simeon
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GSI VB3II Now Available!
Well after a long while Guido at Genuine Soundware has released the much anticipated update to his tonewheel virtual instrument. I installed it just this afternoon and played around with it some and it really is great. From the GSI website: - Full polyphony (61 upper + 61 lower + 25 pedals = 147 notes)
- 91 modeled tonewheels with accurate phase synchronization
- Adjustable leakage noise and cross modulation between tonewheels
- A total of 22 different tonewheel generators to choose from
- Generator shaping for a total of 154 generator combinations
- Adjustable global tuning from 430 to 450 Hz
- Foldback on 16" deactivatable
- Complex wheels
- Resistor wiring with multiple options
- Realistic “run” motor wow & flutter
- Busbars and 9 key contact simulation
- Two separate sets of drawbars per manual
- Full "inverted octave" presets
- String Bass with adjustable release time
- Loudness "robbing" effect
- Single triggered percussion with natural capacitor discharge/recharge
- Adjustable Percussion Level & Decay
- Vibrato/Chorus virtual scanner
- Adjustable Vibrato Scanner depth & mix
- Separated Upper and Lower V/C tablets with smooth switching
- Dynamic tube overdrive simulation
- Digital stereo reverb
- Rotary speaker simulation with virtual microphone positioning
- Rotors "Front Stop" brake position
- Very low CPU consumption
- Advanced MIDI Learn function with import/export of custom mappings
- Upper and Lower manuals SPLIT with adjustable split point
- Adjustable output level
- Supports pedal sustain
- Custom programmer with import/export of Programs and Banks
- ...and many more.
You can find or more information and upgrade pricing here: http://www.genuinesoundwa...a=showproduct&b=44
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Leadfoot
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Re: GSI VB3II Now Available!
2018/07/10 02:47:36
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Charging €75 for existing vb3 owners is pretty steep, considering he's only charging new customers €100. VB3 v1.4 works well enough for me. I'll pass... If he brings the upgrade price down, I may have another look.
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Glyn Barnes
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Re: GSI VB3II Now Available!
2018/07/10 10:10:17
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€75 + tax, so it will be €90 for me.  I am going to give the demo a try, but its going to have to be a real step up at that price, with VB3 being so good I will be interested to see what this can bring to the party.
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Glyn Barnes
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Re: GSI VB3II Now Available!
2018/07/10 11:06:54
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Very quick first impressions.
The interface is generally much improved.
The lower octave still acts as key-switches for different draw-bar settings, additionally there are buttons on the interface for 10 presets + two for switching between banks A+B. Using the key-switch over-rides the selected button but does not change the button's status (it still remains illuminated). The Drawbars on the interface remain in the original position when either method of selecting a preset is used. I think a little more visual feedback would go a long way.
I did some quick A/B comparisons of presets that are common to both VB3 and VB3-II in most cases II sounded a little better, the clean sounds tend to be warmer, the distorted sounds sound more natural to me. Others will be more qualified to judge the authenticity of the sound.
The 25 second bursts of silence on the demo are frustrating too frequent, I know some limitations are needed on the demo but...
Its with out doubt very good, but is it 90 Euros better that the already excellent VB3?
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bitflipper
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Re: GSI VB3II Now Available!
2018/07/10 14:19:55
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€75 ($86) for what appears to be a minor upgrade does seem exorbitant. I have long touted VB3 as a great value, and only paid $50 for it originally.
Doubling the price only put it in the same price tier as its competitors, but charging this much for an upgrade will be a hard sell. I'd have to see some significant improvements (the list above is not a change report; those were all existing features). I could not find a change log on the site, and there is no "what's new" section in the user manual.
What I see is a prettier UI and a much more ergonomic configuration screen, with a few new tweaks available such as independent levels for individual drawbars. But given that this is a software emulation of a real instrument, there is a point of diminishing value once you've sufficiently replicated the original. IMO the previous version had already achieved that.
 All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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Fleer
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Re: GSI VB3II Now Available!
2018/07/12 00:21:42
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Sticking with my lovely GG-Audio Blue3 :)
"We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl" (Wish You Were Here)
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Leee
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Re: GSI VB3II Now Available!
2018/07/12 00:54:59
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VB3 and GG Audio Blue3 have been my two Go-To Hammond emulators.
I like VB3 for it's deeper bass tones (makes the glisses (hand slides) sound better. The Blue 3 is better at cutting through the other instruments, but can also sound a bit artificial on some of the presets (synth-y sounding)
I sometimes combine them both on a track to get the best of both worlds.
But I agree with the other comments, the upgrade price for relatively minor updates is a bit too much.
I think the Blue3 still sells for $99, and overall is a more realistic sounding Hammond, especially the Leslie speakers sim)
Lee Shapirowww.soundclick.com/leeshapiro Welcome BandLab and thank you for giving Cakewalk and Sonar a new lease on life.
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bitflipper
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Re: GSI VB3II Now Available!
2018/07/18 17:51:24
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☄ Helpfulby Mitch_I 2018/07/18 19:59:07
Been playing with VB3-II for a bit, mostly comparing it to the original. Dropped it into an existing project that already had a VB3 track, matched settings and A/B'd them.
VB3-II initially sounded quite different. Not better or worse, just different. Especially the fast Leslie. However, after exploring all the settings - and there are a whole bunch more now - I was able to match the tone of my original track very closely.
Mostly that came down to all the amp/speaker parameters you can now tweak. Gone are the "rotary speaker type" and "rotary speaker character" options, replaced with more configurations such as cabinet resonance. Theoretically, you can make it sound like any Leslie model - assuming, of course, that you know what the differences are between models. It didn't take me long to settle on a rotary sound that I liked. Many say they like the Leslie sim better in VB3-II, and I have to agree, although the difference isn't revolutionary. The old one was already pretty good.
Most parameters are way more adjustable now, but in some cases that actually makes things more difficult. For example, in VB3 you could set the bass and horn speeds in Hertz, making it possible to look up the factory defaults for different Leslie models and match them exactly. Now those settings are in increments from 0 to 127, and it's anybody's guess what number corresponds to, say, 6.6 Hz. At least not without a lot of testing and experimentation.
The original 3 organ models (A, B or C) have been replaced by no less than 22 models (actual models, based on analyses of the original hardware). So instead of my usual fave, C3, I now have a choice of three different C3's from 1959, 1965 or 1973. Plus 8 B3's and 10 A100's. All are extensively tweakable, e.g. each drawbar can be independently trimmed.
Is it worth the 75 EUR upgrade price? Don't know yet. My first impression is a qualified "yes", meaning for true Hammond fans it's going to give you great versatility. But if you just use organs once in a while for background pads, then maybe not. However, if you're in the latter group then you've never needed anything this fancy anyhow, and you'll probably be perfectly happy with the organ samples in Dim Pro.
Question for longtime VB3 users: did it have a standalone executable? VB3-II does, but I'm not sure whether the old version did.
All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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