Native Instruments' B4-A Virtual Hammond Organ


Native Instruments' B4-A Virtual Hammond Organ
by Jack Conrad
	Go To Music Biz Magazine Directory

From the mid-1950s, Hammond successfully emulated the sound of the pipe organ in a console-sized instrument bringing organ music out of theaters and cathedrals down to the corner churches and nightclubs. This classic ax is the "Soul" in Soul Music, the gritty voice of landmark Rock riffs, fabulous for Jazz stylings and of course, the sound of the Lord making his joyous presence felt in places of worship. Gospel music without a B-3? Blasphemy! During the course of my live musical career, I listened to many a B-3; the good ones are great and the great ones, truly inspirational. Native Instruments' B4 faithfully recreates the sound of the legendary Hammond B-3 Tonewheel organ and its unique and wonderful Leslie rotating speaker. The B4 is a software plug-in supported by Steinberg VST 2.0, ASIO, MOTU, MAS and Digidesign DirectConnect.

NSP technology and the advanced software modelling creates an instrument that easily ranks in sound with the best Hammonds I've heard. It features 91 tonewheels, nine drawbars each for both the upper and lower manuals and six drawbars for the bass pedals. There is Vibrato/Chorus, Percussion on any harmonic, adjustable Keyclick, rotary speaker with many more variable parameters than the original. All parameters and controllers are MIDI mapped so you can automate them. If you use the Tascam US-428 in your studio, you already have a tactile, hardware controller for most of these on-screen controls including the banks of drawbars.

Subtle details such as harmonic foldback, drawbar crosstalk and "loudness robbing" result in a warm and powerful sound across the entire keyboard and a realism far better than any sampler. You kick in the rotating Leslie speaker with your MIDI Mod-Wheel for that one-of-a-kind sound, dial up the right amount of tube distortion and you are making one joyous noise! A couple of new features not found on the original Leslie speaker are velocity control and the ability to route an external signal through it. Try your guitar through this Leslie...pure ear candy!

There are some great sounds here for all kinds of music, ready to be tweaked and turned into your own sounds. The B4 comes with 120 presets (10 banks of 12) accessible by clicking on the NI logo on the left side of the on-screen, virtual keyboard. The controller keyboard can be split into different configurations, but I liked the MIDI channels 1/2/3 for upper rank/lower rank/pedals setup best. I also liked the two different on-screen views: one looks like a "birdseye" view from the ceiling looking down at a B-3 with the two manuals, the bass pedals and other knobs. The keyboards indicate what you are playing on your MIDI controller. The other view shows accesses all extended settings and controllers.

The B4 runs as a stand-alone instrument or as a plug-in within MacIntosh or Windows and requirements are: Win95/98/2000 or NT 4.0 or Mac OS 8.6. Selling for $199 MSRP, Native Instruments' B4 is distributed by Steinberg US at 21354 Nordhoff Street Suite 110 Chatsworth CA 91311 Phone them at: 818-678-5100 or Web to: www.us.steinberg.net or www.cubase.net There is are demos available at: www.native-instruments.com

Jack Conrad, ex-studio musician, sideman and songwriter, has co-written hits for Three Dog Night, The Babys and Heart.

Edited by: Barry Rudolph

Back To Home Page