best 'fake' organ (including software) you have used?

moogrock · Post by **moogrock** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:13 pm

sooooo..
i know this crosses over a 'lil into software...
but...

what is the best 'fake' organ you have used?
and by 'fake' i mean NOT an actual b3 or a farfisa...

nord electro, hammond 'modules', voce stuff, the oberheim drawbar module, etc...
or...
native instruments b4, or any other software...

what have you thought had the actual BODY and soul that you wanted?
esp for live...
and i wouldn't dare to not run it thru a twin, leslie, or something fun to dirt it up...
but yeah...
there are a ton of options...

Rodgre · Post by **Rodgre** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:29 am

Check out this recent thread on the Native Instruments B4II.

Personally, I love it. I think it sounds incredible in a mix, and it's very flexible in terms of tweaking drawbars in realtime, setting the chorus/vibrato, percussion, altering the tone of the amplifier, Leslie, Tone Cabinet, making it as neat and clean or trashy as you like, etc.

I've done several sessions with real B3s/Leslies, and I think the B4II comes as close to the real deal as anything I've used, in terms of sounding authentic and letting you put it into a "space", not sounding like you just plugged the direct outputs of a synthesizer through a chorus pedal and into the board.

I know a lot of people who like the Nord, and use that live with good results, and I have a friend who uses the Roland XK-7 and it sounds fine. Personally, I only have studio experience with playing organ parts myself, and I've used several modules/keyboards that had Hammond/Farfisa/Vox patches, (Roland JV1080 most recently) and I don't think I'd go back, since upgrading to the B4II.

Just my 2cents.

Roger

thethingwiththestuff · Post by **thethingwiththestuff** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:40 am

i just used a friend's nord electro (2?) a lot on my new record. i didnt get around to amplifying it, i'll probably reamp before the final mix. it was very usable although not necessarily "authentic." the onboard effects are pretty cheesey. nothing i wanted it for was too foregrounded, so it worked well for me.

AstroDan · Post by **AstroDan** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:01 am

The Korg DW-8000 does an incredible organ, but no one would mistake it for a b3.

tonewoods · Post by **tonewoods** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:02 am

I have an Alesis Fusion that I love....

Great Farfisa, Clavinets, Whirlys, etc....

But where it excells is it's sampling power.

I loaded the Pinder Chamberlin/Mellotron samples into the thing, and it's a dead-ringer for the real deal...

Ryan Silva · Post by **Ryan Silva** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:02 am

just got "Lounge Lizard" for Whirlys, Rhoads, and stuff like that, and it kills me on how good it sounds.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:21 am

B4, hands down.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

apropos of nothing · Post by **apropos of nothing** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:47 am

I like B4, and the Leslie sim is great, but the cabinet modeling/overdrive strikes me as just okay. Anything that you put through it has that B4 sound.

I generally like any sampled and treated organ sound. I love the DSP on my Ensoniq ASR-10 (also on the DP4). The leslie sim on there is purdy. I like the overdrive on it a lot.

Really, with organ tones, its all about performance idiom. Here's a hint: don't use the sustain pedal.

squizo · Post by **squizo** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:13 am

B4 and M-Tron Mellotron(about as real as it gets!)

moogrock · Post by **moogrock** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:56 am

i think b4ii it is.
im already using the laptop for m-tron.
and so i think i will go for b4.

and i might run it thru a real leslie to make it sound more 'real'.

i am well aware that making organ sound 'real' is mostly in the playing of it...

also... i may haf'ta do the lil' trick i saw clinic doing on this us tour when we opened up for 'em... putting a midi controller keyboard inside a roadcase so it seems like a big coool BOX and then sitting the laptop on top... nobody in the band i was playing with could believe that the organ sounds were just samples (he was running kontakt)... im sure they are samples of the actual combo organs they use on record...
but the box fooled everyone into thinking that they were using something 'cool'...

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:34 pm

Yeah man, the NI B4 is killing. there were a few songs on the new Soulive record that had that NI B4 on it, and some others that were a real B3/leslie, and a ew more that I tracked the C3/leslie. The B4 TOTALLY stands up to any of it. Nobody will every be able to tell what songs are the real setups, and what one is the B4. I DID, however, wind up running the B4 out through a small amp, only because I wanted more drive, and more of a killed speaker sound.

In the hands of a skilled player, that program is amazing.

syrupcore · Post by **syrupcore** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:40 pm

joel hamilton wrote:In the hands of a skilled player, that program is amazing.

I'm finding that to be more and more true with all this 'fake' stuff. People who can play that can make pods sounds awesome and stuff. I totally can not.

I love the phibes vst. no one will ever mistake it for a hammond but it's got a great 60s bossa/spy music sound to it.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:49 am

Another vote for B4 (the original). Hands down the best I have ever heard, especially if you run it out to an amp etc. I have played with guys using the Nords and with real B3's and the B4 sounds extremely close to the real thing.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 5:53 am

It's hard to beat Istvan Kaldor's DirtBag, which is freeware. His page is down right now though...

comfortstarr · Post by **comfortstarr** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:00 am

I like the logic EVB3 a lot. Though, I haven't compared it to the NI one.

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best 'fake' organ (including software) you have used?

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