect to approximate the B3 modulations with not much success.

The problem is that I know almost nothing about how to tweak the parameters or even what they do.

I really like Benmont Tench from the Heartbreakers B3 sound & was wondering if anyone has used the rotary or can guide me in the right direction.

Can anyone help me out with tweaked parameters ?

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Upon reading the manual to your keyboard controller , there is not much to tweak as far as the perc. organ is concerned. Most controllers make no sounds on their own but yours does have a few Rompler voices. The manual shows the only effect for the organ is vibrato and it can only be turned on and off. I can only assume vibrato on the instrument is a Leslie effect.

A Leslie (rotating speaker) is quite different than true vibrato. A Hammond has both sound effects. A Leslie is actually a doppler effect as the sound is "spun" around the room and then bounced back to the listener's ear. It is often simulated by a phase generating device. True vibrato is a subtle rapid pitch change in which a Hammond has 6 positions on the vibrato control switch besides the soft , on/off , harmonic switches.

Leslies vary some depending on the model. Usually they have a high freq. horn that rotates along with a low freq. speaker that has a motor driven baffle that rotates in front of the speaker to direct the sound around. Most have two speeds.
Hammond calls the fast speed "vibrato" (not to be confused with the before mentioned console vibrato ) and "chorale" which is the slow speed. My Leslies also have a brake which instantly stops the rotation with a push of a pedal. Modern Leslies also allow adjustment of the time it takes to transition from fast to slow or vice versa. I have a 2101 that can even synch the motor to tempo via midi. (really cool). Some players disconnect the low freq. rotor , others remove the defuser from the high freq. horns.(which hurts the doppler part IMO). Again mine are unmodified.

Sounds like what you need (you could run Leslie but it's not cheap) is an external effects pedal like the Boss RT-20. This is a pretty good simulator and can be inserted into an effect loop. Guitar Center usually has one in the pedal section.

Another option because your instrument has limited contol of the sound would be to get a copy of Native Instruments B4 and use your contoller to run it thru a computer in a stand alone mode. I personally haven't used it but Bartman likes it. Here's the demo link http://co.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=b42demo

Sorry for the long winded reply.

msg

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Thanks Geno

Your reply de-mistifies the lesliefor me quite a bit.

I saw the boss pedal on youtube + it was great though I suspect that it was being played thru a real B3

At the moment a pedal is not feasible - many more essentials to buy. I think my keyboard has potential - have you any experience with the rotary effect in the aw1600 ? The parameters are a bit of a mystery + I had rather hoped that someone had been thru this before

I am a guitar player primarily + although I know what I want to hear I don't really know how to get there. You rey gives me clues + so I will use my noggin to figure it out

BTW I had a chance to pick upa working b3 some years ago but passed it up

I could have acquired a (for 200 bucks froman old chinese night club in singapore but thought (at the time) that the expense shipping it back to oz prohibitive

A 60's orignal ! All thoughs years ina smoke filled club .

Oh well. I settled for an old fender twin + did very well out of it

Always regretted not getting the quinella !

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Life's a shit sandwich. The more bread your have, the less shit you have to eat.