Ik Multimedia Hammond B-3x Tonewheel Organ

[Carmen Kalua]

Ishouldn't say this, but I just find it soooo refreshing to have a company representative who isn't of the school of thought that "professionalism" means just letting people kick you around. Kudos for even handed responses that aren't just cowering sycophancy.

@wim said:

I shouldn't say this, but I just find it soooo refreshing to have a company representative who isn't of the school of thought that "professionalism" means just letting people kick you around. Kudos for even handed responses that aren't just cowering sycophancy.

I think it's worth saying. Reward behaviors you'd like to see repeated in future. The @ikmultimedia spokeperson that responds here does a solid job for the company he represents and to the forum as well. IK Multimedia has captured a lot of my money over the last 10 years and generally given me good value. The competition from many smaller development teams have really raised the bar for IOS apps but this B3 emulator is an important option for anyone needing a solid iPad implementation. For most of us here the lower priced options are good enough when we want to add a realistic B3 track. It takes a real dedicated keyboard player to master that beast of an instrument. It's like the pedal steel emulator Yonac created... it sounds great for a couple bucks but needs MIDI input and would be worth a lot more to me if it had that feature. They just assumed that we'd only accept a "slide" based GUI interface. I could live with some bending or MPE features in a pinch.

@gusgranite said:

I already thought Syntronik was one of the best sounding apps on iOS. But this year I got into IK on the desktop with their group buy. They are now among my favourite developers. Tapes, Leslie, Saturator X, EQs and comps are just brilliant.

Thank you for the kind words. We have made improvements as our public-facing folks like our Support Manager & team, my team, and others here push and keep pushing for improvements on many different levels. Not to mention that some of the products you mention like the Tape Machine Collection and Hammond B-3X show the devs, product managers, and our quite brilliant CTO who is the brains behind all of that - including some great hardware like iLoud MTM are really all bringing a lot of power to the table and not just resting on any laurels.

I have a question about the app, @ikmultimedia. Does the Hammond B-3X have 2 sets of drawbars per manual as on a real B3 or A100 such that we could be playing the B preset and edit the Bb preset like a real Hammond without yet loading the Bb drawbar preset?

Ir's also worth noting that the majority of the users on that forum think they just don't need a $100 app and Galileo meets there needs... some have also mentioned the infamous Korg Module Organ IAP which covers a lot more B3 use cases like the distorted Rock sounds of John Lord.

I'm hoping Roland staffs up and starts creating more IOS apps like the classic Roland emulators they offer from the Roland Cloud for desktop OS'es. IK Multimedia's Syntronik covers many of those sounds and went of sale for $48 recently.

@Howard said:

I have a question about the app, @ikmultimedia. Does the Hammond B-3X have 2 sets of drawbars per manual as on a real B3 or A100 such that we could be playing the B preset and edit the Bb preset like a real Hammond without yet loading the Bb drawbar preset?

Each of the three manuals has its own set of drawbars that is displayed at the top of the window. The drawbars

always show the current state of the tone generator mix. So the drawbar settings you see always represents

the drawbar sound you hear. Since Hammond B-3X is a software instrument, we can take advantage of the

dynamic software interface to always show the current position of the drawbars. The advantages of a software instrument become apparent when you select a drawbar settings key using the 12 inverted keys at the left of each keyboard. Here is some historical information so you can understand what was done originally, and what has evolved in Hammond B-3X. On the hardware Hammond organs, the C# through A keys select a fixed drawbar setting that is independent of that actual physical drawbars. The A# note selects the first set of drawbars at the left, and the B note selects the second set of drawbars to the right. The C note cancels the drawbar selection altogether and essentially mutes the organ. Hammond B-3X deviates from this classic scheme because we do not have the same limitations as analog hardware. Hammond B-3X still has drawbar settings on the inverted keys, but here we take advantage of the software platform and dynamically move the drawbars to reflect each drawbar preset selected. This would be impractical on a hardware Hammond organ since this could only be accomplished with mechanically motorized sliders. This also allows Hammond B-3X to use all 12 inverted keys of each manual for drawbar settings instead of just 9 of them on the original hardware instruments.

On a real B3 there are 2 sets of 9 drawbars per manual. The active one and the inactive one (which can be manipulated without affecting the current sound then suddenly engaged by pressing the B or Bb preset key).

Your emulation obviously offers more presets than a real B3, but, according to what has been written above, does not allow you to create a new, unengaged, preset on-the-fly whilst playing the organ. Which would be nice to have.

Please also see the post that followed what you quoted as Hammond B-3X does more than a real B3. Also note that Hammond B-3X offers 24 custom drawbar settings available within each preset

Each of the three manuals has its own set of drawbars that is displayed at the top of the window. The drawbars

always show the current state of the tone generator mix. So the drawbar settings you see always represents

the drawbar sound you hear. Since Hammond B-3X is a software instrument, we can take advantage of the

dynamic software interface to always show the current position of the drawbar

Maybe I misunderstood.

So just to be clear - there IS a set of nine drawbars which can be manipulated to create a new preset in real time, whilst playing a different preset on the organ, without it affecting the sound currently being played?

@McD said:

I've been checking the "Keyboard Corner" forum for reviews and feedback on this app.

The serious B3 users have finally weighed in and this is a revolutionary B3 emulation at a price point that's

So, portability, durability and playability put it in the price range of the Pro keyboards. On the keyboard Corner Forum the IK Multimedia B-3X sound is recommended over the Legend by some and several consider using it's MIDI out to control an iPad with the Hammond B-3X app.

It would be wise to ask your question on the Keyboard Corner Forum and get a good range of opinions. Sometimes they argue since Hammond are used for Church, Ice Rink, Stadiums,

Deep Purple tribute bands, Jimmy Smith Organ trios and more. With and without distortion, etc. There are a lot of opinions about the best hardware but generally they seem to only like hardware there:

I think you misunderstood my question, @ikmultimedia. I know there are 9 drawbars for each of the upper and lower manuals. In addition there is are 2 drawbars for the pedals. I also asked and I think @TimRussell was trying to help clarify as to whether each manual or keyboard had 2 full sets of drawbars. I was trying to find out if you could edit a second set of drawbars "whilst playing a different preset on the organ, without it affecting the sound currently being played" to quote @TimRussell . A Hammond B3 as well as other tonewheel organs in the Hammond family such as the A-100 (which I own ) have 2 full sets of 9 drawbars for each manual or keyboard. One is hardwired to the Bb in the reverse coloured key of the lower octave and the second set of 9 is hardwired to B. While I see that some users here don't care about this feature I would hope any true B3 emulation should have this functionality. Watch many of the B3 blues players and you will see them tweak both the drawbars on the preset they are currently playing and also tweak the 2nd set in anticipation of selecting that preset during the next part of the tune. It looks to me as though this B3 emulator doesn't yet have this functionality but it would be great if this could be added at some point.

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