Anyone using Native Instruments B4II

supafuzz · Post by **supafuzz** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:50 am

I just got it and I hate it. It sounds nothing like B4 the original program
The overdrive is totally horrible and unusable...
I want to return it..and see if I can find a copy of B4

It's another example of taking a perfectly good program and wrecking it
in the guise of upgrade/improvement
thanks

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:56 am

I haven't A/B'd them but I didn't find B4II to be a disaster. I created a few distorted organs for my friend's record, and reamped a few of the B4 emulations through a Fender Twin.

I have noticed that the original B4 will no longer open on my laptop running 10.4.7 and I'm not sure what that's about.

Jeff

supafuzz · Post by **supafuzz** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:59 am

the overdrive sounds are like a tinny transistor radio...can't use em for anything..
I guess I have to really screw with the sounds and keep the distortion off
I posted a WTB for B4 version 1

Rodgre · Post by **Rodgre** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:11 am

Strange. I am totally in love with the new version! I loved the original, but pretty much all of my sonic complaints about it were addressed with B4II.

I love the tone of the distortion. It finally can get that Leslie growl that I've always missed. Sometimes I will just send a track of noise through the B4II just to get the sound of a whirling Leslie in the far background of a track.

I do tend to turn the treble down in the amp section, and I tend to add a good amount of "air," which is what I was always missing with B4. I also blend the "tone cabinet" with the Leslie so it's a little softer. I also close up the stereo spread of the Leslie, because it never sounds convincing when it's spread wide across two speakers to me. I also have found the Open and Closed cabinet settings to be really useful.

I'm not trying to convince anyone, but I have really warmed up to it recently. I feel similarly about NI Guitar Rig 2. I'm one of those who wants to hate digital amplifier simulations until they really prove themselves to me, and I'm really jazzed about these.

I'm also not an organ player, just someone who loves the sounds they make, and I know when they're feeling right with my mix, and I've had such an easier time with the features on B4II.

JdJ · Post by **JdJ** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:48 pm

I've had pretty good experiences with B4II as well. I will say that in general, it has been used for tracking and then re-amped through a real leslie so maybe that explains it... Great combination IMHO. I hadn't noticed the tonal issues you describe from v1 to v2 when playing around with sounds in the box. There are certainly way more parameters to tweak. I will say that NI was less than helpful when B4II was crashing my pre-version 7 PT every time I would try to bypass it or remove an instance of the plug in. Now that I'm running 7+ I have had no problems (touch wood). Sorry to hear it's not doing it for you!

-Josh

leigh · Post by **leigh** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 12:48 pm

JdJ wrote:I will say that NI was less than helpful when B4II was crashing my pre-version 7 PT every time I would try to bypass it or remove an instance of the plug in. Now that I'm running 7+ I have had no problems (touch wood). Sorry to hear it's not doing it for you!

Yeah, NI support sucks a big one. I had the same issue, eventually solved (for PT 6.4) by downloading an update of the B4, but NOT the Universal Binary update! The UB version is not compatible with PT 6.4, a fact which they neglect to mention anywhere.

Here's the whole episode chronicled on the NI User Forum.

Also, again with PT 6.4, I've been having a weird issue where the B4 isn't cleared from MIDI menus (as a destination for MIDI tracks) when I remove the B4 from a session. If I then bring the B4 back, the new instance creates an additional MIDI menu listing... so if I bring up the B4, and take it down twenty times, I'll have twenty listings of it in the MIDI out menus, clogging up the works!

More on that in this NI User Forum thread... which no one has responded to yet, so this may be just me, or maybe I'm the only soul left on the planet with Pro Tools 6.4.....

As for not liking the sound, I'd agree that the drive can make it pretty thin sounding, and I don't like distortion that equals thinness... but the EQ knobs are pretty hefty in their range, so you can dial back the treble/boost the bass to compensate. Not the most intuitive set of tone shaping controls, but flexible.

Leigh

jeddypoo · Post by **jeddypoo** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:59 pm

supafuzz wrote:I just got it and I hate it. It sounds nothing like B4 the original program
The overdrive is totally horrible and unusable...
I want to return it..and see if I can find a copy of B4

It's another example of taking a perfectly good program and wrecking it
in the guise of upgrade/improvement
thanks

I love it. LOVE it. I think it's one of the best Software Instruments available.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:27 pm

jeddypoo wrote:
supafuzz wrote:I just got it and I hate it. It sounds nothing like B4 the original program
The overdrive is totally horrible and unusable...
I want to return it..and see if I can find a copy of B4

It's another example of taking a perfectly good program and wrecking it
in the guise of upgrade/improvement
thanks
I love it. LOVE it. I think it's one of the best Software Instruments available.

Oh yeah, well you're both wrong!

spacelabstudio · Post by **spacelabstudio** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:28 pm

My initial gut reaction was it didn't sound as good as version 1, but I haven't messed with it enough yet to really have an informed, valid opinion.

rossi

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Anyone using Native Instruments B4II

Anyone using Native Instruments B4II

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