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08/08/2004 |
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B4 Tonewheel Set Vintage Collection You want organs? We got organs - of the virtual kind. Ian Waugh swaps his day job as a monkey to become the organ grinder...
Don't know how it happened but somehow we omitted to review the best Hammond organ emulation ever! We can put that right straight away - it's Native Instruments' B4 (RRP £129.99). If you're wracking your brains trying to recall the Hammond B4 - don't bother! It doesn't exist. The B4 actually emulates the classic Hammond B3 and has even more features that the original organ. It can run as stand-alone software turning your computer into a virtual Hammond organ - or as a VST virtual instrument (VSTi) plug-in. It has two screen displays, both lovingly crafted. One is a bird's eye view of the organs manuals and console. The other is a close-up of the control are - the tone bars, the rotor and vibrato controls, percussion, key click, distortion and so on. It's a veritable tour de force of design and functionality.
All the controls can be moved in real-time, even while playing. You can adjust the drawbars, press the switches and flick the rotary speaker control to hear the rotors speed up or slow down. Okay, enough of the retrospective. If we had reviewed the B4 it would have scored a very healthy 9/10 and if you want a Hammond organ sound this is the program to get! Vintage sounds Having produced such a superb sound engine and front-end, Native Instruments has obviously thought about expanding the concept. And the company has done just that by introducing the B4 Tonewheel Set Vintage Collection.
The organs don't change the B4 layout at all. You simply click on the Presets menu and there the new sounds are waiting to be used. The Vox Continental offers Soft, Mix and Hard variations, and the Compact comes in Standard and Tone Booster versions. There are presets for these two organs but, alas, none for the Harmonium. However, the nice thing about all this is that you can apply all the usual B4 functions to the sounds which vastly expands the repertoire. Getting on in ears... In addition, the Ageing function offers six types of "aged" B3s - well matured, good condition, better than on day one, excessive ageing, very crunchy, and far beyond repair. One or two of these may be useful for special effects but they're unlikely to find their way into your everyday workbox. A final feature is the ability to change the tuning to 436Hz, 444Hz, 448Hz or 452Hz from the original 440Hz. Summary The new sounds are certainly evocative and will appeal certainly to users of a certain age, as well as to organ aficionados. If you want authentic Hammond sounds, the original B4 is a must-have. While the Tonewheel set is also good and authentic it is much more a considered purchase. And at more than half the price of the original B4 you will need to be a bit of a connoisseur to be willing to invest in it although the combined B4 and Tonewheel pack do offer a saving. |
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Like
the original B3, the B4 uses the reverse colour keys to the left of
the manuals for storing presets but it also has a Bank dial and can
store 120 presets divided into 10 Banks of 12. Unlike the B3, these
presets store not only the drawbar settings but all other adjustable
parameters.
In
essence, this simply adds other sounds to the B4 so you need the B4
in order to use it. It adds three new organs - the Vox Continental,
the Farfisa Compact and the Indian Harmonium - plus an ageing
function to the original B4 sounds.